Religija: dvasingumo sklaidos galimybė ar Prokrusto lova?

LTNagrinėjama religijos kaip ugdymo dvasingumo konteksto galimybės. Remiantis įvairių užsienio autorių mintimis, atskleidžiamas religijos ir ypač krikščioniškosios tradicijos potencialas dvasingumo sklaidai. Autorės nuomone, brandaus dvasingumo sklaida neįmanoma be įsišaknijimo konkrečioje dvasinėje tradicijoje, kuri tampa kaip krantai, nukreipiantys įgimtą galingų troškimo „daugiau“ liepsnų ne destruktyvia, o gyvybę teikiančia linkme.

ENSpirituality can be understood in many ways, but the broadest understanding suggests that it has to do with our inner capacity to transcend ourselves. As Ronald Rolheiser proposes, spirituality is what we do with the inner fire of desire, which burns in us. Everyone has spirituality in this sense, whether we want it or not, whether we are religious or not. However, not every kind of spirituality is life-giving. Religion is one of the key contexts of the spirituality of education, even if it is often deliberately ignored because of the fear of its Procrustean approach. However, religion, which is faithful to its core values, avoids becoming a Procrustean bed and offers a path to living out ones spirituality in a life-giving way. Christian religion in particular becomes a means of directing the innate human desire and capacity for transcending oneself out of love.Spirituality without religion is dangerous as it is often concentrated solely on the wellbeing of the individual at the expense of the greater common good and lacks power to channel our inner fire, which when, unbridled, may become destructive. Christian religion, which is an invitation to come out of one's ego and to labour in opening up to God's Kingdom, on the other hand, offers a way of losing ones life in order to gain true life. That life comes as a gift of opening up to the Other as Thou, and transcends the human ego and its limitations. The dynamics of this relationship with the Holy Other as I-Thou, implicitly suggested by the Gospels, are of great importance for development of a healthy personal spirituality, which, in turn, creates a necessary premise for the development of a healthy spirituality of education.