Wednesday Wonder
During Holy Week I read Spiritual Theology by Diogenes Allen (Cowley, 2010). He is a professor of philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary. The book basically weds more analytical theology with spiritual practices. Those practices are often undergirded by ancient wisdom and disciplines of the spirit.
After identifying the goal of the spiritual life – the adoration of God and love of neighbor – he proceeds to name the journey to God, including its obstacles and pathways. And then, as he describes the two primary source books of spiritual knowledge, nature and scripture, he makes a very interesting observation about spirituality and the material or mechanical world.
Citing a medieval contemplative, Hugh of St. Victor, Allen describes a positive view of engaging with the material world based on a reverence for the created order. In the same way that all creation is holy, so our engagement with it is as well. As a part of spiritual transformation, of directing our spirits in the right direction, technical or mechanical arts require a training and discipline that directs our scattered thoughts and impulses. They actually teach us attending and concentration, which in turn may contribute to a contemplative mind set, directing the mind and heart single-mindedly toward God.
What this means, on a practical level, is that all work that is concerned with propagating the good may serve as a pathway of discipleship. We think of Martin Luther’s later affirmations of the same, that all vocations that somehow serve the common good of the neighbor are divine vocations.
As a 20th century counterpoint, Allen lifts up the contemplative woman of action, Simone Weil. Few will forget reading her magisterial Waiting for God (New York: Harper & Row, 1973). Weil believed that we should claim the spiritual nature of work, that mindful, faithful work was a part of God’s continuing creation. This is the way, in the active life, that the spiritual and material intersect. We actually experience an aspect of God through the operations of the natural world and our participation in it.
What this means, in the end, is that each person may find aspects of spirit in each varied form of work, whether it be in weaving, building a fruitful investment portfolio, designing the operations and directing the work of a company, performing delicate surgery, safeguarding the law, welcoming customers to our place of business, teaching our children, playing the instrument, mucking out the horse stalls or mowing the grass. Each action, as a mindful engagement with the natural order and community of living things, has the potential to take us closer to God. With a spiritual outlook, all work can somehow connect with and participate in the creativity of God. And this is yet another of the forms of love – love in action, in our hands and hearts.
