MEDITATION AS PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL INSTRUMENT IN CONNECTING CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE SPACE OF SERVICE DELIVERY
Abstract
Should the praxis of meditation necessarily lead to avoidance of the world or could it be seen as an activity that can open a vision and level of engagement that will enable the contemplative person to be connected more faithfully and compassio-nately with this world? With this question as point of departure the researcher explores the possible function of Christian meditation as a means of interacting faithfully and integrally with the space of service delivery in its local manifestation, as well as in its distinctive fluidity in South-African society. Reflecting on the dynamics of a responsible theological entry into this social space, two perspectives from the Reformation regarding the function of meditation in the Christian life are re-visited: Martin Luther’s deployment of the interactive sequence ‘oratio, meditatio, tentatio’, as well as John Calvin’s use of the phrase ‘meditatio vitae futurae’. By bearing the implications of these two perspectives in mind, an attempt is made to draw normative theoretical lines for a Word-anchored meditative praxis that can become instrumental in opening up a vision for continuity between the present alienated situations in service delivery and their re-created future; an energizing vision that will enable contemplative people to minister the first fruits of a kind of service that entails much more than we could have imagined.Downloads
Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
This is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal webpage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in Scriptura, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University’s’ Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
