Spiritualityd … Spirituality in our time – In conversation with Hartmut Rosa’s theory on social acceleration

Abstract

This contribution is an altered version of an invited public lecture held at the Musaion, Department of Biblical and Religious Studies, University of Pretoria, on 13 September 2017. Such an originating Sitz im Leben of this, the resulting article, explains the at times less densely than usually written composition and also the vignettes from personal experience in academic contexts which serve as instances illustrating points being made. Because the phenomenon of postsecularism is developing internationally, apart from global trends in religiosity indicated, examples touch on the geographies of Germany, Finland, Turkey, South America and Asia and of course, given the location of the author and the two figures to whom this publication is dedicated, Southern Africa. Examples furthermore relate to Christianity, Islam, Judaism and atheism in communication both with and in some respects against one another -again telling of a postsecular atmosphere.The first section of this article highlights experience as a turnkey to the post-secular mind frame, with transforming wholeness as an implicit objective of spirituality. This is; however, not in any instrumentalist sense because an arrivedness runs contrary to spirituality as continuous existential meaning seeking-and-making. The second section of this article illustrates some possibilities of diverse spiritualities through practical, experiential examples. Important here is the indication that there is no 'holier than thou' position on spirituality, namely from any superior vantage point of being of a certain conviction, be that a religious or a non-religious persuasion. Given that post-secularism is understood to be a new cultural mind frame on religiosity arising in our time and that spirituality is never context-free, the newest of sociological theories on time, and on our time, are indicated in the third and last section of this article. Helmut Rosa's contribution in this regard is summarised, from which certain questions are teased out on spirituality for -precisely -our time.I feel myself honoured herewith to dedicate this published version to colleagues Pieter de Villiers and Celia Kourie, who established Christian Spirituality as an academic discipline in South Africa (cf. O'Sullivan 2012:43-59) and to whom I owe an irredeemably great debt of gratitude for the professional and intellectual doors they have opened to me, our colleagues and our students. Aut delectare aut prodesse [That which 'pleseth the soule']Aut delectare aut prodesse -'either to educate or to please' -had been a summary of Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, a contemporary of Augustus Caesar, whose later life years overlapped with the early life years of Jesus of Nazareth) on the purpose of poetry. Much later, in the 1600s and 1700s, this formulation also became a motto of sorts to the French literary and philosophical salons where -as much as all the other intellectual influences on our context -much of the contents of our minds had been given form.To educate here at this public lecture is theref...