Spiritual Development: Interpretations and Applications

Abstract

The ambiguity of spiritual development is explored in the first part of this essay. Rather than attempting definitions, a series of interpretations is offered, distinguishing the spiritual from the merely biological on the one hand, and from the more specific notions of religion and faith on the other. Spiritual development is also distinguished from moral and social development, and the ambiguity of these interpretations is further explored by introducing the limiting notion of falsehood.

In the second part of the essay an illustration is offered, in which the ambiguity and the multi‐layered character of human spirituality is discussed. The selected illustration is that of competition, which is analysed into a hierarchy of social levels, from the face‐to‐face educational situation up to competition in the world's currency markets. It is concluded that the ambiguity of human spirituality lies in its socially constructed character, and in the links between the macro‐ and the microcosm. Spirituality, although always transcending the biological, remains contingent, social and concrete.

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Notes on contributors

John M Hull

John Hull is Professor of Religious Education at the University of Birmingham, General Secretary of the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values and President of the National Christian Education Council. His articles on the character of spirituality in relation to education have appeared in several recent periodicals and symposia.