Christianity is an overall way of salvific life that has as its central aim the transformation of persons into the likeness of Christ. Christians have understood spiritual practices—such as prayer, fasting, and service—to be essential for life with Christ and for virtue formation (e.g., humility, patience, love). The question arises, what role do spiritual practices play in generating and strengthening Christlike virtues?
Although the Christian tradition insists that practices appropriate God’s transformational grace, there are different models of grace, its relation to nature, how practices appropriate grace, and how grace facilitates virtue development. In light of these models, this workshop gathers biblical, theological, philosophical, and psychological evidence to refine Christian understandings of the role of spiritual practices in virtue formation and considers implications for assessing the effectiveness of spiritual practices for virtue formation. Throughout, we are concerned to make practical applications to Christian life and ministry.
The annual Martin Institute Christian Formation Workshop brings together academics and ministry leaders for integrative learning and application leading to real-world impact. The overall goal of each workshop is to help establish knowledge of Christian formation to further spiritual maturity among Christians. This year’s workshop is co-organized by Steve Porter (Westmont College) and Rebecca DeYoung (Calvin University) with funding from the Science of Religious and Spiritual Exercises initiative of the Templeton World Charity Foundation.