Spiritual theology is the study of the Christian spiritual life, focusing on the lived experience of faith and the means by which believers grow closer to God. At its core, spiritual theology examines the process of sanctification and the pursuit of Christian perfection through prayer, spiritual reading, asceticism, contemplation, and mystical union with Christ.
Definition and Scope
Spiritual theology is often contrasted with dogmatic or academic theology. While academic theology uses reason to study Church dogma and doctrine intellectually, spiritual theology relies more on practical application and experience. Spiritual theology concentrates on the personal appropriation and inner effects of theological truths rather than their objective meaning.
At times, spiritual theology has been called “ascetical” or “mystical” theology because of its focus on spiritual practices, meditation, and subjective spiritual knowledge of God. However, spiritual theology has a broader scope that includes both ascetical practices as well as mystical contemplation. The study of spiritual theology explores the theoretical basis of the spiritual life as well as its applied practice.
Origins in Early Church History
Spiritual theology as a discipline has its roots in the writings of the Desert Fathers and early monastic traditions of the third and fourth centuries. These early Christian ascetics and monks, such as St. Anthony the Great and St. Pachomius, sought to live devoted lives of prayer and mortification in solitude. Their wisdom and sayings had a profound influence on later generations of Christians.
Writers in the Patristic period, including St. Augustine of Hippo, also discussed aspects of the spiritual life and mapped out stages of growth in the spiritual journey. Augustine’s Confessions in particular had a formative impact on spiritual theology in the West. In the medieval period, figures like St. Anselm of Canterbury and St. Bernard of Clairvaux contributed to the field through their monastic reforms and mystical writings.
The flowering of spiritual theology as a distinct theological discipline occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries. Important figures included St. Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Francis de Sales. Their practical manuals detailed the stages of contemplative prayer and offered spiritual direction. Other seminal works were Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ and Joseph de Guibert’s The Spiritual Life.
Key Themes and Purpose
Some of the main questions explored in spiritual theology include:
- What is the process of spiritual growth, and what are its stages or phases?
- How does one cultivate the spiritual life through practices like meditation, fasting, and contemplation?
- What role do the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit play in spiritual development?
- What experiential knowledge of God can be attained through contemplative prayer?
- How is mystical union with God achieved?
At a fundamental level, the discipline seeks to understand how one grows in holiness and closeness with God. Spiritual theology examines the lived interior experience of faith and the means by which one cooperates with divine grace to overcome sin and attachment to created things.
The ultimate goal of spiritual theology is union with God and conformity to His will. By studying the spiritual life, believers can better understand the path to sanctification and Christian perfection. Spiritual theology aims to provide wisdom and guidance in progressing through the purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages of the spiritual journey.
Purgative Stage
The purgative stage, sometimes called the beginner’s stage, is the initial phase of growth in the spiritual life. The main focus during this stage is overcoming sinful habits, exercising self-discipline, and cultivating virtue. Through practices like fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, the believer purifies their soul of vice and attachment to worldly pleasures.
Key elements of the purgative stage include:
- Performing regular self-examination and confession of sins
- Mortification – the denial of bodily pleasures and desires
- Developing patience, humility, and obedience
- Meditating on Christ’s passion and one’s own death
- Frequent reception of the sacraments
As distractions, temptations, and sinful tendencies are gradually overcome, the soul becomes properly ordered toward God. The habits of virtue developed in this stage provide a foundation for further growth. Common metaphors for this stage are pruning vines, climbing a mountain, or refining metal to remove impurities.
Illuminative Stage
After the initial purification of the purgative stage, one enters the illuminative phase where faith is strengthened and spiritual insight grows. The illuminative stage is marked by increasing contemplation, an awakening to spiritual realities, and a shift from meditation to more active forms of prayer.
Central features of the illuminative stage include:
- Growth in virtues like charity, chastity, patience, and humility
- An intensified prayer life and desire for God’s presence
- Receiving spiritual consolations and mystical graces
- Contemplation of divine attributes like God’s wisdom, truth, and beauty
- Detachment from created things
- Experience of miraculous gifts like visions, ecstasies, and prophecies
The illuminative stage brings greater self-knowledge, as well as a profound awareness of God’s action in the soul and in creation. The believer increasingly sees with the “eyes of faith” rather than merely human reason. There is a hunger for spiritual things over material possessions. Symbols of this stage include light, mirrors, and mountains.
Unitive Stage
The unitive stage is the apex of the spiritual journey wherein one achieves mystical union with God. In this transformative state, the soul is perfectly configured to the will of God in an undivided union of love. All that remains is a seamless exchange of will between the believer and God.
Hallmarks of the unitive stage are:
- A constant state of recollection of and communion with God
- Utter detachment from self-interest and earthly concerns
- Extreme virtue and purity of soul
- Unwavering charity and burning love for God
- Infused contemplation and mystical absorption in God
- Transverberation or ecstatic spiritual marriage with Christ
This transformative union may be fleeting at first, but masters of the spiritual life can abide in this state for longer periods. Metaphors for the unitive stage include flames, wounds, or death symbolizing the dissolution of self in God. Spiritual marriage and mystical intoxication are other common motifs.
Spiritual Practices and Disciplines
Certain disciplines and practices are employed as means to spiritual growth and union with God. While grace is indispensable to advancement, ascetical practices dispose the soul to receive and cooperate with divine grace. Some key spiritual disciplines include:
Prayer – Prayer is essential to developing communion with God. Vocal prayer, meditative prayer, affective prayer, and contemplative prayer are utilized based on one’s spiritual level. The Jesus Prayer and recitation of the Psalms are common practices.
Fasting – Fasting helps tame desires of the flesh and frees one to focus on spiritual nourishment. Christian spiritual traditions encourage occasional fasting from food, entertainment, etc.
Spiritual reading – Reading edifying books like Scripture, lives of the saints, or spiritual treatises helps one grow in knowledge and contemplation of God. Lectio divina is a method of praying with Scripture.
Examination of conscience – Careful review of one’s sins, failings, and progress combats pride and cultivates humility. Examen at end of day allows correction.
Detachment – Minimizing attachment to possessions, acclaim, comforts, and self-will allows greater freedom to love and serve God. Rejecting worldly status is key.
Obedience – Obedience to spiritual advisors, Rule of life, and Church teaching roots out self-will and pride which impedes grace.
Asceticism – Embracing voluntary physical hardships trains one in self-denial and mastery over disordered passions.
Almsgiving – Generous giving of material resources exercises detachment while expressing love. Combats greed.
Devotional practices – Sacraments, blessings, sacred music, pilgrimages, and images help focus the mind on spiritual realities.
Stages of Contemplative Prayer
As one advances in the spiritual life, prayer becomes increasingly simple, wordless, and mystical. Saints describe various stages of extraordinary contemplative prayer along this journey. These include:
Recollection – The mind detached from distractions and focused singly on God.
Quiet – Inward silence and stillness where one simply rests in God’s presence.
Full Union – A feeling of oneness with God in profound contemplation.
Ecstasy – A trance-like state of absorption in God’s love often involving visions.
Rapture – A mystical “flight of the spirit” in which one is elevated to an apprehension of divine things.
Spiritual Marriage – The experience of mystical union and exchange of hearts with Christ.
The highest forms of contemplation are pure gift and cannot be achieved through human effort alone. They render the soul dazzlingly transparent to the light and love of God.
Christian Perfection and Union with God
A core aim of spiritual theology is explaining how believers can achieve Christian perfection and mystical union with God. Catholic theology in particular speaks of three states of perfection:
Purgative – The beginner’s state where one struggles against sin and vice.
Illuminative – Marked by growth in virtue and detachment from created things.
Unitive – The soul mystically united in complete love with God.
The unitive state is considered supreme among these states of perfection. It constitutes a special grace granted by God to purify the soul totally and configure it fully to Christ. This undeserved gift allows one to enter into mystical marriage with God.
Some spiritual masters make further distinctions within the unitive state such as distinguishing between the spiritual espousals and the spiritual marriage. The spiritual marriage indicates a more permanent, transformational union.
This process of growth culminating in Christian perfection is made possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. Through baptism and the infused theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, God shares His divine life with believers. Cooperating with the gifts of the Holy Spirit allows for mystical union whereby God comes to live in the soul.
Major Figures in Spiritual Theology
Desert Fathers – Early monastics like St. Anthony provided wisdom on spiritual disciplines.
St. Augustine – Discussed the soul’s journey to God in works like Confessions.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux – Cistercian reformer who wrote extensively on humility and divine love.
St. Bonaventure – Doctor of the Church famous for The Soul’s Journey into God.
Meister Eckhart – Dominican mystic who taught on detachment and birth of God in the soul.
The Cloud of Unknowing – Anonymous 14th century text on contemplative prayer.
St. Teresa of Avila – Carmelite nun who experienced mysticism. Wrote The Interior Castle.
St. John of the Cross – Spanish mystic and Teresa’s collaborator. Wrote Dark Night of the Soul.
St. Francis de Sales – Offered spiritual wisdom in Introduction to the Devout Life and other works.
Thomas à Kempis – Wrote the enormously influential The Imitation of Christ.
St. Alphonsus Liguori – Moral theologian who founded Redemptorists. Wrote The Holy Eucharist.
Differences from Academic Theology
While complementary, spiritual theology differs from scholastic or systematic theology in a few key ways:
- Subject matter – Spiritual theology focuses on experience while academic theology examines official doctrine.
- Approach – Spiritual theology relies on wisdom and contemplation more than reason and intellection.
- Context – Academic theology operates in universities while spiritual theology originates in religious life and prayer.
- Sources – In addition to Scripture and tradition, spiritual theology draws from subjective spiritual experiences.
- Authors – Doctors of theology work in academia whereas spiritual masters are often monastics, priests, or bishops providing individual guidance.
- Aim – The goal of academic theology is intellectual knowledge whereas spiritual theology seeks personal sanctification and taste of divine things.
So spiritual theology concentrates more on the practical and experiential dimension of faith rather than the abstract and speculative. It exists not just to be studied but to be lived.
Critiques and Controversies
While hugely influential in Christian tradition, spiritual theology has also come under criticism:
Overly subjective – Some claim it relies too much on individual experiences that may be delusional rather than objective truth.
Elitist – Its focus on mysticism and esoteric contemplative practices can seem removed from the lives of everyday believers.
Anti-intellectual – At times spiritual writers have downplayed theological study in favor of interior devotion.
Speculative – Some spiritual commentaries venture into highly speculative metaphysics.
Sectarian – Certain spiritual movements have ended up promoting unorthodox doctrines.
However, most spiritual theology remains well within Church orthodoxy and serves to integrate head knowledge with heart experience. John Paul II’s theology of the body, for example, brought spiritual insights to theological anthropology.
Relevance for Today’s Believers
Spiritual theology remains highly relevant today as believers continue to seek growth in their spiritual lives through prayer, meditation, and asceticism. Elements of spiritual theology, like its emphasis on detachment and simplicity of life, have particular appeal for modern Christians seeking deeper faith in a materialistic world. Spiritual theology can provide guidance in adopting spiritual disciplines and persevering through stages of the interior journey.
Most centrally, spiritual theology reminds today’s Christians that knowing doctrine is not enough. Authentic spiritual life requires active appropriation of faith through prayer, sacrifice, and mystical contemplation. Holiness is not merely an intellectual exercise but a profound subjective encounter and unions with God Himself. Spiritual theology exists to facilitate that union.