SCM Studyguide

The SCM Studyguide to Christian Spirituality is designed as a lucid and comprehensive introduction to spirituality for students of all religious backgrounds, especially those coming to the subject for the first time. Part One looks at the Christian spiritual tradition through an encyclopaedic study of a variety of spiritual writers. These are treated chronologically: the Bible, the patristic period, the time when monasticism triumphed, the Middle Ages, the Reformation, and the post-Enlightenment period. Part Two, which could also be used at a more advanced level, explores Christian spirituality through a range of interdisciplinary themes. Successive chapters look at its relation to personal experience, science, theology, psychology, sexual embodiment, and ethics. The final chapter raises urgent contemporary issues: the relation of Christian spirituality to that of other faiths, and to 'postmodern' culture in general. Each chapter concludes with questions for discussion and select further reading, and an extensive bibliography for each chapter is also provided.