Theology, Disability, and Spiritual Transformation: Learning from ...

a more formal and systematic set of principles and methodologies for the study of religious experience. Like its more traditional partners in academic inquiry, the field of spirituality studies seeks to gain deeper critical and constructive insights into the experience of transformation and to undertake this in conversation with other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Its distinctive focus, however, is on transformation as a result of a particular way of life lived in relation to the presence and power of “spirit”—usually conceived of as an agency or “higher power” that is transcendent to the self.

This exploration of spiritual transformation in L’Arche is situated more specifically in the field of Christian spirituality. The focus of the discipline of Christian spirituality is generally understood as the experience of life in the Holy Spirit: the human quest for wholeness and holiness in relation to God incarnate in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Differing perceptions and responses to the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit give rise to different images of wholeness and holiness, different styles of personal integration, different spiritual disciplines leading to wholeness, and, ultimately, different forms of individual and communal life. The spirituality of a particular community, such as L’Arche, represents a unique configuration of experiences, perceptions, and responses to the Holy Spirit, giving rise to distinctive images of holiness and a common experience and understanding of transformation. It is this experience that is the focus of this investigation.

There are three “framing” questions that arise at the outset of this inquiry and which form the basis of this chapter. The first question concerns how this study of spiritual transformation in the communities of L’Arche is situated within the broader academic field of Christian spirituality. This field offers a categorical and analytical framework for understanding the elements of Christian spirituality as a lived experience and gives foundational and orienting perspectives on the spiritual experience of persons in a Christian community such as L’Arche. It provides unique and helpful insights into the basic notions of this study, namely “spirit” and “spirituality.” Some sustained attention to how these basic terms are defined in the field helps to put this enterprise into a larger theoretical context.