Every call to “higher” spirituality, no matter how well-intentioned, is a call to irresponsibility in God’s world. It is a strategy of escape, not engagement.
I'm fully with Luther on the holiness of the milkmaid or the mom.
On the other hand, Paul's carve out for the celibate seems to be a genuine "higher" spirituality.
Perhaps the resolution lies here: anyone thinking they have a higher spirituality can only be taken seriously if they put themselves cheerfully lower than all the rest, serving them in the dirty grimy wonderfully smelly world, considering others more significant than themselves.
I'm fully with Luther on the holiness of the milkmaid or the mom.
On the other hand, Paul's carve out for the celibate seems to be a genuine "higher" spirituality.
Perhaps the resolution lies here: anyone thinking they have a higher spirituality can only be taken seriously if they put themselves cheerfully lower than all the rest, serving them in the dirty grimy wonderfully smelly world, considering others more significant than themselves.