In several publications on spirituality over the past few years, as it came to be a scholastic discipline, this phenomenon has been researched and interpreted from different angles. Spilka (1993: n.p.) believes that the phenomenon of spirituality need to be analyzed to be multidimensional. According to him, one of the most modern assumption of spirituality can be classified right into the complying with three categories: a God-oriented spirituality where concept and also practice focus on faith, a world-oriented spirituality which stresses an individual’s partnership with nature and ecology, and a human (individuals) oriented spirituality which stresses human achievement as well as possibility. McClendon (2012:212 -224) separates spirituality into the complying with 3 classifications: basic spirituality, Christian spirituality as well as scriptural spirituality Holder (2005:2) accepts Spilka and also McClendon by stating that ‘the phenomenology of Christian Spirituality can just be recognized as well as valued when it is approached from a variety of perspectives’. According to these referrals, agreement takes place that spirituality is multidimensional. The very first measurement referred to by Spilka (God-oriented spirituality) and the second and also third dimensions described by McClendon (Christian and also scriptural spirituality) is applicable for this research.
The very first category of Spilka, the God-oriented spirituality, can further be divided into the spiritualities of globe religious beliefs: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. Within Christian spirituality we can distinguish between Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Pentecostal and Reformed spiritualities. We can also tighten it down even more to scriptural spirituality: Old and also New Testament (very early Christian)3 spiritualities. According to this picture, spirituality can be considered as a compound concept that is recognized in a different way from various point of views.
This illuminates the idea that Christian spirituality is not just hectic with a generalist sight of the technique yet instead that it is founded on and distinguished by the Christian confidence rooted in Christian religious practices in connection with Bible, creeds and doctrine (Schneiders 2002:24). Holder (2005:1), in addition, suggests that the rootedness as well as basis of Christian spirituality hinges on Scripture.
Moving in the direction of a working interpretation of Christian spirituality.
Many efforts exist to specify Spirituality.4 The need, nevertheless, for a reliable working interpretation for Christian spirituality is needed for its usage in this article. Within the ambit of academic community, Christian spirituality is studied as the ‘lived experience’ of the Christian confidence. To specify a working interpretation of the principle, ‘Christian spirituality’, demands the consultation of the interpretations of other scholars in this discipline. Sandra Schneiders (2000:254) explains spirituality as ‘the experience of consciously making every effort to incorporate one’s life, in terms not of seclusion as well as self-absorption, yet of self-transcendence towards the utmost value one perceives’. Kees Waaijman (2002:312) also provides a general interpretation of spirituality. For him, it concerns ‘the divine-human relational process of change’. Hence, spirituality refers to a ‘divine-human partnership’ and includes a ‘procedure of change’. For Waaijman, spirituality manage the centre of human existence (see Van der Merwe 2015b:3). Philip Sheldrake (2000:40) explains [Christian] spirituality extra particularly as ‘an aware partnership with God, in Jesus Christ, through the indwelling of the Spirit as well as in the context of the area of believers’.