Soul is the most common translation of the Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek word psyche . The biblical meanings of these concepts are richly varied. In the Old Testament, for example, the meanings of nephesh range from life, the inner person (particularly thoughts, feelings and passions), to the whole person, including the body. Similarly, in the New Testament, psyche carries such meaning as the totality of the person, physical life, mind and heart. Here, soul is presente

In its broadest terms, we can think of Christian meditation as a way of calming our minds and hearts to offer the least resistance to the graced event of realising oneness with God is our very life, our very reality. Because this realisation is a grace, we can't reach it by our own efforts. But what we can do, in a sincere way, is become as vulnerable as possible to the grace event of this awakening. So, meditation can be understood as the process of assuming that interior s

Since my first article on spiritual abuse , I have been surprised and saddened by just how many people have contacted me who have experienced forms of spiritual abuse and church hurt. Yet, it is an issue that many still deny as being real in our church and faith communities; awareness is only beginning to dawn. And, as that level of awareness about spiritual abuse continues to grow, there will be increasing numbers of people who recognise themselves as being affected. In thi

In my earlier article on The Spiritual Life and our Shadow, I describe the Jungian under-standing of how we learn, from early childhood, to suppress aspects of ourselves deemed unacceptable to our culture and context. They remain in our ​ unconscious and can dramatically influence our daily lives in unseen ways. As we grow up, we receive both subtle and overt messages (from our family, care-givers, peer group, school, religious community, wider society and so on) that cer

In today's Western world, there can be a marked separation between spirituality and religion. Public opinion now privileges 'spirituality' above 'religion,' with the latter being regarded with a good deal of suspicion. 'Spirituality', as the term is used today, refers to the personal pursuit of the sacred. 'Religion', however, carries the unfortunate connotations of moralism, piety and hypocrisy. This has been exasperated by recent unearthed widespread sexual abuse in Christi

In my earlier post on Spiritual Landscapes I describe the contemplative places where our inner and outer spiritual journeying can come together, and in my post Travelling... about the living paradox of how there both is and isn't a journey to God. It is key to hold both understandings in mind as we reflect on our spiritual life and path. If we go to the extreme of one side, we end up seeing ourselves as an improvement project and striving for our own wholeness, not living i

In my earlier article on Struggling with Prayer: A Psychological Perspective , I looked at ways we can unconsciously resist the change prayer can start to bring within us. In this article, I take a wider view to look at ways we can undermine or sabotage our spiritual transformation. It may, at first, seem a strange idea that we can in some unconscious way resist our transformation in Christ, which is what we consciously desire and proclaim. But growth is understanding what w

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness . It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The labyrinth represents a journey to our own centre and back out again into the world, so in a sense it is a continuous model of our life and spiritual path. Labyrinths have long been used for meditation and prayer, and are intriguing tools for working with, and understanding, our psychological and spiritual journey that ca

As explored in my earlier article, Cultivating Compassion is seen as embodying a divine quality that brings us closer to our true selves in God. Wisdom - seeing others and all of life through the eyes of God - guides us into such compassion. And through cultivating wisdom and compassion we can become a conduit opening up the flow of divine compassion in the universe, embodying the mystical understanding of the interconnectedness of all being. The international Charter for

​Most spiritual paths teach that we come close to God when we 'walk in God's ways' - that is when we embody the divine quality of compassion. In the midrash below, from Jewish mysticism, the attributes of divine mercy revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai form the template for the practice of compassion: ''Walking in all His ways'': (Deut 11:22). What are the ways of the Holy One? ''A God compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to