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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

The circle also represents the establishment of some pat- use of one, we then add features from another to broaden
terns of daily life following a trauma and the reclamation the paradigm’s application or to use the best of what one
1
of the former life as well as what is potentially available. tradition offers to enrich another. This may be done with
Many people, however, live in hope of transformation, the best of intention, but there may be an unintended
healing, and the eventual restoration to some sense of consequence. When the insights and practices from another
normality again where the influences from their past are tradition or paradigm are incorporated, there is often a
left behind. These aspirations are shown in the final box, compromise of the original paradigm’s integrity or a loosen-
the dotted one. For people trying to reconcile their experi- ing of it from its original theological and cultural moorings.
ence with a Christian heritage and theology, this final box One such paradigm that might be reached for is Elisabeth
is dotted to indicate that what they long for and assume Kübler-Ross’s famous schema of the process of grief due to
from the presentation of God’s compassion and transfor- its widespread familiarity and its similarity with the lan-
mation of the creation (including their lives and bodies) guage and schematic progression of what has been proposed
may not be fully realised in this life. Theologians like to in this last paradigm, even though there are foundational
2
call this paradox of longing for the fulfilment of what is differences between the two. The major difference is due to
promised in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures at the a conscious application of Christian Scriptural theology to a
end of history, and the reality of living with evil and suf- crisis and the meaning making we undergo in this place of
3
fering, “the eschatological hope.” The eschatological hope recovery. In some aspects, namely the sense of malaise and
in the Bible is an experience of ambiguity: that God will
2 The Kübler-Ross “stages of grief” assume that people will move
transform this world and people’s lives, restore what has
sequentially through each of the stages of grief and eventually reach a
been corrupted, and fulfil his promises. But it is not yet.
point of acceptance of the death of their loved one or their emotional
Signs that the fulfilment of what has been promised by
loss. It was originally constructed to describe the process that people
God have been made in the Easter events with the death,
who are dying would go through prior to their own death. Later it
resurrection, and ascension of Christ and the sending
was used to describe the steps which people would move through
of the Holy Spirit. These are a sign in this age which is
who have experienced grief. However, this view has been challenged
broken by the presence of death and evil, that a new age
by Mal McKissock in Sydney, Australia, who believes that for those
of salvation and transformation has begun. In many cases,
experiencing grief or bereavement (bereavement is a specific form
what those who come for spiritual accompaniment long
of grief), the experience of grief is not necessarily sequential, and
for (transformation) will remain unfulfilled until Christ
not everyone moves from one stage onto the other to reach the end.
returns at the end of human history. The diagram above
McKissock believes that grief is more likely to be a chaotic experi-
takes into consideration both the ambiguity of Christian
ence in which one can move in and out of the various “stages of
eschatology and human experience that for some (espe-
grief” in no particular order, and they can occur at the same time. In
cially suffering life threatening diseases), what they hope
contrast to McKissock’s proposal, what has been proposed is sequen-
for, namely healing or restoration to normality, may not
tial, and people “in recovery” are unable to recover their past state or
be experienced in this life. However, not everyone will
live by moving backwards.
remain in the place of “recovery” forever. There are some
who move from being in a state of “recovery” into a new
3 The circle is suggestive of the ambiguous unfulfilled and unrealised
state of normality.
aspect of the kingdom of God. Although we know that at the end
The temptation when working with paradigms and sche-
of history, all will be restored, transformed, and reconciled with
mas which shape our practice is that, having adopted the
God through Christ (Rom 8:23–26; 1 Cor 15:22–28; Col 1:20),
1 Patrick J. McDonald and Claudette M. McDonald, in their book and we have the Spirit as a deposit which acts as a guarantee of
Out of the Ashes: A Handbook for Starting Over, follow a similar what will come (Eph 1:13–14), we live between the time of the
schema to what has been proposed, but one which is looser and less Kingdom’s inauguration and its consummation. It is in this theologi-
defined in the boundaries between the stages. They also add several cal “in between time” that I have called “in recovery” to describe the
additional steps in the process of recovery. ambiguous place we find ourselves spiritually and emotionally. In the

Volume 20 No. 3 • September 2014 39