I was driving to Publix Sunday afternoon and on the way there and back I was able to catch a few snippets of Krista Tippett’s interview with Cory Booker, U.S. Senator from New Jersey. Cory was discussing his mornings with Krista, outlining practices that help him stay energized and focused. He had some of the usual practices you might expect – meditation, exercise – but he added another that made me take note. Senator Booker uses 10 minutes of his mornings to study Spanish, and he sees this as a spiritual discipline.
I thought this was an interesting idea, and I wanted to do some thinking about the connections between learning a language and faith formation. So, here are three ways I think learning a language is a spiritual discipline.
- For the Sake of Others – If a major aspect of spiritual formation is learning to think outside of yourself and to think about others, learning a new language gives you the opportunity to open up worlds of customs, language, and culture that would be previously unavailable. Booker latches onto this idea in his interview, connecting his pursuit of Spanish as a way of building relationships with other humans.
In Invitation to a Journey, Mulholland makes the audacious claim that “If you want a good litmus test of your spiritual growth, simply examine the nature and quality of your relationships with others.” Mulholland goes on to claim that “Our relationships with others are not only the testing grounds of our spiritual life but also the places where our growth towards wholeness in Christ happens.” Growing in relationships and making connections with people different from you fosters spiritual growth. How might learning language help us in this endeavor?
- Teaches Process – Nobody learns a world language in a day. It’s a process that can last years and years. I know a missionary who has lived in France for over 40 years and he said it took three years after moving to France to fully comprehend the language. This was after spending considerable time in college studying French. Spiritual growth happens in a similar way.
Again, Mulholland, but this time on the process of spiritual formation, “There simply is no instantaneous event of putting your quarter in the slot and seeing spiritual formation drop down where you can reach it, whole and complete.” The starts and stops of learning a language opens you up to learning the process of going through a process.
- The Ends of the Earth – God’s church is global. It’s not confined to the United States or to Mexico or Kenya. Jesus followers very early on saw God’s spirit working to spread Jesus’ gospel around the world. As Jesus claims in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus followers have a global mindset.
So, of course, learning a world language takes you outside of the parameters of when you were born, your culture, its norms and mores, and very quickly ushers you into another culture where distinct practices give you the opportunity to reflect on your own culture. Philip Jenkins has done considerable work on investigating the global nature of Christianity, especially its rise in the global south. Reflecting on the nature of this worldwide view, Jenkins claims, “Looking at Christianity as a planetary phenomenon, not merely a Western one, makes it impossible to read the New Testament in quite the same way ever again. The Christianity we see through this exercise looks like a very exotic beast indeed, intriguing, exciting, and a little frightening.” What if we showed our students, through the study of language, a faith that extends beyond our preconceived borders?
What if our conscious attending to language development helped to give us a deeper sense of God’s presence and work in our lives? How might it change our courses, and our students, to see their pursuit of language in this way?
“Look at the light in the trees, it’s a beautiful morning, isn’t it?”
In Mark 3:7-35, Jesus goes to a lake, a mountain, and an unidentified home. In all of these places, Jesus will be surrounded by people. At the lake crowds are pressing in so that Jesus must retreat to a boat before he is crushed. At the house, Mark tells us that the crowds were so thick and troublesome, Jesus and his disciples were unable to eat. In between, he takes a hike up a mountain.
douglaskwilliams.com 