Towards a critique of spiritual direction as a field of practice
Spiritual directors engage regularly in supervision as a form of personal critique of practice. However, the field of practice as a whole appears to lack a strong theoretical research base. This lack weakens the contribution of the field not only within academic circles but more importantly within the day to day listening ministry to which we aspire.
A theoretical field that has potential for a holistic critique of the
practice of spiritual direction is that of Integral Theory based in the
writings of Ken Wilber. Evolutionary Spirituality (Craig Hamilton) and
Integral Life Practice (Ken Wilber, et al) are emerging as communities
in search of a world spirituality. The practices associated with them
engage similar methodologies and parameters to those of spiritual
direction, albeit mostly with an alternate rhetoric to that of a
mainstream Christian tradition.
This paper reviews experiences of the author within these two sets
of spiritualities and uses them to suggest criteria for critique of
spiritual direction (and formation) as a field of practice. While
essentially theoretical, this paper illustrates the points being made
with discourse derived from one to one conversations, small group and
large forum contexts. These are set within the framework of the author's
personal formation as spiritual director and make reference to the
AECSD Standards for Formation document.
The aim of the paper is to suggest the value of critique to a field
of practice and to lay the foundation for the development of such a
critique at subsequent Symposia.
Di Shearer retired as lecturer in Intercultural Communication from
the University of South Australia in 1998 and undertook formation as a
spiritual director over six years in this retirement accessing three
different programs. Her interest in evolutionary and integral
spirituality grew out of an interest in interfaith expressions of
spirituality following the visit of Br David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine,
to Adelaide in mid 2009. She visited California from November 2009 to
January 2010 to attend an Integral Spiritual Experience of 700
participants from all spiritual lineages and all major continents. She
spent a further nine months in intensive courses involving small group
and large forum application of these spiritualities. Di practises as
spiritual director in the Adelaide Hills as a member of ANSD and also
companions remote directees from their base in Asian and Oceanic
countries.
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