Original Research - Special Collection: God as One

First steps into the discipline: On the ‘spirit’ in the discipline of Christian spirituality

Christo Lombaard
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 75, No 1 | a5456 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i1.5456 | © 2019 Christo Lombaard | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 11 March 2019 | Published: 12 December 2019

About the author(s)

Christo Lombaard, Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology, College of Human Sciences, School of Humanities, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

In this article on entering the academic discipline of Christian Spirituality, terminological sensitivities in interdisciplinary work are taken as a point of departure. From this more general base, the following four points are argued: ‘Spirituality’ is a multivalence term, indicated from academic considerations and from non-academic writings of our time, with journalism serving as a productive example; terms ‘spirit’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ ought not to be conflated with one another by new colleagues entering the discipline of Christian Spirituality; Christian Spirituality studies the experience-expression-dynamics of the Christian faith, and not the Holy Spirit as primary topic of investigation; however this should not be taken to imply an impoverished Christian theology, because the Trinity, as demonstrated, remains part of the core assumptions of this discipline.


Keywords

Christian spirituality; Inter-disciplinary; Entering the discipline; ‘Spirit’; Holy Spirit

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Crossref Citations

1. The role of spirituality in facilitating personal development according to the Pauline corpus
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doi: 10.4102/ids.v55i1.2677