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Devotio Post-Moderna: On Using a “Spiritual Classic” as a Diagnostic Tool in a Freshman Christian Formation Course

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

Richard B. Steele
Richard B. Steele*
Affiliation:
Seattle Pacific University
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Abstract

This article describes the reasons that a late medieval spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, was recently adopted as a textbook for a freshman course in “Christian Formation” at a mid-sized Evangelical Protestant university (Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA) and how it is taught there. It enumerates seven objections which contemporary American Evangelicals might raise to Thomas' spirituality, but shows how these very objections reveal a great deal about the religious and cultural ethos of those who make them. Since one of the course objectives is precisely to help students evaluate and critique their own culture and spirituality theologically, The Imitation proves to be singularly useful as a textbook. Excerpts from student writing assignments are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this way of using a classic from the Devotio Moderna with “postmodern” collegians.

Type
Creative Teaching
Information
Horizons , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Spring 2000 , pp. 81 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 2000

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References

1 For the history of the Free Methodist Church, see Marston, Leslie Ray, From Age to Age a Living Witness: A Historical Interpretation of Free Methodism's First Century (Winona Lake, IN: Light and Life Press, 1960)Google Scholar and McKenna, David L., A Future with a History: The Wesleyan Witness of the Free Methodist Church, 1960-1995, (Indianapolis, IN: Light and Life Press, 1995).Google Scholar For a comprehensive statement of Free Methodist theology, see the following collection of essays by the denomination's founder: Roberts, Benjamin Titus, Holiness Teachings, ed. Roberts, Benson Howard (1893; reprint ed., Salem, OH: Schmul, 1983).Google Scholar For a brief history and description of S.P.U., see Moore, Steven and Woodward, William, “Clarity through Ambiguity: Transforming Tensions at Seattle Pacific University” in Hughes, Richard T. and Adrian, William B., eds., Models for Christian Higher Education: Strategies for Success in the Twenty-First Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), 284–309.Google Scholar

2 The older course, called “Dynamics of Christian Formation,” was designed and taught by Professors Robert Drovdahl and Les Steele. For a thorough account of the general theological and pedagogical approach to both the old and the new courses in Christian formation courses used by all of us at S.P.U., see Steele, Les, On the Way: A Practical Theology of Christian Formation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990).Google Scholar

The translation of The Imitation of Christ that we have adopted for use in class, and that I will use in this paper, is that of Leo Sherley-Price (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1952). Citations will be given in the body of the text. So many different editions of The Imitation are available that it seems prudent in citations to give the standard book and chapter numbers, followed by the page numbers in the Penguin edition. In several places, I have amended Sherley-Price's translation in favor of more gender-inclusive language; I have indicated such changes by using braces {}.

3 The most extensive and perceptive study of contemporary American Evangelicalism is Hunter, James Davison, Evangelicalism: The Coming Generation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).Google Scholar Many of the colleges and universities affiliated with Evangelicalism belong to the Council on Christian Colleges and Universities. For profiles of these schools, see Hughes and Adrian, Models. For a study of how C.C.C.U. institutions approach Christian ethics—a discipline closely related, though by no means identical, to Christian formation—see Holmes, Arthur F., Shaping Character: Moral Education in the Christian College (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991).Google Scholar

4 This sketch is based on the following sources: Hyma, Albert, The Brethren of the Common Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1950)Google Scholar and The Christian Renaissance: A History of the “Devotio Moderna,” 2nd ed. (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1965);Google ScholarOberman, Heiko A., Masters of the Reformation: The Emergence of a New Intellectual Climate in Europe, trans. Martin, Dennis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 45–56;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPost, R. R., The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, 3 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968);Google ScholarSouthern, R. W., Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970), 331–58;Google ScholarSherley-Price, Leo, Introduction to Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, 11–25;Google Scholar and Van Engen, John, Introduction to Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings, ed. Van Engen, John (New York: Paulist, 1988), 1–61.Google Scholar

5 See, e.g., Sherley-Price, Leo, Introduction to The Imitation of Christ, 14–16.Google Scholar For the standard treatment of the threefold mystic way, see Underhill, Evelyn, Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness, 12th ed. (New York: Dutton, 1961) passim.Google Scholar Most of Underbill's examples are of Roman Catholic saints from the late Medieval and Counter-Reformation periods.

6 A good example of the latter approach may be found in The Spiritual Ascents of Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen, and earlier master of the Modern Devotion, in Van Engen, 245-315.

7 Post, , The Modern Devotion, 523.Google Scholar

8 The student papers excerpted and analyzed here came from two different classes, one taught by myself, and the other by Robert Wall. I have edited them for purposes of clarity and brevity, but have made every effort to retain their authors' essential meanings.

9 See e.g., Hoftstadter, Richard, Anti-intellectualism in American Life (New York: Knopf, 1963)Google Scholar, and Noll, Mark, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994).Google Scholar

10 I am indebted to my colleague, Susan Van Zanten Gallagher, professor of English at S.P.U., for this insight.