Mission Statement of the Departement of Theology of Spirituality

In present times the term „spirituality“ is not only used in theology. Spirituality is often identified with the longing for wholeness of one’s own person in relation to a world perceived as mechanized, to one’s own history, to one’s own relations and to the transcendent reason of the world.

In contrast, Christianity understands pneumatikos or spiritualis as the way to let one’s own existence be guided by the Spirit of god. The spiritual life as relationship to the triune God owes itself to the initiative of God (grace, vocation to holiness), which, accepted in freedom, is to shape forces of man and all processes of life (character of way).

As a theological discipline, “Theology of Spirituality” does not only describe manifestations or elements of spiritual life, but wants to show fundamentals and connections in an argumentative way. This opens up manifold connections to other theological and spiritual disciplines.

In this sense it includes various questions (e.g. Christian prayer, meditation and contemplation, spiritual direction and discernment, universal call to holiness and special vocations, etc.) as well as concrete expressions (exemplary persons, epochs, movements, specific developments and current evolutions). As important as a systematic reflection may be, the real subject and object of spirituality and of a theology of spiritual life is the concrete human being in the presence of God.