Attention Is a Spiritual Discipline

Abstract

Almost everyone would grant attention is important for spiritual formation. But I suspect most people grant this based on attention’s instrumental importance. Attention helps us accomplish other things, like prayer, fasting, or reading Scripture—the real work of spiritual formation. But this article argues that attention itself is a spiritual discipline. Section one introduces the sin motif homo incurvatus in se (“man curved in on himself”) and argues it is one of sin’s most destructive forces. Section two—drawing on work from Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, and C. S. Lewis—introduces attentional humility: the idea that at least one form of attention is necessarily directed outward. It considers attention as an antidote to homo incurvatus in se. Section three then argues attention itself is a spiritual discipline or practice. It identifies several practices normally not associated with spirituality, but argues they are nonetheless spiritually formative when given proper attention.