| Chapter 1: | Transformation and the Study of Christian Spirituality |
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gradual process of actualization of sacred meaning and value in the life of a person and a bringing of oneself and one's life into conformity and alignment with these images of power.
In a functional sense, spiritual transformation at this level implies not only the possibility of developmental change in the structuring of faith, but also of conversion, understood as a “significant re-centering of one's previous conscious images of value and power, and the conscious adoption of a new set of master stories in the commitment to reshape one's life in a new community of interpretation and action.”17 A shift in structure or “content” has the power to reshape one's entire life and oneself in all of their dimensions and relations. As such, it is transformative of faith consciousness, identity, and behavior.
If the functional aspect of spiritual transformation is the process of integration of self and life through relation to sacred value, the phenomenological experience of this subjectively is a felt shift in consciousness, identity, and behavior in relation to the sacred, however perceived and mediated. The phenomenology of spiritual transformation is essentially an inner experience of a felt shift in desire—a desire that is felt as a longing for wholeness. Gerald May makes a seminal contribution to the understanding of this experience of desire in his elaboration of it as the source of human identity. “Desire,” he says, is
May is quick to point out that it is not easy to own and claim love as our true identity and deepest dignity. The response to this radical desire for love is blocked and distorted by deep resistance and defensive strategies that insulate awareness from the pain at the source of this desire. As May puts it,