Spirit – Chi…?

Paul writes – Earlier in the year I was engaged in a brief conversation about the possibility of a relationship between a Christian understanding of the Spirit (‘ruah’ – Heb, breath). In 1999 Gerald May tried to give expression to just the questions we were discussing. Here’s an excerpt:

“It was 1976, and I had just received my first-level belt in the gentle Japanese martial art of Aikido: the practice (do) of the harmony (ai) of universal energy (ki). A visiting master called me to the front of the room and asked me to attack him. He stood quietly as I charged at him, then turned his head slightly away. My speed increased as I felt powerfully drawn towards him. Then he bowed his head slightly and looked back at me, and I found myself lying comfortably on the floor. We had not even touched.

He explained that he had aligned himself with my attacking energy, joined it from his own centered stillness, and gently guided it back around me towards the ground. From my perspective, it seemed I had inexplicably decided to lie down and rest.

If I had any lingering doubts about the mysterious universal energy the Japanese call ki, this demonstration completely removed them. It was absolutely real. Like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, I felt the Force. In the years that followed, I learned more of the oriental wisdom concerning this energy. It is called prana in Sanskrit, rlung in Tibetan, Qi or Chi in Chinese. The languages differ, but the concept is universal: a fundamental life-breath-spirit-energy that pervades all creation. Oriental methods access this energy in a host of ways: for personal wellbeing in Qi Gong, in martial arts such as Tai Chi and Kung Fu, for healing in acupuncture and Reiki, for spiritual enlightenment in Siddha Yoga and Tibetan and Zen Buddhism.

Recently I have received great benefits from acupuncture and Qi Gong practice, and this has prompted new wonderings: If this spirit-energy is so basic in oriental spiritualities, where is it in Judeo-Christian spirituality? Why hasn't Western religion addressed it?”

Recently I have received great benefits from acupuncture and Qi Gong practice, and this has prompted new wonderings: If this spirit-energy is so basic in oriental spiritualities, where is it in Judeo-Christian spirituality? Why hasn't Western religion addressed it?”

The answer, I find, is that it is present in Western spirituality, and it has been addressed. The Old Testament often associates energy-power (e.g. koach) with spirit-breath (ruah), as in Micah proclaiming, "I am full of the power of the breath of God" (3:8). In the New Testament, the gifts of the Spirit (e.g. 1 Cor 12) are described with the Greek words dunamis, "power," and hagion pneuma, "Holy Breath-Spirit." The word dunamis occurs over 120 times in the New Testament. It is the energy by which Jesus healed, the power he felt go out of him when the woman with the hemorrhage touched his garment (Mk 5:30, Lk 6:19 & 8:46).”

Read the whole article here.

It’s a fascinating cross-cultural topic, one made highly relevant in a pluralistic context like our own.

Comments

[Matt Stone]

Paul

You may be interested in a couple of conversations I have had at http://mattstone.blogs.com/eclectic_itchings/2006/08/the_yoga_sutras.html and http://mattstone.blogs.com/eclectic_itchings/2006/06/healing_prayer.html#comments. Philip Johnson also has an excellent article on energy healing that covers many of the pertinent issues. To summarize my own attitude, I think it is perfectly acceptable to use the words Spirit and Chi interchangeably. However I also think such interchangeable usage necessitates that we critique how pantheists use the word Chi if we are to keep the conversation Christian.

The reality is, Christianity has addressed this topic, but you’re better off searching in eastern expressions of it.

Matt

[philjohnson]

Paul
The notion of "spirit" is indeed religiously universal, which is one of the points that Gerald May wants to make.

It is also correct that the term Chi in Chinese can correlate to "spirit". So the 1990 Union Version of the Bible in Chinese translates ruach that brought Adam to life in Genesis 2 as "chi".

However it is also worth noting that chi is used in different contexts to mean impersonal and personal things about spirit and breath and energy. Thus how the word is used in Taoist texts is not necessarily the same way it is used by New Age writers on complementary healing modalities. There are quite a few pantheist meanings attributed to chi in some of the writings where the word is used.

If one looks at "ki in Japanese as an adaptation of chi, again it is often used of an impersonal power or energy.

The problem does bring into sharp relief the need for the recovery of an Old Testament theology of Spirit, which in turn leads to more reflections on God's immanence in creation, and with it more thoughts about discerning "spirit" and "spirits" in interreligious encounters. Part of the way forward in taking up the notion of chi in oriental thought is to dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox tradition in trinitarian theology especially from the Cappadocian fathers and Gregory Palamas. With Palamas his reflections on the divine energies opens up interesting possibilities for considering chi from a Christian standpoint.

[Paul Fromont]

Cheers Phil and Matt. Appreciate your thinking / comments and the way it converges with my own.