Sacred Systems: Exploring Personal Transformation in the Western Christian Tradition

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Frank Rogers Jr. for his support and guidance in formulating this project. I would also like to thank my family for humoring my many random musings as this work was carried out. This book is also done in gratitude to Reza Langari, Alexander Parlos, and especially Suhada Jayasuriya, who helped to stoke both my passions and education as a young engineer for the Feedback Theory upon which this text is based. In addition to our Beloved Creator, I would also like to dedicate this book in memory of Karen S. Reid without whose empowerment and courage this book might never have been completed.

Introduction

A Systematic Need

Alfred grew up in a Christian church that was committed to the discipleship of its congregants. Inspired by the passionately delivered sermons of his pastor, he felt the call to live a life that was more conforming to the Life and Spirit of Christ that was the focal point of these weekly orations. Alfred committed himself to trying to read the Bible from cover-to-cover. He prayed daily and sought to, as his religious community admonished, do all things in Christ. In short, Alfred was beginning a more intentional process of spiritual formation for his own personal life.

As he grew, however, many challenges lay ahead. He struggled with the views of human nature that his community embraced that taught him that he was a horrible, wretched sinner and the struggles with guilt and intense fears that emerged as a result. Like many, Alfred also struggled with the dullness that can arise from praying the same sets of prayers day-after-day. He also struggled with questions of faith and the changes that his developing life brought. He wrestled with questions of meaning and purpose for his own life in light of the diverse religious context that he encountered in the neighborhood that lay just beyond the walls of his congregation.

More than these, however, Alfred struggled with how to help mentor others in their own religious and spiritual journey. You see, persevering in the midst of such trials, he now found himself to be the congregation’s youth minister as a college student. While the weekly sermons of his community continued to inspire a committed and persevering faith, Alfred found little in them to guide him in working with the congregation’s youth. What sets of ideals and goals should he be working with them toward? What kinds of support might he give to them as they encountered some of the very same struggles he had and continued to face? How was what he taught these youth weekly to be related to the larger multireligious context of their local community? How was he to decide what to do each week and how to evaluate whether these youth were truly progressing in the spiritual life or not?

It is questions such as these that illustrate the need for systematics. They are questions that prompt intentional reflection on the systems of spiritual formation that we use in our congregations, religious education programs, and retreat centers. Questions that ask how we can work more effectively toward the goals of our communities, how our beliefs influence our practices, how we can discern direction in light of context, and how we can assess spiritual progress are ones that prompt us to look at our formative efforts in more holistic and systematic ways. They prompt us to examine how our spiritual formation programs are interconnected and how they can be more effective. As we will see in the many pages that follow, viewing our spiritual formation programs from a systematic view can strengthen this work by helping to ensure closer connections between beliefs and practices, approaches and assessments, ideals and outcomes, providing greater clarity on the directions we are headed as well as insights into how we might continually adapt our efforts to ever-changing circumstances.

If we look at the historical and contemporary resources on spiritual formation, we find many that present systematic approaches. From early Jewish-Christian texts such as the Didache that present well-defined catechetical programs, to Renaissance authors such as Erasmus of Rotterdam who have offered detailed guidance on how to live a spiritually forming personal life in rigorous ways, to contemporary authors such as Dallas Willard who offer in-depth insights into the transformations of one’s heart and soul, systematic texts in the Western Christian tradition abound. These texts can offer ministers and laypersons such as Alfred with much clarity, ideas, and guidance.

However, as this text will eventually assert, the spiritual formation systems that we use are always contextually influenced. In other words, Alfred can turn to some of these authors and communities for guidance, but it still remains for him to discern how these sources might help him with the particular youth that he is currently working with. It might be more helpful for Alfred, and others in this field, to therefore look to a set of systematic presentations of spiritual formation rather than trying to exactly replicate any one of these sacred systems. Instead, we can look for patterns and lessons learned across them that might help us to formulate and continually improve upon our own discipleship programs.

This book is therefore an attempt to explore views of and approaches to personal transformation in the Western Christian tradition from a systematic perspective. Our hopes here are to better understand how personal spiritual formation has been conceptualized and embodied by communities from across the Western Christian tradition. Such an exploration will not only help us to better compile a history of spiritual formation at the level of the individual for this religious tradition, but to also glean a better understanding of personal transformation so that we might engage this work in more informed and systematic ways.

A Systematic Landscape

In the edited book, Mapping Christian Education, spiritual growth is primarily understood as the personal dimension of learning while the work of religious education is asserted to focus more broadly to include relationships, whole communities, and the wider world.¹ Similarly, as we shall see later on, Dallas Willard asserts, Spiritual formation, without regard to any specifically religious context or tradition, is the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite ‘form’ or character. ² For this set of contemporary authors, spiritual formation is seen primarily as a personal endeavor. More widely in our culture, it is common today to think of spiritual formation as primarily being oriented toward the level of the individual.

However, such person-centered views are not the only way to think about this field. As we shall also see in this book, a central theological position is the presence of God in every part of creation. In other words, it is asserted, the Spirit is formatively active within and throughout all that is. If we therefore took this theological position as the basis of our understanding of spiritual formation, we find a much broader definition to emerge. More specifically, we can understand the term spiritual formation to be the work of being formed in the Spirit. Following the authors of Mapping Christian Education, and other religious education texts, we can therefore find God’s formative Life to be at work not just at the level of the individual, but also in close relationships, in larger communities and organizations, and even in the wider ecosystems and cultures of which we are all a part of. If this is so, then spiritual formation can be seen as more intentionally happening at these other levels as well.

As this book is written for those working primarily in congregational and non-profit organizations, as well as researchers and theorists in this field, I assert that there are three primary levels toward which our congregational spiritually formative efforts can be focused. These three levels can be thought of as ever widening circles of community and relationship: with ourselves, with one another, and with larger immediate communities, neighborhoods, and organizations of which we are a part. The picture below shows these three levels. While not comprehensive, these levels are intended to illustrate a more systematic view of spiritual formation than the one expressed above and to further emphasize the point that this field can, and perhaps should, be focused beyond merely the level of the individual.

The first level is the one already mentioned, and that is the level of the individual. At this level, as the authors mentioned above have noted, our Western Christian focus is on individual persons and their growing personal life in the Spirit. It involves intentionality with both inner and outer aspects of each person’s life for the purposes of helping them to grow in their personal spiritual life with God. It is a focus that is primarily concerned with each individual’s private and public lives, helping them find and grow in their relationship with the God who is within, to, and beyond all that is, as we shall see in this book.

The second one is the level of close relationships and small groups. At this level, our spiritual formation efforts are focused more intentionally on the relationships that people have with one another. It is oriented toward nurturing relationships that are loving, just, giving, and healthy, attuned, intimate, etc.—i.e., relationships that are more reflective and manifesting of the Spirit. Such close relationships include the intimate ones we have with significant others, the mentoring partnerships that we choose, the small groups we are a part of, our families, etc. At this level, our formative focus is therefore on nurturing the life of God within and among these close relationships for, as we find Jesus to assert in the Gospel, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them.

³

The third level that we can intentionally focus on in our local ministerial contexts, is the level of the wider community. For spiritual formators and pastors working in a church, this would mean focusing on the congregation as a whole. For leaders at a retreat center, this would be the large groups that come for a program. For those working in non-profits and engaging in community building and organizing efforts, this would be the organizations or neighborhoods they are working with. At this level, similar to the close relationship level, the focus lies in forming whole communities of justice, peace, harmony, order, compassion, et cetera for their political, social, and economic dimensions. Here, the minister’s eyes are oriented not so much on the individuals, close relationships, and small groups that make up the community, though each of these are foundational, but rather more toward the overall dynamics of the larger community as a unified whole. This third level therefore focuses on the wider communities that we are in leadership with.

Of course, there are also even wider circles of influence and alternative formative foci that we can and should seek to address. We should seek to impact our cities, governments, and larger cultures. We need to actively pursue the health and vitality of our planet and its many, varied, and complex ecosystems. However, as spiritual formators working primarily in parishes and non-profits, many of us will formatively influence these wider circles mostly via our own local ministerial contexts. If we were a politician, however, then these wider circles could and should become the focus of our spiritually forming endeavors, for the Life of the Spirit, I believe, is active there as well. It is, however, these three levels—individuals, close relationships, and larger communities—that most spiritual formators will find themselves focused on in their congregational and non-profit or parachurch ministries.

Using this heuristic, and despite the intentional arguments for this broader understanding of spiritual formation, this book focuses at the level of the individual. Herein, we will be seeking to explore personal transformation as it has been systematically understood in the Western Christian tradition. While this work is congruent with the more narrow contemporary understandings of spiritual formation as being solely at the individual level, similar kinds of explorations are needed at the other levels as well. In the closing section of this book, we will hear of the need for much more research to be conducted in this growing field, particularly as an academic and more research-oriented discipline.

A Systematic Framework

At its heart, spiritual formation is essentially a feedback back system.⁴ Feedback Theory has had wide ranging applications in such fields as engineering, theater and acting, and neuroscience-based approaches to formation.⁵ In its most fundamental and simplified essence, feedback processes, write professors of psychology Charles Carver and Michael Scheier, involve the control and regulation of certain values within a system.⁶ It is referred to as Feedback Theory because it is based on the assumption and/or observations that in order for a system to maintain or achieve these certain values it must have some way of monitoring its current values in relation to these desired ones. A very simple feedback loop may be pictured as follows:

For example, a cruise control on a car must, through feedback, continually monitor the vehicle’s speed in order to maintain the desired value set by the driver. If the car is traveling faster than this set speed, then the cruise control lets up on the gas. If the car is going too slow, it gives more gas. In other words, the given system must have some way of gaining continuous feedback on what is currently happening so that it may compare this with the desired outcomes and appropriately alter its behaviors and actions in response.

In public education, for instance, there may be certain objectives that a teacher discerns are appropriate for her or his students. Based upon certain understandings of cognitive development, or other theories of human learning, she or he may then develop lesson plans of activities that are intended to help students to move toward these objectives. As most of us know, sometimes regretfully, educational classes do not stop here because the teacher is expected assess each student’s progress. Tests, quizzes, projects, papers, reflection assignments, et cetera may be utilized toward these ends. Diagrammatically, this process might be envisioned to be something similar to the following:

From this diagram, we can see that the educational objectives that a teacher has are central to her or his lesson planning as are the theories of learning that they are using. Based upon the planning and discernment processes that she or he practices, the activities that are used with the students are developed. Using a variety of assessments, the teacher then monitors and compares how students are doing in relation to the objectives that were chosen in the beginning. The outcomes of these assessments will therefore inform their ongoing lesson planning. As a result, the teacher might then decide to modify the objectives, alter their theories of learning, and/or utilize different class activities or even assessment tools. It is because these processes are at least partly dependent on the insights that assessments yield that they are a practical example of feedback theory in action.

In spiritual formation, we can likewise find this to be a basic architecture that may be used our field. Indeed, education may also be viewed as a spiritually formative activity.⁷ Whether we’re working with individuals, relationships, or communities, there is some set of ideals that we discern an invitation to partner with the Spirit to work toward. Given these goals, we then need to discern a set of approaches that we believe will help our constituents to grow toward/in them. As we engage in this formative work, we then need to continually monitor and evaluate the progress that is being made in relation to these ideals. This is the essence of all feedback loops. I therefore assert that the field of spiritual formation can be fundamentally approached as a feedback-oriented discipline.

Given this, we can propose a systematic Formative Framework for spiritual formation based upon feedback theory. The figure below captures this formative framework and will become the basis for how we will explore each of the sacred systems and their approaches to personal transformation in this book. Another one of the purposes of this book, then, is to explore how different spiritual formation communities throughout Western Christian history have embodied each of the categories shown below. In the sections that now follow, we will briefly explore each of these aspects of this formative framework.

Context

Context is, it seems, one of the most important aspects of any spiritual formation program, but also one of the most neglected or overlooked when developing spiritual formation programs. Especially in a historical study such as this one, it is very important to note the contextual influences of the time period and geographic location. As we shall see in the forthcoming chapters, spiritual formation programs sometimes are birthed and stand in both tension and harmony with the contemporary movements of their day. For instance, it has been asserted that the founder of the Society of Jesus religious order (more commonly known as the Jesuits), Ignatius of Loyola, formulated his Spiritual Exercises in light of and sometimes in opposition to the humanistic and Protestant Reformation movements of his day.⁸ Someone studying his Exercises might not be aware of this and therefore not be able to fully appreciate how they were, in some ways, an attempt to meet the needs raised by these contextual factors from a distinctively Roman Catholic perspective.

It is therefore essential, in studying spiritual formation programs, that one understands, at least in a basic way, the contextual factors that contributed to the development and implementation of the program. These factors should include: 1) Who the programs are created for; 2) Who the approaches stand in opposition to (if applicable); and 3) Which movements, contemporarily and historically, the program embraces and to what extent.

Models of Reality

Of all of the categories that we will be considering for this historically explorative project, we can expect this to be the most diverse. Such diversity can be seen between ‘post-structuralist’ notions that view reality as nothing more than a convergence among culturally and historically specific sets of relations,⁹ and others, such as Paul of Tarsus, who assert a divine innateness that is the presence of God’s Spirit within us.¹⁰ To help unpack and more clearly understand such diversity among the theories that are relevant for spiritual formation, we will explore three specific aspects of these models: Anthropological-Cosmological, Theological, and Theories of Change. Each of these Models of Reality essentially strives to explain the nature of life, cosmos, the Divine, and transformation. These models form, as we shall see, a foundation of knowledge out of which spiritual formation systems emerge in dialogue with.

Anthropological-Cosmological Aspects

These aspects are fundamentally concerned with describing, explaining, modeling, et cetera the dynamics and complex interrelationships within creation. I term these aspects anthropological-cosmological because these models of reality often seek to detail both what happens within and among humans (anthropology), the happenings of creation as a whole (cosmology), and the intimate interconnections between the two. At the level of the individual, these would include the views of human nature that one has. For relationships, these models might describe what intimate relationships are and the complex interpersonal dynamics that accompany them. Such models, in the sacred systems that we will be exploring herein, will also include discussions of other realms of the cosmos, angels and demons, etc. Anthro-cosmological models therefore seek to explain the nature of life as it is being lived here on earth in relation to the wider cosmos of which we are all a part of.

Theological Aspects

While the anthro-cosmological aspects might detail the dynamics of individuals, relationships, communities, and creation as a whole, they do not necessarily or directly address the Divine or the God’s relationship to them. We may therefore consider theological aspects as distinct from those models. Theological models are therefore taken to address the essence and nature of the Divine and seek to describe how God is present to creation and how creation relates to God. Even though not all spiritual formation systems might explicitly address these theological aspects, as we shall see with one of our contemporary non-theistic systems, I assert that all of them inherently have a theology contained within them as we shall see. It is therefore the intention of these reflections to uncover the explicit and implicit theologies that under gird the sacred systems that we will be reviewing.

Theories of Change

Finally, we come to what is one of the most important parts of any spiritual formation program. Spiritual formation is fundamentally concerned with fostering some kind of intentional change in creation. In order to do this, however, one must have an understanding of how such changes occur and the processes by which they come about. Any models that address this are what I call Theories of Change. Often, they flow directly from the anthro-cosmological models that one has. However, since spiritual formation is fundamentally a field that is focused on nurturing change, it is given a specific and separate focus here. These models are, therefore, a central part of what informs the discernment of what practices, actions, and guidance to offer to persons, relationships, and communities at any given time. These theories of change are therefore a necessary and integral part of any effective spiritual formation program.

Spiritual Formation Ideals & Goals

Most every spiritual formation program has a set of ideals and goals that they are actively seeking to nurture their constituency toward. Most, if not all, spiritual formation programs that I have both learned about and worked with over the years have some set of ideals, transformations, et cetera that their practices, theologies, worldviews, and communities are intentionally striving after. Some of these goals may be anthro-cosmologically based, such as emotional well-being, relational vitality, transpersonal development, or even non-dualistic development as found in Zen Buddhism.¹¹ Others may be more theologically centered, such as for Alfred who is seeking a more Christ-centered life. One of the keys to this category is therefore that each community is able to articulate the goals they are explicitly working toward and then to seek to tangibly move in those directions. It is therefore important to identify, as clearly as possible, what these horizons include.

Spiritual Formation Approaches

This is perhaps the most obvious of all of the categories. Every spiritual formation system seeks to bring about intentional, positive change through the use of specific approaches. Some of these approaches may be practices that nurture the general transformation of the individual, relationship, or community (such as worship services) or they may be very focused, such as meditative techniques that are intended to bring about specific states of consciousness.¹² These approaches, when utilized effectively, are chosen as a result of one’s discernment processes and are intended to move one’s constituency toward the intended goals. It therefore behooves us to explore the range of approaches to personal transformation that each of the sacred systems that we will be exploring utilizes.

Discernment

Just as lesson planning is for an educator, spiritual discernment should be the centerpiece for all formative endeavors in theistic ministries (i.e., those that have a concept of God as a central part of their worldveiws). For instance, once a community sets up a set of goals to work toward, they must then develop ways of discerning how to go about moving toward them. Spiritual discernment is absolutely essential in this, I assert, because each community’s journey toward these ideals is as unique as they are. How does one know which practices to use for each person, relationship, et cetera at different stages of their journey? How does a minister, such as Alfred, know if someone in there group is experiencing a dark night of the soul or depression?¹³ I assert that spiritual formators must develop methods and approaches to discern and answer such questions. They must therefore do so as they seek to guide their flock along the spiritual path ever moving in harmony with the unending and all-pervasive movements of God. As a result, we will be seeking to uncover some of the underlying processes and approaches to discernment that these different sacred systems seem to use.

Evaluative Techniques

As we have heard, the whole field of spiritual formation is one that inherently sets out to bring about some sort of intentional transformation. In order to do this, ministers must therefore have some ways of monitoring and evaluating the progress (or lack of), that their individuals, relationships, and communities are making. Doing so enables spiritual formators to provide better direction to their constituents and to continually modify their approaches in well-informed and clearly discerned ways. In addition, since discernment is inherently rooted in knowledge, this further establishes the need for effective techniques for observing and evaluating the Life of the Spirit within and to the moment-by-moment dynamics of the people that we are working with. For each of the sacred systems that we will be exploring, we will therefore be reflecting on the monitoring and evaluation techniques that they suggest and use.

Summary/Reflections

This formative framework seems to capture many of the essential aspects of any spiritual formation system. It is intended to provide a more systematic way of exploring sacred systems at any of the levels (individual, relational, etc.). As we shall see, this framework will provide us with insights into how each of its various aspects are interconnected with one another. By using it as a guideline for our explorations, we will see how the Models of Reality give rise to the Approaches that are utilized. We will note how the Ideals form the core of each sacred system. And we will better understand the nature and essence of each sacred system by stepping back and looking at each one’s framework as a whole. In short, this formative framework is therefore intended to provide a systematic way of both exploring and learning from each of the systems that we will be considering in this book. As a result, it will be the foundational lens through which we view each personal transformation system herein.

The Systematic Exploration Ahead

With this formative framework in place, we finally turn to trying to identify what some of the major spiritual formation communities and movements throughout history have been so that we might identify which sacred systems of personal transformation to focus on for this exploration. To help us to do this, we turn to a series of different texts on the history of Christian spirituality.¹⁴ Our hopes here are to identify the major and diverse movements of Western Christian spiritual formation throughout its history. These texts will not only serve as the source for our choices, but also as additional reference books for the exploration itself. Each of these texts covers major Western Christian spiritual movements, communities, and persons. From them, the following are the primary eras and movements that are addressed:

Pre- & Contemporary non-Christian Influences (BCE–first century CE)

Greco-Roman

Jewish

Jesus & the Early Christian Church (first–third centuries CE)

Diverse Communities (Matthew’s, Luke’s, Johannine, etc.)

Gnosticism

Martyrdom

Early Monasticism (second–eleventh centuries CE)

Early Mothers & Fathers (Desert, Latin, & Eastern)

Monastic Communities (East, West, & Syriac Speaking)

Gregorian Reforms

Insular Traditions (Celtic & Germanic)

Medieval & Renaissance (twelfth–sixteenth centuries CE)

Mendicants

Late Scholasticism

Medieval Mysticism

Devotio Moderna

Humanism

Reformation (sixteenth–nineteenth centuries CE)

Protestantism

European

English

Americas

Roman Catholic

Counter Reformation

New Movements (French & Spanish)

Orthodox/Eastern

Hesychast

Russian

Modernity

Contemporary (nineteenth century–today)

Mainline Protestant & Anglican

Evangelical Protestant (Pentecostal, Charismatic & Fundamentalism)

Roman Catholic

Eastern Orthodox

Unity Movements (Ecumenical, Interfaith, Liberation, New Age & Post-Modern)

From this, we can see that there is quite a bit more than what we could fully or adequately cover in a single book. As we move through the section introductions ahead, we will discuss which specific communities were chosen. With the need for systematics identified, a systematic landscape and formative framework laid out, and the major eras and movements identified, we are now ready to begin this informative walk through this history of personal transformation in the Western Christian tradition. Not only are we seeking theoretical insights into the nature of this field, but also for practical guidance on how we might further develop and refine our own sacred systems in the hopes that ministers such as Alfred might benefit from these endeavors.

1. Seymour, Mapping Christian Education,

20

–

21

.

2. Willard, Renovation of the Heart,

19

; see also ibid.,

45

.

3. Matt

18

:

20

.

4. For discussions on the nature of feedback and its application to human systems, see such texts as Carver and Scheier, On the Self-Regulation of Behavior, chapter

2

.

5. For examples of texts in these fields, see Franklin et al., Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems; Bilgrave and Deluty, Stanislavski’s Acting Method and Control Theory; Dispenza, Evolve your brain,

292

,

303

,

26

,

439

–

42

.

6. Carver and Scheier, On the Self-Regulation of Behavior,

10

.

7. See such texts as Downs, Teaching for Spiritual Growth.

8. Modras, Ignatian Humanism.

9. Butler, Gender Trouble,

14

. See also Sartre, Nausea,

25

.

10. Paul, Letter to the Romans,

63

.

11. For example, see Abe and LaFleur, Zen and Western Thought.

12. For instance, see Anderson, Intuitive Inquiry.

13. For discussions on this issue, see such texts as O’Connor, Spiritual Dark Night and Psychological Depression; May, Dark Night of the Soul.

14. Dupré, Saliers, and Meyendorff, eds., Christian Spirituality; Louth, Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition; McGinn and Meyendorff, eds., Christian Spirituality; Raitt, McGinn, and Meyendorff, eds., Christian Spirituality; Rausch, Radical Christian Communities.

part one

Early Non-Christian Influences

There were two primary contextual influences that helped to shape the early Christian church. The first obvious influence was Judaism.¹⁵ Jesus was a Jew as were his closest disciples. The primary scriptures and liturgies from which the early Christians drew were adopted from the Jewish religious tradition. Indeed, authors of Christian spirituality acknowledge that it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand the early church apart from this influence.

The second major influence of this early era that helped to shape Christian spiritual formation was the larger Greco-Roman culture of which both Christians and Jews were a part of.¹⁶ The Roman Empire was a vast and powerful presence in this part of the world. As we shall see with Philo of Alexandria, the Empire had a system of Hellenization wherein its citizens were educated into Roman culture. Not only was the Empire prolific in the spread of its laws and religious practices, but also its philosophies as well, for which Platonism and its variations were central.¹⁷ In addition, more and more converts to Christianity were Gentiles, or non-Jews. This meant that the early church not only needed to address these new converts and speak to them in symbols, philosophies, and practices that they could understand but also that the beliefs and practices of Christianity would increasingly be formulated by them. For instance, Origen formulated his stages of the spiritual life in neoplatonic terms.¹⁸ The influence of Greco-Roman culture on early Christian spiritual formation can therefore not be overlooked.

Given these wider influences, it will therefore be helpful to better understand how personal transformation was understood by parts of these alternative traditions. While there are a few forms of personal transformation that we might look at, such as moral formation in Roman culture,¹⁹ we have chosen two to focus on. For better insights into a Jewish view of personal spiritual formation, we turn to Philo of Alexandria and two of his short works: Every Good Man Is Free and On the Contemplative Life or Supplicants. While, as we shall see, Philo might not be considered by some to be classically Jewish in a traditional sense because he was a Hellenized Jew, his works did go on to influence many early Christian thinkers such as Clement and Origen of Alexandria.

²⁰

A second text that we will be turning to is The Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians by Iamblichus. This piece is very characteristic of some of the neoplatonic views of this era, many of which influenced early Christianity, particularly early monasticism as we shall see in the next part of this book. Not only, then, will Iamblichus’ work provide us with insights into these worldviews, but it will also represent a very different systematic approach to personal transformation. It is therefore to these two sets of writings that we will now turn to in order to help us better understand the cultural contexts in which early Christian personal spiritual formation developed within.

15. Burridge, Jesus and the Origins of Christianity,

12

; Sheldrake, Brief History of Spirituality,

13

; Woods, Christian Spirituality,

4

.

16. McGuckin, "The Early Church Fathers (

1

st to

6

th Centuries),"