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"NEW WINES AND OLD WINESKINS?
THE RELATIONSHIP OF EVANGELICAL THINKING ON SPIRITUAL
FORMATION AND THEOLOGICAL MODELS OF SANCTIFICATION"
ETS Annual Meeting Valley Forge, PA, Nov. 16, 2005
Steven C. Roy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Spiritual Formation is a significant element in current evangelical thinking.
Certainly that is true for pastors and parishioners in local congregations; certainly that is true in
the arena of theological education and the training of men and women for ministry (it is, for
example, a significant emphasis at the institution at which I am privileged to teach). And
spiritual formation is also a concern for evangelical theologians witness the ETS Spiritual
Formation Study Group of which we are all a part.
But the concern for spiritual formation so called is a relatively recent phenomenon
among evangelicals.
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Not all that long ago, similar concerns among evangelical theologians and
ministry practitioners were discussed in terms of sanctification. Various models of sanctification
were presented and discussed, with their respective strengths and weaknesses vigorously
debated. But this was the arena for discussions of spirituality in the Christian life. For example,
in 1888 InterVarsity Press published a multi-author volume edited by Donald Alexander. It was
entitled Christian Spirituality, with the very significant subtitle, Five Views of Sanctification.
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Of course, in other Christian traditions (especially Roman Catholic), spiritual formation
has been a long-standing and well-developed concern.
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Christian Spirituality: Five Views on Sanctification, ed. Donald L. Alexander (Downers