What does spirituality in Christianity look like? Is it primarily emotional, or is it more rational? Is it expressed in making pilgrimages or celebrating certain days?
Peter Adam's Hearing God's Words: Exploring Biblical Spirituality looks at how spirituality is shown in a brief study of 13 Biblical books (Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Luke, Romans, Colossians, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation), as well as dealing with historical approaches, such as Calvin's Theology of Revelation and the Puritan/Quaker debate on whether God speaks through the Bible or through the Spirit.
As an artist and novelist, I found chapter 5 interesting as it looks at various issues. Adam provides a defense for those who believe that paintings/statues of Christ are a violation of the 2nd Commandment, and that there is no New Testament instance of holy days for the Church or holy places. I'm not sure I completely agree, and I might reread this book to deal with the issue better. For example, one of my favorite novels ("An Unholy Communion," Monastery Murders book 3, by Donna Fletcher Crow) dealt with a pilgrimage; for me, the interest is not so much the destination as the travel with fellow believers.
If you want a book that looks at Spirituality and that may challenge your presuppositions, I highly recommend this book. After all, we DO need our assumptions challenged every now and then.
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