This issue is haunted by a sense of the Spirit gradually breaking down various kinds of barrier. There are barriers within our own psyches, therefore, to the touch of God. Perhaps one of them is the expectation that writing on spirituality should be undemanding. Or at least we may need to discern such expectations carefully. Communication of any kind—not just about spirituality—should be clear; jargon needs to be kept to a minimum, and carefully explained. The Way is absolutely committed to clear writing. But the spiritual life should always challenge us to be growing, to be questioning ‘how we have always thought’, to be exploring the possibility that God is leading us into something different. If ‘devotional writing’ remains within well-established categories, it stands at risk of merely fostering pious resistance. We do not yet have the words for what needs to be said; it is ‘so delightful that … it surpasses all understanding’. We cannot cope with the inclusiveness of God; we insist on confining the Spirit behind barriers of the most varied kinds. ‘Spirituality’ indicates how the realities of our experience are leading conventional theology, and standard devotional practice, towards an ever new, ever more inclusive, relation to God. By definition, it involves a closeness to everyday life. But it also involves learning to think and feel differently, breaking the barriers of habit and convention, both in thought and in feeling. Those lessons can never be straightforward.
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