Almost two decades ago I wrote an essay titled " When Is Spirituality Spiritual? Reflections on Some Problems of Definition ." 1 I would like to follow up on one aspect of that topic here.
The broader framework of the discussion needs to be remembered.
"Spiritual" and "spirituality" have become notoriously fuzzy words. In
common usage they almost always have positive overtones, but rarely does
their meaning range within the sphere of biblical usage. People think
of themselves as "spiritual" because they have certain aesthetic
sensibilities, or because they feel some kind of mystical connection
with nature, or because they espouse some highly privatized version of
one of any number of religions (but "religion" tends to be a word with
negative connotations while "spirituality" has positive overtones).
Under the terms of the new covenant, however, the only "spiritual"
person is the person who has the Holy Spirit, poured out on individuals
in regeneration. The alternative, in Paul's terminology, is to be
"natural"—merely human—and not "spiritual" (1 Cor 2:14).
For the Christian whose vocabulary and concepts on this topic are
shaped by Scripture, only the Christian is spiritual. Then, by an
obvious extension, those Christians who display Christian virtues are
spiritual, since these virtues are the fruit of the Spirit. Those who
are "mere infants in Christ" (1 Cor 3:1),
if they truly are in Christ, are spiritual inasmuch as they are indwelt
by the Spirit, but their lives may leave much to be desired. 2 Nevertheless the NT does not label immature Christians as unspiritual
as if the category "spiritual" should be reserved only for the most
mature, the elite of the elect: that is an error common to much of the
Roman Catholic tradition of spirituality, in which the spiritual life
and the spiritual traditions are often tied up with believers who want
to transcend the ordinary. Such "spiritual" life is often bound up with
asceticism and sometimes mysticism, with orders of nuns and monks, and
with a variety of techniques that go beyond ordinary Joe or Mary
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