SPIRITUALITY IS...

from Worship.com

"Spirituality is that part of the subjective life which we all experience..." states Phyllis Tickle from our text this week regarding her interview "With or Without Religion." Tickle, an Episcopalian and author of books on the presence of religious practice in our society gave her interview in 1997. One of her most recent books has been the Emerging Church, a view of how the older theological constructs of our faith are melting and melding into new formations to speak to us today. For Tickle, spirituality is present regardless of the culture or faith to "which we adhere." We may refer to it as psychological, emotional, etc, but it is "the interior world that we all have." Below I have expressed some of her impressions of this interior life from the interview.

"What has had the greatest impact on spirituality in recent times in America? It's Buddhism."

"Spirituality is engaging living forces and agencies that do not have objective existence...it may be that you're engaging just the life force, just a sense of wonder, a sense of pattern."

When things in the spiritual world are "seen as agents of God or God himself, you have begun to talk in terms of theology." (an ongoing metaphor)

When you wonder what the rules of engagement are, "that becomes religion."

"Being in church does less for me than it once did."

"...I still believe in it. I love my parish church, you know. It's still the focus. But it's a different kind of communion."