Notes in the History of Spiritual Direction

    Spiritual Direction is one of the oldest professions, but it is also one of the newest.  Due in large part to the changes in our culture in the last few centuries, those of us who practice this work have needed to re-examine constantly the way in which we are present to individuals seeking guidance in the midst of confusion.

     I am assembling here a few enlightening discussions about how this work has changed over the years before and since Jesus walked the earth.  This work will take some time!  Spiritual direction, broadly understood, is a vast field, dealing as it does with how human beings find guidance in life's highest calling.  The books on the subject that offer any kind of comprehensive overview are surprisingly few, but of course, they are big.  Fortunately, a hyperlink format can reference these.  I will gradually broaden the focus to include sources from various religious traditions; links are also sorted by culture of origin.  A link within my site will be cross-linked to more than one context as appropriate.  Links to outside will often originate from more than one context.

    Often we want to understand the process of spiritual direction in a particular context, most especially our own personal contexts, when we are seeking, not merely to study, but to "walk the walk," to find spiritual direction for our own lives.  It's important to remember that each of us has a collection of personal contexts.  If you have come to this page for some personal guidance, follow the links as you feel urged to do so.  This page and the Spiritual Direction FAQ page that sent you here will become more richly linked as I find new sources.  Thank you for any contributions.  Suggest a new link.
HOME         Spiritual Direction
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General Context
  Other overviews

General Overview

    What is "spirituality" anyway?  It is generally accepted, at least by modern thinkers that I have encountered, that "spirituality" refers to a human faculty of being, like "awareness" or "consciousness" or "sight" or "hearing," but it does not equal any of those things, nor is it the same thing as "religion," with which it might be confused.  If we take as a working definition, that "spirituality" is the ability of the human being to sense and relate to "spirit" or other God-like reality that is not apparent to our five or six senses, then it is immediately obvious that the "History of Spirituality" is an absolutely huge field, and that we are not going to cover it well on this web site.  I am clearly "tilting at windmills," to borrow a wonderful metaphor from Cervantes.

     However, it seems vitally important for us (I, and the rest of you!) to address this topic, and I haven't found yet the books, blogs, or web pages that address it to my satisfaction, so I have created this page and begun to set up a link system, so that you may see what others have to say on the subject, too.  It is my hopw that the emerging community that IS discussing this huge and vitally important topic will get linked to one another and learn to listen to one another's experience.

     As you explore, if you feel that I have overlooked an important link, please call me on it; send a link or a comment.  At first, and for a while, the omissions will be most glaring; I'll keep working on it.
     Sacred Writings Context
  Old Testament
  New Testament
  Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical
  Talmud
  Qur'an
Religious Context
  Christian
  Jewish
  Islamic
  Hindu
  Buddhist
  Eurasian Indigenous
  African Indigenous
  American Indigenous
  Australian and Pacific Indigenous
Cultural Context
  Greco-Roman
  Germanic, Scandinavian
  Anglo-Saxon
  Celtic, Gallic, Gothic
   Mozarabic, Sephardic
   Eastern European, Ashkenazic
  Levantine, Arabian
  African
   Central Asian
  Indian
  Chinese
  Japanese, Korean
  Southeast Asian
  Native American
  Australian Aboriginal
  Other cultures
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This page and the Spirituality FAQ page that sent you here
 will become more richly linked as I find new sources.  Please come back and visit again.

Copyright 2007, by David Christian Nelson                                  Page updated February 23, 2007

Updated August 18, 2006