A brief history of spirituality

Abstract

Preface. Introduction: What is Spirituality?. Contemporary Meaning. Spirituality and History. Interpretation. Periods and Traditions. 1 Foundations: Scriptures and Early Church. Christian Spirituality and the Scriptures. Scriptural Markers. Spirituality in the New Testament. Spirituality and the Early Church. Liturgy. Spirituality and Martyrdom. Spirituality and Doctrine. Origen. Evagrius. The Cappadocians. Augustine. Pseudo-Dionysius. Christian Spirituality as Transformation and Mission. Theories of Spiritual Transformation. Conclusion. 2 The Monastic Paradigm: 300-1150. The Emergence of Monasticism. Widows and Virgins. Syrian Ascetics. Egyptian Monasticism. Wisdom of the Desert. Monastic Rules. Benedictine Expansion. The New Hermits. The Cistercians. The Spiritual Values of Monasticism. Spirituality and the Conversion of Europe. Local Spiritualities: Ireland. Spirituality in the East. Syriac Conclusion. 3 Spirituality in the City: 1150-1450. The Gregorian Reform. The Vita Evangelica. Twelfth-Century Renaissance. The Rebirth of Cities. Cathedrals and Urban Vision. The City as Sacred. Universities as Sacred Space. Vita Evangelica and Urban Sensibilities. The Mendicant Movement. Dominic, Francis, Clare, and Bonaventure. The Beguines. Fourteenth-Century Mysticism. Devotional Spirituality and Eastern Christianity. The Renaissance. Conclusion. 4 Spiritualities in the Age of Reformations: 1450-1700. Seeds of Reform: The Devotio Moderna and Christian Humanism. The Crisis of Medieval Spirituality and the Lutheran Reformation. John Calvin and Reformed Anabaptist Anglican Puritan Early Quakers. The Catholic Reformation. The New Orders. Ignatius Loyola and Early Ignatian Carmelite Mysticism. Lay Devotion. Seventeenth-Century French Conclusion. 5 Spirituality in an Age of Reason: 1700-1900. Spirituality in the Roman Catholic Tradition. Pietism. Wesleyan Puritanism and the Great Awakening. Shaker Orthodox Post-Revolutionary Catholicism. The English Evangelicals. The Oxford Movement. John Henry Newman. A Distinctive American Spirituality. Conclusion. 6 Modernity to Postmodernity: 1900-2000. The Impact on Evelyn Underhill. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Simone Weil. Dorothy Day. Thomas Merton. Spiritualities of Liberation. Gustavo Gutierrez. Feminist Spiritualities of Reconciliation. Ecumenical Spirituality: The Example of Taize. Spirituality and Inter-Religious Dialogue: Bede Griffiths. Making Spirituality Democratic: The Retreat Movement. Making Spirituality Democratic: The Charismatic Movement. Conclusion. Epilogue. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index