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Hello, 

Hiermee 'n kort geskiedenis van spiritualiteit. In die bespreking word The Study of Spirituality onder die redakteurskap van Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright en  Edward Yarnold gevolg uitgegee deur Oxford University Press en gepubliseer in 1985/1986. Sagteband en nie beskikbaar in Kindle-formaat nie. Neem ook kennis dat meer as 90% van dit wat ook in die bespreking kon gebring word is uitgelaat.

Die woord spiritualiteit is 'n woord van onlangse oorsprong. In die oorspronklike Engelse gebruik was die betekenis soos volg: 

In its original English use it meant the clergy, as in Philip Stubbes Anatomie of Abuses ( 1583), the 'corruptions and abuses of the spirituality'; or the ecclesiastical office as distinct from the secular office, so that a man, instituted to a living, was given by one authority the temporalities and by another the spiritualities. Thence it came, in various associations, to describe things of the spirit as distinct from things of matter, such as an immaterial essence, a spirit, a ghost, a soul. The meaning of devotion or piety came still later, chiefly through Catholic writers like Challoner. Yet in 1755 Dr Samuel Johnson defined, among the meanings, ... ,acts independent of the body; pure acts of the soul; mental refinement'.

Die geskiedenis van die woord in Frans het bogenoemde betekenis vroeër as die Engelse ekwivalent verkry and kan soos volg verwoord word: 

It appears first to have pinned its special association with mystical or ascetical devotion. In the mystical doctrines propagated by Molinos or his successors the critics found an absence of free Christian attitudes to matter, an excess of striving after the purely immaterial. In the course of the eighteenth, but more and more frequently in the nineteenth, the word became a description of ways of prayerful piety,  with a hint, perhaps, of a link with the ideas of ascetics or mystics. This forms a foundation until more recent modern descriptions the forms and structures of the life of prayer'; 'the spiritual life is life', 'some kind of wholeness', 'spirituality means a search for meaning and significance by contemplation and reflection on the totality of human experiences in relation to the whole world which is experienced and also to the life which is lived and may mature as that search proceeds'. And spirituality concerns the way in which prayer influences conduct, our behaviour and manner of life, our attitudes to other people. 

Met dit as agtergrond en die afmaking wat alreeds elders geplaas is deur ander deelnemers hier van ander se belydenis oor hulle spirituele bestaan kan daar daarom nie verwag word om almal te tevrede te stel nie met die bespreking. Daar word egter gehoop dat die meeste Christene tog idees in hierdie brief sal vind waarmee hulle tuis sal voel. Net soos hierdie die natuurlike gebied van 'n Dolf of 'n Kobus sou wees en korreksies en die uitlig van foute gemaak deur my welkom sal wees. 

Die beginpunt en definisie van spiritualiteit in terme van hierdie brief is dan die kombinasie van aanbidding en die uitlewing van die persoon in sy daaglikse bestaan. Dit is die verpersoonliking van gebed, wat beskryf in frases soos, 'lewende offer', 'geestelike aanbidding' en 'n offerande aan die lof van God, dit is die vrug van die belydenis wat erkentenis aan God se naam gee. Christene is geestelike offers aan God deur die weg van Jesus Christus. Aangesien daar ongelukkig 'n kloof tussen God en die mens is wat slegs deur genade oorbrug  kan word, net soos daar 'n skeiding tussen die oneindige en die tydelike is en dit ook die gaping tussen die Aller-heilig en die sondaar is. 

'All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God'

In meer detail kan dit soos volg beskryf word: 

Selfs al is die gawe van genade, wat die teenwoordigheid van die Heilige Gees is, deel van die mens se wese sal die mens dikwels nie daardie noodsaaklike heiligheid in die mens se daaglikse keuses weerspieël nie. Volgens hierdie leringe is die mens in hierdie bestaan nie perfek geïntegreer met God nie. Die leringe wat die alledaagse teenwoordigheid van sonde, die daaglikse tekortkoming, dui aan die gaping tussen die twee vlakke van die mens se wese. Dit impliseer dat gewone Christene op die diepste vlak van hul wese kan misluk in die volgende terme: 

Christians at the deepest level of their being will have made a choice of values which can be described as a 'fundamental option' for God, while repeatedly failing to express that option fully in their everyday choices. Thus Paul bewailed the discrepancy between his ideals and the reality of his life: 'I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do'. The gap,then, which separates human beings from God is both ontological and moral. Accordingly we have a double need for God's grace: so that we may share in his nature, and so that our sins may be forgiven and healed. 

Hierdie mislukking van die mens word aangespreek deur die unieke voorbeeld van God se toetrede tot die wêreld deur en in die persoon van Jesus Christus. Dit is hierdie unieke vervulling van die mens se kapasiteit om God deur die lewe en navolging van Jesus Christus te volg wat dit vir die mens moontlik maak om die gaping tussen mens en God te oorbrug. Daarom is hierdie ingryping asook gebed in die mens se lewe die oorsprong van spiritualiteit en is dit die vrug van God se genade soos betoon aan die mens in sy gevalle staat.

Dit is die Heilige Gees wat dit moontlik maak vir die mens om te bid, Abba Vader, net soos dit moontlik gemaak word om 'n daad van geloof uit te leef in die heerskappy van Jesus Christus. Persoonlike gebed deur Jesus Christus is daarom dan die middelpunt van spiritualiteit. 

In it we search, both individually and in groups, for deeper, more personal intercourse with God -- moving into an ever greater intensity, union, and communion that will radically alter the way we live our lives. Here the truths of faith come home, or find no home. Here God speaks to the specific person who is made in the divine image, to the one who opens to that image or closes up against it. Here God calls us to be one with each other -- and we listen and hear or fall deaf. Here we respond, or turn away, as the fallen Adam did. Here we accept grace and are transformed by it.

Daar is die mense wat dit verwerp. 

Gebed is 'n gesprek met God deur Jesus Christus. Dit is die primêre manier van toenadering deur die mens se ware self na God. In gebed praat die mens oor haarself en dit wat 'n swaar las is op die mens se gedagtes en so ook die mens se vrese en die griewe wat die mens koester teen oor ander en die bestaan in sy groter geheel, alles hierdie wat versteek onder die oppervlak van die mens se uiterlike verskuil is: 

This is the human soul God wants, the heart which prays, not just the lips which mouth the proper words. God wants the glad soul who really speaks, saying what is really on the mind and in the heart, not a dull recital of those only too-familiar formalities, the set speeches laid down by the 'authorities', confident that they know exactly what God wants to hear. Have pity on the divine ears -- all those dull prayers, those boring hymns, those dry sermons filled with unctuous phrases! Purging in prayer becomes a refurbishing of the whole instrumentality of our being. We no longer concentrate on this or that little part of ourselves, no, matter how important or how troubling. We see our total being in prayer. Prayer exposes, strips bare, and yet brings us ever more consciously and constantly into the world's life, into the deep wounded heart of the world. This life of a true prayerful consciousness is not an easy one. We are left with less and less protection against the assaults of meanness, inexcusable suffering, and avoidable misery we inflict upon each other.

Bogenoemde dan die helende en transformerende krag van gebed en sal gebed weer 'n verskyning maak aan die einde van die bespreking en die kern wat dit het in die spirituele. 

Die belangrikste kenmerk van spiritualiteit is sy subjektiwiteit en sy innerlikheid, dit is 'n intens persoonlike ervaring.

Otherworldly orientation is frequently a distinctive feature of the spiritual existence which expresses a longing to escape from the world and worldliness. It is concerned with the soul's developing detachment from the world and its flight to God. This configuration of subjectivity, inwardness and otherworldliness makes it possible for much of spiritual existence to exist in a realm beyond philosophical arguments and theological controversies. Like music or poetry it can be appreciated quite independently of critical analysis and of knowledge of its background or context. So far there is no entirely satisfactory typology of spirituality, but it may be possible to distinguish between two forms - 'ecclesial' spirituality and 'privatized' spirituality. 

Alle ware Christelike spiritualiteit is gebou op 'n Bybelse grondslag. Dit is dus nie net vir die Protestantse persoon maar ook vir die Rooms-Katolieke persoon en hierby kan ingesluit word Oosterse Ortodokse persoon ook. Die Bybel kan daarom gebruik word in 'n verskeidenheid van maniere om voeding vir die mens se spirituele lewe te bied. Net soos spiritualiteit beoefen kan word in formele instellings, 'ecclesial', is daar is ook 'n lang tradisie van die individu en die individu, 'privatized', se aanbiddende studie van die Skrif onder die wakende invloed van die Heilige Gees en met Jesus Christus as kompas.

Dit bring dan die leser by die leerstellinge van Paulus in die Nuwe Testament.

Die leering wat hier gebied word is dat God het die menslike natuur op 'n spesifieke manier geskape sodat die mens 'n geestelike transformasie kan ondergaan. God se genade is transformasie vanaf die bonatuurlike en hierdie inslag kan die mens nie verander nie aangesien God in die mens se aard 'n affiniteit vir God homself geskape het en daar 'n soeke na die Goddelike is. Hierdie affiniteit word soos volg beskryf en word die volgende terme uit Genesis gebruik: 

'The image of God' is used and confirmed based on Thomas Aquinas who later in the centuries spoke of the fundamental urge in each being's nature as its 'natural desire', believing that the natural desire of human beings was for God. It is God's original and ultimate plan that all he has called shall become 'conformed to the image of his Son, so that he (the Son) may be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters', adopted into God's own family. This adoption is effected in baptism: 'all who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ', all human divisions of culture, status or sex are abolished, 'for you are all one man in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are the progeny of Abraham, heirs as promised'. The human nature of 'the Son' qualifies the human race for adoption into the sonship of the Son by the power of the Spirit, reproducing in each, and uniting each to, the authentic prayer of the Son, Abba, Father. For it is now clear that both paths lead in the same direction; for the Spirit of adoption and the resurrection Spirit are identical.

Net die Gees intern tot die mens se menswees wat hulp bied aan die mens se onvoldoende kapasiteit tot gebed en waar daar oor die woorde in die gebed gestruikel word en die Heilige Gees die mens inspireer tot hoogtes wat op die mens se eie kapasiteit nie moontlik is nie. 

He alone can precipitate the basic confession, 'Jesus is Lord', the criterion of genuine inspiration. There is a diversity of 'charisms' or spiritual gifts which he distributes and co-ordinates among the various members of Christ's Body, yet there is a hierarchy of gifts, and individuals are exhorted to covet and cultivate the higher ones, preferring any that lead to 'edification', to the building up of the whole by the strengthening of the weak, which requires restraint from the more impressive and spectacular. The community as a whole is a temple of the Spirit so equally is each individual, which has special implications for chastity. The body itself is not evil, God can be glorified in it. The Spirit inspires and aggravates our groans and aspirations towards complete redemption and liberation and is described as 'firstfruit', the first flowering of a harvest already ripening, i.e. of future glory; and elsewhere as a first deposit or pledge of full future payment,  where our anointing and sealing by God with the Spirit is seen as a pledge for the complete fulfilment of all his promises to us and where the Spirit is seen as a  pledge for our complete clothing in immortality, with our resurrection body. We have seen that God's original and ultimate design is 'for our glory' and that we should inherit blessings beyond experience or imagination.

Bogenoemde dui aan die Heilige Gees se rol as die bron en ondersteuner van heiligheid en spiritualiteit en die maniere van direkte toenadering van die mens tot God en vanaf God na die mens.

Met bogenoemde as agtergrond word 'n uiters beperkte en onvolledige kort opsomming van Luther uit die Reformasie aangebied:

When the sinner despairs of himself and puts his trust in Christ, 'the absorption of the Word makes the soul a sharer in everything that belongs to the Word. The believer in Christ is no longer a slave but a free person.  prayer is the act of faith par excellence, and in prayer even sinful persons so far rise above themselves as to give the precedence to the honour of God's name, the triumph of God's Kingdom, and the fulfilment of God's will over the matters of our own safety and deliverance, Hence also the conclusion of the prayer of faith with the Amen which is the summa vis orationis, the certainty that our prayer is heard. 

Net so ook met die werke van Calvyn: 

Calvin (1509-64) is much easier to expound than Luther because in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, expecially in its final form, we have a summary of his thought, its true character is that of a spiritual guide to Christian believing and living. The pattern of the Creed (Father, Son, Spirit, Church) is a mnemonic device -- but not a gratuitous one, for it reminds us that the individual spiritual life of the believer is set against the backdrop of an objectively true doctrine. Church and sacraments are not a mere appendage to individual devotion; the Church is already present in the world to call the elect to realization of their calling, and its provisions march beside their needs as they grow. the essential fault of fallen humanity is ignorance of God, wilful self-misinformation, which turns all natural religion into idolatry. God has given us the Scriptures, from which we learn the falsehood of idolatry. The realization of his will in the individual is possible only through the secret working of the Holy Spirit, who unites the soul with Christ in a spiritual marriage. We embark on the spiritual life, at once penitent and joyful. 

'n Samevatting van alles wat in hierdie brief bespreek is kan soos volg verwoord word:

The highest and unique instance of God's self-giving is his entry into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. The highest and unique fulfilment of the human capacity for God is found in the life of Jesus Christ. But the incarnate divinity and the God-filled humanity of Jesus are not only for himself; they are 'for us and for our salvation'. In other words the vital principle of all spirituality is the grace of Christ. 

Met dit as agtergrond is dit duidelik dat Cornelius Henn vir Kobus 'n klap probeer gee het wat geen gronde het in die ryk geskiedenis van spiritualiteit en die gawes van spiritualiteit, wysheid, kennis, insig en verheerliking. Net soos die afmaking van spiritualiteit as 'new age' Cornelius Henn as gelowige se onkunde bevestig. In die inleiding van die brief is gemeld dat meer as 90% van dit wat kon bespreek uitgelaat is en word 'n kort lys gebied van wat nie aangespreek is nie. Die Liturgie, die mistieke, die insig van die spirituele wat gevind kan word in die Ou Testament, en so ook in die Nuwe Testament, waar net Paulus bespreek is en nie Johannes nie asook nie die Evangelies nie. Net soos die verskynsel van spiritualiteit soos gevind in Griekse filosofie en daarmee ook in Philo, Plotinus, en Proclus ook nie aangespreek is nie. Net soos die eerste Kerkvaders, Tertullian, Cyprian, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen en die 'Desert Fathers, Antony en Pachomius ook  nie aangespreek is nie en so ook die Latynse Vaders, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, John Cassian, Benedict, John Scotus Eriugena. Hierdie bring die leser uiteindelik by die Oosterse Ortodokse Vaders. Veral vreemd aangesien Cornelius Henn, die Kopte soos 'n mantra hier rondgooi. Dit terwyl die Kopte slegs 'n beperkte deel van daardie ryke tradisie is. Selfs hier laat ek nog baie uit om by die Protestante beweging te kom waar Zwingli en die Anabaptiste nie bespreek is nie, asook die Katolieke Reformasie as antwoord op die Protestante beweging. Net soos ander bewegings ook nie aangespreek is nie, Judaïsme, Islam, Hindoe, Boeddhisme en dit wat gevind kan word in die gelowe uit Afrika en so ook die meer moderne opdaterings van spiritualiteit.  Geen rekord kon gevind word van enige 'katolieke' beweging nie en is die slotsom dat dit 'n sekte van een is. 

Dit is dus 'n baie brawe persoon wat spiritualiteit se geskiedenis en belang wat die mens oor duisende jare daarmee het ontken en is die slotsom dat Kobus sonder twyfel in die erfenis daarvan funksioneer. Daar is net een aspek waaroor ek met Kobus sal verskil maar hierdie is nie die geleentheid daarvoor nie. 

Baie dankie

Wouter