Preface

      During recent years, we have been
witnessing the development of a contemporary spirituality.
Some of the characteristics of this new spirituality include
the following: It is rooted in liturgy and Scripture; it is
significantly personalistic in its stress on the Christian’s I Thou
relationship with God and others; it is experiencing a
strong incarnational trend as the Church calls her members
to a more vital involvement with the temporal and
terrestrial aspects of Christ’s kingdom; and it shows a keen
interest in religious psychology and religious anthropology.
      Despite its process of renewal and change, however,
contemporary spirituality cannot sever itself from the
authentic spiritual tradition that has preceded it.
Consequently, we must learn how to unite contemporary
trends with the authentic, essential elements that have
constantly inserted themselves throughout the history of
Christian spirituality. To unite the contemporary with the
traditional is one of the aims of this book.
      Another purpose is to present a unified overview of the
spiritual life. In offering this, I do not claim it is an
exhaustive view by any means. As I draw from some of my
previous works on spirituality and add new material, I do
hope, however, that this modest work will be an aid to
committed Christians as they form their own personal
syntheses of their Christian existence. Such a unified view
is highly desirable and becomes increasingly important as
one progresses in the spiritual life.
     I wish to take this opportunity to thank Edward
Brueggeman, S.J., for his helpful suggestions, and Eunice
Staples for her careful typing of the manuscript.

EDWARD CARTER, S.J.
Xavier University
Cincinnati