Week 3 & 4-Four Forms of Spiritual Formation

Everyone is spiritually formed. All persons have a spirit (and body), and throughout their lives, either intentionally or unintentionally, they have been formed spiritually. John Coe describes four categories of spiritual formation, that give a great framework for considering the ways we have been formed. 

The four categories are: 

A) Secular Spiritual Formation: goal is happiness/well-being, but it's motivator is shame, guilt, or relationships, which attempts to fill the hole of loneliness.

B) Religious Spiritual Formation: goal is pleasing God and happiness. But it cannot give an answer to points of weakness, the strain of trying, failure, and need.

C) Eastern/New Age/Mystic Spiritual Formation: goal is unity with universe/god. But it cannot give an answer for sin, brokenness, weakness, physical relationship, personal existence, despair or desire, and good/evil. 

D) Christian Spiritual Formation: goal is opening to God's Spirit  and pursuit through Jesus.

NOTE:
a) God cannot be known in His essence "He dwells in light unapproachable" 1 Tim 6.6

b) God must reveal Himself to be known (i.e. humans cannot reach the infinite order)
c) Humans have sinned, so there is no desire to know God (relational hole). God must additionally open my heart to Him.
d) God has to act on my behalf because of "a-c"
e) God has to come into me so that I can know Him personally--our human spirit was made for union with God's Spirit, yet all begins with Him.

He also explained that God has given man natural law or wisdom (general revelation) through His creation (i.e. if you sow laziness, you will reap poverty or if you listen to the wise you will be wise etc).   God wrote this sow/reap system into the basic laws of the natural world. 

All systems (including systems of formation) have bought into a piece of natural law, and all those systems work to some degree. They work by the virtue of fortitude. Fortitude is the common grace virtue to find goods in the world and become naturally good. The Proverbs were written in this vain of noting the natural order of things and framing one's life around them for fullness and health. 

Since the fall, fortitude has become the mechanism of growth behind "A-C.  Fortitude is the foundational answer to original sin (i.e. work harder, give more, pursue happiness, transcend matter, pray longer etc). Fortitude, which is our answer and hope of being "good enough" cannot and has not solved the spiritual death from the fall--instead it leads to repression ("I just have to work a bit harder!"). 

Repression covers the shame ("there is something bad in me") and guilt ("I am afraid of being punished"), and we use "A-C" (morality/goodness/ethics/meditation/other) as a "psychological defense".  A psychological defense (self-soothing) is anything you use to keep away painful self-awareness (could be avoiding people, anger, reading, church, eating, sleep, social life, music, shopping, writing, or even prayer!). 

It is these psychological defense that often become our idols and replace our worship and allegiance to God. It is relationship with the Spirit, the insight of Scripture, and the power of Jesus in the community and creation around us that breaks idolatrous holds in our lives. 

Consider which ones you might have been formed in...