Songs of Immanence and Transcendence: a rejoinder to Blake

Abstract

Nigel Blake's engaging reply to my previous Oxford Review essay on spiritual education is of interest not only for its criticisms of my own account, but also in its own right; there is much wisdom in his scepticism about the very possibility of spiritual education, and his alternative conception of spiritual experience — focused primarily on notions of contingency and immanence — is typically insightful and provocative. There can also be little doubt, however, that much of what he has to say is in its own way deeply problematic. Thus, in what follows, I shall be concerned not only to identify some of the respects in which his criticisms represent a misreading of my own position — and thereby to identify a good deal of common ground between us — but also to expose some of the conceptual weaknesses to which his own account is arguably prone.