In light of the Lambeth Conference and Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori’s comments on the inclusiveness of the Anglican Communion, I thought a quote from Eugene Peterson on spiritual theology would be appropriate. The quote comes from Peterson’s book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Theology. I first read this book 3 years ago, and each time I thumb through I am gripped by the author’s “wordmanship”. In this particular section from the Introduction, Peterson knocks down the idea that following Jesus Christ has no specific way.
The end is where we start from. “In my end is my beginning” (T.S. Eliot). Endings take precedence over beginnings. We begin a journey by first deciding on a destination. We gather information and employ our imaginations in preparing ourselves for what is to come: Life is the end of life; life, life, and more life.
The end of all Christian belief and obedience, witness and teaching, marriage and family, leisure and work life, preaching and pastoral work is the living of everything we know about God: life, life, and more life. If we don’t know where we are going, any road will get us there. But if we have a destination – in this case a life lived to the glory of God – there is a well marked way, the Jesus-revealed way. Spiritual theology is the attention that we give to the details of living life on this way (emphasis mine).
