"Spirituality" and religious education

[Kazimiera Fraley]

It has been recently posited on another thread and I have heard it before that somehow a Relgious (seminary or otherwise) education strips a person of their spirituality or faith. The idea being the more educated you become the less faith or spirituality you have.
I wonder if this is because those of us who have undergone this kind of education talk more about "what I learned in Seminary" than "how God worked in us" or taught us or helped us grow spiritually throughout our education. Perhaps we talk to much about how we have gained a greater understanding of the use of "Ruak" in the Old Testament than we talk about how the Holy Spirit moved us, and helped us grow close to God through our educational journeys.

So to get us thinking about how our education helped us grow and mature in our relationships with Christ, how our faith grew and mature instead of becoming atrophied, withered up and died during the process of our education or even worse our faith was replaced by our educational understanding, that we share stories about how God worked in us, taught us, strengthened our faith, and how our spiritual lives are "better" because of the time we spent in school gaining our religious education.

Of course I will start with a couple stories of my own.

I struggle with being a Christian it was hard work. I was always worried about doing the right thing and saying the right thing and not messing up or falling short. My relationship with God was not "free" or even enjoyable. It did not bring me joy. It was work and drudgery. I was constant vigilance and very little love. It was the "right" thing and I wanted the "right" thing. I would not have said it then but I realize looking back is I felt I needed earn God's love by doing the right things all the time. By saying the right things and never "messing up." I felt that if I did not do these things then God would not love me and I would not go to Heaven.
It was Laurie Braaten's Old Testament class. I don't know exactly what we were learning but my life of earning my relationship with God was suddenly brought before my mind's eye. And God showed me clearly how I was trying to earn my salvation, how I was trying to earn God's love. And the way I saw my relationship with God was flipped on its end. I did not need to earn God's love for me. I did not need to work hard to gain access to Heaven. God loved me no matter what, God loved me whether I loved God or not. God's love was constant what was not a constant was whether I loved God or not. If I loved God and choose to love God each and every day, each and every moment and spent my life living my love for God. Living in such a way that I was continually growing closer to God then all the things I was doing to "earn" God's love and in turn my salvation would still be there but I would not do them because I had to do them to stay in God's good graces but I would do them out of abundant love for God and God's unending love for me. It set my relationship with God free, and although I bet nothing changed on the outside of my life, EVERYTHING changed inside. My relationship with God was abundant and free. Even now as I try to explain how this changed my spiritual journey I find that it is hard to put words to what God did for me there in that classroom but it was truly amazing.

I was poor in seminary (who wasn't) but I know there for a while if I did the math, looked at my finances at the beginning of the month I could see that what I had would not cover my bills and put food on my table, but at the end of every month all the bills were paid and I always had food to eat (a lot of rice casserole and ramen noodles but I ate). Sometimes I would get an unexpected check in the mail or would be able to work an extra shift or something. One time I found a $20 bill on the side of the road which bought me some groceries. Other months the math just "did not add up." I still do not know how so little money covered it all. I may not be able to figure out logically how it worked out each and every month but I can tell you I know WHO made it work and it was not me. I look at seminary (it actually did not end with Seminary these sorts of "miracles" continued into the first years in the ministry as well) and see God doing small miracles all along the way. This did nothing to weaken my faith or my reliance on God, instead it strengthened it ways I will never forget.

[Susan Unger]

It has been recently posited on another thread and I have heard it before that somehow a Religious (seminary or otherwise) education strips a person of their spirituality or faith. The idea being the more educated you become the less faith or spirituality you have.
I wonder if this is because those of us who have undergone this kind of education talk more about "what I learned in Seminary" than "how God worked in us" or taught us or helped us grow spiritually throughout our education. Perhaps we talk to much about how we have gained a greater understanding of the use of "Ruak" in the Old Testament than we talk about how the Holy Spirit moved us, and helped us grow close to God through our educational journeys.This is my conclusion as well.

The highlight of my religious education so far has been healing from 13 forms of religious guilt. Related to that but not confined to that has been the enjoyment of hearing organized information given to me with open ended discussions vs the sermons and folk theology that I grew up with which were emotionally manipulative, aimed for emotions rather than intellect with all or nothing statements. Ex "the bible says it, I believe it, that settles it" and if I dared question anything I was going to you know where. bleh!

[Jim Abrams]

Great idea for a thread Kaza,

It took me a long time to narrow my spiritual/educational experience down to the following story. Like you there is so much more to the faith experience I'm relating than I have time and room to tell but here it is. About a week or so before my first seminary class the incoming students and their spouses were gathered for an informational/social introduction to seminary life. Part of the program was to introduce the new students to each other and gather them into small spiritual formation groups. The small group that we were blessed to be a part of forced us together to share our burdens, concerns, and spiritual/educational development with students and spouses who were going through similar experiences. We were made up of students and spouses from all over the country, who were involved in different churches, with very different backgrounds, and lived in different towns even different states. We grew to love the Lord and each other deeper because we meet monthly to fellowship and worship together in our homes. We grew to depend on God and each other and found that we were more committed to Christ and each other because of it. When our fist child was born there were serious medical concerns and my small group became my first phone call. They along with my local church were the fist to respond to our family with love, prayers and support. At one really difficult moment I found that I could not even bring myself to wiper one more desperate prayer. A member of my small group assured me that when I could no longer exercise my faith in Christ for deliverance they will be interceding and exercising faith for me. Not only did God take care of everything he used that experience to teach me a HUGE lesson about faith. After graduation my spiritual formation group has been sent all over the globe but couldn't be closer to our hearts.

The more we learned about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in our New Testament Studies, Doctrine of Christian Holiness classes, Spiritual Formation courses, World Mission and Evangelism classes, the deeper we developed in our faith and the stronger and closer our small group became. We grew more effective in joining our respective ministries, using each other's giftedness and ministering to our churches and our communities. The ability to give and receive holy love for the advancement of the kingdom in close intimate relationship has significantly shaped the way I understand ministry today. I want all my people to know the blessings that my spiritual/educational opportunities have given me. Those relationships have taught me that theology is just a lot of voices talking about God until it is lived out in context of personal relationships. I am convinced that this kind of life is extremely appealing to my neighbors and friends who do not yet know Christ. Unfortunately that kind of deep personal investment in people requires a vulnerability and accountability that many long time Christians avoid. The good news is that once faith like that begins to be modeled and experienced it seems to naturally grow a hunger for deep authentic expressions of holy love that causes people to seek out deep vulnerable christian relationships of accountability and mission.

[Mike Schutz]

My personality is such that the way to my heart is through my head. Not that I'm all that bright, but I struggle with emotion. God begins, as God does with many of us, with our strengths. My head has always led my heart, and that is the way God has chosen to go for me.

That being said, the place where God changed me was in the area of the spiritual disciplines. This was a way for my intellectual understanding and spiritual "feelings" to come together, through concrete behaviors as the "means of grace." For me, and for most of my generation, we learned this through the writings of Richard Foster. When Foster tied the disciplines to classic Christian devotional writings in the Renovare movement, it was the coming together of head - heart - habits that I needed.

[Billy Cox]

It has been recently posited on another thread and I have heard it before that somehow a Relgious (seminary or otherwise) education strips a person of their spirituality or faith. The idea being the more educated you become the less faith or spirituality you have.
I wonder if this is because those of us who have undergone this kind of education talk more about "what I learned in Seminary" than "how God worked in us" or taught us or helped us grow spiritually throughout our education.


It could be that a theological education does not automatically equip a Philippians 2:12-13 Christian (work out your salvation with fear and trembling) to find common ground with a Hebrews 5:12-13 Christian (still infants needing milk, not solid food).

This isn't a put-down of spiritually immature people in the church, it's an indictment of a culture of perpetual discipleship and leaders who perpetuate a cradle-to-grave spiritual dependence. Incidentally, it's people in that latter group who are most likely to suggest that theological education destroys a person's faith.

I can just imagine a bunch of milk-drinkers sitting around complaining that the new pastor is nice enough but is always talking about filet mignon and almost never drinks milk.

[Ryan Scott]

I made a serious commitment to God shortly after college mostly out of desperation. I felt called to pastor and chose to go to seminary. It afforded me the opportunity to study scripture. Quite frankly, without it, I doubt I would be a Christian at all. Frankly, the Christ I discovered in studying scripture bore little resemblance to the faith I had come to understand growing up. I'm not sure it had to do necessarily with seminary, but the time and opportunity to study scripture with both breadth and depth - an opportunity that just isn't necessarily available to most people.

[Susan Unger]

I can just imagine a bunch of milk-drinkers sitting around complaining that the new pastor is nice enough but is always talking about filet mignon and almost never drinks milk.Love the visuals! That is a good description of the church I grew up in.

[Ian Gentles]

I always felt my theological education added to my spirituality as it opend new horizons for me to ponder and explore!

[Ryan Plott]

It has been recently posited on another thread and I have heard it before that somehow a Relgious (seminary or otherwise) education strips a person of their spirituality or faith. The idea being the more educated you become the less faith or spirituality you have.
I wonder if this is because those of us who have undergone this kind of education talk more about "what I learned in Seminary" than "how God worked in us" or taught us or helped us grow spiritually throughout our education. Perhaps we talk to much about how we have gained a greater understanding of the use of "Ruak" in the Old Testament than we talk about how the Holy Spirit moved us, and helped us grow close to God through our educational journey.

I've seen a religious education both destroy and build faith here at ONU.

For those who had their faith destroyed, it was largely a result of those whose faith was not placed in Christ but in their own understanding. When confronted about their idea of who Christ was and how Christianity worked, they were unable, or unwilling, to live with the tension of not knowing that faith demands.(it is called a faith for a reason after all). Their religious education deconstructed their prior misconceptions and pointed out that they will not know everything about God, but will only reveal and make clear how much they do not know. They didn't "survive" that process.

For those who it did strengthen, the process was an opposite of those who it destroyed. Those students saw what is known, what is not known, and decided they could trust God with the rest.

[Wilson Deaton]

I can just imagine a bunch of milk-drinkers sitting around complaining that the new pastor is nice enough but is always talking about filet mignon and almost never drinks milk.

That is what I was thinking, too. I have noticed that there are some areas of my life that I perceive to be areas of spiritual growth and maturation that others have evaluated to be a "loss of faith."

Wilson