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Rebuilding the Temple
Spirituality in Classic Christian Literature
Robert P. Vande Kappelle
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eBook - ePub
Rebuilding the Temple
Spirituality in Classic Christian Literature
Robert P. Vande Kappelle
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About This Book
As the Bible indicates, our lives are a construction zone, for our bodies are temples of the divine Spirit. Formed initially in the image of God, human beings lost intimacy with God through corruption, rebellion, or neglect. In response, the divine Creator loves us back into relationship, providing means of grace to help restore us to wholeness, beginning with our body and continuing through our mind, soul, and spirit. As buildings need cleaning, maintenance, and ongoing care, so our inner temple needs spiritual stimulus, cleaning, and care.Rebuilding the Temple is the fourth book in Vande Kappelle's series on spirituality and the arts. Books in this series reinforce the essential principle underlying all authentic spirituality: "Go deep in any one place and you will meet the infinite aliveness that is God, for God is everywhere!" Whereas earlier books consider the connection of spirituality with creative arts such as poetry, film, music, theater, drama, dance, and modern literature, this volume takes readers on a journey through classic Christian literature, beginning with the Bible and continuing through inspirational works written by diverse spiritual mentors such as Augustine, Dante, Luther, Calvin, Teresa of Avila, George Fox, Blaise Pascal, Henri Nouwen, A. W. Tozer, John McLaren, John Shelby Spong, Richard Rohr, and Marcus Borg.Reading their works reminds us that Christian literature is most practical and inspirational when it takes a narrative approach to theology, interpreting the spiritual journey through the ongoing stories of people and communities rather than trying to capture timeless truths analytically or through rational argumentation. Like its companion texts, Wading on Water, Deep Splendor, and Deeper Splendor, this volume is useful for individual or group study. Each chapter concludes with questions suitable for discussion or reflection.
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Chapter 1
Introduction
Rebuilding the Temple, my third volume on spirituality and great literature and the fourth on spirituality and the arts,1 assumes the interrelationship of spirituality and theology. Viewed from our perspective as human beings, this interrelationship comes to mean that while we can speak of secular humanism, whereby we see our lives as reducible to naturalistic or materialistic elements, we cannot speak of secular spirituality.
If, as the worldâs religions teach, God is everywhere, then humans cannot not be in Godâs presence. The principle here is this, âTo go deep in any one place is to meet the infinite aliveness that is God, for God is everywhere!â As I noted in Wading in Water, my initial volume on spirituality and the arts, spirituality is the journey of life âfrom God, to God, and with God.â As a result, it is also a journey toward the self. In other words, the process of coming to know or to experience God is also the process of knowing oneself.
Viewed globally and interreligiously, the central defining characteristic of spirituality is an individualâs connection to a greater whole. At its heart, spirituality involves an emotional experience of awe and reverence, an experience natural to most of our human ancestors. They had a wonderful idea of God because they lived in an awesome world. They wondered at the magnificence of whatever it was that brought the world into being. This led to a sense of adoration. This adoration, this gratitude, we call religion. Now, as the outer world is diminished, our inner world is drying up. The task of spirituality is to help us regain our sense of awe and reverence, beginning with a profound commitment to nature and continuing with an equal commitment to the whole of humanity and every living creature. If we do not love what is visible around us, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? (1 John 4:19â20).
In Christian usage, the word âGodâ is a both verb and a noun. Because God is active and dynamic, God is relational. As âFather, Son, and Holy Spirit,â God is three ârelations,â understood as formlessness (Father), as form (Son), and as the divine energy binding Father and Son (Holy Spirit). At its heart, spirituality, traditionally defined by Christians as âlife in the Spirit,â envisions the journey of life from a distinct perspective. In my estimation, the Christian notion of God as Trinity is foundational to spirituality, for this understanding views God as both singular and plural, as âbeingâ yet also as ânonbeing,â simultaneously personal, impersonal, and transpersonal.
Using the analogy of love, the medieval theologian Augustine of Hippo viewed the Father as Lover or subject of divine love, the Son as Beloved or object of divine love, and the Spirit as the bond of love between Father and Son, as the divine energy binding God and all reality. Defining theology (God) and spirituality (Spirit) as Relationship moves us away from vague abstraction and opens conversation with the world of science, for it helps us to understand the cohesive mystery permeating all reality, from atoms, to ecosystems, to galaxies. If the nature of God is the nature of everything, then everything in the universe is in relationship and nothing stands alone.
The word that emerges in all the great world religions for that deepest connection is soul, the essence of things. People around the world use this word, and yet it seems that the more science and society develop, the more we ignore or come to doubt the existence of soul, not only within ourselves, but also in everything else. Soul implies a symbiotic relationship; once we find it in ourselves, we also find it in others. If we cannot see it in others, we probably will not affirm it in ourselves either. One possible reason why so many people suffer from mental and emotional illnesses today is that they are disconnected rather than connected. If science and society tell us we are alone in the universe, how can we overcome loneliness, alienation, and fragmentation?
Believing in God means life has meaning; such belief promotes hope for our future and offers us peace, security, and the possibility of happiness and wellbeing. Such belief affirms our individuality and empowers our humanity. To say âI believe in Godâ means that we are connected, embraced, affirmed, and loved. It means that Someone knows me better than I know myself, that Someone knows the secret of all mysteries and where all roads lead. It means we are not alone with our questions, doubts, and fears. It means Someone is with me, deep within, affirming my existence, guaranteeing my potential, and accepting me unconditionally.
According to Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr, the God within us is like a homing device, such as found naturally in homing pigeons. No matter where such pigeons are released, they know how to find their way back home. If, as Jesus and all the worldâs spiritual sages and mystics affirm, human beings are sons and daughters of God, the guarantee of such connectedness is the Holy Spirit, our interior homing device that guides us back âhomeââto love, to connection, to meaningful relationship with God and others, to soul. For it is only God in us that knows God; God in us that loves God; God in us that recognizes God in others and in all things. Rohr calls such knowing, loving, and recognizing âTrinity 101,â foundational to all healthy and holistic spirituality.
Viewed synthetically and holistically, âTrinitarianâ theology and spirituality defeats the dualistic mindset prevalent in âfirst half of lifeâ living and thinking and invites us into the nondual, holistic conscience central to âsecond half of lifeâ living and thinking. Trinitarian spirituality replaces the argumentative principle of two with the dynamic principle of three. Such spirituality brings us inside the inviting open space of ânot one, but not two either.â
In the past, traditional theologians preferred monarchical or hierarchical models of God, with the Father at the top, which then were imitated and promoted ecclesiastically and societally. If, however, as modern physicists such as Albert Einstein have noted, reality is dynamic rather than static, an energy field emerging from Mystery and flowing toward greater abundance and creativity, then spirituality also is an energy field, flowing from God, through us, to others. Such interflowing is the pattern of the universe, from atoms to galaxies, plants to animals, animals to humans, and humans back to everything else, all flowing from and toward God.
Ultimately, spirituality is about oneâs relationship with Godânot with an idea of God, but actually with God. While such a statement might seem mystical or unrealistic, it is both practical and realistic, if we understand God not as a concept or person, but as a stand-in for everythingâReality, truth, and the essence of our universe. What I have in mind, however, is not pantheism but panentheism, the view that God is in all things yet distinct and not a âthingâ at all. What this means is that God is not simply another way of speaking of reality, for God is reality with a faceâReality with Personalityâwhich is the only way most of us relate to others. For relationship to occur there must be personality.
It is important that we understand God correctly, because our image of God influences, even determines, our self-image. There is an absolute connection between how we see God and how we see ourselves, between how we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the world around us and within us. This is why good theology, healthy psychology, and holistic spirituality can make a major difference in how we live with ourselves and with others.
In our conception of the nature of God lies the kernel of the spiritual life. Until we discover the God in which we believe, we will never fully accept and understand ourselves. Such lack of acceptance and understanding means that the polarities of our nature will keep us frustrated and fragmented, preventing the wholeness and integration we seek and need for health and happiness. As we develop physically, intellectually, and emotionally, we must also grow toward a mature spirituality that includes reason, faith, and inner experience we can trust. As we shall discover, such resources are valued and heightened in much of the literature discussed in this study.
Good Bones
My wife Susan, a retired pastor and an active Gestalt Pastoral Care Minister, enjoys watching programs on HGTV (The Homes and Gardens television network). While many of those shows feature buying and selling fashionable homes, some shows feature demolishing and rebuilding or remodeling older homes, a process akin to what counselors and therapists call deconstruction and reconstruction and theologians and mystics call death and resurrection (rebirth). Occasionally, I join my wife in watching such shows, finding fascinating the concept behind a show called âGood Bones,â in which a husband and wife team up with a group of workers to identify and restore old homes that display âgood bones,â meaning they possess remodeling value or potential.
While the âpotentialâ that an old house displays may be associated with financial worth or profit, this is not always primary. For example, one show features as clients a young couple who wish to restore a New Orleans home in a neighborhood destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The couple values this house because it is where the young lady had grown up and where the couple now wish to live. For her it is a home filled with happy memories, but also part of a neighborhood that has been abandoned and which she wishes to restore, a hopeful start to urban renewal.
In the Bible, much of biblical history and imagery revolves around the temple in Jerusalem, a project conceived by King David and built by his son Solomon. As the Bible makes clear, this ancient temple, the center of Hebrew social and religious life, was destroyed in 587 BCE when the Babylonians captured Judah, taking its inhabitants into captivity as exiles. The fall of Judah, with its utter destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, brought to an end political, social, and religious life in Judah. The culture shock caused by deportation, the problem of adaptation, and resentment against God for letting it happen made this the strongest test the Jews had undergone to date. Their survival requi...