Westerhoff, John H. Spiritual Life:

Westerhoff, John H. Spiritual Life: The Foundation for Preaching and Teaching.

Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.

In his book Spiritual Life: The Foundation for Preaching and Teaching the Episcopal priest, theologian, teacher and author John H. Westerhoff stresses that having a full spiritual life is essential for both preachers and teachers of the gospel. To effectively guide others, a religious leader must understand the process of coming to terms with his or her relationship with God and personal sense of ethics. If he or she does not, than the advice given to seekers will be incomplete, and "worse, our work will become drudgery rather than vocation."

Westerhoff begins his book with a general guide for personal spiritual practices, and links these practices to teaching and guiding others and the whole community. Perhaps unusually for a minister, rather than stress unity of doctrine, Westerhoff stresses how a multiplicity of doctrines and disciplines, if mindfully practiced, can lead an individual to God. There is not only one path to understanding and one of the challenges of being a good guide for others is that an individual must have a strong sense of self-knowledge about his or her own personality and way of learning and facilitating internal spiritual devotion and creating spiritual relationships with others. Westerhoff thus injects a great deal of psychology in his book, recognizing that different metaphors and literary interpretations may be more effective for some readers than other readers. He suggests different ways of practicing faith for the introverted and the extroverted, the more linear and rational as well as the more intuitive.

Ultimately, Westerhoff believes that both the ministry and teaching in general is a 'calling' or vocation of spiritual and psychological understanding. Yet this is not a vocation in an exclusionary sense. This does not mean that only a few people can preach or teach, and that the gift comes naturally. Spirituality must be worked on -- he uses the analogy of conditioning the soul like training for an athletic competition. "A discipline is something we practice, an exercise." Westerhoff states that as with embarking upon a jogging program sometimes the practice of spiritual discipline can be difficult to start, before the routine becomes natural. Westerhoff states that he uses the metaphor of jogging deliberately, because of its mundane and seemingly secular nature, and also because of his own 'devotion' and love of this athletic pursuit, even though the practice did not come naturally to him! This selection of available and accessible analogies is characteristic of Westerhoff's style throughout the book.

Running does seem like an especially apt metaphor, however because all believers must learn to walk before they can run. They must start slowly, and build understanding of the practice of faith, rather than do everything at once. It can be difficult to get motivated on especially rainy or emotionally draining days. But the exercise eventually becomes part of life, and when regularly performed, becomes a vital, integral and health-giving part of one's soul, and is missed if ignored in the daily routine. Spirituality is a 'healthy habit' like exercise. Furthermore, just as one cannot jog at a busy and dangerous intersection, finding the right time, place, and context is essential to facilitate appropriate and meaningful spiritual practices. Thus ultimately, the spiritual life is an "ordinary life" lived close to God, but great care and deliberation is given to how it is performed, beginning with stretching, warming up, deep and mindful exercise, and then it must be followed up by taking the lessons learned and the energy derived from the practice, and infusing that energy in every moment of the day afterwards. "This love affair with God is the one and only end of human life" and the "perfection of the soul and the business of life" are one.

Spirituality is something that must be worked on, and not taken for granted, even though it is an ordinary part of life. Westerhoff suggests many common, everyday practices can be conducive to spiritual life, like keeping a journal, talking with friends, or simply finding a place of stillness and quiet reflection to allow the presence of God into one's existence. Westerhoff recalls an encounter with a student and a minister who entered the man's office to say: "I have nothing to ask you or say to you. I just wanted to be silent with you." Yet after that simple moment of stillness, silence, and mutual understanding, the young man and his spiritual mentor had a new bond of understanding and oneness in Christ, because of their mutual acknowledgement of need and fulfillment. This shows how the presence of God through the presence of another human being, or the stillness cultivated in one's own soul can be an effective form of self-teaching and teaching others, as effective as a more open and obvious discussion of doctrine. Westerhoff does not discount more conventional communal religious practice, but he regards such moments of silence that take place as essential in getting the maximum benefits from spiritual worship during a ceremony. In short, one cannot be a 'once a week' or 'once a year' Christian, the simplest, apparently secular acts of life must have a sense of connection to a larger being and essence.

The teaching of others must similarly foster such a sense of mediation within students. Students must be encouraged to seek out informed engagement with the world and the classroom should be a place of spiritual refreshment in the hearts of students, rather than a place to stress the memorization of doctrine. The students must feel that something new has been created between themselves and their spiritual leader during the process of worship and education. Faith, strictly speaking, is not something that is taught like a lecture; rather it is something that is fostered in the active practice of worship and prayer. The tailoring of spirituality to individual needs is also reflected in the author's stress upon the need for multiple images of God, including the presence of the feminine within God's essence. "Recall, for example, how Julian of Norwich referred to Jesus as her sister." God may sometimes be a friend, a mentor, a brother, a sister, or a child.

Although everyday life contains the potential for spiritual reflection, many of the values of secular society are anathema to that of spirituality -- but not those of supposed 'secular humanism' as some conservatives might allege, but the denial of our collective humanity. "One of the major problems for preachers and teachers is that they have been schooled in a way of knowing that treats people and the world as objects for their study and manipulation." Instead, an individual who sees teaching as a vocation will see him or herself as a learner as well as an educator observing the world, and will cultivate mindful self-improvement and reflection as well as try to successfully stimulate such improvement within others.