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Document Details : Title: Spirituality: Engagement and Reflection Subtitle: Dialogical Explorations among Practitioners and Intellectuals Author(s): QUARTIER, Thomas Journal: Studies in Spirituality Volume: 26 Date: 2016 Pages: 307-330 DOI: 10.2143/SIS.26.0.3180813 Abstract : How do spiritual life, intellectual reflection and societal engagement relate to each other? This article explores the question based on explorative dialogical research among practitioners of spirituality and intellectuals engaged with societal issues. Taking as a starting point the ideas of three witnesses of what the triangle of spirituality, engagement and reflection can mean, dialogues (collatios) have been held, recorded and analysed to explore associations of personal forms of life, analytical skills and social action. The three ‘ant-agonists’ are Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothee Sölle and Thomas Merton. We used core texts of all three during the fieldwork. The impulses of these texts provide a frame for our reflection on the data presented here. In the first part, the dimension of societal engagement is explored, in the second part the dimension of intellectual reflection and in the third part the dimension of a spiritual involvement. We found that a comprehensive self for practitioners of spirituality and intellectuals should entail transformative knowledge and substantive analysis of ultimate values, as well as an eschatological open attitude for study and research. |
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