How spirituality can lead to a dysfunctional spirituality?

Introduction

After having read and reflected on what is spirituality and what Dr. Pérez Torres writes about it in his the book Cristo es nuestra paz, I thought, is it possible for spirituality to lead to a dysfunctional spirituality? However, in my opinion, I think this question is not the right question. This question, I believe, falls under this definition, “Conscious involvement in the project of life integration through self-transcendence toward the ultimate value one perceives. This definition is so general and vague; it encompasses any focus you want to give to the term spirituality. As Boa points out, “People are trying to find meaning through emotional and mystical experiences, which are precisely the kinds of experiences offered by many religious and occult movements today.” These emotional and mystical experiences are wrongly interpreted as “spirituality,” thus failing to give a definition that really centers on God and his son Jesus Christ.

Being this the case, the definition of spirituality must, I believe to be the one that will direct our quest to God and his son Jesus Christ. Segundo Galilea defines it ‘as the process of following Christ, under the direction of the Spirit and under the guidance of the church.” Thus, this question made me think of the possibility of an aberration in spirituality, but the dysfunction occurs in following false doctrines and forsaking the direction Holy Spirit. According to Galilea’s definition, the Holy Spirit directs and the church guides, thus the individual who falls under a false spirituality has taken upon themselves to follow their own judgment and not the Holy Spirit’s.

Rudolf Otto in his classic study Idea of the Holy categorizes the experience of religion [spirituality] as the tremendous with its sense of overwhelming awe, the mysterious with its awareness of something numinous, the portentious with its fear that is qualitative, the fascinating with its motive for self-reflection, and with energy as power that elevates the worshiper. Otto’s description of the “holy” encircles what we are looking for in a spiritual experience. His rendition is a phenomenological approach to the realm of spirituality. The focus must be on God only and on what the Scriptures say. The term or idea of spirituality must be kept within the parameters of the almighty God. Granted, people are free to experience and express their so-call spirituality, but I believe they are being self-diluted to believe in a spirituality that is devoid of transcendence leading to an empty experience.

So what then produces this spirituality? Spirituality is produced when one comes to Christ and accepts him as one’s Savior. This is when the spiritual “walk” starts. Isaiah had this type of experience when he describes it in Isaiah 6:1:

1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said,“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Isaiah, we can say, experienced a mystical revelation of God that left him in awe and feeling powerless. This experience transforms the beholder and catapults him/her to a stratum where you can only reach it by being intoned with the Holy. In his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul refers to the third heaven and states: “I know a man in union with Christ Jesus who, fourteen years ago – whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows - was caught away as such to the third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). This was Paul’s spiritual transcendence experience, and he finds it hard to put into words.

When we talk about spirituality, we must incorporate the Almighty, and all that encompasses the Holy. We cannot limit our spiritual experience to the worldly realm and expect to experience God in and around our being. Spirituality is too deep and multidimensional to confine to our finite interpretations of what it is.

Deviation from the true Spirituality

In addressing the “spiritual dysfunction” of the Galatian church, Paul makes mention of this issue when he wrote to them. He was baffled and said to them, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! (Gal. 1:6-8). He was appalled as to their deviation from the true faith. He continues to address them about this issue, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” (Gal. 2:1).

Paul was amazed as to how quickly they were being deceived to desert the true faith. Lea and Black comment, “Jewish Christians from outside the Galatian communities probably spread the false teaching. These false teachers are called Judaizers, and their teaching is known as “legalism.” These Judaizers were leading the Galatians to a false spirituality. In fact, Paul tells them that they were “bewitched” by these Judaizers. The word “bewitched” means to be under a spell or ensorcelled. The word ensorcelled means enchanted; fascinated. Thus, it seems that the Galatians well under a spell and could not distinguish between the true gospel and the false doctrine being taught by the Judaizers.

Later in this letter he wrote to them, “6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. 7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. 9A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. 10I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. 11 But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. 12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves” (Gal. 5:6-12). He said they “were running well,” and then he asked them, “who hindered you from obeying the truth?” This is what I have said before about the spiritual dysfunction; it is not the spiritual aspect that is wrong, but the disobeying of the true doctrine to follow false teachings, which cause the falling-off the faith. Spirituality is a close walk with Christ and not an adherence to a doctrine that distorts that pure vision of following Christ as taught in the Scriptures.

Dr. Perez Torres points out, “True spirituality is characterized by peace. This word in Greek is (eiréne), meaning in the New Testament harmonious relations between people, between nations, friendship, no aggression, order in the State, in the church ...” There was no peace in the Galatian church. In fact, the church was disturbed and confused. This is what happens when false doctrines can lead to spiritual dysfunction. The individual and the church become disoriented and thus go astray.

The hallmark of all cults is to establish their own brand of spirituality based on the interpretation of their leader. Many of these cults have led people to their untimely death because of a distorted interpretation of the concept of spirituality. This is the result of the misinterpretation of spirituality with emotional and mystical experiences. People are hungry for God that they will try anything. In this postmodern world, people are looking for or something to fill their inner being, so they turn to cults under the pretense that there they will find their spiritual hunger. However, it turns out that what is deemed as spirituality is indeed a dysfunctional brand of spirituality boarding to psychosis. It is sad that this is the case, but we have seen it all the time. In the 1990s many people died burnt in a warehouse because David Koresh made them believe that their leader was their spiritual guidance when in fact, he was their spiritual doom.

Conclusion

In this brief reflection, I attempted to clarify and to broaden the idea of spirituality. This by no means settles the issue. People will always find a way to categorize their spirituality based on the definition and interpretation of the leader they are following. Unfortunately, people are led as sheep to the slaughter because they lack the knowledge to perceive their spiritual doom.

Take heed and seek understanding. Humans are endowed with a sense of being able to seek beyond their confines. To transcend the physical and stand before almighty God; however, this must be done with the understanding that spirituality is very broad in its scope. I believe we can have true spirituality when we seek the God of Israel. This type of spirituality is the one that will lift you up and transform you to His image and likeness. The other market spirituality you find in this world is only that, cognates of the absurd.

Bibliography

Boa, Kenneth. Cults, World Religions, and the Occult. San Francisco: David C. Cook, 1990.

Elwell, Walter A., ed. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed. Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Baker Academic, 2001.

Galilea, Segundo. The Way of Living Faith: a Spirituality of Liberation. San Francisco: Harpercollins, 1988.

Lea, Thomas D., and David Alan Black. The New Testament: Its Background and Message. 2nd ed. Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Academic, 2003.

Pérez Torres, Rubén. Cristo es nuestra paz, Hacia una espiritualidad sanadora. (Caguas: Editorial MIREC, 2011).

Sheldrake, Philip, ed. The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality. 1st American ed. San Francisco: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005.