Spiritus 25 Years On

This year we celebrate the twenty-fifth birthday of Spiritus. It affords an opportunity to reflect on the journal’s rather remarkable trajectory, and to honor those who have contributed so much to its flourishing during its first quarter-century of publication. Over the years, Spiritus has been privileged to publish rigorous essays and reviews, evocative images, and poetry for contemplation by an exceptionally generative community of scholars. And we will always also be grateful to our Johns Hopkins University Press collaborators, who have labored behind the scenes year after year to help produce something worthwhile. We extend our sincerest thanks to each person who has made this conversation both possible and fruitful. 

During these years, Spiritus has enjoyed a front-row seat while the study of Christian spirituality, as a distinct and self-conscious academic discipline, has emerged, evolved, and matured. But Spiritus has done more than merely observe what has been taking place independently of its existence. To some extent at least, it has also helped to shape this history through the seminal research and writing of its authors and contributors. As the official journal of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (SSCS), Spiritus has functioned as both observer and participant in the evolution of a discipline.

Three features of this issue commemorate this anniversary milestone in the journal’s history. The first is an essay narrating the history of the journal and its foundational predecessor the Christian Spirituality Bulletin. The second commemorative element is a collage of reflections by ten scholars on the larger discipline of Christian spirituality. These reflections have been organized into three chapters that articulate their gratitude for the past, their discernment of the present, and their hopes for the future. 

The third celebratory element is the reprinting here of what has been discovered to be the most extensively read article in the journal’s history. Fittingly, it is one by Sandra Schneiders, an eminent figure in the emergence of Christian spirituality as an academic discipline. Her 2003 essay entitled “Religion vs. Spirituality: A Contemporary Conundrum” is masterfully written and prescient in its anticipation of a crucial issue in the history and ongoing character of Christian spirituality. The quality and erudition of this essay will serve, we hope, as an inspiring benchmark for emerging and future scholarship in the field. 

This issue of Spiritus also includes a symposium of insightful responses, from varied vantage points, to Bernard McGinn’s recently published book Modern Mystics. The volume serves as an unofficial capstone to McGinn’s magisterial, multivolume history of Christian mysticism. Certainly one of the highlights of this collection is Bernard McGinn’s insightful and characteristically gracious response to his interlocutors. 

Spiritus is always endeavoring to bring the historical resources of the Christian tradition into productive conversation with contemporary issues and realities. We are pleased, therefore, also to include here an intriguing essay by Shelby Hall that engages Julian of Norwich’s classic text Showings through autistic eyes. 

We are also pleased to publish an essay that engages the expanding spheres of artificial intelligence. It weighs the promise and the limits of such technology for advancing the dynamics of Christian spirituality and ultimately human well-being itself. 

And finally, we are delighted to include a remarkable poem by the French artist Georges Rouault, recently discovered by Donato Loia in the archives of the Art Institute of Chicago. Composed in wartime, the poem evokes a spirit of holy defiance that is strikingly reinforced by an identically titled painting by the same artist. There is a timely relevance to Rouault’s determination to remain singing even in darkness. 

As one of the journals participating in the Subscribe to Open (S2O) initiative, all of this year's issues of Spiritus are open access, which means that all readers will be able to read this special anniversary issue for free through Project MUSE.