The rediscovery of spiritual practices within Protestantism

Résumé 0

In a first part this article investigates the older negative view of spiritual practices especially in Protestant contexts. It then spells out the reasons for the growing interest in and reappraisal of spiritual practices in recent times. This development reflects and confirms a special awareness of their powerful role in spiritual life and illuminates their nature and meaning. It further analyses how the growing interest in spiritual practices is a result of recognising their role in the spiritual heritage that empowered faith communities from earliest times and that are not restricted by and to confessional boundaries. The article, on the other hand, concludes with a discussion of the dynamic way in which spiritual practices are embedded in particular contexts within faith communities and, therefore, are also expressed in and through particular confessional characteristics.