On the Edge of Mystery: Towards a Spiritual Hermeneutic of the Urban Margins

Drawing on the author’s experience with marginalised groups and individuals, this book makes important connections between belief and secular life from a discourse perspective. In doing so, it explores two key questions: is it possible to have a shared spirituality on the urban margins; and what factors might assist in this deep encounter? The empirical focus is on a community living and working on an urban housing estate exploring a lived spirituality. A challenge is presented to the life of the church. Suggestions are made for ministerial formation in the light of this challenge, particularly re-engaging with the spiritual tradition and learning from those on the urban margins. A contemporary spiritual hermeneutic gradually unfolds which has the potential of a dynamic life-giving force within the church at the beginning of the twenty-first century.