A Study on the Definition of Spirituality and the Possibility of Spiritual Education

ABSTRACT

The turmoil regarding the definition of spirituality stems from the confusion between spiritual theology and spirituality. The spiritual theology has come from scholastic background in 18th century, whereas spirituality has been based upon the postmodern culture in the milieu of western Europe. Accordingly, spirituality has to be separated from spiritual theology. Michel Foucault, developed extensive and sophisticated theory on spirituality, seeks for the nature of spirituality in the tradition of ancient Greek philosophy, Greco-Roman stoicism, and early Christian patrology. For Foucault, spirituality is similar to the exercise of epimuleia heautou or philosophy from the ancient perspective. Thus, spirituality can be called as an aesthetics of self or an art of existence. For many years, educators and theologians engaged in the spiritual education and consequently several types of perspective were raised. This paper demonstrates that today spiritual education must embrace the curriculum of physical or bodily exercise as well as spiritual meditation.