Having grown up as a Christian and having been on a quest to “be spiritual” and draw close to God for some 30+ years, I find myself still struggling with how to get there. New forms of spirituality are evolving every day as our world tries to figure out how to get to God.

I was very enthusiastic and driven to let God be the Lord of my life as a young man. I remember reading two books by Jerry Bridges that had a profound impact on me, The Practice of Godliness and The Pursuit of Holiness. I was also involved with The Navigators in my early adult years and they had a significant influence on my spiritual growth. My spirituality was built around the disciplines, a life that could admittedly have become legalistic and mainly focused on what I can do to become spiritual. The topic of holiness is something that has started bouncing around my head once again. Working in a more grace/freedom oriented culture these days, I struggle to figure out holiness in this context. And, as I attempt to engage an emerging postmodern culture, I wrestle with the question of how does holiness fit in? What might it look like today? How does one pursue holiness in a world where every part of holiness is being assaulted?

Keven Macnish

What, therefore, have we to do with questions of philosophy? He to whom the Eternal Word speaks is free from theorizing. Far from this Word are all things and of Him all things speak – the Beginning Who also speaks to us. Without this Word no man understands or judges aright. He to whom it becomes everything, who traces all things to it and who sees all things in it, may ease his heart and remain at peace with God.

Oh God, You Who are the truth, make me one with you in love everlasting. I am often wearied by the many things I hear and read, but in You is all that I long for. Let the learned be silent before You; You alone speak to me.

The more recollected a man is, and the more simple of heart he becomes, the easier he understands sublime things, for he receives the light of knowledge from above. The pure, simple and steadfast spirit is not distracted by many labours, for he does them all for the honour of God. And since he enjoys inner peace he seeks no selfish end in anything. What, indeed, gives more trouble and affliction than uncontrolled desires of the heart?

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

This paper does not seek to answer the question, what does spirituality look like in an urban post-modern environment. To be honest, I have considered this for a long time and don’t have the first idea as to how to answer that question, and that is partly why I am here this weekend, to learn from you. Nor is it a tightly-argued philosophical tract – I have written too many of those over the last couple of years and felt like a break. What this paper does seek to address is one potential aspect of assessing how to determine the answer to the question.