Searching for spiritual roots and discipleship in a postmodern consumer culture: The norwegian CrossRoad movement

Spiritus

Volumn 11, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 51-66

  Engedal, Leif Gunnar ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 79958803755     PISSN: 15331709     EISSN: 15353117     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/scs.2011.0009     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. Informative presentations can be found in G. Davie, Europe: The Exceptional Case (New York: Orbis Books, 2002);
2. A. Greeley, Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium: A Sociological Profile (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2003);
3. T. Byrnes and P. Katzenstein, eds. Religion in an Expanding Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
4. Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion Is Giving Way to Spirituality (New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), 6ff, 111ff, 125ff.
5. See also Woodhead and Heelas, eds. Religion in Modern Times: An Interpretive Anthology (New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2000).
6. Heelas and Woodhead, The Spiritual Revolution, 111.
7. Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2007), 473.
8. As is well known, "spirituality" is a complex concept used in many different ways, also within academic discourse. Here it points to the personal side of Christian faith, that is, it concerns "how people subjectively appropriate traditional beliefs in God . . . and then express these in worship, basic values, and lifestyle." (Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality and Theology [London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1998], 34-35).
9. The CRM has today one theologian (ordained pastor in the Church of Norway) employed in a 60 percent project appointment. His name is Knut Gronvik, one of the founders of the movement and a key person in the overall history and development of the CRM. The movement has its own homepage on the Internet, and communication via the web is regarded as decisive for the whole process of information and identitybuilding (see http://www.korsvei.no). The CRM is organized and led through the work of a responsible board, with seven members. The board interacts with adherents through the Internet and regular meetings at the festivals.
10. Here and elsewhere, the concept of "dogma" refers to the official, confessional, and normative tradition of a particular Christian Church. As in the case of the Church of Norway, this tradition is often coded in certain confessional documents such as the Three Classical Creeds, Confessio Augustana, and Luther's Small Catechism.
11. I borrow here the image of Homo Viato from the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel. See his: Homo Viator Introduction to the Metaphysic of Hope (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 2008).
12. The main written source for an introduction to CRM theology is a book published in 2005. The title is: Gudsrikets gåte. Stemmer fra korsveibevegelsen, eds. Ellen M.W. Finnseth et al. (Oslo: Stiftelsen Korsvei, 2005).
13. In English, it translates: The Mystery of the Kingdom of God. Voices from the CrossRoad Movement.
14. J. Corkery, "Spirituality and Culture," in P. Sheldrake, ed., The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (UK: SCM Press, 2005), 26-31.
15. R. Wuthnow: After Heaven: Spirituality in America since the 1950s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 1-18.
16. See also, W.C. Roof, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journey of the Baby Boom Generation (San Francisco: Harper, 1993).
17. This perspective is still a strong identity marker, as demonstrated in the chosen names, titles, and symbols: CrossRoad, Road Signs, Road Grip, Footprint, Trace, etc.
18. An insightful presentation of "transformation" as a vital element in Christian spirituality is found in F. LeRon Shults and Steven Sandage, Transforming Spirituality. Integrating Theology and Psychology (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2006).
19. This might resemble what Heelas and Woodhead describe as "Religion of experiential difference" and locate somewhere between the two main categories "Life-as Religion" and "Subjective-life Spirituality."
20. Here I refer to the discussion in Sheldrake: Spirituality and History, Questions of Interpretation and Method (New York: Orbis Books, 1995), 213-14.