A New Old Spirituality?

How do pastors live their spiritual lives, both as private persons and as professionals? How can their spirituality be characterized and understood? Drawing on in-depth interviews with Norwegian clergy as well as literature from the fields of Christian spirituality, practical theology, congregational studies, and the sociology of religion, this book offers a nuanced understanding of clergy spirituality. Tone Stangeland Kaufman identifies three locations and sources of spiritual nurture for pastors: the ministry itself (vocational spirituality), daily life (everyday spirituality), and spiritual practices located at the margins of daily life (intentional spirituality). The participants in this study engage in classic Christian practices, yet approach them in a subjective and new way that also potentially revitalizes their spiritual lives. Hence, the author makes the case that their spirituality can aptly be described as ''a new old spirituality.'' The book also seeks to nuance Paul Heelas’s and Linda Woodhead’s Spiritual Revolution claim, and thus engages in the broader spirituality vs. religion discourse. A New Old Spirituality is an exciting example of how qualitative empirical research can be used in creative ways to make a practical theological argument. It is a book for scholars, students, and practitioners.''Tone Kaufman’s study fills a lacuna in recent scholarship, and shows simultaneously how important empirical studies have become for practical theology. Her careful approach to the spirituality of clergy will be read with interest.''--Jan-Olav Henriksen, MF Norwegian School of Theology ''What a wonderful book! Few authors pull off its double accomplishment--a book that at once offers fresh ways for pastors to understand their spiritual lives and a great model for researchers on how to do empirical study and interpretation.''--Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Vanderbilt University ''This is an important and groundbreaking book in the field of Practical Theology and Ministerial Studies. . . . it develops our understanding of the stresses and the strains of clergy lives and it opens the window on what energizes and supports ministers in their work.''--Pete Ward, St. John’s College, Durham University ''Kaufman’s research provides a watershed contribution: the first-ever in-depth exploration of lived Protestant clergy spirituality and a pioneering instance of ethnographic methodology in the study of Christian spirituality.''--Lisa E. Dahill, California Lutheran University ''It turns out the contours of everyday spirituality and struggles to live a faithful life can be deeply helpful to scholars, ministers, and ordinary Christians in many locations, exactly because we share this historical moment of spiritual tumult. Her attention to women’s spirituality, and the interplay, told in their own words, between everyday spirituality and more traditional faith practices, is especially welcome.'' --Christian Scharen, Auburn Theological Seminary, New YorkTone Stangeland Kaufman is Associate Professor of Practical Theology at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, and an ordained pastor in the Lutheran Church of Norway. Her most recent publications include ''From the Outside, Within, or In Between? Normativity at Work in Empirical Practical Theological Research,'' which was published in Conundrums in Practical Theology (2016).