@ Melissa Gill
A Spiritual Alphabet
for a Multi-Faith World
notes on the spiritual alphabet of Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
and its relevance to the practice of pluralism and interfaith work
The Alphabet (add more of your own)
attention - beauty - being present - compassion - connections - devotion - enthusiasm - faith
forgiveness - grace - gratitude - hope - hospitality - imagination - joy - justice - kindness - listening
love - meaning - nurturing - openness - peace - play - questing - reverence - shadow - silence
teachers - transformation - unity - vision - wonder - x, the mystery - yearning - you - zeal
forgiveness - grace - gratitude - hope - hospitality - imagination - joy - justice - kindness - listening
love - meaning - nurturing - openness - peace - play - questing - reverence - shadow - silence
teachers - transformation - unity - vision - wonder - x, the mystery - yearning - you - zeal
The Practice of Pluralism
The practice of pluralism is an alternative to violence, hatred, arrogance, domination, and narcissism. It is at the heart of interfaith work as practiced by Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Agnostics, and Spiritual Independents. Here is how the Pluralism Project at Harvard describes it:
● Pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity.
● Pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference.
● Pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments.
● Pluralism is based on dialogue. Pluralism is not a “given,” but an achievement.
To read more, see What is Pluralism? If we are to be energetically engaged with religious diversity, we need to underwstand the spiritual side of people's lives and, for that matter, the spiritual side of our own lives.
The practice of pluralism is an alternative to violence, hatred, arrogance, domination, and narcissism. It is at the heart of interfaith work as practiced by Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Agnostics, and Spiritual Independents. Here is how the Pluralism Project at Harvard describes it:
● Pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity.
● Pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference.
● Pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments.
● Pluralism is based on dialogue. Pluralism is not a “given,” but an achievement.
To read more, see What is Pluralism? If we are to be energetically engaged with religious diversity, we need to underwstand the spiritual side of people's lives and, for that matter, the spiritual side of our own lives.
What is Spirituality, Anyway
It is the endeavor to be vital, awake, and aware in all areas of our lives.
“Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of our existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. Someone will say, “I come alive when I listen to music,” or “I come to lie when I garden, or “I come alive when I play golf.” Wherever we come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual. And then we can say: “I know at least how one is spiritual in that area.” To be vital, awake, aware, in all areas of our lives is the task that is never accomplished, but it remains the goal." (David Steindl-Rast, The Music of Silence)
Spiritual literacy is knowing about the moods, attitudes, and capacities that are important to people in the many world religions, helping them to become awake, aware, and alive.
Can spiritual literacy be part of interfaith work?
There has been something missing in interfaith work and we all know it. It is that too often we've focused on religious literacy but not spiritual literacy. On dialogue across differences but not mutual seeking. On service to the world but not service to the soul. We have not had the vocabulary or mindset to understand the moods, attitudes, and capacities that are the building blocks of the deeper side of life. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat change that. For more than forty years they have been discovering and exploring the various forms of spirituality that are important in the world's religions.and that are available to people around the world: believers, nonbelievers, and the vast majority in between. In Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Ordinary Life and Spiritual RX: Prescriptions for Living a Meaningful Life they help us understand them an offer practices for entering into them, ranging from film discussions through music to readings and spoken word poetry. In short, they bring them alive. For a description of each of the thirty-seven, and links to resources for understanding and practicing them, click here:
Our task as interfaith leaders is to become spiritually literate ourselves so that we can appreciate the spiritual side of life and include this appreciation in our work. There is more to interfaith work than spiritual literacy, but not less.
“Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of our existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. Someone will say, “I come alive when I listen to music,” or “I come to lie when I garden, or “I come alive when I play golf.” Wherever we come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual. And then we can say: “I know at least how one is spiritual in that area.” To be vital, awake, aware, in all areas of our lives is the task that is never accomplished, but it remains the goal." (David Steindl-Rast, The Music of Silence)
Spiritual literacy is knowing about the moods, attitudes, and capacities that are important to people in the many world religions, helping them to become awake, aware, and alive.
Can spiritual literacy be part of interfaith work?
There has been something missing in interfaith work and we all know it. It is that too often we've focused on religious literacy but not spiritual literacy. On dialogue across differences but not mutual seeking. On service to the world but not service to the soul. We have not had the vocabulary or mindset to understand the moods, attitudes, and capacities that are the building blocks of the deeper side of life. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat change that. For more than forty years they have been discovering and exploring the various forms of spirituality that are important in the world's religions.and that are available to people around the world: believers, nonbelievers, and the vast majority in between. In Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Ordinary Life and Spiritual RX: Prescriptions for Living a Meaningful Life they help us understand them an offer practices for entering into them, ranging from film discussions through music to readings and spoken word poetry. In short, they bring them alive. For a description of each of the thirty-seven, and links to resources for understanding and practicing them, click here:
Our task as interfaith leaders is to become spiritually literate ourselves so that we can appreciate the spiritual side of life and include this appreciation in our work. There is more to interfaith work than spiritual literacy, but not less.