The Divine Embrace (Ancient-Future): Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life

By Robert E. Webber

One of the most popular current views on spirituality is that there are varied paths to God. In this new Ancient-Future series book, Bob Webber evaluates this common misunderstanding of spirituality as separated from God's story, extremely self-focused, and shaped by our surrounding culture. This challenging work offers a corrective, calling us to an alternative Christian spirituality, one that reveals two sides-that of God's "divine embrace" of us and our passionate response. The Divine Embrace is a fresh, grounded look at true spirituality that will be embraced by pastors, thinking Christians, and anyone looking for an engaging and thorough treatment of this topic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781441242433

Robert E. Webber

Robert Webber (1933 - 2007) was the William R. and Geraldyn B. Myers professor of ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois, and professor of theology emeritus at Wheaton College. A theologian known for his work on worship and the early church, Webber was founder and president of the Institute for Worship Studies, Orange Park, Florida.

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A

NCIENT

-F

UTURE

S

ERIES

Current Titles

Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (1999)

Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community (2003)

Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (2004)

The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (2006)

Related Titles by Robert E. Webber

The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World (2002)

© 2006 by Robert E. Webber

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4412-4243-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

The material in chapter 10 from Ed Rommen, Reflections on Becoming Orthodox, Occasional Bulletin of the Evangelical Missionary Society (Spring 1999) is copyright 1999 by the Evangelical Missionary Society and is used by permission.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked RSV is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked TLB is taken from The Living Bible, copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

The illustration on the cover and on the two part openers is original artwork titled Into Our Hearts by Kirsten M. Berry and is reproduced by permission. (Greek text of Galatians 4:6: God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba!)

CONTENTS

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction to the Ancient-Future Series

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

A Dinnertime Conversation on Spirituality

Part 1

The Crisis:

How Spirituality Became Separated from the Divine Embrace

2. A Historical Perspective 1 (AD 30–1500)

Rescuing Spirituality from Dualism and Mysticism

3. A Historical Perspective 2 (1500–1900)

Rescuing Spirituality from Intellectualism and Experientialism

4. A Modern Dislocation (1900–2000)

Rescuing Spirituality from Legalism and Romanticism

5. A Postmodern Provocation (2000–)

Rescuing Spirituality from New Age Philosophy and Eastern Religions

Part 2

The Challenge:

Returning Spirituality to the Divine Embrace

6. God’s Story

He Stretched Out His Arms of Love on the Hard Wood of the Cross

7. My Story

Coming within the Reach of His Saving Embrace

8. His Life in Mine

Reaching Forth Our Hands in Love

9. My Life in His

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

10. Life Together

Rediscovering Our Mystical Union with God

Postscript

No Story but God’s; No God but the Father, Son, and Spirit; No Life but the Baptized Life

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

INTRODUCTION TO THE ANCIENT-FUTURE SERIES

This book, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life, belongs to the Ancient-Future series. In each book of the series I present an issue related to faith and Christian practice from a particular point of view, namely, that of drawing wisdom from the past and translating these insights into the present and future life of the church, its faith, worship, ministry, and spirituality.

In these books I address current issues in the context of three very significant quests taking place in the church today. First, these books speak to the longing to discover the roots of the faith in the biblical and classical tradition of the church. I affirm the Bible as the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. However, instead of disregarding the developments of faith in the church, I draw on the foundational interpretation of the church fathers and the creeds and practices of the ancient church. These are sources in which Christian truth has been summarized and articulated over against heretical teaching.

Second, this series is committed to the current search for unity in the church. Therefore, I draw from the entire history of the church together with its many manifestations—Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant—particularly the Reformers and evangelicals like John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. I weave insights from these traditions into the text so the reader will understand how other deeply committed Christians have sought to think and live the faith in other places and times.

Finally, I use these biblical, ancient roots together with insights and practices from Christian history to constitute the foundation for addressing the third issue faced by today’s church: how do you deliver the authentic faith and great wisdom of the past into the new cultural situation of the twenty-first century? The way into the future, I argue, is not an innovative new start for the church; rather, the road to the future runs through the past.

These three matters—roots, connection, and authenticity in a changing world—will help us to maintain continuity with historic Christianity as the church moves forward. I hope what I cull from the past and then translate and adapt into the present will be beneficial to your ministry in the new cultural situation of our time.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

No one is fully able to acknowledge all the sources and people who contribute to the writing of a book. Many unnamed books, people, and even institutions have formed my life and challenged me to be sensitive to the work of the church as it moves into a post-Christian world. The fact that I mention only a few of these people and institutions here in no way diminishes my appreciation for the unnamed.

First, I need to thank Northern Seminary for my appointment as the William R. and Geraldyne B. Myers Professor of Ministry. This generous chair has substantially reduced my teaching load, allowing me more time to write. I am equally grateful to Baker Books, to Robert Hosack for freedom to develop this book in a way that reflects my convictions and to Paul J. Brinkerhoff for his editorial skills that made the book read more clearly.

Next, there are those special people who have encouraged me and helped me with the research and the process of many rewrites and editorial changes. A special word of thanks to the editors at Baker Books for their careful editing.

Early on in the process of writing, two friends read, discussed, and provided some helpful advice and insight—Sherry Schaub and Rev. John Carlson. Also, a number of people responded to the summaries I presented in Ancient-Future Talk. Some of the email responses appear in the text. I owe a special word of thanks to these people, and also to the many unnamed people who provided me with their stimulating thoughts. Numerous books were helpful, particularly Mark McIntosh’s Mystical Theology, whose panoramic interpretation of spirituality provided me with a paradigm to think about the unique nature of Christian spirituality. Thanks, also, to my friend and colleague Amanda Gambony, whose searching interaction has forced me toward greater clarity. Then there are my Northern Seminary students, whose response and interaction I value greatly. And this project could not have been completed without the constant attention of Ashley Gieschen to the frequent twists and turns of my evolving grasp of God’s embrace and to the constant unannounced rewrites. And, of course, my wife, Joanne, who suffered through my frustrations, the early morning to late evenings, and the endless discussions. Thanks to these and many unnamed contributors who through the years have challenged my mind and heart with God’s truth.

The Divine Embrace

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer, 101

1

INTRODUCTION

A Dinnertime Conversation on Spirituality

Iwas talking to two young couples during dinner when a question changed the conversation rather abruptly. What are you writing on these days?

I’m writing on spirituality, I responded. Immediately they responded with an explosion of ideas. For the next half hour I listened to each person express his or her range of thoughts about spirituality.

I’m spiritual, said Isabel. There has to be something more than the material world. I don’t know what it is—a power, an energy, a mystery. There is something there, something more than meets the eye.

Not me, said John.

Are you an atheist? I asked.

No. I’m not really an atheist. I just don’t think you can know.

Then, I said, you must be an agnostic.

Alexandra chimed in, I remember when I was a little girl, I saw a sign on a building that said, ‘All paths lead to God.’ I thought to myself, ‘That makes a lot of sense.’ There are many religions and everyone has their own path to God, and that’s okay.

The fourth person, Jack, declared, What I can’t stand is someone who thinks they have truth, that their view is the right one and everyone else is wrong.

This statement drew a chorus of Yeahs and resulted in an extended discussion affirming the validity of all spiritualities. The idea that anyone could affirm that there is such a thing as universal truth for everyone was clearly anathema, a bad idea in today’s world of relativism, of no absolutes.

I asked a few questions, but mainly I just listened.

Finally, Jack, who was seated to my left, asked, So what do you believe?

I’m a committed Christian, I answered, and as a matter of fact, I’m one of those Christians who believes Jesus to be ‘the way, the truth, and the life.’ Jesus declared himself to be the way to God, so I affirm that spirituality is uniquely connected to Jesus. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have respect for other spiritualities, I added.

These two couples were surprised to hear those words, especially since they had condemned anyone who thinks that there is such a thing as universal truth. After a few moments of embarrassed silence I asked, So, what are you going to do with me?

After a brief pause, Jack said, Explain yourself. I’m willing to hear you out.

Okay, I said, but to explain myself I have to tell you a story. I sensed a puzzlement on his part, so I quickly added, "All spiritualities are based on a story. You have to know the story of a particular religion to understand its spirituality."

This statement aroused the curiosity of everyone. Tell the story, said Jack. Maybe I don’t know the story; as a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Christianity told as a story.

Okay, I responded, but I have to tell you I can’t prove the story.[1]

I like that! I don’t like it when religious people try to prove their faith. Just the fact that you say that we shouldn’t try to prove the story with history and science makes me want to listen.

It took me about an hour to sketch out the story. There was lots of laughter, interaction, and interfacing. I did not try to prove the faith with historical facts or scientific data or build a presuppositional case. Instead I simply told the story of God: how God created us to be in union with himself, how this unity was broken, and how Jesus, by God’s Spirit, brought us back into union with God by becoming one of us, by living to show us what true humanity looks like, by dying to destroy all that is death in the world, and by rising to lift us up into a new life in God. Consider, I suggested, "that Jesus really is the way to God, that he really does disclose the truth about life, and that through Jesus the vision for humanity and all of history is revealed." After I finished the story of how Jesus by God’s Spirit unites us to God and calls us to a new way of seeing and living life, the first question was:

What God did in Jesus, did God do that for everybody?

Yes, I said, he did.

For Buddhists?

Yes.

For Hindus?

Yes.

For Muslims?

Yes.

For all people?

No exceptions. Everybody.[2]

I got it! said Jack. I got it! I got it! I’ve never heard spirituality expressed that way before. That’s incredible.

With a look of astonishment on her face, Isabel said, "That is a good story! What are we to do?"

I had already begun the writing of The Divine Embrace when this conversation took place. I was, as I think my dinner guests were, impacted by this conversation. Consequently, I rewrote what I had already written to make this book a response to our discussion, to engage the conversation on a deeper level. I invite you, the reader, to join the dialogue and think with me about a spirituality that is rooted in the story of God.

CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY IS . . .

What is Christian spirituality? There is a great deal of confusion about Christian spirituality today. For many who have been reared in the faith, like these two young couples, and for many outside of the Christian faith, spirituality in the Christian tradition seems to be misunderstood.

For example, the cover story of a recent Newsweek magazine titled Spirituality in America and bearing the subtitle, What we believe, how we pray, where we find God, defines spirituality as the passion for an immediate, transcendent experience of God.[3] The various articles show how this transcendent experience is realized in religions as various as Islam, Pentecostalism, Catholicism, and the Jewish Kabbalah as well as in environmentalism. The writers make no real distinction between the story or vision of each of these religions, simply describing all spiritualities as the search for experience.

Of course spirituality has an experiential dimension, but the experience is always in keeping with the story from which it arises. So the Christian experience will differ from that of Islam, Buddhism, or New Age religions because it is based on a different story. This book is about the Christian story of the divine embrace, the spirituality that proceeds from it, and how this spirituality may be recovered in a relativistic, postmodern world where spirituality is viewed as a common, contentless experience of otherness.

WHERE DO WE START?

The heart of biblical and ancient Christian spirituality is our mystical union with God accomplished by Jesus Christ through the Spirit. God unites with humanity in his saving incarnation, death, and resurrection. We unite with God as we receive his new life within us.

Christian spirituality then, simply put, is God’s passionate embrace of us; our passionate embrace of God. These two aspects of Christian spirituality are like the two sides of a coin—inextricably linked together, unable to exist apart. On one side we find the divine initiative, referring to what God does to make us spiritual. On the other side we find our response, referring to our reception of the union. These two sides of a single coin tell us that God makes us spiritual, and we live the spiritual life. But to understand these two aspects of spirituality, we must place them in the setting of God’s story of the world.

GOD’S STORY

What is God’s story? It is the story of God’s purposes for humanity and the world.[4] God created us in his image and likeness, to live in union with himself, to be what he created us to be, and to do what he created us to do: take care of the world and make it the place of his glory.

But we failed both assignments. We rebelled against God and sought the meaning of life by following the course of evil in our personal choices, resulting in the world as a place of violence, greed, and lust.

We can’t change ourselves or the world. So God does it for us.

God’s story is the story of how God reversed the human condition, broke the hold of sin and death—which separates us from God, and restored us to the original vision of becoming the person God created us to be and making the world the place of God’s glory.

Christian spirituality, then, does not fall into what Newsweek describes as a contentless transcendent experience but is God’s gift of a redirected life in union with God’s purpose for life. Our spiritual life then, is union with God fulfilled in a life of contemplation and participation in God’s vision for life in this world. Contemplation and participation, it turns out, is our worship of God.

This description of spirituality contains four crucial words. Two of these words refer to God’s way of union with us: story and mystical-union; two refer to the way of our union with and worship of God: contemplation and participation. The first two words speak to the source of spirituality; the second two words speak to the actions of the spiritual life.

THE SOURCE OF SPIRITUALITY

It is God who makes us spiritual, not ourselves. God’s embrace is the passionate outworking of God’s vision to reunite us to himself and redirect our lives to fulfill his original purposes for us and the world. The two words that express the divine initiative that restores our spiritual condition are story and mystical-union.

Story

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion about storytelling as a prime form of communication. This emphasis on story is a result of the shift from modernity to postmodern times. In modern times people were much more interested in argument. The emphasis was on setting forth your premise, then developing the arguments that proved your case.

I was trained in the modern method of apologetic argument. In seminary I took a course on presuppositional thinking. Your basic presupposition, I was told, is that there is a God who created the world and revealed himself to the world. Ask your opponent to set forth his or her presupposition, then show the logic of your opponent’s presupposition and the logic of your own, and then persuade him or her that Christianity must be embraced as true. Christian theologian and philosopher Francis Schaeffer was a master of this approach, and many of us became his pupils and sought to do what he did, but none of us did it nearly as well.

But we no longer live in the modern world that privileges reason, science, and the empirical method of proving this or that to be true. Some bemoan the shift from the modern world. Some even hang onto the modern world because their theology is dependent on it. For them, the thought of thinking differently is threatening, so they do not want to go there.

But in the postmodern world, the way of knowing has changed. We now live in a world in which people have lost interest in argument and have taken to story, imagination, mystery, ambiguity, and vision—and it was Christianity as story that compelled my dinner guests to listen with interest.

However, this does not mean or at least should not mean the complete loss of reason. Reason has a place in story. It is Christian rationalism that has failed, not intelligent discourse. So there is no need to be afraid of story. Story is neither irrational nor relativistic. Spirituality is about God’s story—how God reunites us to God’s own purposes for our life in this world and the world to come.

Mystical-Union

The story of God is the story of how God unites with us so that we may be united to him. My dinner friends and I spent a great deal of time conversing about the universal human desire to be in union with God. We acknowledged that every religion in the world expresses the longing to be in union with God in one way or another. But Christianity presents a particular way that union with God is achieved. The Christian Scriptures teach that God created people to be in union with him and his purposes for creation. The early chapters of Genesis picture the union God enjoyed with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But the union between God and humanity was broken when Adam and Eve turned away from God and God’s purposes for life. We, like them, have done the same.

How is this union with God recovered? The texts of the Christian faith tell us no matter how hard we try, there is nothing we can do to restore our union with God. That is the bad news. But the good news is that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God became a man and lived in our skin, so to speak, to accomplish once again the union between God and humanity that was lost by Adam. The ancient fathers speak of God restoring our spiritual union with him by his own two hands[5]—Jesus and God’s life-giving Spirit. So spirituality is not a self-generated achievement but a gift given to us by God. This gift sets us free to see life in a new way and to live life as God intended, in union with the purposes of the Creator and Redeemer of the world.

The Christian concept of union with God is not a new or novel idea. It is the most common description of spirituality throughout the entire history of the church. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, professor of systematic theology at Fuller, asks, What is the way back to God, to live with God, to live in God and share in the divine? From the beginning of the Christian faith, he asserts, the answer has been union with God.[6] Philosopher and popular author on spirituality Dallas Willard declares, "God’s desire for us is that we should live in him. He sends among us the way to himself. That shows what, in his heart of hearts, God is really like—indeed what reality is really like.[7] Philip Sheldrake, vice president of Sarum College in Salisbury, England, and a renowned historian and theologian of spirituality, points out that spirituality is the whole human life viewed in terms of a conscious relationship with God, in Jesus Christ, through the indwelling of the Spirit, and within the community of believers."[8]

I don’t doubt that for many spirituality as union with God is a new insight. And that is because union with God has become lost in the twentieth century. Spirituality has been wrenched from its origins in the story of God and set adrift to become just about anything. In this free-float state, spirituality has been more influenced by culture than by God’s vision. Current spirituality, having asserted its independence from God’s vision for the world, is expressed more as a journey into self than a journey into God. Nevertheless, union with God does have to do with self, not as in the narcissistic self but as the challenge to be the new self—re-created to be all that God intends us to be in our restored nature and new state of being. For when God lives in us and we in him, we lose ourselves through a surrender of ourselves to the purposes of God. We become transformed selves.

Because this union is a mystical-union, I need to make clear how I am using the word mystical throughout this book. Bernard McGinn points out that we can distinguish between two senses of mysticism: the implicit, general or objective mysticism of the new life ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3), and explicit, special or subjectively realized mysticism, that is, the conscious experience of God’s presence in the soul.[9] In both uses God’s union with us is a mystery even as our union with God is a mystery. I use the words mystical and mystery throughout this book to refer, not to an esoteric spiritual experience, but to the mystery of our union with God.

God’s union with us is referred to by Paul as a mystery. He speaks of the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages of the past, but now revealed and made known (Rom. 16:25–26). He identifies this mystery in his letter to the Ephesians as insight into the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). Christ is God’s mystery made known. The plan of God to reunite the world is now revealed and known in Jesus. The mystery, then, applies to the story of God.

That God’s story is a mystery doesn’t mean that it can’t be grasped in the heart or even in the mind, for it is a revealed mystery, a mystery that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16 KJV). It is the mystery of God’s love that, while not subject to rationalism, is comprehended by us as an unbelievable, astonishing wonder, an awesome, incredible vision of the entire world, of all history, and of the meaning and purpose of all humanity. So also the mystery of God as triune—eternally dwelling in the community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the mystery in which our desire for relationship in community is situated. The mystery that God, overflowing with love, created a universe as a place of his glory tells us who gives meaning to nature, to the rhythm of life, to the seasons of beauty. That humanity rebelled against God and broke union with him is a mystery. The story of Abraham and Israel is the mystery of God’s self-revelation. The mystery of the Virgin Mary proclaims that God became earthed for our sake, that God and man were united in Jesus, that God entered our suffering on the cross, and that Jesus rose from the grave, conquering death.

These events are the mysteries that change the way we see the world, the mysteries that compel our self-giving. That this God now lives in us and that God, at the end of history, will put away all evil and restore his heaven and earth—cleansed from all rebellion—and restore creation to what God originally intended is the mystery that fills our lives with hope. Thus, to regard God’s story as a mystery does not mean we cannot talk about it, think about it, or explore its meaning. But it does mean that we must come to it with the worshiping mind of Paul who cried:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the

wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable his judgments,

and his paths beyond tracing out!

"Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?"

"Who has ever given to God,

that God should repay him?"

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:33–36

The term mystery also applies to our subjective experience. McGinn calls this mystery the conscious experience of God’s presence in the soul.[10] It is the experience of the union of God dwelling in us and we in him. And the way to experience this mystery is to live in it, to embody it through the spiritual life of contemplation and the way of participation.[11]

THE ACTIONS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

If it is true that we are made spiritual because of God’s union with us, it is also true that our spiritual life is the living out of God’s union with us through contemplation and participation: the worship of God as a style of life.

The Way of Contemplation

In the spiritual life we choose to contemplate the mystery of the Triune God who creates and has entered into our history to reconcile the world through his mighty acts of salvation culminating in Jesus Christ. Contemplation is a prayerful pondering of the mystery, a wonder, a sense of astonishment and awe before the glory of it all.

The biblical image of contemplation that we are to follow is found in Mary, the mother of Jesus. After she was told of the mystery of God being united with the man-child Jesus in her womb, she responded in worship: May it be to me as you have said (Luke 1:38). She then treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19). St. Augustine, the fifth-century father of the Western church, says, Mary conceived the Word first in her mind and then in her body. He adds, It would have been worth nothing to her to have carried Christ in her womb if she had not carried him with love in her heart.[12]

Our contemplation, like that of Mary’s, is not a mere intellectual assent to God’s story but a free penetrating and fixed gaze,[13] a loving look at God.[14] It differs from meditation, which is the search for God. It is instead "delight in the found truth."[15] It is a real, genuine, internal delight in the story of God’s rescue of creatures and creation. This delight in God expresses itself in the worship of God translated as a love for the story, a love for life, a love for this world.

Delight is the hope that swells up within us because this is such a good story, such an incredible drama of how God overcomes evil and establishes his kingdom throughout all creation. This world is not doomed to always be as it now is. There is hope, and in this hope we take great delight. Peter, a disciple of Jesus, put it this way: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3 RSV). To contemplate the story of God that is captured in this single verse is to delight in it, to simply love it, and to be energized by it, and this is a vital aspect of the Christian spiritual life. When Isabel, one of my four dinner guests, responded with, "That is a good story! What should we do?" those words expressed delight, wonder, awe, and faith.

The Way of Participation

The spiritual life of contemplation on God’s story leads us to the second aspect of our spiritual life: choices we make to participate in God and God’s purposes for life in this world. When we, like Isabel, upon hearing the story desire to participate in God, we are no longer preoccupied with self, the welfare of the self, the indulgence of the self, and the preservation of the self. Instead the focus is on God’s purposes for our life and the life of the world.

Participation in God affirms life. To worship God through participation means to live life intentionally, choosing to live God’s way in our personal life, in all of our relationships within the family, in the institutions of society, and in our vocations. This life in God in the world is shaped by an interior disposition—a heart that constantly wills to do what God desires for creatures and creation. To participate in God’s story is to live a transformed life, a life that brings glimpses of the ultimate transformation of all creation when all that God has made is now in union with God’s purposes and heaven and earth breaks forth in praise of its Creator and Redeemer.

The primary biblical example of participation in God is Jesus himself. Jesus, the incarnate Word, is the only man who got it right. In Jesus God shows us what humanity should look like, for he reversed the disobedience of the first Adam, who rebelled against God’s purposes for life, and gave us in his life the true image of a restored humanity. Jesus’s life was a perfect participation in God. He himself expressed this union in the words of his prayer spoken on the night of his death: As you are in me and I am in you (John 17:21). Jesus died for us to destroy the ultimacy of death over us. He was resurrected from the grave so that a new life could be birthed in us. He now lives in us and unites us to God.

Our own spiritual lives are a participation in God through Christ, for it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20 RSV). God, who became human by the Spirit to unite himself with us, actually takes up residence within us and lives in us! So Christian spirituality is the experience of God living in us and the challenge of our living in God. It is as simple as that, but it goes deep, very deep, not only into the heart and soul of every person but into the heart and soul of God and of life itself.

The Divine Embrace

I capture this ancient understanding of spirituality—God’s union with us and our union with God—in the image of the divine embrace found in the following words of The Book of Common Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen."[16]

I use the image of the divine embrace throughout this book to express both God’s divine initiative and our human response. In this image I call for a spirituality that is not a mere search for a transcendent experience but a spirituality that is rooted in the unique story of God. I ask you not to subscribe to the relativism that all paths lead to God but to a countercultural affirmation that God, the Creator of the universe, has cut a path into our history and, having become one of us in Jesus, unites us with himself. Look in all the religions of the world and you will find no better story than this. God has come to us in Jesus so that we may come to God through Jesus. That is Christian spirituality. And living in that union, that divine embrace, that is the