As many people often look at their lives, they will often question their spirituality and level of faith. While the insightful and spiritual pondering is, no doubt, a good thing, many people do not get very far in this mode of deliberating. The reason that the deliberation is to no avail is not because the person is not trying nor is it because they are not smart enough to identify and deal with problems. Simply many people cannot accurately identify what exactly spirituality is. Certainly if one is to ask a group of people what spirituality is, a preponderance of them are not going to be able to answer the question and will stumble over their own words with no intelligible remarks said.

Rolheiser differs from these people, the first thing he does

Placing the beginning of challenging the struggles faced in human life, he puts spirituality on four pillars, the "nonnegotiable essentials of a Christian spirituality. (p.53)" If one has all four of these pillars standing tall and strong, he will, according to Rolheiser, be able to deal with his spiritual problems in a manner prudent and swift. The four pillars that he identifies, coming from Jesus are "Private prayer and private morality, social justice, mellowness of heart and spirit, and community as a constitutive element of true worship. (p.55)"

Now able to identify what spirituality is, how then can a person channel his Eros and use his spirituality in a manner that positively affects others? Well, to identify a cure, one has to first identify the problems. The first major problem that Rolheiser identifies is the unwillingness of people to hand over their trust and faith into the hands of God. There is an intrinsic desire among people to want to control every aspect of their own lives, but there has to be a presence, at least in the souls of those who seek salvation, of humility and serenity to let God help sort through the most difficult of problems. The other problems that he identified are some that directly relate to the inability of most to channel Eros. Rolheiser seems to be going in a circle at this point because the problems identified deal with the basic question, but he quickly steps out of this circle and lays a foundation to begin problem solving.

"How we relate to each other is just as important religiously as how we relate to God. (p.68)" This line sums up the final pillar of essential Christian spirituality, community as a constitutive element of true worship. We have to be a part of ch

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Approximate Word count = 1169
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)