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“For All Those Seeking Integration Between Doctrine and Life, Demkovich’S Soul-Centered Spirituality Provides a Key

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“For All Those Seeking Integration Between Doctrine and Life, Demkovich’S Soul-Centered Spirituality Provides a Key “For all those seeking integration between doctrine and life, Demkovich’s soul-centered spirituality provides a key. Spirituality animates doctrine, which in turn gives meaning to life. An animating spirituality requires religious commitment to beliefs and a community that embodies them. At a time when spiritualities proliferate, and we may not know which way to turn, Demkovich’s approach is both grounded and life-giving.” — Donald Goergen, OP St. Dominic Priory, St. Louis, Missouri Author of Sexual Celibate and Fire of Love: Encountering the Holy Spirit “People often declare, ‘I’m spiritual but not religious.’ Yet as Michael Demkovich so convincingly argues in his wise and erudite new book, A Soul-Centered Life, spirituality not grounded in religious community nor firmly tethered to solid doctrine fails to deliver, for ultimately it cannot address the great questions of life. Packed to overflowing with theological and historical riches, Demkovich’s book takes its stand against private, self-pleasing spiritualities and points the way toward a fully integrated, deeply meaningful, intellectually satisfying Christian life.” — Paula Huston Author of Forgiveness: Following Jesus into Radical Loving A Soul-Centered Life Exploring an Animated Spirituality Michael Demkovich, OP A Michael Glazier Book LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Michael Glazier Book published by Liturgical Press. Cover design by Ann Blattner. Photo courtesy of Photos.com. Excerpts from Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works (CWS; Edited by George E. Ganss, SJ). Copyright © 1991 by George E. Ganss, SJ. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com. © 2010 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Min- nesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Demkovich, Michael. A soul-centered life : exploring an animated spirituality / Michael Demkovich. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-8146-5512-2 — ISBN 978-0-8146-5728-7 (e-book) 1. Spirituality. I. Title. BV4501.3.D455 2010 248—dc22 2009053721 Contents Introduction ix PART I Understanding Spirituality 1 Chapter One Challenges 3 Perspectives on Spirituality 5 Spirituality as Liturgy 6 Spirituality as Academic Discipline 10 Spirituality as History 16 Spirituality and Theology 18 Chapter Two Keeping the Spiritual Life Alive 20 The Life of the Soul 22 The Intellectually Meaningful Life 25 The Morally Desirable Life 28 Soul-centered: Psyche or Anima? 30 Animation? 31 Important Benefits 33 Chapter Three Animating Spirituality 36 Methodology: What Does Spirituality Examine? 38 How the Factors Work 39 v vi Contents Approaching Spirituality 45 Summary 48 PART II Spiritual Animation 51 Chapter Four Run the Good Race: The Ascetical Approach 55 Meet an Ascetic: Maximus the Confessor 55 Ascetic Spirituality 58 Early Christianity 63 My Struggle Is One with Christ 65 Christian Asceticism: The Victor’s Crown 69 Conclusion 74 Chapter Five The Word Made Flesh, Dwelling Among Us: The Mystical Approach 76 Meet a Mystic: Catherine of Siena 76 Mystical Spirituality 78 Christ Our Light and In His Light We See Light 83 Christian Mysticism: Union with God 88 Conclusion 94 Chapter Six God’s Beauty Fills the Earth: The Aesthetical Approach 96 Meet an Aesthetic: Ignatius of Loyola 96 Aesthetic Spirituality 101 A Changing World 101 Christian Aestheticism: God in Spirit and in Truth 109 The Grandeur of God 116 Conclusion 121 Contents vii Chapter Seven Lord, When Did We See You in Need? The Social-Critical Approach 123 Meet a Social-Criticalist: Mother Teresa of Calcutta 123 Social-Critical Spirituality 127 Modernity 128 Post-Modernity 129 Christian Social-Criticalism: Those Poor or Afflicted in Any Way 133 Conclusion 141 PART III Conclusion 143 Chapter Eight The Study of Spirituality: Do You Love Me? Feed My Sheep 145 The Critical Study of Spirituality: Be Transformed by the Renewal of Your Mind 147 Animating Spirituality 150 Index 153 Introduction Something is missing! Something that I feel should be part of my life but it just isn’t there! Something keeps gnawing at me and I can’t figure it out! Something is missing in me and I wish I knew what it was! Something, but what? These words echo what I have heard from various people in spiritual direction and what I have heard in my own heart. These haunting hungers hit us all. Like the pangs of a person deprived of food, we long for something to satisfy the void in us. This spiritual hunger keeps us looking, longing for the thing that fills us, makes us complete. Sadly, many of us end up looking in the wrong places and gorge our- selves with unhealthy things like self-centeredness, or addic- tions, or superficiality. And still we continue to find that something is missing, something so amazingly fulfilling that we are still left hungering for its bountiful harvest. This hunger arises from the very soul of a person and it longs to be filled. A woman who has spent her life working with this world’s ne- glected said, “There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation than for bread.” She knew the soul’s real longing. She was Mother Teresa. One of the great blessings in my ministry has been the special invitation to enter into the sacred ground of another human being, to be able to spend time on the spiritual journey with another person who has very often traveled many different roads. Another part of my life that I hold as a blessing has been ix x Introduction the opportunity to study the Catholic tradition and to share this with others. Both of these aspects seem to complement one an- other, and I have come to see how theological is the spiritual life, and how spiritual is genuine theology. Mother Teresa was talking about a spiritual hunger, and the only way to feed such hunger is to learn the lessons of those who know where this food is to be found. Why would a wealthy person with political privilege and a promising career leave all these things for the simplicity of a life as a monk? Why would a person who was safe in the quiet comfort of prayer be moved to insert herself into the political struggles of her day? Why would a soldier face his debilitating wounds and reject its bitterness, surrendering his own will to God? Why would a religious woman, teaching in a posh school, reject the obedience her vows prescribed and set out to live a life of destitution? We meet these questions when we encounter people like Maximus the Confessor, Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. There is something to be found in people like these that make their lives so meaningful, so desirable. They can teach us what a truly animating spiritu- ality is meant to be. For many of us, spirituality is a topic that conjures up all sorts of ideas, both sublime and silly. Spirituality books are shelved in stores under headings like the occult, or self-help, or religion, or New Age. It is difficult to find a common definition among authors or even among religious people. So one might ask, why another book on spirituality? My interest was born out of attempting to live the reality and trying to teach it to others. The challenge is finding that perfect balance between knowing and being. So many books come close, but they just don’t capture what so many of us desire. In 1997 I was given a challenging task: to teach Christian spirituality at Blackfriars in Oxford to brilliant and critical students. Being trained as a theologian and having years of doing spiritual direc- tion, I knew that a survey course just wouldn’t be enough. The past decade has afforded me time and opportunity to develop some thoughts, research key questions, and formulate an ap- Introduction xi proach to spirituality that makes sense both intellectually and emotionally, both to the head and to the heart. This work explores the study of spirituality from the perspec- tive of integrating faith and life, bringing together that some- thing more the soul desires. These two dimensions are met time and time again in all the great spiritual writers in the Christian tradition, and others as well. It is difficult to comprehend spir- ituality outside of its tradition, its formative environment. Doc- trine and a person’s life weave a fabric that is rich in texture, color, and strength. This unique integration is what most fasci- nates me in the spiritual writers. At the same time I noticed a flaw in the study of spirituality. Many approaches struck me as too uncritical; they avoid identifying a standard for spirituality, some guide to help the student ask about a spirituality’s worth. This shortcoming has given rise to what I would call a tourist’s approach to spirituality. The package deal looks at a list of favorite writers, a survey of the greats. But they never really tell us why! What is it in these writers that makes their spiritual insights of value? Or, on the other hand, what dangers might be present in pursuing a particular spirituality that doesn’t suit a person? Indeed something is missing if we think that spirituality is only meant for a few special people.
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