Bible Encyclopedia: Spirituality

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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

SPIRITUALITY

spir-it-u-al'-i-ti: The state of being spiritual in the higher use of the word. It is purely a religious term and signifies the state of a soul vitalized by the Divine Spirit and made alive unto God. It covers the entire range of man's faculties: intellect, feeling, will-all the attributes of personality.

1. Intellect:

The intellectual can be divorced from the spiritual, but the spiritual can never be divorced from the intellectual. If a man is spiritual, his intellect is touched with the divine life and comes under the power of the divine baptism. One word describes this mental quickening and illumination-"vision." "The pure in heart shall see God." Paul affirms (1 Corinthians 2:12, 13) that the Spirit of God operates directly on the mental faculties, adjusting reason and intellect to the divine reason, and enabling man to think God's thoughts and discern His purposes, nature and will. The common use of the word "spirituality" limits it mistakenly to religious experience, narrowly interpreted, but as spirituality brings the intellect into harmony with the divine reason in every realm of mental action, it may be as manifest in science, art, philosophy, commerce and law as in religion.

2. Affections:

The feelings and emotions are fertile soil for the spiritual life. Love is the beginning and end of true religion. Spirituality in the realm of the affections is that state of soul in which the heart with its holiest love is centered on God as revealed in Christ. The specific and supreme work of the Holy Spirit is to shed abroad God's love in the heart (Romans 5:5). Spirituality sets the affections on things above and brings the entire emotional nature under the regulating and redeeming sway of the Holy Spirit.

3. Will:

A spiritually-minded man is one whose will is set on God as well as his intellect and affections. In every fiber of his moral being, and in all the activities of his soul, he is under the guidance and dominion of the Holy Spirit. The affections present motives, the intellect estimates their worthiness, the will decides upon the course of action. When this trinity of mental operation-necessary to normal manhood-is under the sway of the Divine Spirit, man possesses spirituality, a state in which all the faculties of the soul are voluntarily and joyfully under the dominion and guidance of Christ's indwelling Spirit. When intellect, heart and will focus their energies reverently and affectionately upon Him, love-a passionate, ever-present, everdominant love-is the result. This is the triune sphere of the Holy Spirit's indwelling and activity, and the character of such a God-centered and Spirit-filled life is described by the exalted word "spirituality."

Dwight M. Pratt

Greek

1129. gumnasia -- exercise
... That is, when physical exercise (like yoga) is viewed as "the gateway to experience
true spirituality." Thus exercise is not discouraged here, only required in ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1129.htm - 7k

Library

The Spirituality of the Risen Body.
... CHAPTER VI. THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE RISEN BODY. Having seen the personal
beauty and splendor in which the just will rise on the ...
/.../boudreaux/the happiness of heaven/chapter vi the spirituality of.htm

August the Twenty-Ninth the Riches of Spirituality
... AUGUST The Twenty-ninth THE RICHES OF SPIRITUALITY. PROVERBS iv.1-13. ... "Love her,
and she shall keep thee." Spirituality is to be my true defence. ...
/.../august the twenty-ninth the riches.htm

But Seeing a Worldly Spirituality, Called in the Scripture the ...
... [Way-3-61] But seeing a worldly spirituality, called in the scripture the whore
riding upon the beast� But seeing a worldly spirituality ...
/.../law/the way to divine knowledge/way-3-61 but seeing a worldly.htm

Relation v. Observations on Certain Points of Spirituality.
... Teresa Submitted to Her Confessors. Relation V. Observations on Certain Points of
Spirituality. 1. "What is it that distresses thee, little sinner? ...
/.../teresa/the life of st teresa of jesus/relation v observations on certain.htm

Whether Three Fruits are Fittingly Assigned to the Three Parts of ...
... Consequently various fruits are distinguished according to the various
manners of the spirituality resulting from continence. Now ...
/.../aquinas/summa theologica/whether three fruits are fittingly.htm

Lessons from Nature
... Some in these modern times have thought it to be a mark of high spirituality never
to observe nature; and I remember sorrowfully reading the expressions of a ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 17 1871/lessons from nature.htm

The Lively Stones. Rev. W. Morley Punshon.
... There are two points in the character of the ransomed Church which are
illustrated in these words:"spirituality and holiness. ...
/.../king/the wesleyan methodist pulpit in malvern/the lively stones rev w.htm

The Method of the New Theology, and Some of Its Applications
... It is only to re-assert these propositions in a different form to say that another
characteristic of the new theology is its essential spirituality. ...
/.../berkhof/new evangelism and other papers/the method of the new.htm

The Face of Jesus
... The Transfiguration would deepen the spirituality, with possibly an added
glory-touch. Gethsemane wrote in the deep lines of intense ...
//christianbookshelf.org/gordon/quiet talks about jesus/the face of jesus.htm

The Hedge of Thorns and the Plain Way
... Doubtless there is a meaning in that arrangement. The Lord would not have
the highest spirituality divorced from common-sense. God ...
/.../christianbookshelf.org/spurgeon/sermons on proverbs/the hedge of thorns and.htm

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

1. (n.) The quality or state of being spiritual; incorporeality; heavenly-mindedness.

2. (n.) That which belongs to the church, or to a person as an ecclesiastic, or to religion, as distinct from temporalities.

3. (n.) An ecclesiastical body; the whole body of the clergy, as distinct from, or opposed to, the temporality.

Topical Bible Verses

Romans 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Topicalbible.org

Romans 14:17
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Topicalbible.org

Colossians 3:1-3
If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
Topicalbible.org

Romans 8:4
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Topicalbible.org

Psalm 1:2
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law does he meditate day and night.
Topicalbible.org

Joshua 22:5
But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to hold to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Topicalbible.org

Revelation 14:12
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Topicalbible.org

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Topicalbible.org

Thesaurus

Spirituality
... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. SPIRITUALITY. spir-it-u-al'-i-ti: The
state of being spiritual in the higher use of the word. It ...
/s/spirituality.htm - 9k

Stephen (13 Occurrences)
... 6:3); the record characterizes him as "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit"
(Acts 6:5), ie of an enthusiastic faith and of a deep spirituality, and his ...
/s/stephen.htm - 33k

King (25505 Occurrences)
... My kingdom is not of this world." Granted that the preposition indicates origin,
it still leaves the statement an assertion of the spirituality of the kingdom ...
/k/king.htm - 64k

Spiritually (8 Occurrences)

/s/spiritually.htm - 9k

Isaiah (64 Occurrences)
... fear of man. He was also noted for his spirituality and for his deep-toned
reverence toward "the holy One of Israel.". In early youth ...
/i/isaiah.htm - 66k

Law (670 Occurrences)
... What Jesus really does is to bring out the fullness of meaning that is in the
Law, and to show its spirituality and the wideness of its reach. ...
/l/law.htm - 101k

Spiritual (42 Occurrences)
... corporation. 6. (n.) A spiritual function, office, or affair. See Spirituality,
2. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. BODY, SPIRITUAL. ...
/s/spiritual.htm - 51k

Dumb (34 Occurrences)
... 13). As an adjective it is used to characterize inefficient teachers
destitute of spirituality ("dumb dogs," Isaiah 56:10). The ...
/d/dumb.htm - 20k

Deaf (22 Occurrences)
... sense, or figuratively as expressing unwillingness to hear the Divine message (Psalm
58:4), or incapacity to understand it for want of spirituality (Psalm 38:13 ...
/d/deaf.htm - 15k

Common (118 Occurrences)
... The New Testament, on the other hand, with its universalism of scope, and
its spirituality of sphere, rose above all such externals. ...
/c/common.htm - 40k

Subtopics

Spirituality

Spirituality is Produced by the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

Spirituality: Brings Indifference to Worldly Good

Spirituality: Brings Peace

Spirituality: Defined As Love and Devotion to God

Spirituality: Described As the Great and Enduring Good

Spirituality: Engenders Thirst for Heavenly Blessings

Related Terms

Stephen (13 Occurrences)

King (25505 Occurrences)

Spiritually (8 Occurrences)