Christian Education
CEWeb
Welcome
to the Christian Education page of the American Baptist Churches of
Wisconsin Website!
This online
resource will serve as a forum to share ideas, get information and
the like.
Please share the Web address for
this site with Christian Education workers in your church. I would
also invite you to offer
suggestions of things which would make the site useful to
you.
Exploring Spiritual Theology
November 2005
All you have to do to be aware that
spirituality and spiritual formation are popular topics is check the
shelf of any bookstore. One of the problems we face when considering
these areas is figuring out what the author means by "spiritual."
Does it have to do with our Christian faith, or does it have to do
with that "internal" part of us that makes us human? Is
it about our personal relationship with God or does it also include
the way that relationship works out in life? Is it about personal
piety or about life in the community of faith? Or does it relate to
more than one of these at a time?
I think that all of us who work in
the areas of discipleship and/or Christian education are interested
in exploring the area of spirituality. I have recently come across
a new book that I would to commend to you for your reading and consideration.
It is Eugene H. Peterson's book titled Christ
Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology
(Eerdmans 2005). This book is
really the foundational book in what will be a five-volume series
on spiritual theology. In this volume Peterson presents definitions
and description of what spiritual theology is. The other volumes will
contain more information on ways to help persons be formed as mature
and maturing Christians.
Many of you will probably be familiar
with Peterson's work through his translation of the Bible known as
The Message or through some of his other devotional books
on the Bible or his pastoral theology. He is pastor, professor, biblical
scholar and author. In his preface he says that he is bringing his
two fields of work together, the work of pastor and the work of professor,
to provide some materials which might be useful for those interested
in developing a strong "lived" faith or in helping others
to do that.
Peterson notes the difficulty of
talking about this subject when he says, "Writing about the Christian
life (formulated here as 'spiritual theology') is like trying to paint
a picture of a bird in flight. The very nature of a subject in which
everything is always in motion and the context is constantly changing
. . . precludes precision." Growth, for Peterson in this book
and in others I have read, however, is always about a "lived
faith." And that is what we want to be about in Christian education,
at least in my view. I have often described that idea as an integrated
approach: putting together our Christian experience, with our study
about that faith, and with the choices we make in our lives.
This is not an easy book, so it is
a good thing that, within the next month, a study guide will come
out to help groups use this volume as curricular material for groups
who would like to pursue the topic. Notification has also come from
the publisher that the next book in the series will be out early in
the New Year. It is called Eat
This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading,
and will deal with reading the Bible for spiritual growth. I will
look forward to its arrival!
Happy reading!
Maxine Ashley
Staff Associate in Christian Education
Christian.Education@abcofwi.org
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