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Early Christian spirituality according to the First Epistle of John: The identification of different ‘lived experiences’


DG van der Merwe

Abstract

The interest in this article is early Christian spirituality. The word espiritualityf is used here denoting ea lived experiencef. Therefore, the article focuses on religious experience in an early Christian community as explicated in the first chapter of the First Epistle of John. Three different lived experiences are denoted here, culminating in the last one: ehaving fellowship with the divinef. The first two experiences (experience through physical senses, experience
through spiritual senses) pave the way to establish fellowship with the divine. For the author of 1 John, the purpose (.ƒËƒ¿) of these lived experiences is to have (.ƒËƒ¿) complete joy, another form of experience. These three lived experiences express three different configurations of spirituality.

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eISSN: 2072-8050
print ISSN: 0259-9422