Ok, folks, I promised I would unpack this stuff regarding the nature of Christian spiritual formation. You may find it helpful to keep Boa's model open in another tab (available in previous post). The chart, as you can see, creates four quadrants and it is these four quadrants that are the "pay-off" of the model. So keep in mind that that is where we are going in this present conversation.

The two techinal terms, apophatic and kataphatic, are older Greek terms that refer to how God reveals himself. On the right side of the chart kataphatic refers to what God has revealed of himself while on the other side of the chart, apophatic refers to what remains mysterious about God and even unknowable. While this last category can be frustrating to us trained in the logic of the Western world, it is nonetheless what we encounter in the Bible, when Paul speaks of "love that transcends knowledge" or the God "who lives in inapproachable light." The Bible then articulates these poles: we have both the confidence to approach the God who lives in inapproachable light. Thus, to the right of the chart we would approach God with our rational senses while on the other side we would approach God through the intuitive or even the mystical. On one side reason is helpful, on the other side, faith. I would add that faith and reason while different are still ways of knowing God. Anyway, if anyone is really interested in all this, you can email me and I will send you some bibliography on it.

Now, to the more important part of the model, the four quadrants. Remember, this model was originally devised to categorize the "kinds" of practices that make up historically speaking Christian spiritual formation. What you get then are theological knowledge, personal renewal, inner life, and societal regeneration. Most Christian denominations will spend most of their lives in one of the four areas.

There is no need to demonstrate that those from a Restoration heritage have spent most of their energy in the theological knowledge departments, while most evangelicals spend their time in the personal renewal corner. You have to look to the Pentecostals and Orthodox Christians to find those who live in the mystical corner. Finally, though this is changing, liberal Christianity has been most concerned about societal regeneration. To be holistic would involve balancing out one existence in their other domains.

So what I found in this model was a tool for assessing the "holism" of Christian spiritual formation. In which, quadrant do you live most of the time? A more balanced approach would seek ways of living in the other quadrants.

Next week, if the model is clear to all, I will move on to explain how to Shema can inform this model.