Spiritual Theology

I have recenlty been reading through some of the Canterbury Studies in Spiritual Theology and paying attention to the robust lives of Rowan Williams, Michael Ramsey, Bonhoeffer and others for about a year. A common thread between these contemporary saints is a robust intellectual/theological curiosity and a deeply rooted contemplative life. As a seminarian, and Episcopal postulant, I recognize the life that springs forward from holding these traits in tension. This form of spiritual theology was deeply characteristic of the patristic era and began to lose ground following the monastic era. Nevertheless, every generation of the Church is able to witness to lives that had 'the capacity to make God real' (Ramsey). Understanding that knowledge, namely theological dispositions, gives language to the new humanity and new creation Christ makes possible and that spirituality is that which makes space, or invites if you like, for us to move into this world making it possible to see how knowledge and love are meant to be inextricably linked together. Through spiritual disciplines such as the Eucharist, Baptism, prayer and the sacramental quality of preaching (to name a few) we are given space to move into a new world which is enriched through theological knowledge and continually sustained through practices which shape our affections. By drawing on the lives of the saints, past and contemporary, we see a rich spiritual theology that holds together impressive intellect and serious contemplation.