Bryant L. Myers in his book, Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development, describes one of the goals of his book as a “struggle to overcome problems presented by the persistent and insistent belief in the West that the spiritual and physical domains of life are separate and unrelated. This assumption has invaded and controlled almost every area of intellectual inquiry, including development theory and practice as well as much Christian theology. I will seek an understanding of development in which physical, social, and spiritual development are seamlessly interrelated” (1). Not only does Myers argue that people in the West hold this assumption, but anyone who’s received a “western education” has been inundated with this false assumption of the separation between the spiritual and physical.
This false separation between the physical and spiritual domains of life plays into development theories and practices. Myers observes two resulting reductions of this dichotomy: “First, poverty is reduced to a merely material condition having to do with the absence of things like money, water, food, housing and the lack of just social systems, also materially defined and understood. Second, development is reduced correspondingly to a material series of responses designed to overcome these needs” (4). This reductionism leads to an only partial understanding and addressing of people’s poverty since no connection between the spiritual and the physical is made. According to Myers and other scholars, “Poverty is a result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings” (86). Myers raises the question, “What causes distortion and injustice in our relationships?” (88) He argues that any theory of poverty needs to be able to address this fundamental question and concludes, “For the Christian, the biblical story provides an unambiguous answer. Sin is what distorts these relationships, because we are unable to love God and neighbor, because of sin. [….] Without a strong theology of sin, comprehensive explanations for poverty are hard to come by” (88). Accordingly, the biblical story does have explanation power and is able to take both the spiritual and physical domains of life and their interrelationship into account. Thus development work is one example, where the modern western assumptions needs to be overcome.
Development work, however, is not the only area in western Christian’s life where we have separated the physical from the spiritual. We can see this false dichotomy in how we distinguish between secular jobs and ministry jobs. For example, being a youth pastor is perceived as being spiritual while being a teacher is not.
Western Christianity has picked up this modern dualistic narrative where the spiritual and the physical are separated and we have understood our life, our job etc. through it. This has led to a fragmentation of our lives. Furthermore, I believe that our lack of understanding of how our Christianity is connected to our daily life has at least in part its root in this false dichotomy.
What can we do to reprogram ourselves to perceiving ourselves, our vocation and our discipleship in a more biblical faithful way? How has this modern western worldview impacted our teaching and thinking on such topics as: conversion, discipleship, Christian spirituality and Christian vocation?
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