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AUGUSTINIAN SPIRITUALITY

THEOLOGY 102

WHAT IS SPIRIT?
(From Wikipedia)

Etymology
 The term spirit means "animating or vital principle in man and animals".
 It is derived from the Old French espirit which comes from the Latin word spiritus (soul,
courage, vigor, breath) and is related to spirare (to breathe).

WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY?
(From Wikipedia)

 Traditionally, spirituality refers to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to


recover the original shape of man," oriented at "the image of God" as exemplified by
the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the world.

 In modern times the emphasis is on subjective experience of a sacred dimension and the
"deepest values and meanings by which people live often in a context separate from
organized religious institutions.
 Modern spirituality typically includes a belief in a supernatural (beyond the known and
observable) realm, personal growth, a quest for an ultimate/sacred meaning, religious
experience, or an encounter with one's own "inner dimension."

 The term "spirituality" originally developed within early Christianity, referring to a life
oriented toward the Holy Spirit.
 During late medieval times the meaning broadened to include mental aspects of life.

 In modern times the term both spread to other religious traditions and broadened to
refer to a wider range of experience, including a range of esoteric (exhibiting knowledge
that is restricted to a small group) traditions.

 Modern notions of spirituality developed throughout the 19th and 20th century, mixing
Christian ideas with western esoteric traditions and elements of Asian, especially Indian
religions.
 Spirituality became increasingly disconnected from traditional religious organizations
and institutions.

WHAT IS AUGUSTINIAN SPIRITUALITY?


 A spirituality based on the spiritual life & teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo.
(source: Augustinian Studies, Volume 15, 1984, p. 84)

 Spirituality often refers to the interiority (loob) of religion.


 We know that religion has existed without recourse to interiority.
 In the Roman world the Latin religion was practiced largely through ritual.

 This kind of religion survives in the Christian and Jewish world wherever religion has
been interpreted as merely the carrying out of good works or the fulfilling of an
obligation to attend Church or Synagogue on Sunday or on the Sabbath.
 On the other hand, something like Buddhism might be said to represent spirituality
without religion, or more strictly, without God.

 This Buddhist appeal to the religious sense of the self has been widely felt by many non-
Buddhists as well.
 Such people are often richly endowed as persons, conscious of their own interiority and
longing for the Infinite.
 Such people experience themselves as centers of feeling, of thought, and of
appreciation.

 Augustine took the pathway to interiority after delaying overlong in the exterior world
of objects.
 But within himself at last he experienced that which transcended himself as the God
that is Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Love.
 Because he proceeded from the exterior to the interior and from the interior to the
superior, his spirituality developed as a religious life.

 Those who experience Augustinian spirituality find that like all religious life it is still open
for development.
 Religious life as a life of communion with God respects both the personality of man and
the personality of God.
 That God is personal in the sense of being relating to God was revealed, and the
response of Faith opening one to the relationship is the basis for a resulting
interpersonal spirituality.
 Augustinian spirituality is the living experience of this relationship with God.

 Now to understand and internalize Augustinian Spirituality we must study the life and
teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo.

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