Читать книгу Protestant Spiritual Exercises - Joseph D. Driskill - Страница 9

The theological affirmations that inform spiritual practices need to be consonant with the Protestant heritage that has brought many blessings to its communities of faith. At their best, mainline Protestant traditions exercise judicious leadership in the arenas of ethical reflection and social action. Those in positions of church leadership frequently feel a sense of solidarity with victims of oppression and work to rectify social, political, and economic inequities. Women's rights and issues, from ordination to the prevention of physical abuse, have become important on denominational agendas; ministries of social justice and economics both domestically and internationally are supported; issues involving human rights and sexuality—abortion, sexual expression, justice for gays and lesbians—are being debated. Although policies related to social issues do not always receive enthusiastic endorsements from all quarters of the church, attention to them is still a defining characteristic of mainline Protestant traditions.

The ethical conscience, especially as it relates to social concerns, is at the heart of mainline Protestant life. Pastoral theologian Seward Hiltner probably speaks for many mainline Protestants when he says that people come closest to God when they come closest to following their ethical conscience.¹ The identification of “God's voice” with the ethical conscience is a strength of mainline Protestant traditions.

Unfortunately, many Protestants fail to see their ethical commitments to social justice as gracious gifts from God. They affirm that God is a force of love and compassion at work in the world, but inasmuch as love and compassion are not the sole prerogatives of religious folks, mainline Protestants often minimize the extent to which these powers are associated with divine activity. Lacking a propensity for theological interpretation, they view ethical actions in behalf of others not expressly as God's handiwork, but as the work required of any good citizen. By so doing they minimize the theological significance of their ethical conscience and the actions that flow from it.

The commitment to social justice is an inestimable spiritual gift integral to mainline Protestant spirituality. This commitment allows mainline Protestants to affirm that God is at work in the daily lives of people struggling for justice and peace. This recognition has the potential to augment the mainline Protestant tendency to limit God's voice to the ethical conscience. It is an irony that although official Protestant teachings—for example, church doctrines—avoid claims that limit God's sphere of influence, in the “lived experience of faith” of many Christians, God's leading is largely restricted to two areas—the ethical conscience and the response to profound grief.

During times of crisis, when our radical dependence on God becomes a daily act of faith, mainline Protestants often speak of God's presence with them. The affective depths at which daily life has been impacted legitimizes this often-passing sense of personal relationship with God. Mainline Protestants live their faith in the paradoxical space between being too modest to speak for God except on social issues, and too reasonable to be truly dependent on God except in times of tragedy.

If ethical responsibility at the social level is a spiritual asset of mainline Protestants, it is the complementary development of the personal aspect of a relationship with the sacred—briefly present at a time of crisis—that is required for a more holistic stance to spiritual development. The development of a personal relationship with the sacred may inform the nature of one's social vision and sustain persons who work for social justice. It is the development of this personal relationship that this book addresses by providing a theological grounding and historical background for the practices included in the final chapter. This correcting does not deny the role of God's voice in the ethical conscience. If anything, the ethical conscience is enhanced by acknowledging the links between a prophetic vision and the spiritual practices that keep it alive, vital, and faithful.