found its way into the Protestant religious scene of the United States. For example, when the works of German scholars of the Scriptures became known in the United States, mainline Protestant denominations ultimately embraced their analytical approach to the Bible. Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969), minister of Riverside Church in New York City, was a well-known apologist for the scholarly approach to the biblical texts. Critical reflection not only on the biblical texts but also on church dogmas and traditions has been a hallmark of mainline Protestant religious life.
A recovery of the spiritual practices and disciplines advocated in this book does not compromise the mainline Protestant commitment to critical reflection. It does, however, challenge the notion that only analytical—in contrast to devotional—approaches to biblical texts and Christian classics have merit. Devotional practices do not displace critical aspects of faith development; rather, they develop the affective nature of the human capacity for relationship. In addition, devotional practices themselves are always subject to critical reflection; the dialectical process between devotion and critical reflection provides a more holistic approach to spiritual development than either alone.
Foundational Theology
Mainline Protestants are committed to an understanding of God that views all of life as grounded in God's abiding love. As noted by my African American colleague at the beginning of this chapter, mainline Protestants are in general not afraid that God will curse or condemn them. The God who receives their allegiance is the God of the early reformers, the God whose position in the universe is above all human folly and whose message is present in Jesus Christ. As mainline Protestants interpret God's transcendence, they contend that God cares about the big picture, not about the minutia of daily living. The principal concerns of this God have to do with “meaning writ large.” The creative and sustaining energy needed to manage the universe leaves this God little time to mess with the trivia of daily life. Karl Barth's focus on God's transcendence—beyond all human manipulation—and Paul Tillich's focus on God's power to ground human existence are concepts that shape and guide the lived experience of faith of many mainline Protestants.
Jesus Christ reveals God's purposes for daily life. The message of this Jesus is primarily one of love, justice, and social obligation. Mainline Protestants often feel that Jesus provided them with all they require for understanding the power of God. This Christ does not require his followers to have a deeply intimate or experiential relationship with him; instead, he came to model authentic living and show humankind the path toward meaning and hope. The ethical model provided by Jesus Christ no doubt contributes to the mainline Protestant identification of the ethical conscience with the voice of God. If God is preoccupied with the big picture, then it is the ethical call of Christ that provides—not a game plan for daily decisions—but a pattern of authentic living. This pattern is expected to inform the daily life situation of the faithful and sustain their spiritual needs.
This focus on God's transcendence and Christ's commitment to justice, peace, and wholeness is a strength of mainline Protestant spiritual traditions. This recognition that the desire to manipulate God—either through official structures or for personal ends—is ubiquitous is an insight that has contributed to Protestants’ suspicion of any authority that lacks checks and balances.
Mainline Protestants are especially aware of the way in which statements about the nature of God and claims about “what God wants” can quickly become self-serving and idolatrous on the lips of believers. Because of suspicions regarding authority and idolatry, they have a natural propensity to look behind religious language to see if other human motivations are guiding the religious discourse. Whose needs are being met by claims that God wants this specific action? Does the stated action bring justice or peace for the oppressed, or does it maintain the status quo of the speaker? Who speaks for God? What criteria must be used to discern if the message is of God? Protestants recognize the timeliness of these questions.
Unfortunately, these compelling sensitivities also make many Protestants wary of making any claims about God's activity beyond the most basic and fundamental statements about God's creative, sustaining power and God's self-revelation in Christ. Although mainline Protestant believers are willing to affirm in a general and vague way that God's love creates and ultimately sustains life, they often fear looking for God's activity in the day-to-day activities of living. Addressing this spiritual malaise will require discovering that theological affirmations may address not only these foundational issues of existence but also the issues of daily living. The cutting edge for many mainline Protestants is the recognition that it is possible to maintain one's suspicion of authority and one's fears about speaking for God and still sustain an experiential relationship with God that offers nurture, correction, transformation, and redemption. An engagement with the spiritual practices provided in this book offers an avenue for affirming Protestant suspicions while affirming the meaning that comes from an experiential relationship with the divine.
Although it is probably true that some people are not interested in developing an experiential relationship with the divine, the option for this form of spiritual development should not be anathema to mainline churches. Even for those not interested in further spiritual development, this issue will not simply “go away.” The pluralism of the contemporary period precludes that option. As mainline Protestants are in dialogue with African American Christians, Asian Christians, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Buddhists not only from North America but from other parts of the world, they discover that people from various faith traditions have an intimate, experiential dimension to their faith. Even nontheistic believers often have a deeply affective relationship with the sacredness of the cosmos.
I believe that mainline Protestants can make theological claims that are both consonant with their tradition and that will open them to the affective dimension of an experiential relationship with God without offending their analytical and critical sensibilities. The theological affirmations that follow may seem commonplace, but they provide a starting point for understanding the relevance of theological reflection not only for the ethical demands of daily life, but also for the spiritual growth and development required for finding life's deeper significance and sustaining a prophetic vision.
If mainline Protestant faith is once again to shape the lives of believers in life-giving and powerful ways, the spiritual malaise described above must be addressed. In order to address it, mainline Protestants need to celebrate the spiritual gifts they have received from their Protestant heritage: the mandate for ethical reflection and prophetic social action; the critical and analytical sensibilities that have committed Protestants to an understanding of modern worldviews and the Word of God; and the Protestant commitment to a transcendent God whose mysterious nature makes one suspicious of all authorities who claim to “know God's will” or “speak for God.” These attitudes and beliefs are gifts of the Spirit that must be celebrated as well as augmented.
THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF FAITH
We turn now to the understanding of spirituality that informs this work by noting five theological affirmations that are central to the lived experience of faith of mainline Protestants: (1) creation from breath and dust; (2) creation in the image of God; (3) justification by faith; (4) sanctification; and (5) the reign of God. In each case the theological affirmation is explicated with an eye not only to its intellectual context but also to its experiential potential.
Creation from Breath and Dust
The creation account from the Yahwist tradition in Genesis 2 says that “God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). This combination of dust and breath brings together in the life of humankind the matter and spirit aspects of being human. For the purposes of understanding and using spiritual practices, it is crucial to acknowledge the significance of both matter and spirit in spiritual development.
The
