Christians are supposed to be spiritual, aren’t we? Of course we are!
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1).
"And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13).
But what does this mean? How do we live spiritually, or do anything in a “spiritual” way? Are some Christians spiritual, and others not? What should we do to experience our spirituality? Do we need to remove ourselves from civilization and live the reclusive life of a monk? Should we start doing more of that ancient mystical stuff at church, like burning incense and lighting candles? (Candles are spiritual, right?) Or, should we forsake these attempts to experience spiritual life in the things of this world ─ as if they’re all just silly ─ and focus instead on what we believe? Maybe sound doctrine is the key to a spiritual life, for example.
Many of us are deeply confused about these things, even as Christians. We want to live a spiritual life. We want our souls to thrive! We’re just not quite sure what a soul is any more, or how it all works.
Is life really spiritual any more?
There is quite a bit of tension between these two topics ─ spirituality and life ─ especially these days. The two concepts have largely been divorced, as if one has very little to do with the other. For example, now that science and reason have replaced religion and faith as the dominant worldview of our day, most modern people look to disciplines like biology to make sense of life ─ not faith, religion, or anything spiritual. That is what the prefix bio means afterall: Life. Biology is, quite simply, the study of life. And yet, we all know, it is no respecter of spiritual things.
Biology plays by the rules of the scientific method, which is really quite simple. In layman's terms: We observe certain phenomena in the natural world and make note of how they work until we eventually learn something worthwhile. This particular cancer responds to these treatments, for example, but not those treatments. Interesting. That particular food often leads to adverse effects, especially for people who share these traits. That’s helpful to know!
This would not have been entirely foreign to ancient people; they certainly made noteworthy observations of the natural world as well. The difference was that they believed in something beyond the natural world. In fact, as far as I can tell, before the Enlightenment, every human society with any enduring record believed in some kind of transcendent, spiritual existence beyond (or behind) the material world. This, of course, is not the case today.
Today, the average person is not persuaded there is anything objectively real about spiritual life. Regardless of what we believe personally, we would never presume that we could “impose it” on other people, or actually engage with the world around us as if our spiritual beliefs are real and true. These days, “spiritual reality” is seen as something of an oxymoron by most. In American public life, for example, we do not factor spiritual realities into the most pressing things, like legislation, public health, journalism, law enforcement, etc. ─ we’re not allowed to talk or plan as if spiritual things are real and knowable. And for this reason, it is hard for us to imagine just how different life would be if we lived in a society where spiritual realities were just assumed in everyday public life. But this was exactly how the entire pre-modern world operated. Spirituality was not just one of the least popular categories in their favorite podcasting app, it was the way people defined and made sense of reality, even at the highest levels of society.
Today, on the other hand, doctors and scientists have become our experts of choice, not theologians or philosophers. Therapists and psychologists are the mediators we look to for guidance in hard times, not pastors or priests. When a loved one’s despair leads them to take their own life, most people assume it was a problem of “mental health” ─ something wrong with their brain chemistry ─ not a spiritual crisis.
By definition, the natural sciences that guide our public discourse are not interested in invisible, spiritual realities. They deal exclusively with predictable, observable phenomena in the material world. And of course, this utter disregard for invisible, spiritual realities is what makes them particularly good at making sense of the material world. Our spiritual assumptions about the material world can certainly prevent us from understanding it. If scientists were all convinced that every person with seizures was possessed by a demon, for example, they probably would not have discovered epilepsy. Without a doubt, incredible advances have been made in the world as a result of our modern commitment to science. By observing nature and allowing it to lead us where it leads us, we have been able to cure diseases, extend lifespans, understand our planet, develop safe and affordable means of travel, and create technologies that connect virtually anyone in the world in an instant.
For what it’s worth, I celebrate these advances. I think we all should. We should praise God for the discoveries of modern science! But unfortunately, because of the radical shifts in our worldview that have accompanied this modern way of thinking, the truth is, we are all far less likely to do a thing like “praising God.” And this is the point. We have made the grave mistake of assuming that, because there are physical explanations for the natural phenomena we experience, there must not be spiritual ones. In turn, spirituality has been relegated to the sidelines of public life and discourse, if not discarded out altogether. It has been dismissed as a misguided relic of the ancient past and replaced with something “better” and more “real.”
The world we live in is not only spiritually skeptical. Increasingly, it is anti-spiritual. Sure, spirituality may make certain people feel better about themselves or their life ─ and that’s fine ─ but there is nothing objectively real about it. Therefore, it is not something we all need to take seriously. Science, on the other hand, has been granted an almost divine-like authority. When we want to end a debate, we simply say ─ often jokingly in my case ─ “It’s science.”
And what we mean is: “Look, whether you believe it or not, it’s just real.”
If you’re not quite convinced of these shifts, imagine showing up to your next City Council meeting and proposing a new program (with a straight face) to care for people’s souls in your community, as if we all actually have them. How do you imagine people would respond? At least in the West, these anti-spiritual instincts have become some of the most basic and default assumptions of our day. To actually believe in any spiritual realities, and to suggest they should be taken seriously by all people, is to go against the established doctrine of our society. It is the modern, secular equivalent of heresy. And for that reason, even as Christians, if we do not develop a clear biblical metaphysic, it will only be a matter of time before we begin thinking and living according to these same assumptions.
Living as spiritual people in an anti-spiritual world
It’s hard to deny these shifts have led to some serious confusion about spiritual matters, even among confessing Christians. We constantly find ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, for good reason, we don’t want to be associated with the host of people who have done all kinds of heinous things in the name of invisible spiritual realities ─ like the ones who burnt women at the stake for fear they might be witches. “Goodness, we are not one of those spiritual people,” we quickly qualify. Of course not! And yet, we do believe the one true God of heaven has existed for all of eternity as three distinct persons ─ Father, Son, and Spirit. And that the second member of this three-in-one God, the Son, became a human man, so that he could be brutally murdered and rise from the dead, setting those who believe in him free from the power of sin and death. Oh, and we are also waiting for him to return from heaven, where he ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father not long after rising from the dead.
Today, most people find these basic Christian beliefs just as implausible as a witch trial ─ and if they find out we all need to worship this resurrected God-man in order to be rescued from an eternity in hell, they may also find them just as problematic.
This is the world we now live in ─ a world that is deeply skeptical of the most fundamental truth claims of the Christian faith; a world that increasingly finds our spiritual beliefs not only archaic, but unintelligible ─ sometimes even dangerous. And please don’t misunderstand me; I am not complaining about this, I’m simply describing it. As much as it may grieve us, it is very important for us to understand and accept it. Whether we like it or not, again, this is simply the world we now live in. But more importantly, all of us have been deeply impacted by the anti-spiritual instincts of the world around us ─ almost certainly more than we realize. And as a result, more often than not, even committed Christians are very confused about spiritual things. That is the purpose of this project: To help Christians think biblically about spiritual realities in a world that increasingly denies them altogether.
For all of these reasons, and many more, I’m convinced we need to recover a biblical metaphysic.