This blog will be wide ranging in content, it will include; Critical examination of culture, experience, scripture, and theology.
I have myself observed within myself and others that the term Spirituality connotes two ideas in our culture. Namely these are emotion and experience. I quibble with the former and not the latter, and I also think proper spirituality involves other more important qualities. When one hears things like "...my spirituality...", "In my spirit I feel this...", and even "I am convicted by this.", "I was moved by that." one thinks these experiences profound and even hesitate to ask anything, because this is authoritative for that person. We think it improper to question things said like this, especially if shrouded in Biblical language.
I have a friend who has often asked the question to people, "Validate your experience with Scripture." Namely if it doesn't happen to New Covenant believers in Scripture, and it doesn't meet the scriptural guidelines he will pose the question.
Due to my logical nature when people say something spiritual against logical prudence, I either almost burst out laughing or write them off, occasionally if close to this person I will address flaws in thought.
But in an overarching way there is what I think a misnomer of thought. Morality, the idea and study of what is right and wrong. In this study and in our practices I think we have to be diligent especially in Christian morality. I think it is foolish to live your life based on emotions, you become unstable (something I will illustrate later). Yet I will say that being wise, logical, and scriptural is the way to live ones life and make decisions. I do give a caution to people that this is not a license to be emotionally unattached to people or the church. But the idea that you make decisions based on how you feel is ridiculous and not satisfactorily livable.
So far I have made claims in a detached manner, I will now attach this blog to myself. I have made a personality change, I was a person who made decisions based on emotions, now I do so based on logic. To be fair I understand that this is major, it is the way you live your life, something that does not just change overnight. It did not change overnight for myself. I was a senior in high school, I was in love, and I did everything based on how I feel including spirituality. Then my little world came crashing down, and through the process my illusions about life were dispersed. With this I started living life based on logic, slowly over time, especially within the last school year having moved off on my own and dealing with quite a lot of life issues, I have continued to disperse these illusions. This included painful realizations that everything within me wanted to counter. Yet dispersed they are.
The best logic isn't contradictory, the best feelings can be. Decisions lead to actions. Basis for decision is tied to either and sometimes both feeling and logic. Actions cannot be unmade once action has been taken. Action requires decision. Contradictory decisions are problematic. Thus, making the basis for decisions feelings is unwise.
I learned this the hard way, I have friends who refuse to learn this, I exhort you to learn this. Yet concerning Spirituality a friend of mine has been dealing with quite a lot, and they were counseled by someone I really respect, as I was talking with them, they quoted something given to them by said counselor, that issues and morality aren't based on some feeling but on scripture. This coupled with a professor today who was convicted in feeling by something that is demonstrably something there is no reason to be convicted for.
This feeling something is subservient to logic and scholarship. You need to know why something is wrong before you pronounce it that way, you need to know why you make a decision before you do.
Scripture and logic in study of morality should be how we make decisions, not your disposition toward something. I will advocate three things in an exhortation to all Orthodoxy, Orthopathy, and Orthopraxy. Orthodox: Doctrine(thinking, logic), Practice, and Feeling, these should all flow from one another, strive for these in life brothers and sisters.
