Transplant Shock and Spiritual Formation in Protestant Spaces: Part 1, Contrasting the Soils

Over the summer I did some teaching in DMin courses on spiritual formation, and in those courses I used my "transplant shock" metaphor.

What do I mean by "transplant shock"?

When Protestants adopt spiritual formation practices, they often embrace disciplines that originated within the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. They then attempt to transplant those practices into Protestant soil. However, there is much about that Protestant soil that can create "transplant shock."

In the botanical world, transplant shock describes how newly transplanted plants can struggle to survive and thrive in new soil and a new ecosystem. Something similar happens with spiritual formation efforts in Protestant spaces. The proposed practices can seem exotic and strange. And there can be clashes between these effortful practices and the forensic soteriological assumptions many Protestants hold.

To help illustrate all this, I put the following contrasts on the board (which I did side by side, but here I have to share the lists one after the other with the numbers in each list creating a corresponding contrast):

Historical Soil (where the practices originate)

1. Catholic and Orthodox
2. Communal
3. Sanctification
4. Salvation-as-Union
5. Monastic Context
6. Synergism
7. Ascetical and Penitential
8. Merit

Protestant Soil (where we want to transplant the practices)

1. Protestant
2. Individualistic
3. Justification
4. Salvation-as-Forensic
5. Work and Family Context
6. Monergism
7. Therapeutic and Affirmational
8. Imputed Righteousness

Some of these contrasts might be clear to you, others might need some explaining. In this series I'll work through them all.