Foundations of Christian Spirituality and Ethics.
The foundational beliefs of Christianity inform the Christian understanding of the nature of spirituality and the nature of ethics. Thus, the way in which the Christian worldview answers the six questions above shapes a distinctly Christian spirituality and Christian ethic. The term spirituality has many different definitions in popular culture and in different contexts. One influential definition claims, “spirituality is an aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose, and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred” (Puchalski et al., 2009). This definition is broad enough to give a general idea of what spirituality involves, but it does not give a full picture of a person’s spiritual life or spiritual needs. Those details will be filled in by examining a persons specific worldview.
Spirituality in the Christian worldview has its foundations in the reality of a triune God who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is one being in three persons and is the creator and sustainer of all that exists. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and loving to his core, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). This God has revealed himself in different ways to human beings, including through the natural world. However, he has revealed himself and his will for human beings most authoritatively through the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ. In this view, whatever it means to be spiritual will in some sense be related directly or indirectly to God, and will come to be known primarily through the teachings of the Bible. Furthermore, Christian spirituality will refer to the beliefs and practices that are meant to reflect the proper functioning of God’s creation, and which promote right relationship to God and deeper knowledge of him. Many times spirituality is taken to be synonymous with the feeling of deep emotion or of oneness with a transcendent reality, but Christian spirituality is not limited to the experience of mere emotions or feelings. Feelings and emotions are an important part of being human, and they are even an important part of one’s relationship to God. Yet, spirituality in the Christian worldview is not dictated by the feelings or emotions one might be experiencing in the moment, but by trust in the goodness of God and obedience to him.
In the same way that Christian spirituality finds its foundations in the reality of the triune God of the Bible, ethics also has its foundations in God. Ethics, broadly speaking, is the study of good and bad, right and wrong. Every worldview has to explain the foundations of ethics (in line with worldview question #5 above) such that it explains the basis of what counts as good and bad, right or wrong. In the Christian worldview, there is a God who exists and has created the world with a moral structure and purpose such that what is truly right and good is a reflection of God’s character. God’s own holy, loving and perfect character is the standard of right and wrong. Badness or what is wrong is then defined as anything that is contrary to God’s character, his will, or to his design and purpose for his creation.
The Bible reveals what God’s character is like. Exodus 34:6-7 says,
The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
Similarly, 1 John 4:7-9 says,
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
Psalm 18:30 declares, “As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.” Many more verses could be surveyed, but the Bible makes clear that God is perfectly good and holy. Knowing right and wrong then will mean knowing that which accords to God’s character.
Right or wrong can be discovered in multiple ways. It can be discovered in God’s creation by examining the natural world or by the use of human reason. In this way, one discovers God’s design for the way things are supposed to be by examining what is built into creation; this is often referred to as “natural law.” For example, one can know by means of reason and observation that murder is wrong or that a broken bone is bad and not the way it is supposed to be. Conversely, one might come to know that feeding the homeless is good, and loving one’s spouse is right. One does not need to be religious or even believe in God to be able to know propositions of “natural law.” Nevertheless, the Christian worldview holds that these truths are built into the world by God. Second, right or wrong can be discovered by reading the Bible or looking at the example of Jesus Christ. The Bible reveals God’s commands and principles such as the Ten Commandments or the teachings of Jesus on the sermon on the mount. In addition, the Bible provides us with examples of virtuous people. The perfect man and moral exemplar (though much more than only a man and an exemplar) in the Christian tradition is Jesus Christ himself. The Christian is to not only obey God’s commands, but to be transformed into the kind of person that reflects the character of God. Jesus Christ is the perfect representation of such a life; Christians, thus, ought to embody the virtues and character of Jesus himself. The attaining of these virtues will not only be a matter of intellectual knowledge of right and wrong, but an active surrender and transformation by means of God’s own Holy Spirit. The wisdom to navigate all the complexities of ethical decision-making will be a consequence of a person’s character
