Loading ...Spirituality: A Post-Modern & Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship with God by Carl McColman
‘Spirituality’ – such an often-used word. Many wonder what it even means. Spirituality is a book about the spiritual life that doesn’t tell you what to believe. Have you ever heard someone say: “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” Or “It’s easier for me to find God in nature than in a church.” Or “I can’t limit myself to just one faith tradition: I see God in all of them.” If statements like these make sense to you, you aren’t alone. Today, more people are searching for spiritual experience outside traditional channels of religious faith. But even alternative or New Age spiritualities are often filled with dogma and prescribed notions of how to behave and what to believe. By contrast, Carl McColman’s book answers the question “What is spirituality, and why does it matter?” with insights drawn not only from religious traditions, but also popular culture. Here the emphasis is on celebrating the many ways spirituality makes a powerful and positive difference in our lives.
Carl McColman is a lay Cistercian novice, a freelance writer and the bookstore manager of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA. He was raised Lutheran, spent several years as a young adult as an Episcopalian, and then got really creative and explored Wicca and other forms of Neopaganism for a number of years, before deciding that he missed Christianity and returned (by entering the Catholic Church) in 2005. Spirituality is his first book, and was written while he was still an Episcopalian – in this anniversary edition there’s a brand-new forward sharing how its themes influenced his own journey of faith.
For a number of years Carl was a superstar of the neo-pagan set, penning tomes like The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Celtic Wisdom, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism, Embracing Jesus and the Goddess, and The Aspiring Mystic. Currently he’s at work on a large-scale book on Christian mysticism, to be published in 2010 by a major independent publisher.
A personal note from Carl to prospective Ooze Viral Bloggers:
“Spirituality” came from an idea that I had one day while sitting in the parking lot of a large music store in Atlanta. Listening to the radio, I thought about how popular music often conveys “spiritual” and “mystical” themes. Then the thought occurred to me: “What would a book look like, that attempted to explain the spiritual life by relying on culture, rather than religion, as its starting point?” Thus began the period of personal exploration, prayer and reflection that culminated in this book. Spirituality is not opposed to religion — on the contrary, it makes the argument that spirituality requires community to thrive— but it sees its topic as something larger than what the language or symbolism or doctrines of any one faith can fully explain. The result is a book that celebrates spirituality without enforcing any particular religious agenda – which makes it not only congenial to the practitioners of any faith, but also a contribution to the conversation of how different faiths can find common ground here in our postmodern world.
Spirituality was originally published in 1997; it was my first book. For this new edition I have written a new introduction, in which I reflect on how the landscape of popular spiritual exploration has evolved over the past decade.”
SGill4613
The idea that more and more people are open to spirituality which does not come directly from the Christian church seems to be the purpose behind the 10 year reprint of Carl McColman’s book Spirituality: A Postmodern and Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship with God.
As I began reading, I must say that I found the introduction as well as the first three chapters to be rather circular. Instead of saying anything with deep interest, McColman would dance around topics like Breathing, Tillage, and Wonder by providing the etymology (the study of the origins of a word) in order to broaden the readers definition. This is helpful, but too often I found the author talking about all the different sides and angles which spirituality can take, which leads me to wonder if there is a proper path in seeking spirituality. I would guess that McColman believes any path of spirituality is a positive one.
The most interesting parts of the book are when the author writes out of his personal experience. Unfortunately these stories are too few and lead me to wonder if his spiritual experiences connect in any particular way, or if they are simply a string of experiences which lead him to act in new ways. Instead of allowing the reader to drink deeply of his own spiritual journey, we are stuck with snippets of a journey which is probably much more interesting than said or has not been reflected upon long enough to be of meaning to others.
As McColman has written other books in the “An Idiots Guide” series, I am left feeling that a better title would have been “An Idiots Guide to Spirituality”. For that is truly what this book is. The subtitle is misleading, as postmodern and interfaith are mere buzz words to catch a particular audience. Purchase this book only if you feel your knowledge of the spiritual is very low or very narrow.
May 12th, 2009
MyQuest
I wasn’t really looking forward to this book. I thought it would be shallow, lacking in substance. This was partially because it was looking at spirituality in a general way and not from a particular narrative community.
But I ended up really liking it. It is still far more Christian than I expected from the blurb on the back. And the discussions of various spiritual topics are filled with insight and wisdom.
In fact, I know exactly which congregants I will recommend the book too. They are folk who dabble in many of the self-help, shallow spirituality books out there. This book will appeal to them, while also leading them into a deeper understanding of spiritual formation. No navel gazing narcissism in this book. It is a strong advocate for community, social justice, and peacemaking.
There is little original in the book, but it is a good summary and overview.
I was most interested in the discussions of Icons and the chapter on Change. McColman discusses how culture, including many elements of popular culture, can be icons leading us to God. He does the same with nature, and uses the concept of icons to discuss many other aspects of spirituality.
The chapter on Change is quite interesting. He discusses four types of change: interrpution, surprise, transgression, and peacemaking. Interruption, for instance, are negative events that shatter our sense of control over our own lives. Often they are unforunate moments, even tragedies. Yet they can become opportunities for spiritual growth.
Interruptions remind us of our vulnerability, which McColman considers a fundamental aspect of spirituality. Vulnerability actually connects to our sense of wonder:
Both wound and wonder are interruptions of our tightly controlled, safely constructed world–the world of willfulness and self-protection. So the question is begging to be asked–when we strive so hard to protect ourselves from woundedness, are we likewise shutting down all possibility of wonder.
May 13th, 2009
derek
I think it is telling that, by the time I got around to signing up for this months book, “Spirituality” was the only book left. I mean, after all, this is by nature a spiritual blog and anyone who has taken the time to become a blogger here and read these books is at least interested in their spiritual side, so why didn’t this book get any love?
I’d wager to guess that, when most people hear the word ‘spirituality’ they envision a harmless, skinny old man in a natural dyed toga and worn-down sandals talking about centering-oneself while sitting in a yogi pose and eating tofu. “Spirituality” has become a code word for a tame self help mantra that, like McDonalds, has become incredibly profitable but not really healthy. It’s not helped by adding the terms ‘post modern’ and ‘interfaith’ to the subtitle. Even the generic picture of a butterfly on the cover worked against it. I’ll admit I thought this would be a bland, homogenous mess of a book, and I know I’m not the only one.
Carl McColman, however, does a great job at trying to-reclaim the term, and its context, from the ethers of new-age meaninglessness. While there isn’t really anything new here, McColman gives us a broad overview of the fundamental elements of spirituality, irrespective of your preferred faith.
I’d agree with most that nothing truly new or original is presented in this book, I think this would be a decent primer for a “Spirituality 101” class. McColman’s book, while trying carefully to give value to many different voices, remains too vanilla for my taste. Obviously looking to appeal to everyone, kept asking myself ‘who would pick this book up at the store?” and couldn’t figure out the answer. I think he would have been better off writing a book that forgoes trying to pay credence to every pre-walked spiritual path and instead wrote his own experiences, jumping from path to path and what his actual feelings are and how they are shaped by his walk in the world of post modern, interfaith dialogue.
May 14th, 2009
sheyduck
I chose Carl McColman’s Spirituality. This is a second printing of a book originally published in 1997. McColman explains the seed that brought forth the original:
Spirituality came from an idea that I had one day while sitting in the parking lot of a large music store in Atlanta. Listening to the radio, I thought about how popular music often conveys “spiritual” and “mystical” themes. Then the thought occurred to me: “What would a book look like, that attempted to explain the spiritual life by relying on culture, rather than religion, as its starting point?”
I was hooked because I’ve been heading in the direction lately of Bonhoeffer’s “religionless Christianity,” and thought Spirituality might be helpful in that direction.
It was more helpful than it wasn’t.
Overall, I appreciate McColman’s ability to communicate practices and concepts from within his experience as a Christian in ways that are, generally, accessible to people from other perspectives.
The book’s subtitle is “A Postmodern and Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship with God.” As McColman identifies postmodern, this works. Postmodern, according to this book, and to much of the rest of our society, is:
* an age of skepticism
* an age of pluralism and diversity
* an age marking the triumph of technology
* an age of crisis and promise.
But he falls at least one short on categories. Postmodernity, as I have come to understand it, is at its most basic a realization that modernity’s assumption that we really can all get along because beneath or behind all our differences there really is some idenity, some story, some way of explaining and understanding it all that works for all of us is a flawed theory.
F0r 98%+ of the book, McColman presents his own undersatnding of spirituality in ways that, I think, engender dialogue and interaction with the reader. That much is postmodern: trying to communicate not from some common point of understanding but from one’s own place in ways that welcome others from theirs.
Yet, on p. 193, vestiges of modernity appear when he writes: “A basic truth of spirituality is that the Divine is ever-faithful to us. In other words, God loves us without fail and unconditionally.” This statement presumes that, in some sense or another, all the various world “religions” or “systems of spirituality” really are talking about the same thing. There are no more modern assumptions than this!
It would be nice (I suppose) to be able to assume that all the “religions” of the world really are aiming the same direction, really are diverse accounts of and paths toward the same “god.” It would be nice. I believe, however, this assumption requires to large a leap across cultural particularities and the huge variance in contexts in which humanity exists.
That said, having read the book, I am convinced that this point of contention is one over which I could sit with Carl and, over a cup or a pint, discuss our differences and our agreements. I sense in him perhaps even more eagerness to understand the other than I hope to possess myself. In that eagerness is the hope of postmodernity.
Thank you for your thoughts, Carl McColman. They have furthered my own, and led me to underline enough of your words to want to refer back to them over and over.
May 18th, 2009
Gotthammer
The full title of Carl McColman’s Spirituality includes the subtitle A Postmodern and Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship With God. The inclusion of “postmodern” is misleading, save as a marker for the inherent uber-ecumenism espoused in the book. The popular view of postmoderns is apparently one where they will accept a more open approach to spirituality. Even the term “interfaith” is somewhat misleading, given how McColman is unabashedly Christian, albeit the sort of Christian conservative denominations would be happy to excise from the fold.
Spirituality is the just the sort of book I enjoyed reading when it was first published in 1997, when I was exploring religious expressions beyond the pale of my Baptist upbringing. McColman seems open enough to other possibilities to be accessible to a wider ideological audience, but still focused enough in his Christian identity so as to not wander overmuch at the religious smorgasbord many writers concerned with “spirituality” like to sample from.
Spirituality is a standard primer for the 21st century spiritual seeker who either has no faith background, has rejected the one they had, or is interested in augmenting the one they adhere to with other possible approaches. The chapter headings and content (Breathing, Wonder, Prayer, Community, to name a few) are standard for this open-approach to faith, mirrored in books such as Anam Cara by John O’Donohue or anything by Thomas Moore. It was the sort of book one found flooding the market in the late 90s as people engaged spirituality with a typical end-of-the-millennium hunger.
There isn’t anything earth-shaking or radically new in this second printing of Spirituality. Nevertheless, I have to give kudos to McColman for his balanced treatment of the subject matter. Readers who remember my review of Spencer Burke’s A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity will recall that I took umbrage with the dichotomy between spirituality and religion. I worried I would be doing the same with McColman, but this was not the case. While McColman concedes that there are many who, for good reasons, distance themselves from religion with the term “spiritual,” this is “a bit unfair to religion” (35). Since McColman’s thesis is that spirituality is linked to culture, it follows that religious culture is a potential source for spirituality. I like this approach, which in academic circles, would be considered similar to Max Weber’s approach to religion. It also includes religious spirituality without making the same sort of polemic Burke seems to in Heretic’s Guide, which I have stated many times is an effectively semantic one.
This difference colors the whole of McColman’s book. Many times I was worried he was denigrating into relativist fluff, he qualified his statement in a fashion demonstrating his serious and thoughtful approach. I also appreciated his emphasis on community as an essential facet of spirituality. Too many of the self-help approaches to spirituality approach the whole project of faith, to quote N.T. Wright, as a “do-it-yourself project.” I recently read a news article about how DIY home improvements most often end up as “bring in the professional to fix my mess” instances. I think a spirituality without community often ends up the same, and I concur with McColman that “A world where spirituality is private is a world where belief in the Sacred is extraordinarily difficult” (33).
I’d recommend Spirituality for people who have recently been hurt by, or become disillusioned with, an institutional form of religion, particularly for Christians who are thinking of giving up entirely. That said, I must make the caveat that anyone who is uncomfortable with more extreme ecumenical positions will probably not connect with McColman. I’ve always said that “if your faith can’t take a walk through a Japanese Tea Garden, it wasn’t worth much to begin with,” which is to say, if your faith can’t endure an open-minded encounter with another faith position, it’s not really worth having at all. McColman is comfortable in walking in other gardens, pagodas, mosques, and open fields filled with pagans. I am too, and if that’s something you wish you were more of, then you’ll probably enjoy and benefit from reading Spirituality.
May 21st, 2009
seph
Although I agree with many of the perspectives Carl McColman puts forth in this book, I can’t say I agree with how he attempts to establish his points.
Too often he begins with etymology. Although I wouldn’t say it’s a bad place to begin (with the history of a word), it serves little purpose other than trivial knowledge. Words – as is language – are not concrete or “fixed”. Language is fluid. Languages, words, and terms evolve to meet current days’ thoughts and cultures.
I did however especially like that he successfully identified both positive and negative aspects of issues too often confused and condemned; like icons and idols. Avenues to the Holy vs. idolatry and how even the bible can fall victim to either.
There was little scriptural references, which to some like myself, is refreshing, but I am sure will not resonate well with others. Legitimate questions need to be asked, like where are these ideas coming from? What are these ideas based upon? Although personally I don’t need all references to be biblical, the author offers none, or precious little, which forces me to believe it is simply his personal mental meanderings, thoughts, and opinions we are reading. But, to be fair, what books aren’t? I don’t believe “Spirituality” was intended to be a theological piece.
It is clearly and definitely not for the conservative Christian. I’m sure Fundamentalists would condemn it as heresy. The book doesn’t seem to be based upon doctrine, but then again, how could it be with the methodology its title claims; “A postmodern and interfaith approach”?
What “sound doctrine” exist within an interfaith forum or discussion?
This book requires something of its reader… an open mind.
One of my favourite quotes is, “Minds are like parachutes. They only function when open”. I think it is very appropriate.
To those who are comfortable with their faith, for those who have found all their answers, for those who suffer no doubts, for those who beliefs are certainty, this book is not for you.
For those who seek and question and wonder (and wander), this will make a good and interesting read.
May 25th, 2009
Monster
The Book
In “Traveling Mercies” Anne Lamott quotes a friend: “Religion is for people who are afraid of hell; spirituality is for people who have been there”. I don’t know if Carl McColman has been to Hell or not, but he spends 229 pages exploring what it means to be spiritual in “Spirituality: A Postmodern & Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship with God”.
McColman is a freelance writer and blogger with a spiritually varied background (Lutheran, Episcopalian, and finally Catholic after a detour through Wicca and Neopaganism). McColman wrote “Spirituality” as an Episcopalian in 1997. The current edition is a 2008 reprint.
Quote
“To believe in the Sacred means to cultivate and cherish – out of the basic human capacity for wonder and openness – a loving relationship with God”.
The Good
What’s good is that McColman takes a look at aspects of life not often associated with spirituality. Of course he touches on the usual suspects: community, good works and social responsibility, but he also discusses at length things like awe, wonder, creativity and playfulness. The book could be paradigm changing for readers with rigidly two-dimensional views of religion. McColman demonstrates with balance and poise that spiritually minded folks don’t have to be dour prudes, but can actually live, love, laugh, play and enjoy healthy sexual relationships while pursuing a connection with the Sacred.
The Bad
McColman gives equal time to different spiritual paths, going from Pentecostalism to Paganism and everything in between. Although his openness is commendable – and perhaps necessary for a book like this one – it made for bland reading. Had he explored the subject from a narrower perspective, it would have given the book a more intense flavor. Thomas Merton did this well when he explored Buddhism from a Catholic perspective in his “Asian Journal”, a much more pungent and memorable offering.
In addition, the book was too long for the subject matter. By the time I had reached page 125 I was starting to wish McColman would wrap it up. A shorter, more focused presentation would have been both possible and desirable. Think Henri Nouwen for brief but deeply spiritual books that deal with much of the same material.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that while McColman’s “Spirituality” may serve as a basic introduction for readers who have never considered the subject, it offers little of substance to those already committed to a particular path.
May 26th, 2009
ggballard
So I am a bit late in posting this blog… however I’m glad to do it! A couple of days ago I completed reading Carl McColman’s “Spirituality, A Postmodern and Interfaith Approach to Cultivating A Relationship with God.” Wow that’s a mouthful! The subtitled has multiple “loaded” terms like postmodern and interfaith which most of the circles I am in are taboo. To be honest, it’s the reason I chose this book… I like to read on perspectives other than my own.
When Carl began to use terms like the Sacred, Divine, God, Goddess, and the Source of Life I wasn’t too surprised. Granted, a vast contrast from what I am accustomed to and even comfortable with. However, his attempt to be neutral and inclusive to all types of spiritual expression proves valuable.
Many times I view my own faith in clear Christian terms. This text has help me to realize there is a number of different ways to convey or communicate the spiritual with less Christian”ese.” This text is the most comprehensive on the topic of spirituality I have ever read.
McColman’s approach of using various cultural elements to provide a foundation for discussion of the spiritual is brilliant and well crafted. Drawing parallels to breathing, tilling soil, wonder and belief are great ways to put things of the spirit in context with our everyday life.
Some of the best parts of this book are towards the end. The chapters on prayer, equipoise, community, and sacrifice I found most beneficial.
In contrast to the pros this book has some challenges as well. First, the reading is quite dense, heavy, or overloaded. His points are often over developed. While he does incorporate some of his personal story they are brief and sparse.
Final recommendation — If you are exploring what it means to be spiritual regardless of the faith you choose this book will provide a comprehensive based from which to move forward. If you are someone that wishes to communicate spiritual things to people of different faiths this would be a great read as well. If you do decide to read I would recommed a quaility skim, pick and choose the sections you read and don’t commit to reading everything.
Jul 8th, 2009
frgregoryj
Wasn’t it the great mid-20th century philosopher and social critic Lucy van Pelt who once said, “I love humanity, it’s people I can’t stand”? Lucy’s (or maybe it was Charlie Brown’s) words come to mind as I read Carl McColman’s Spirituality: A Postmodern and Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship with God. The author seems more taken by the abstract category of spirituality then the concrete work of the spiritual life with its tendency to demand from us a parochial allegiance that offends our preference for the abstract over the concrete, the imaginary for the real, a self-generated life of meaning over a meaningful life that comes to us as a gift from God and neighbor.
Coming from an academic background in personality theory and religion, and with a marked personal love of theory and philosophy, I was excited and hopeful about the book. But as much as I wanted to like the book, and try though I did to like it, in the end I simply could not. While McColman makes a number of very good points about the spiritual life, in the final analysis his unwillingness to roots his own work in a specific religious tradition makes him not a scholar of spirituality, much less a guide to the spiritual life, but a mere tourist.
The topics he covers are, in my own view, certainly foundation to Christian spirituality and indeed common to many, though certainly not all, religious and spiritual traditions. As an Orthodox Christian and a priest who says the Jesus Prayer and who has served rural parishes, I am especially gratified to read about the first two chapters that discuss spirituality as breathing (chapter 1) or as cultivation (chapter 2′s tillage in McColman’s language). And the author’s emphasis on the importance of culture or tradition to our spiritual lives is also something I much appreciate.
Other chapters discuss foundation elements of the spiritual life. His chapters on wonder and belief, for example, help move us beyond a merely intellectual approach to the spiritual life. This is brought home to me in his discussion of belief as an openness to God and requiring from us a decision, an act of the will and not simply the mind. Again a good, and necessary, balance to the tendency in some circles to over think the Christian life.
Subsequent chapter also address what I see as essential elements of the Christian life(for example icons and prayer). And the author’s suggestions for what he calls “a discipline of wonder—for nurturing the spiritual life within yourself” (p. 226) contain a good share of practical wisdom. But, as with the rest of the book, it is wisdom that must be carefully discerned since the author seems unwilling to take his own advice and root his discussion in the rich soil of a particular spiritual tradition.
Where I in the end part company with the book is in the author’s attempt, as he says in the introduction to the current edition, to write “not so much a Christian treatment of spirituality as an interfaith exploration of the topic” (p. ix). I part company with the book not because I would reject an ecumenical or interfaith conversation about the spiritual life but because such a conversation requires multiple voices but because I am an advocate, and frequent participant, in such conversation. For all that the author references writers in any number of traditions, in the end it is his voice, his experience, his thought, and his alone that dominates the conversation. It is all well and good for me to quote a variety of authors and spiritual guides, but the fact remains that ultimately I pick and chose those author’s according to my own, often unarticulated standard, of what really matters.
The indomitable G. K. Chesterton is probably the first (and to mind the best) Christian apologist to the themes and concerns that we now collect under the phrase “postmodern.” Chesterton says that “The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” A truly interfaith approach to spirituality requires us to be fellow travelers who see what we see, even if we see things differently and disagree sharply with each other as a result Alas, I think that Spirituality: A Postmodern and Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship with God is the work of a tourist who see in the spiritual life what he has come to see—himself.
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
Jul 9th, 2009
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