"Spiritual Discernment" & "Ethical Decision Making"

Is there a difference between "spiritual discernment" and "ethical decision-making"?

        Often times, in contexts of Faith, particularly the processes whereby people of Faith navigate life in this world, the virtues of spiritual discernment and ethical decision-making can be confused with one another and the line between the two can become blurred. In my opinion, this confusion is largely based on the simplified moral conduct which replaces the spiritual life when religion becomes more concerned with law than with relationship. Far too frequently, sermons and lessons which neglect their responsibility of expounding on deeper spiritual truths and the New Covenant faith which sets Christianity apart turn instead to basic ethical precepts and codes of moral conduct. While this is not an inherently negative process of aligning one’s life with acceptable methods of carrying out tasks and relationships—in fact it is often quite helpful to provide structure to human events—ethical decision-making which does not take spiritual discernment into account is sorely lacking in providing a wholesome approach to faithful Christian witness. 

        Generally speaking, ethical decision-making considers the tenets of human logic and man-made justice, whereas spiritual discernment is actually regarded by St. Paul as a gift from the Holy Spirit, and one which operates in and through the human person as they cooperate with the movements and inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Ethical decision-making, while it is in fact essential in the daily activities of people and societies, is a mode of operation which is not exclusive to prayerful or spiritual people or corporate bodies of Faith. This process employs a sort of moral standard and seeks to do whatever is most reasonable, expedient, or possible to satisfy that which is considered righteous. 

        Apparent to anyone who reads the Hebrew or Christian scriptures at face value, this decision-making process can be found throughout the narrative of God’s people and is still not a foreign concept to the religious people of our age and culture. However, as I mentioned previously, this operation alone is found hollow and lacking if it is not imbued with the richness of spirituality and the consideration of the economy of interpersonal relationships, or indeed the relationship of humanity to the rest of creation. Different schools of thought and various ethical systems measure the particulars of the decision-making process in a variety of ways; indeed, even in today’s Western world, we can see an array of moral and ethical systems which different people groups employ in order to measure “right” and “wrong.” For many, this distinction is a matter of profit over loss, others are concerned with justice in the face of unfair treatment, and still others see this more narrowly in light of whether actions are taking place at all. Our culture provides an inexhaustible plethora of standards and statutes which one may utilize to execute the ethical decision-making process. Every day, the tensions between yesterday and tomorrow, individual and corporate, foreign and domestic, hierarchical and equitable, and internal and external are on display to be evaluated by any number of society’s bystanders and participants. Many of these disciplines of moral measurement are generally found to be universal, while others are remarkably specific to certain geopolitical landscapes. However, in the words of Dr. Timothy Patitsas, “they do not depend on revelation, or theophany” ("God-sighting"). In contrast, the God-given virtue of spiritual discernment is one which transcends these surface-level evaluations of morality. This cooperation with the Divine depends not only upon a set system of ethical regulations, but on the life and history of God’s revelation to humankind. With that being said, there are multitudes of instances in which spiritual discernment may apply. Among these are the qualities attributed to wisdom and theophany. 

        The tradition of Wisdom is an essential column in the structure of the Judeo-Christian religious narrative, as it is truly vital to the collective spirituality of the worshipping faithful throughout both Judaism and Christianity. In fact, “Wisdom” in the Hebrew Scriptures is equated by its patristic interpreters from the Christian perspective with the “Logos” in the New Covenant, which is personified in Jesus Christ. It is thus only in conjunction with the human relationship to the Holy Trinity that spiritual discernment is manifested most thoroughly. This kind of discernment can equip the believer to examine the principalities at play in any number of persons or situations, and provide them with a direction in which to move or even lessons from which to learn other virtues, such as humility, patience, or charity. Obviously, this calls to task the employment of the conscience and the life of prayer and meditation. Spiritual discernment is generated in the Holy Spirit and transmitted to communicants of the grace which comes from the Spirit within the life of Faith. On a level of most basic distinction, spiritual discernment works to perceive whether someone or something is ultimately for or opposed to God and the reason, experience, scripture, and tradition which lead humanity to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. 

        Elders in the faith, those who have traveled the journey of life in close communion with Christ and His Church, are often open to the ability to exercise spiritual discernment. However, I would add, this grace is not exclusive to those who estimated to have “earned” it by our own perceptions and evaluations; in fact, the somewhat trite little aphorism, “God does not call the equipped; God equips the called,” might hold some weight when it comes to this capability. It would seem to me that one of the many goals of the Christian life is to be so synchronized with the breath of God that the Divine Will becomes a steady pulse in our own conscience. While the conscience may be influenced, and perhaps aided, by the wisdom gained from the experience of life events, its most reliable source is nothing short of God's own self. Christian theology tends to teach that revelation is given to us not only by the written tradition of the people of God in Holy Scripture, Church Tradition, or other liturgical texts, but also in the life of obedient conduct and prayerful communication with God. 

        It is said that intuition is the offspring of experience, and this rings true in the spiritual life. Those who have devoted themselves to prayer, fasting, and the other spiritual disciplines are more inclined to take the time and consideration necessary to carefully discern things than those who have not committed their journeys to God’s providence and influence. This is why we look to those saints and elders who have sojourned the arduous journey of this life for longer than we have. That being said, however, no one should imagine that because they are young or inexperienced, they cannot rely upon the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit to provide the warning signs and pathways of spiritual discernment. 

        In meditating on the concepts of law and grace (a distinction articulated by, but not limited to, the Lutheran theological tradition within Western Christianity), it is important to recall that Christ did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. Applying this concept to the comparison between spiritual discernment and ethical decision-making seems to indicate that these two means of the pursuit of truth are not mutually exclusive. Ideally, our moral and ethical systems will align with the discernment of our spiritual sight. To use a rather extreme example, the laws of civil and religious authorities tend to forbid murder and theft, and one’s conscience, when saturated in the grace of the Holy Spirit, will also forbid such heinous acts. However, life tends to place situations before us which are not so vivid in clarity. While an ethical system which honors justice and fairness might suggest that the person who has purchased two coats with their own hard-earned money ought to keep both in his possession, one might also discern within the framework of Christian spirituality that the truly just action would be to keep only one coat and give the other to a less fortunate neighbor. In situations such as this one, spiritual discernment might require a person to go above and beyond the law, just as the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus Christ and recorded by St. Matthew exhorts the faithful to not only abide by the law, but by the grace of the spirit.

        The most important thing to remember about the exercise of spiritual discernment is that it is not merely the application of the human wisdom which is won by years of experience and logical reasoning, but it must at all times be subject to the outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which we may attain most fully within the sacramental and liturgical life of Christ’s own Body, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.