The previous essay explored Christianity through the lenses of history, continuity, authority, identity, and reform.
Those measurements helped explain why Christian traditions developed differently across two thousand years of history. Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and countless other communities often preserve distinct understandings of authority, governance, continuity, and ecclesial identity. Such differences are real and important. They help explain much of Christianity's institutional diversity.
Yet institutions tell only part of the story.
A church may possess ancient continuity, carefully developed theology, well-defined authority structures, and a rich historical identity. Yet another question remains:
What does it actually feel like to live within that tradition?
How do Christians worship?
How do they pray?
How do they encounter God?
How do they understand spiritual formation, discipleship, holiness, mission, and communion?
How do they experience the Christian life from the inside?
These questions move us beyond institutional structures toward lived realities. For Christianity is not merely a system of beliefs. Nor is it merely an organization. It is also a way of life.
Throughout Christian history believers have encountered God through many forms of worship and spiritual practice. Some traditions emphasize sacramental participation. Others emphasize preaching and proclamation. Some emphasize contemplation and prayer. Others emphasize mission and service. Some stress personal conversion. Others focus upon spiritual formation across a lifetime. Some emphasize divine mystery. Others emphasize practical discipleship. Most combine these dimensions in differing proportions.
Consequently, Christian traditions may be compared not only according to their structures but also according to their spiritual emphases.
Different traditions often answer the same questions in different ways.
Where is God encountered most profoundly?
How is faith nurtured?
What role does worship play?
How does grace transform a life?
What is the relationship between faith and discipleship?
How should Christians participate in God's work within the world?
These questions introduce a new set of measurements.
Unlike the previous essay, which focused primarily upon institutions, this essay focuses upon spiritual experience. Unlike questions of governance and authority, these measurements concern worship, spirituality, formation, participation, and mission.
They explore Christianity as it is lived.
The goal is not to determine which tradition worships correctly or which spirituality is superior. Rather, the purpose is to understand how different Christian communities have sought to encounter, experience, and embody the faith entrusted to them.
For just as different measurements produce different maps of Christian history, they also produce different maps of Christian experience.
- Some traditions emphasize sacrament.
- Others emphasize Scripture.
- Others emphasize contemplation.
- Others emphasize discipleship.
- Others emphasize mission.
Yet beneath these differences remains a shared aspiration. Christians seek not merely to know about God. They seek to participate in the life of God.
It is this lived and experiential dimension of Christianity that we now explore.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.- John 4:24
At the heart of every religious tradition lies a fundamental question:
How is the divine encountered?
For Christians, this question has never been merely philosophical. It is profoundly practical. Christianity emerged not simply from a collection of doctrines or ethical teachings but from the conviction that human beings may enter into relationship with the living God.
From its earliest beginnings Christianity has therefore concerned itself not only with what believers think about God, but also with how believers experience, worship, and participate in the life of God.
This concern appears throughout the New Testament.
- Jesus calls disciples into fellowship.
- Paul speaks of life "in Christ."
- John speaks of abiding in God and God abiding in humanity.
- Luke describes communities animated by the Holy Spirit.
- James insists that faith must become embodied within daily life.
Again and again Christianity presents itself not merely as information to be learned but as a reality to be lived.
Yet Christians have never entirely agreed concerning how this encounter occurs. The seemingly eternal questions ask - "Where is God most profoundly experienced?"
- Within the sacraments?
- Within Scripture?
- Within worship?
- Within prayer?
- Within community?
- Within acts of service?
- Within personal conversion?
- Within the work of the Holy Spirit?
Throughout Christian history different traditions have answered these questions in different ways.
Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians often emphasize sacramental participation. Through worship, Eucharist, baptism, prayer, and liturgical life, believers enter into the mysteries of God's presence and grace.
Many Protestant traditions emphasize the proclamation of Scripture and the transformative encounter that occurs through hearing and responding to the gospel.
Evangelical traditions frequently emphasize personal conversion and the cultivation of an ongoing relationship with Christ.
Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions often emphasize the active presence of the Holy Spirit through worship, prayer, spiritual gifts, and personal renewal.
Mystical traditions throughout Christianity have frequently emphasized contemplation, silence, and participation in the divine life.
Despite these differences, an important commonality remains - all Christian traditions assume that faith involves more than intellectual assent. Christianity is not merely agreement with a set of propositions. It is participation.
The language used to describe that participation may differ.
- Some speak of salvation.
- Some speak of communion.
- Some speak of discipleship.
- Some speak of sanctification.
- Some speak of theosis.
- Some speak of spiritual formation.
Yet beneath these diverse expressions lies a common conviction: The Christian life involves transformation.
The believer does not merely learn about God.
The believer is changed through relationship with God.
This emphasis helps explain why worship occupies such a central place within Christianity. Worship is not simply an educational exercise. Nor is it merely a communal gathering. It is an encounter.
Whether expressed through liturgy, prayer, preaching, sacrament, song, silence, contemplation, testimony, or service, Christian worship seeks to orient human life toward the life and vibrancy of divine reality.
In this sense worship becomes one of Christianity's primary languages of participation.
- It is where beliefs become practices.
- Where memory becomes experience.
- Where doctrine becomes devotion.
- Where communities gather around a reality greater than themselves.
Yet even here diversity emerges.
Different traditions often understand worship in different ways because they understand participation in different ways. Some emphasize sacramental encounter. Others emphasize proclamation. Others emphasize contemplation. Others emphasize discipleship. Others emphasize mission.
The result is not a single Christian spirituality but a family of related spiritualities shaped by different historical experiences and theological emphases. This diversity should not be viewed merely as disagreement. It may also be understood as a reflection of Christianity's richness.
Just as the New Testament speaks with multiple voices, Christian worship has developed through multiple forms of participation. The question therefore is not simply whether Christians encounter God. The question is how different traditions understand that encounter.
To answer that question, we must begin with one of Christianity's oldest and most enduring understandings of divine participation:
the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church.
- John 15:4Abide in me as I abide in you.
Long before Christianity developed extensive theological systems, believers gathered together to pray, hear Scripture, sing hymns, celebrate baptism, share meals, and participate in the Eucharist. These practices were not regarded merely as religious customs. They were understood as means through which believers encountered the living presence of God together with one another.
This sacramental understanding of Christian life emerged naturally from the earliest experiences of the Church when Jesus gathered disciples around a table. Blessed the bread and wine as testaments to his broken body and spilt blood on the Cross. As he prayed with his followers. Instructed them to be baptized into the sacramental life of God. And promised to remain present in their midst whenever his followers are gathered in his name.
The earliest Christians continued these practices, understanding them not simply as memorials to Jesus' life and ministry but as well as acts of participation in the continuing life of Christ's eternal divinity and transformative redemption.
Over time these practices became central to Christian worship. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox traditions developed especially rich sacramental and liturgical understandings of the Christian life. Worship became more than instruction. It became participation in sacred mysteries.
Within these traditions the Eucharist occupies a central place.
Though theological explanations differ, all regard the Eucharist as far more than symbolic remembrance. It is understood as a means of communion with Christ and with the wider body of believers extending across time and space.
The significance of this understanding cannot be overstated. For sacramental traditions, Christianity is not merely something believed. It is something entered into. One participates in baptism. One participates in Eucharist. One participates in prayer. One participates in the rhythms of worship.
Faith becomes embodied through repeated acts of communal participation.
This emphasis helps explain the importance of liturgy. Modern readers sometimes misunderstand liturgy as rigid ritual or formal repetition. Yet within sacramental traditions liturgy serves a deeper purpose. It forms memory. It shapes identity. It cultivates participation.
Through repeated prayers, readings, responses, gestures, songs, and sacraments, believers learn to inhabit the story of God. The worshiper does not merely observe the faith. The worshiper enters into it.
Orthodox Christianity often expresses this understanding through the language of mystery.
God is not primarily encountered through intellectual mastery but through participation in divine life. Worship therefore becomes an immersion into a reality greater than oneself.
Icons, incense, chant, architecture, prayer, fasting, and sacrament all contribute to this participatory vision. The goal is not simply to think correctly about God but to become increasingly united with God.
This aspiration eventually developed into the Orthodox understanding of theosis.
Theosis does not mean becoming God in ontological-essence. Rather, it refers to personal and communal participation in the divine life through grace. Humanity is invited into deeper communion with God through worship, prayer, discipleship, and spiritual transformation.
Roman Catholic spirituality similarly emphasizes sacramental participation, though often expressed through somewhat different theological frameworks. Grace is encountered through worship, sacrament, prayer, community, and the life of the Church. The Christian life becomes a lifelong journey of formation in which divine grace continually works within human experience.
Even traditions emerging from the Protestant Reformation retained important sacramental elements. Lutherans continued emphasizing baptism and the Lord's Supper as genuine means of grace. Anglicans preserved liturgical worship while incorporating Protestant theological insights. Many Reformed traditions retained sacramental practices while placing greater emphasis upon preaching and the authority of Scripture.
The result is not a simplistic, banal division between sacramental and non-sacramental Christianity. Rather, traditions exist along a spectrum. Some emphasize sacramental participation more strongly. Others emphasize proclamation. Others combine both in varying ways. Yet all are attempting to answer the same question:
How does divine grace become present within human life?
For sacramental traditions the answer often begins with worship itself. Worship becomes a meeting place between heaven and earth. Memory and presence. Community and communion. Human longing and divine invitation. In such traditions the Christian life is not primarily understood as a solitary journey. It is communal.
The believer encounters God alongside others who gather, pray, sing, remember, and participate together. This communal dimension reflects one of Christianity's oldest convictions. Faith is not merely possessed. It is shared. The Church becomes not simply an institution but a worshiping community through which believers participate in the life of God.
Yet sacramental participation represents only one dimension of Christian spirituality.
Many Christians have found their deepest encounters with God not primarily through liturgy or sacrament but through prayer, contemplation, Scripture, and the cultivation of an interior spiritual life.
It is to these contemplative dimensions of Christian experience that we now turn.
Abide in me as I abide in you.- John 15.4
The Christian gathered around the Eucharistic table (Greek for thanksgiving; see Appendix A) might also withdraw into private prayer. The believer participating in liturgical worship might also cultivate silence, contemplation, meditation, and personal devotion. Community and interiority have often functioned as complementary dimensions of Christian spirituality.
Among the New Testament writers, no one expresses this interior dimension more profoundly than John. Again and again the Johannine writings speak of abiding.
Believers abide in Christ.
Christ abides in believers.
The Spirit dwells within the community of faith.
God is encountered not merely through external actions but through ongoing communion and relationship = fellowship.
This language of abiding has profoundly shaped Christian spirituality across the centuries. Where some traditions emphasize believing rightly, John frequently emphasizes remaining. Dwelling. Participating. Living within the life of God.
The emphasis is relational rather than merely intellectual. Christian faith becomes less a matter of mastering theological concepts and more a matter of growing into deeper communion with one another and with divine reality.
This Johannine vision helped inspire many of Christianity's contemplative traditions.
From the early church's Desert Fathers of Egypt (cf. Appendix B) to the monastic communities of the medieval world, countless Christians sought to cultivate an awareness of God's presence through prayer, silence, reflection, fasting, and disciplined spiritual practice.
Their goal was not escape from the world.
Nor was it merely the acquisition of religious knowledge.
Rather, they sought attentiveness.
They sought to become increasingly aware of God's presence within every dimension of life.
The contemplative impulse appears throughout both Eastern and Western Christianity. From Anthony the Great, Macarius, Arsenius, and the Desert Fathers of Egypt to later monastic and mystical traditions, Christians have sought to cultivate attentiveness to God's presence through prayer, silence, fasting, and disciplined spiritual practice.
Eastern Orthodox spirituality often emphasizes stillness, prayer, and inner attentiveness. Practices such as hesychasm sought to cultivate a quiet openness to God's presence through continual prayer and spiritual discipline.
Western traditions developed their own contemplative paths through monasticism, mysticism, spiritual direction, and devotional practice. Figures such as Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, and Thomas Merton each explored dimensions of interior communion with God.
Despite their differences, these traditions shared a common conviction:
God is not merely an object of belief.
God is a presence to be encountered.
This emphasis frequently led Christian mystics to speak of union, participation, love, and transformation rather than simply doctrine or obligation.
Such language sometimes appears unfamiliar to modern readers accustomed to defining faith primarily through creedal belief statements. Yet for many Christian traditions the goal of theology was never merely correct information. The goal was transformation.
Knowledge served communion.
Doctrine served participation.
Belief served relationship.
This helps explain why prayer occupies such a central place within Christian spirituality. Prayer is not merely the communication of requests. Nor is it simply religious obligation. At its deepest level prayer becomes participation in relationship. It is the ongoing conversation between humanity and God.
Sometimes prayer takes the form of words. Sometimes praise. Sometimes confession. Sometimes lament. Sometimes gratitude. And sometimes silence.
Many contemplative traditions have suggested that spiritual maturity often involves learning to listen as much as speaking. The believer gradually discovers that communion with God cannot always be reduced to concepts, arguments, or explanations.
Some dimensions of divine reality are experienced rather than defined. This insight has often created fruitful tension within Christianity. Sacramental traditions remind believers that faith is communal and embodied. Contemplative traditions remind believers that faith is also personal and interior. One emphasizes gathered worship. The other emphasizes inward transformation. Both seek participation. Both seek communion. Both seek encounter.
Indeed, the distinction may be less significant than it first appears.
The Eucharist invites communion.
Prayer deepens communion.
Worship forms communion.
Discipleship expresses communion.
Each represents a different aspect of the same relational reality.
Christian spirituality therefore cannot be reduced to either external practice or internal experience alone. It encompasses both. The believer participates in the life of God through worship, prayer, community, service, reflection, sacrament, and relationship.
Yet communion alone does not exhaust the Christian life. The New Testament repeatedly insists that participation in God must eventually become visible within daily living. As such,
Faith seeks embodiment.
Grace seeks expression.
Communion seeks action.
It is to this relationship between grace and discipleship that we now turn.
Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only.- James 1.22
The question is straightforward. What difference does faith make? How does a relationship with God shape daily life? How are worship, prayer, and belief translated into action?
These concerns appear throughout the New Testament, but they find particularly strong expression in the Epistle of James. James consistently calls believers toward embodied faith.
Faith must become action.
Belief must become practice.
Devotion must become character.
Words must become deeds.
For James, authentic spirituality is never merely internal. It becomes visible in the way people live, speak, serve, forgive, and relate to others. This emphasis has shaped Christian spirituality across many traditions.
Throughout history countless believers have understood discipleship as the practical expression of participation in God's life. Worship and prayer remain essential, but they are not ends in themselves. They form people for lives of service, compassion, integrity, and faithfulness.
The Christian life therefore becomes more than a series of religious experiences.
It becomes a way of living.
This emphasis has often created an important conversation within Christianity concerning the relationship between grace and works. The Apostle Paul famously emphasized salvation through grace. Human beings do not earn God's love. They do not secure redemption through moral achievement. God's grace is received as a gift.
James, however, reminds believers that genuine faith produces visible fruit. Faith without embodiment becomes incomplete. Faith without action becomes detached from the realities it professes to affirm.
For centuries Christians have debated how these emphases should be understood. Yet many traditions have concluded that Paul and James address different aspects of the same reality.
Grace initiates transformation.Discipleship expresses transformation.
Grace invites participation.Discipleship embodies participation.
Grace and discipleship therefore need not be viewed as competitors -They function together.
One concerns divine initiative.The other concerns human response.
This understanding has profoundly influenced Christian approaches to spiritual formation.
Roman Catholic traditions often speak of growth in holiness through participation in grace, sacramental life, prayer, and virtue.
Orthodox traditions emphasize spiritual transformation through participation in divine life, leading toward greater conformity to Christ.
Wesleyan traditions frequently stress sanctification and ongoing growth in holiness.
Reformed traditions often speak of progressive transformation flowing from union with Christ.
Anabaptist communities have historically emphasized obedience, simplicity, peacemaking, and practical discipleship.
Evangelical traditions frequently focus upon personal conversion followed by a life of faithful discipleship.
Though differing in language and emphasis, all are wrestling with a similar question:
What does a transformed life look like?
The answers vary. Some emphasize holiness. Some emphasize virtue. Some emphasize obedience. Some emphasize service. Some emphasize social justice. Some emphasize evangelism. Some emphasize personal character. Most combine these concerns in different ways.
Yet beneath these differences lies a common conviction.
Christian faith is intended to shape the whole person.
Mind. Heart. Character. Relationships. Actions. Communities. This conviction helps explain why Christianity has historically invested so much energy in practices of formation. Practices involving prayer, study, worship, service, fasting, confession, hospitality, generosity, acts of mercy, and so forth.
These practices are not simply religious obligations. They are formative disciplines. They seek to shape persons whose lives increasingly reflect the character of Christ. The goal is not perfection in any absolute sense. Rather, it is growth. Transformation. Maturity. Participation in a way of life oriented toward God and neighbor.
Such concerns also remind Christians that spirituality cannot be reduced to private experience alone. Contemplation must eventually encounter daily life. Worship must influence behavior. Communion must shape relationships. Faith must become visible within the ordinary realities of human existence.
In this sense discipleship serves as a bridge between inner transformation and outward action. The Christian life moves from worship into the world. From prayer into practice. From communion into service. The follower of Jesus who encounters God is invited to become a participant in God's continuing work of healing, reconciliation, justice, compassion, and renewal.
For many Christian traditions, this movement outward represents one of the most important expressions of spiritual maturity. Faith does not end at the church door. It extends into families, neighborhoods, workplaces, societies, and cultures.
Consequently, discipleship therefore becomes both personal and communal. It transforms individuals. It also seeks to transform the world they inhabit. This outward movement naturally leads to another dimension of Christian spirituality. For if discipleship seeks to embody God's work within the world, then many Christians have also understood themselves as participants in God's mission to the world.
It is to this missionary and Spirit-filled dimension of Christian experience that we now turn.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you will be my witnesses.- Acts 1:8
Christianity has never understood faith as existing solely for the benefit of the believer. From its earliest beginnings the Christian movement possessed an outward orientation. The life received from God was understood as something to be shared, proclaimed, embodied, and extended into the world.
This missionary impulse appears throughout the New Testament. Jesus sends disciples into towns and villages. The Gospels conclude with commissions to teach, baptize, and make disciples. The Book of Acts portrays a movement expanding outward across cultural, geographic, and political boundaries.
Again and again Christianity understands itself not merely as a gathered community but as a sent community. Among the New Testament writers, Luke gives particular attention to this outward movement. His Gospel culminates in mission. The Book of Acts begins with mission. The Holy Spirit empowers believers not simply for personal comfort or private spirituality but for participation in God's continuing work within the world.
This emphasis has profoundly shaped Christian history.
Missionary movements carried Christianity across the Roman Empire and beyond. Monastic communities preserved learning, education, and service throughout periods of social instability. Reform movements sought renewal not only for churches but for society itself. Mission societies carried Christian faith across continents. Revival movements sought the renewal of both individuals and communities.
In each case the underlying conviction remained similar: Faith moves outward. The Christian life is not merely contemplative. It is participatory. It engages the world. This outward emphasis became particularly significant within Evangelical traditions.
Conversion was often understood as the beginning rather than the conclusion of Christian life. Believers were called to share their faith, serve others, and participate actively in the work of the gospel. The language of witness, mission, and personal transformation became central themes within Evangelical spirituality.
Closely related to this emphasis were the great revival movements of American Christian history:
- The Wesleyan revivals.
- The Great Awakenings.
- Holiness movements.
- Missionary movements.
Each sought renewed spiritual vitality within communities that perceived themselves as drifting toward complacency or institutional stagnation. But renewal was not sought merely for its own sake. It was sought because believers desired a deeper experience of God's presence and a more faithful participation in God's purposes. These themes became even more pronounced within Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions.
Emerging largely during the twentieth century, these movements emphasized the continuing activity of the Holy Spirit within the life of the Church. Spiritual gifts. Healing. Prayer. Prophecy. Worship. Personal renewal. Communal revival. These experiences were often understood as signs that the same Spirit active within the New Testament remained active within the contemporary Church.
For many Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians, spiritual experience became a particularly important dimension of faith. God was encountered not only through sacrament, contemplation, or discipleship, but through the immediate activity of the Spirit within worship and daily life. This emphasis introduced new forms of worship characterized by spontaneity, emotional expression, testimony, and expectation of divine activity.
Yet despite significant differences in style and theology, these movements share important concerns with older Christian traditions.
Like sacramental Christianity, they seek participation.
Like contemplative Christianity, they seek communion.
Like discipleship traditions, they seek transformation.
The difference often lies less in the goal than in the pathways through which that goal is pursued. Indeed, many of Christianity's most enduring movements have combined multiple dimensions of spiritual life simultaneously. A believer may participate in sacramental worship. Cultivate contemplative prayer. Practice daily discipleship. Engage in mission and service. Seek renewal through the work of the Holy Spirit.
These dimensions frequently overlap and reinforce one another. The result is a remarkably diverse landscape of Christian spirituality. Some traditions emphasize worship. Others emphasize contemplation. Others emphasize discipleship. Others emphasize mission. Yet all seek participation in the life and work of God.
This observation brings us back to one of the central themes of this series.
Different measurements produce different maps.
A map emphasizing sacrament will look different from one emphasizing contemplation.
A map emphasizing discipleship will differ from one emphasizing mission.
A map emphasizing spiritual renewal may differ from one emphasizing liturgical continuity.
Yet none of these measurements alone exhausts the reality of Christian experience. Each reveals something important. Each illuminates a different dimension of the Christian life. Together they reveal a faith that has continually sought to worship God, commune with God, embody God's character, and participate in God's mission within the world.
It is this diversity of spiritual experience that prepares us for our concluding reflections:
If different traditions encounter, experience, and embody Christianity in different ways, what does this diversity reveal about the nature of Christian faith itself?
The New Testament speaks with many voices,yet bears witness to one Christ.
- Adapted for this series
Throughout Christian history believers have answered this challenge through different practices, traditions, and emphases. Some have encountered God primarily through sacramental worship and participation in the liturgical life of the Church. Some have emphasized contemplation, prayer, silence, and communion with God. Some have focused upon discipleship, holiness, and the practical embodiment of faith within daily life. Others have emphasized mission, evangelism, renewal, and participation in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit.
Each of these approaches highlights something important. Each represents a particular way of answering the same enduring question:
How is divine life of God encountered and lived in this life?
The diversity of Christian spirituality should therefore not be understood merely as a history of disagreement. It may also be understood as a history of exploration. Across centuries Christians have sought language, practices, symbols, disciplines, and communities capable of nurturing participation in God's life.
Different traditions have discovered different pathways. Some emphasized mystery, others devotion. Some emphasized obedience, others Christian service. Some have emphasized transformation, others renewal. Yet beneath these diverse expressions lies a common aspiration:
Christians seek not merely to know about God.
They seek to know God.
They seek relationship.
Participation.
Communion.
Transformation.
This shared aspiration helps explain why worship remains central across virtually all Christian traditions. Whether expressed through ancient liturgy or contemporary praise, through contemplative silence or enthusiastic proclamation, through sacramental participation or personal testimony, worship continually directs attention beyond the self toward a greater reality.
It reminds believers that Christianity is not simply a philosophy to be studied or a moral system to be followed. It is a way of life centered upon relationship with God. This observation also returns us to a theme developed throughout the previous essays. Different measurements produce different maps:
A map emphasizing historical continuity reveals one dimension of Christianity.
A map emphasizing ecclesial authority reveals another.
A map emphasizing sacramental worship reveals another.
A map emphasizing contemplation, discipleship, or mission reveals still others.
No single measurement exhausts the fullness of Christian experience.
Each illuminates part of a larger reality.
Together these measurements reveal a faith that has been lived in monasteries and cathedrals, churches and homes, missions and marketplaces, deserts and cities, moments of silence and moments of celebration. They reveal a tradition far more diverse than simple labels often suggest.
Yet they also reveal a remarkable unity. For beneath Christianity's many spiritual expressions stands a common center: Jesus Christ. Whether encountered through sacrament, contemplation, discipleship, or mission, Christian spirituality ultimately seeks participation in the life revealed through Christ.
It seeks to remember Jesus' story of worship and ministry.
To embody his character.
To share his mission.
And to participate in the continuing work of God within the world.
This realization prepares us for the next stage of our exploration.
For Christian traditions differ not only in how they worship or practice spirituality. They also differ in how they understand change and continuity, individual and communal salvation, experience and doctrine, mystery and reason.
These differences introduce yet another set of measurements.
Measurements concerned not merely with spiritual practices but with the larger tensions that have shaped Christian identity throughout history. It is to those dimensions of Christian experience that we next turn in this study of what the church is and how it conducts itself in Essay 4 - Measuring Christianity Through Worship, Spirituality, and Discipleship.
Worship and Sacramental LifeFoster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2018.
McGrath, Alister E. Christian Spirituality: An Introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Nouwen, Henri J. M. The Way of the Heart. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981.
Peterson, Eugene H. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Willard, Dallas. The Spirit of the Disciplines. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991.
Alexander, Schmemann. For the Life of the World. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1973.
Kavanagh, Aidan. On Liturgical Theology. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992.
Ratzinger, Joseph (Pope Benedict XVI). The Spirit of the Liturgy. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000.
Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Way. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995.
Wainwright, Geoffrey. Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Contemplation and Mysticism
Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Directions, 1961.
Teresa of Ávila. The Interior Castle. New York: Paulist Press, 1979.
John of the Cross. Dark Night of the Soul. New York: Image Books, 1959.
Orthodox Spirituality and Theosis
Lossky, Vladimir. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1976.
Meyendorff, John. Byzantine Theology. New York: Fordham University Press, 1983.
Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Church. Revised ed. London: Penguin Books, 1997.
Discipleship and Spiritual Formation
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Touchstone, 1995.
Dallas Willard. Renovation of the Heart. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002.
Foster, Richard J. Streams of Living Water. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998.
Wesley, John. A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1966.
Wright, N. T. After You Believe. New York: HarperOne, 2010.
Mission and Renewal
Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011.
Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.
Snyder, Howard A. The Radical Wesley and Patterns for Church Renewal. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.
Stott, John. Christian Mission in the Modern World. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008.
Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.
Pentecostal and Charismatic Spirituality
Cartledge, Mark J. Charismatic Glossolalia. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.
Hollenweger, Walter J. Pentecostalism. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997.
Yong, Amos. The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005.
Contemporary Reflections
Moltmann, Jürgen. The Church in the Power of the Spirit. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
Volf, Miroslav. After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Wright, N. T. Simply Christian. New York: HarperOne, 2006.
This development is significant because it reveals something essential about early Christian worship.
The meal was not understood merely as remembrance.
Nor was it understood solely as instruction.
- Jesus gave thanks.
- His followers gave thanks.
- The gathered community became a community of thanksgiving.
From this simple act emerged one of Christianity's most enduring forms of worship.
Across Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, and many other traditions, the Eucharist remains a central expression of Christian participation, communion, remembrance, gratitude, and worship.
The linguistic history of the word therefore mirrors one of the central themes explored throughout this essay. Christian faith is not merely believed. It is practiced. It is participated in.
And among Christianity's oldest acts of participation stands a simple act of thanksgiving shared around a common table.
Additional Greek Terms of Interest
The word koinōnia is especially important because it captures the relational dimension of Christian worship. Participation in Christ, participation in community, and participation in the life of God all emerge from this broader New Testament understanding of communion.
Foundational Desert Fathers
Anthony the Great (c. 251–356)
Often called the "Father of Monasticism."
- Inspired by Jesus' command to sell possessions and follow him.
- Lived as a hermit in the Egyptian desert.
- His life was recorded by Athanasius of Alexandria in the famous biography Life of Anthony.
- Became the model for later Christian monasticism.
Pachomius (c. 292–348)
- Developed communal monastic life.
- Organized monks into structured communities rather than isolated hermits.
- Created one of the first monastic rules.
If Anthony represents the solitary hermit, Pachomius represents organized monastic community.
Macarius the Great (c. 300–391)
- One of the most respected spiritual teachers of the Egyptian desert.
- Emphasized humility, prayer, and inner transformation.
- Influenced Eastern Christian spirituality for centuries.
Macarius of Alexandria
A companion figure to Macarius the Great and another renowned ascetic teacher.
Other Significant Desert Fathers
Ammonas
One of Anthony's closest disciples.
Arsenius the Great
Famous saying:
"Many times I have spoken and regretted it. Never have I regretted my silence."
Moses the Black
One of the most beloved Desert Fathers.
- Former robber.
- Converted to Christianity.
- Became known for humility, forgiveness, and compassion.
His life is often cited as an example of profound spiritual transformation.
Poemen
Perhaps the most frequently quoted figure in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
His teachings emphasize humility, patience, discernment, and self-knowledge.
Sisoes the Great
Known for radical humility and repentance.
Evagrius Ponticus (345–399)
One of the most intellectually significant Desert Fathers.
Developed:
- contemplative prayer
- spiritual psychology
- discernment of thoughts
- early concepts later associated with the "seven deadly sins"
Influenced both Eastern Orthodoxy and Western monasticism.
Notable Desert Mothers (Ammas)
This movement also included women as well.
Syncletica of Alexandria
One of the most respected Desert Mothers.
Theodora of Alexandria
Known for wisdom concerning humility and self-knowledge.
Sarah of the Desert
A renowned ascetic and spiritual teacher.