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Surfing with the Spirit or sinking into 
the sea? Elements enabling Christian 
character formation in a post-
Christendom culture

Mike Harrison
Mike Harrison is suffragan bishop of Dunwich in the diocese of St Edmundsbury 
& Ipswich in the Church of England. Before this Mike was Director of Mission & 
Ministry in Leicester diocese for 10 years and previously was a parish priest, most of 
his ministry being in South London. His doctoral studies were in the field of doctrine 
and his interests include Christian formation and leadership for Christian formation.

Abstract

This essay focuses on that dimension of sharing in the missio Dei individually 
and corporately which involves the formation of Christian character. In partic-
ular what should be our first considerations when seeking character formation 
for participation in the missio Dei? This article will suggest that our attention 
initially should be focused elsewhere than behaviour or direct attempts to 
change character. Further, while Aristotelian approaches are particularly popu-
lar in the contemporary (especially secular) literature, this essay considers the 
significance of dimensions of Christian character formation which are often 



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underplayed by such approaches, not least loving attachment relationship to 
the divine and accountability-in-community. While space precludes an exhaus-
tive account of influences on Christian character development, the essay con-
siders aspects of experiencing Christ-centred community in shaping Christian 
character, utilizing recent insights from the field of neuroscience. It concludes 
with an example taken from an Anglo-catholic setting of how eucharistic wor-
ship can contribute to the formation of Christian character and thus of sharing 
in the missio Dei.

Keywords: Christian character formation; Christian spirituality; Church; 
Eucharist; Missio Dei; Neuroscience

Introduction

The New Testament is full of descriptions and injunctions relating to Christian 
character formation (such as Mt. 5-7, Gal. 5, Eph. 4, Phil. 4, Col. 3) stating 
the telos in various (related) ways, be it “following Christ”, “putting on Christ”, 
being “conformed to the image of his Son” or through other expressions. Such 
formation is about sharing in the person and way of Jesus Christ and being 
caught up in the movement of God in Jesus Christ towards the world – and thus 
it is about participating in the missio Dei. As such one significant dimension 
of individuals and Christian communities being caught up in the missio Dei is 
through genuine Christian character formation. Attention will be paid in this 
paper to how engagement in the missio Dei through Christian character forma-
tion is realized through experiencing community centred on Christ, utilizing in 
particular recent insights from neuroscience.

To define terms here: “character” here is understood to be that “settled 
pattern of will, thought, feeling and bodily actions that reflect what we have 
become as a result of how we have habitually lived our lives” (Copan, 2016: 
207). “Formation” is about shaping our wills, thoughts, feelings and bodily 
actions in particular and regularly habitual ways. Missio Dei is understood as 
a sharing in God’s purposes in the world as embodied by Jesus Christ in his 
teaching, life, death and resurrection. This “sharing” or participation includes, 
yet goes beyond, that participation by which we continually receive our being 
from God in a manner appropriate to our humanity. It also means (follow-
ing Davison, 2019: 35) a realization of Christlikeness insofar as we receive this 
aright – a receiving which is God’s gift giving us capacity and receptivity so to 
do. Consequently our sharing in the missio Dei includes developing Christlike 



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character, that settled pattern of will, thought, feeling and bodily actions reflect-
ing that which is perfectly embodied in Christ.

The wider conversation around character formation has been informed by 
recent high-profile moral derelictions of duty. For example, in England, orga-
nizations such as the Police have underlined how mere instruction in moral 
values or institutional norms fails to deliver the moral behaviour required of 
those in positions of authority. Small wonder then that initiatives such as the 
Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at Birmingham University and the 
Oxford Character Project have sprung up to research and enable character 
development in different professional fields.

These and other recent initiatives are strongly influenced by Aristotelian 
approaches. They emphasis attractions including human telos as “happiness”, 
human flourishing with virtue as its own reward and human agency in form-
ing character. They incorporate a sense of how virtues are caught, taught and 
sought, virtues as dispositional clusters involving perception, motivation, 
behaviour, desire and emotion, practical wisdom’s significance in virtuous 
behaviour, the non-necessity of any religious belief system and the influence of 
affect, situational variables and community.

Yet curiously Hauerwas (1995: xiv), Arthur (2021: 3) and others note a lack 
of progress in this Aristotelian approach to character formation. Perhaps the 
lack of progress relates to hesitancy about “imposing” values threatening such 
sacred cows as “autonomy” and “freedom”. Or perhaps there is little consensus 
on what is human good. Freedom or happiness are popular candidates but both 
provide little moral content or practical guidance for the shaping of our char-
acters. Our post-Kantian Western world has arguably reduced our sense of self 
to one whose only action is to “choose” and who at core has no telos, virtues, 
vices, practices, communities, emotions, story, authority or character; indeed 
unrecognizable to our ancestors.

One can also see potential issues with Aristotelian approaches from a 
Christian perspective. These issues include the stress on self-sufficiency, self-
development and self-mastery. Further issues revolve around a neglect of 
virtues like humility, compassion and justice for the poor; the absence of the 
Christian virtues of faith and hope and love, along with the absence of divine 
activity or its inspiration. Intellectual capacity and human agency are elevated 
above all other capacities. There is evidence of problematic views on women 
and slavery and eudaimonia, with related concepts like flourishing and fruitful-
ness easily sliding into cultural ideals of success and the presumed “objective” 
universality of core virtues.



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Aquinas and other theologians have built judiciously on Aristotle’s 
approach, understanding Christian virtue to be not so much what humans 
achieve but what God grows within us. However while human will-power and 
determination are engaged rather than bypassed, nevertheless this approach 
depends on the transforming power of God’s grace, God being virtue’s prime 
agent, exemplar and end.1 In contrast to secular notions of making our own 
character the account here more readily speaks of being formed in relation to 
God in Christ in such a way that God’s character in Christ comes through (e.g. 
Gal. 2.20).

Recent work in the field of positive psychology and human flourishing also 
connects with character development. In the field of neuroscience McGilchrist 
(2019) points out how the right hemisphere of the brain operates faster than 
the left hemisphere and is responsible for producing reactions to circumstances 
before we have a chance to consider how to react. Hence the right hemisphere is 
a leading source of our character, in that our reactions reveal the “natural”, “set-
tled” or “characteristic” way of being and responding. Thus character formation 
involves the challenge of accessing the right hemisphere, through for example 
the body, imagination and affective relationships. Such insights suggest ways 
of going beyond Hauerwas and others in considering how Christian practices 
access the right brain’s character settings and thus shape Christlike character in 
ways enabling participation in the missio Dei.

Christianity in its scriptures and ecclesial life has consistently underlined 
the significance of character formation in following Jesus’ way and teaching. 
Furthermore there are a number of areas essential to Christian character for-
mation including encountering God in Christ, experiencing community cen-
tred on Christ and individual and corporate following of Jesus’ teaching and 
way. Hence this paper will utilize recent insights from neuroscience to examine 
how engagement in the missio Dei through Christian character formation can 
be realized through experiencing community centred on Christ.

Encountering God in Christ

Foundational to character formation are our loving attachments, a truth 
attested to by theologians and neuroscientists alike. Examples such as the Life 

1 See e.g. Herdt, 2008: 89 and passim for a perceptive discussion of Aquinas’ infused 
virtues.



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Model (Friesan et al., 1999) offer a relational theological foundation promoting 
attachment with God and human persons as a key component of spiritual and 
psychological change. Contemporary neurobiological models support loving 
attachment as the mechanism for maturity development and healthy inter-
personal skills (Schore, 1994). Such attachment has a significant research base 
in terms of its importance in childhood development adult relationships and 
indeed attachment with God (see Wilder, Garzon & Johnson, 2020 for an over-
view). Fundamental to Jesus Christ’s character is his relation with his Father, 
that loving attachment affirmed at baptism and on the Mount of Transfigura-
tion and elsewhere in the New Testament. Thus participating in the missio Dei 
as defined above includes growing this loving attachment. Benner (2003: 88) 
writes that “meditating on God’s love has done more to increase my love than 
decades of effort to try to be more loving” and effecting changes Benner had 
given up hope of realizing. This is unsurprising from the perspective of neuro-
science. Jennings (2013: 234) observed that

meditating specifically on God’s love increases growth in the 
prefrontal cortex (where we make judgements and experience 
Godlike love) and thus increased compassion, empathy, altruism 
AND also increased sharp thinking and memory – ie it stimulates 
the brain to heal and grow itself as we worship a God of love.

However as any seasoned preacher or pastor knows it is not enough simply to 
assert God’s love for us in a propositional way. Such propositional statements 
are not necessarily appropriated. Indeed it is not apparent that there is always 
an abiding awareness of God’s deep love even among Christian leaders. Ger-
ald May calls the sort of knowing of love that is essential for transformation 
“contemplative knowing”. This knowing of love results from meeting God in a 
contemplative state (May, 1982: 135). Benner (2003: 76) in a more Ignatian key 
writes:

It comes from sitting at the feet of Jesus, gazing into his face and 
listening to his assurances of love for me. It comes from letting 
God’s love wash over me, not simply trying to believe it. It comes 
from soaking in the scriptural assurances of such love, not simply 
reading them and trying to remember or believe them. It comes 
from spending time with God, observing how He looks at me. It 
comes from watching his watchfulness over me and listening to 
his protestations of love for me.



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In a different vein Maggie Ross ponders the creatio continua in a way designed 
to deepen awareness. She gratefully receives these wonders as loving, personal 
gifts (Ross, 2018: 119).

What Ross, May and Benner are describing here are ways of deepening 
an attachment relationship of love with God, conscious of how such relation-
ships are critical to shaping behaviour and transformation. Such insights are 
not new. Khouri (2021: 67-8) suggests that how we attach to God and others 
has more influence over the formation of character than anything else. Khouri 
notes that the brain first receives information via that part of our brain that 
focuses on attachment before continuing to our emotional and identity centres. 
This means that who and what we are most closely attached to shapes how we 
process and respond to sensory information (Khouri, 2021: 157). After leaving 
our attachment centres, the sensory information passes to our alarm and emo-
tional centres (generating awareness of dangers and feelings about incoming 
data) and thence to our identity centre. This helps us work out how to respond, 
consistent with “who I am” and “who my people are”. All of which takes just one 
sixth of a second and happens faster than most conscious thought. (Only then 
do we find the region of our brain responsible for logic and reason employed.)

These connections between neuroscience and emotional processing 
underline that a crucial dimension of character formation is a loving attach-
ment relationship with God. Critical to this is grasping, heart and soul, God’s 
loving attachment to us. Wilder, Khouri and others understand such attachment 
as beginning with grace. Grace is not simply the accurate but dry description 
of “unmerited favour” but, more affectively, “the God-given gift of intended, 
unearned relationship with him as his special and favourite son or daughter” 
(Khouri, 2021: 12).2 Fostering this attachment requires imagination and affect 
as much as cognition, a growing awareness that one is “‘the sparkle of joy in 
God’s eye” for example.

A homely example comes from Marlena Graves whose three-year-old 
child caught Marlena looking at her admiringly and with great affection and so 
asked “Mommy, why looking at me like that?” Marlena replied “Because I love 
you and delight in you.” Marlena then added “God looks at you that way too.” 
Her curiosity piqued, the three year old said “You mean God looks happy at 
me?” “Yes” said Marlena, “God always looks happy at you!” The three-year-old 

2 Favourite here does not imply exclusivity or superiority here as God’s relational grace 
is not competitive.



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paused and then replied “Then I look happy at God, at you, at Daddy, at sisters” 
(Graves, 2020: 75).

More widely, research on character formation shows benevolent lov-
ing service being rooted primarily in grasping God’s love personally. Lee et 
al. (2013: 21) revealed that “our single most important finding is the extent 
to which experiences of divine love are related to a life of benevolent service”. 
Such research accords with Aristotle’s view that affect and emotion influence 
the shaping of virtuous character. The research also accords with Wesley’s view 
that encountering God’s pardoning love personally creates the possibility of a 
responsive heart delighting to love God and our neighbour with peace and joy.

If developing loving attachments is critical for character formation how 
do we foster such loving attachments in ecclesial community? Preaching and 
teaching is certainly part of it, but there are plenty of people who have received 
teaching on God’s love without personally appropriating it. The neuroscientist 
and psychiatrist Curt Thompson (2021) suggests that, analogous to a child’s 
growing loving attachments, all persons need four elements in place to grow 
loving attachment to God – being safe, seen, soothed and secure.

Space precludes a description of each of these elements but closer exami-
nation of being seen provides a helpful example. The process of being seen, 
emphasizing the benign and compassionate gaze of the divine through liturgy, 
prayer and daily life can help hugely. Thompson suggests face-to-face medita-
tion where one appreciates the face of God shining upon you communicating 
“You are my son/daughter whom I love. I am so pleased with you that you are 
on earth.” All the while one is invited to sense God’s eyes looking directly, to 
not look away as you imagine God speaking these words. This is followed by 
remaining emotionally and imaginatively still for a few minutes, reflecting on 
one’s feelings and God’s feelings. Thompson (2010: 143-4) argues that over a 
period of weeks, with consistency and repetition, this will change the practitio-
ner’s neural networks, echoing similar experiences in scripture.

Among other practices there is also the apophatic and contemplative 
dimension of attentiveness which fosters attachment relationship with God. 
This attentiveness is not about doing or having but being before God, renounc-
ing the idolatry of human agency, refusing that clinging and grasping rooted 
often in egoic fear and that presumption we can manipulate God by method. 
The paradox of intention is to the fore here. We shape character by relinquish-
ing the activity of so doing and by simply attending in the presence of God. 
Writing of this paradox, Shaw (1988: 202) says, “Something else acts, and I am 
to be attentive. My action thus participates in a larger vitality in which my life is 
embedded … life is embedded in a larger sustaining whole, and yieldedness to 



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this, participation within it, is the fulfilment of human existence.” Ross (2014: 
35) argues that such meditative practice (alongside other practices) enables 
access to character settings in the brain, what she refers to as “deep mind”, “and 
intent is supremely important in this process, for meditation accesses the deep 
mind and the attention of the deep mind is influenced by intention”.

Specifically in terms of character formation, the time of silence and still-
ness is not itself primarily understood theologically as our work or activity. 
Nevertheless the framing of such practice as intentionally seeking to be in the 
presence of the self-giving love of the Trinity (unlike vipassana for instance), 
basking like sunbathers in the love of God, being irradiated with the light of 
God’s love (as Ross puts it elsewhere) can contribute to the shaping of Christian 
character.

Tell me the old, old story

The story that the ecclesial community is living and communicating is also 
critical for character formation. Hauerwas (1981: 116) points out that the 
development of character happens in the context of a community shaped by a 
narrative. Or as MacIntyre (1981: 216) observed, it is only possible to “answer 
the question ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what 
story or stories do I find myself a part?’” The difficulty with Hauerwas’ position 
is, however, as Gill (1999: 14) points out, is that Hauerwas’ later work so dis-
tinguishes Christian communities from worldly secularity as not to notice the 
overlaps and influences of Christian and “secular” narratives. This makes for an 
unhelpful idealizing of churches which Fergusson (1998: 66) sharply observes 
exists nowhere else.

Nevertheless the Christian narrative has plenty of examples of revelation 
involving realization of being part of quite a different story from the one you 
thought you were in. Examples include the Road to Emmaus, Peter’s recommis-
sioning and the conversion of Paul. What triggers the change in story here is 
often an experience whose intensity, clarity and significance gives an overarch-
ing authority to aspects of the gospel story, transforming character. Part of the 
contemporary challenge is that it is not about exchanging a single story for a 
second single story in seemingly Hauerwasian mode but that

for many of us, our work life, church life and family neighbor-
hood life participate in fundamentally different narratives and are 
oriented toward different horizons … most of us remain divided 



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between competing narratives. In fact, this is one of the singu-
lar features of our pluralist, post-modern society: the loss of the 
meta-narrative. Each community and each person must construct 
meaning and identity as he or she sees fit. (Hagley, 2013)

What is needed is for the Christian narrative to have such authoritative influ-
ence on our patterns of will, thought and feeling that it brings a coherence to the 
multi-faceted narratives, practices and commitments by which we live and thus 
shapes Christian character.

‘My people’

A key driver of such coherence is the strength of attachment to a particular 
people shaped by a specific narrative. Who “my people” are and how “my peo-
ple” understand themselves narratively is highly significant in shaping charac-
ter, making some ways of being and acting entirely straightforward and others 
beyond the pale. In his popular work Atomic Habits James Clear (2018: 116) 
points out that there are three groups of people whose habits we imitate – those 
close to us (our “tribe”), the many (the “crowd”) and the powerful.

The influence of “my people” can be extraordinary. For example consider 
the twenty-one Christians led out to a Libyan beach by ISIS militants in 2015 
who were then beheaded for being Christian. Western media focused on the 
horror of such savage and cold-blooded murder but not on the extraordinary 
fact that these twenty-one had not been passive but had audibly professed their 
faith in Jesus Christ just before and even during their decapitation.

Mosebach (2019) researched these men, twenty of whom were from the 
Egyptian Coptic Church. Villagers where the men’s families lived told Mose-
bach that the men were not especially different from any other Christians in 
the village. The Coptic Church is a Church of martyrs and any of them in the 
village would rather die than betray the faith. The villagers added that their 
deaths didn’t intimidate those left but gave Christians courage because the mar-
tyrs spending their last few moments alive in prayer proved the strength of 
their faith. There was no call for revenge from anyone, not only because Jesus’ 
teaching was the primary authority here but also because the martyrs’ witness 
simply outshone such darkness. The characters of those Coptic martyrs had 
been deeply shaped by the community to which they belonged, resulting in 
sacrifices that appeared largely unintelligible to Western media. Such witnesses’ 



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brave witness to their faith embodied Christlike character unto death and thus 
is a startling participation in the missio Dei as defined above.

Who “my people” are can be deeply impactful in societies where there 
is persecution, segregation and ancestral continuity. In contrast, cultures that 
devalue the past and promote individualism invite a shallowness about “my 
people” that is less impactful on character. Wilder underlines the significance of 
“my people”, arguing that “character is housed and remembered in the fast-track 
structures”. For Wilder (2020: 42), the part of the brain which runs faster than 
conscious speed is managed by the right brain. Wilder points out that identity is 
a rather protected brain function and that access to establish or change identity 
and character is limited to those who are attached to us significantly; “the fast 
track only allows ‘my people’ access to the character settings” (Wilder, 2020: 43).

Accountability

Ecclesiologically this begs the question of how we might better enable Christian 
community to be about “‘my people” shaping character. Recent decades have 
seen the development of ecclesial groups with different charisms. Examples like 
Neocatechumenate, Focolare, Sant’Egidio and some forms of New Monasti-
cism have been more intentional about formation of “my people” together. The 
history of the Church shows that renewal has sometimes come through these 
initiatives, such as Wesley’s Methodist class meeting and bands in eighteenth-
century England. Relatedly, Wilder (2018: 23) notes churches in the West 
nowadays rarely see character transformation because of six specific reasons: 
they lose a group identity; focus on beliefs over relationships; misuse the power 
of shame and emotions; accept self-justifications; hide weakness; do not love 
enemies. The ecclesial initiatives just mentioned address such themes to lesser 
or greater extents.

There are no doubt dangers with developing an ecclesiola in ecclesia – the 
little church within the Church. These dangers include fracturing the Church, 
creating “levels” of discipleship and with it separation, splitting and sectarian-
ism. Yet Jesus’ own pedagogy with his disciples was that of a small group who 
travelled, ate and prayed together as a relationally close cohort and presumably 
Jesus was intentional about doing so to create the conditions for formation and 
(accountable) apprenticeship. Without accountability and a readiness to face 
the truth about ourselves through personal relationships we are vulnerable to 
self-delusion rather than transfiguration. Worse, we may be disregarding God’s 
movement towards us and our participation in the missio Dei. The accountability 



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is in part about being freed by the gospel from the hell of Sisyphus-like labours 
of self-justification. We open ourselves together to God’s healing as we exist in 
truthfulness, freedom and fearlessness which is able to be with others without 
rivalry, refusing to judge and calling ourselves to account.

Role models

Of particular significance among “my people” for character formation are 
those examples of Christian living whose way of being makes us (at our better 
moments) think “gosh, human beings can be like that in Christ, that is how I 
would like to be”. Indeed, the Jubilee Centre for Character Development asserts 
that in an educational setting the single most important “tool” to impact a stu-
dent’s character is the teacher’s own character (Arthur et al., 2017: 16). Role 
models deepen our understanding of Christian character, showing its prom-
ise, strangeness and attractiveness. Paas (2019: 193) points out that “the idea 
that everyone should have his or her unique high-quality experience of God 
is a product of modern consumer society rather than an authentic Christian 
thought”. Rather God demonstrates Godself to the community of the Church 
and gives more light to some than others, for example “saints”, Bible writers, 
apostles. This is why faith is and needs to be communal, so that individuals’ 
experiences ensure communal upbuilding. As such “the first response to the 
giftings and testimony of others must not be envy or scepticism … but wonder: 
what is it God wants to tell us through this testimony?” (Paas, 2019: 194). And 
how are we being formed by it? Of course the idea of “exemplars” can invite a 
sense of hierarchy, superiority and self-regard. We need to care for ourselves 
and others to appreciate that genuine Christian exemplars are individuals who 
are ever more profoundly grasping the depth of their need for God, each with 
their own vulnerability to projections and delusions.

Brain skills, emotion and embodied cognition

Related to role models and exemplars and also foundational for character for-
mation are what Coursey, Wilder and others describe as “brain skills”. (This is a 
misnomer in some ways as such skills involve cognition, emotions and the body 
(including the brain) in their realization). “Brain skills” are relational skills 
that “equip us to effectively respond to the onslaught of shifting, moment-by-
moment circumstances in the most efficient manner” (Coursey, 2016: 3). Such 



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skills shape our character as the skills become dispositions. An example is the 
skill of appreciation which leads to a grateful disposition. We learn brain skills 
as we grow, most particularly as infants. Gaps in brain skills can be transmitted 
through the generations. Acquiring skills requires interaction with more skilful 
brains, but only those with whom one has a positive emotional attachments. 
These skills will not spread without bonded relationships (and here joy is impor-
tant as providing a bond). Once acquired, these skills need repeated practice to 
become ingrained habits. To develop these skills requires attachment love, a 
sense of “my people” and knowing how “my people” would act under condi-
tions we experience. How “my people” act is the reference for our first reaction. 
These skills are not learned through reading but through repeated observation 
of those we are positively attached to who embody such skills. There are all sorts 
of such skills and Coursey counts nineteen brain skills which he argues build 
joyful community. While not specifically virtues these brain skills are essential 
to virtuous living and provide a good example of indirect but practical ways of 
taking forward character formation.

Take for example the skill of “returning to joy,” which offers assurance 
that even when things go wrong, we are not abandoned and left in our upset. 
Returning to joy comes from strong attachments to others and a deep sense 
of who we are that will not get lost when we are in pain. This skill provides an 
emotional capacity enabling consistency and resilience under stress, enabling 
for example the love of enemies, patience, kindness. Consider for example six 
basic, unpleasant emotions of sadness, anger, disgust, shame, fear and despair. 
When we realize such emotions, are we able to return to joy straightforwardly? 
People who nurse their anger for days, weeks or even years, are clearly not. The 
longer it takes us to return to joy, the more emotionally exhausted we become. 
Parents who have not learned this skill cannot show their children how to prop-
erly manage and quiet big feelings. So a parent who cannot manage disgust for 
instance is changing a baby’s nappy and receives the gift of some streaming diar-
rhoea. If the response is disgust then the baby’s lip will begin to quiver, shame is 
initiated and crying follows. But a skilled parent stays connected, with interac-
tive smiles and ‘glad to be together’ sounds, helping the baby learn “returning to 
joy” in relation to disgust. Staying connected when intense negative emotions 
kick in is critical and such connection enables the return to joy. For each of us 
there are particular emotions we need help with. We need to locate people who 
have the skill to return to joyful relationship from that emotion. We could also 
ask friends who have this skill to tell us stories about how they returned to joy.

This returning to joy involves a gratitude that is expressed in the midst of 
difficulties. Jesus in the midst of the apparent failure of people/towns hearing 



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his message actually gives thanks (Mt. 11.28-30). Again Jesus gives thanks at the 
last supper when facing abandonment by disciples and crucifixion. Or again, 
Jesus gives thanks to the Father in the sorrowful context of Lazarus’ death 
before reviving him.

These skills are but one example of the wider field of embodied cogni-
tion and embodied emotion and how cognition, emotion and behaviour are 
intricately related to one another. Particularly relevant for our purposes is how 
the right brain, which as we have seen is the seat of character settings, makes 
possible “empathic connection, as well as understanding how others feel, what 
they mean not only by what they say in context … but by their facial expres-
sions, their ‘body language’ and tone of voice” (McGilchrist, 2009: 66). Research 
continues to underline the significance of embodied cognition (Beilock, 2017). 
As Bourdieu (1990) says, “the body takes metaphors seriously” and our bodies 
are students even when we don’t realize it. Recent studies go beyond Damasio 
(1994) and show the importance of emotion in understanding and working with 
behaviour. For example Johnson (2017) suggests all aspects of cognition are 
mediated, influenced or even initiated by emotion. The importance of emotion 
and its embodiment in understanding and working with cognition underlines 
the earlier points about the significance of loving attachments in shaping that 
settled pattern of will, thought, feeling and bodily actions that form character.

Thus Christian character formation through ecclesial community and 
conforming to Christ’s teaching and way, which is a dimension of participation 
in the missio Dei, must pay attention to embodied cognition and enactive emo-
tions. By and large, it seems we don’t know and then act. Rather we know by 
acting, and our bodily habits affect what we do.

Examples: character formation in ecclesial 
community

The foregoing discussion suggests that the first questions we should be asking 
in regard to character formation for participation in the missio Dei are not so 
much “How do I improve my behaviour?” or “How do I change my charac-
ter?” but rather “How am I practising my belovedness?”, “Who are my people?” 
“To whom am I accountable?”, “What is my/our story?”, “To what am I paying 
attention?”, “What (brain) skill needs attention?”, “How am I forming character 
through bodily gestures and movements?” and “What is my body teaching me?”

Bodies matter and are places of formation and worship of one kind or 
another. While space precludes detailed consideration, one example is that of 



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liturgical formation, in which acts of sitting, kneeling or standing, whether it 
is eating bread and wine, crossing ourselves or waving palm branches occur 
through our bodies. Another example is Benson’s Christ’s pieces, an intentional 
Christian community in Brisbane, Australia, which takes the bodily processes 
of habit formation seriously and registers the interrelatedness of the cognitive 
and the affective, leveraging the senses to capture the imagination and re-orient 
desires via a litany of practices rooted in mundane activities such as showering 
(Benson, 2019). Jesus points out the significance of the physical. He calls for 
discipleship of the eye and notes the danger of being entrapped by the evil one 
when we swear oaths, of being showy in prayer and fasting. Jesus sums these 
up on in terms of a physical, affective and cognitive doing of what he says in 
Mt. 7. Other collective practices include the intricate connections of the physi-
cal, affective and cognitive in the Christian community. Gratitude, respect and 
honouring can be transformative and are worthy of serious consideration.

To approach Christian praxis through the lens of character formation 
invites a particular way of engaging with the Christian habitus. As Gill points 
out much recent Anglican theology understands worship to be central to both 
ethics and theology. Hence as an Anglican author let me end with an example 
from worship, in particular the Eucharist. This is also for practical reasons, 
given it is more straightforward to shape already existing practices rather than 
introduce different practices in a world often complaining of initiative-fatigue. 
Having said this, we should remember the non-instrumental nature of worship 
and of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is not some instrumental tool for achieving 
some “higher” purpose such as character formation. Rather character forma-
tion is simply part of what happens when Eucharistic worship is undertaken in 
the Spirit of Christ and “the Eucharist is the core of the missional identity of the 
Church … of its openness to Christ who builds community out of strangers by 
sharing himself with them” (Paas, 2019: 199).

Very briefly consider the Eucharist undertaken in an Anglo-catholic 
church setting, Holy Trinity, Eltham, where I was sometime vicar. As part of 
the preparation for confirmation, one Sunday Eucharist was accompanied by 
a commentary explaining why we did what we did. Even before the service 
the physical action of honouring the Lord’s presence, whether bowing to the 
altar, the cross or genuflecting at the tabernacle is already enabling the body 
to practise the presence of God and offering due regard to the Lord. Through 
the service gestures of sitting, kneeling, standing, crossing oneself and singing 
further enable the body to contribute to the formation of worshipful character. 
Registering the love of God through the Eucharist is fundamental – whether in 
the initiating love of the Father who not only gathers us but gifts us with the 



Mike Harrison—Surfing with the Spirit or sinking into the sea?

101

very fabric of our being, the liberating forgiveness of the Son who absolves us 
or in the creative power of the Spirit who draws us into union with our Lord. 
The Good News of Jesus Christ and the story of which we are a part is rehearsed 
as we listen to scriptures and the sermon, appreciating that with this God we 
are safe, seen, soothed and secure come what may. The giftedness of life and 
creation is distilled in the bread and wine. The personal nature of this giftedness 
is distilled in Jesus, the language of “given for you” indicating representation 
and even substitution, all evoking praise, gratitude for the one who does all 
the trusting, obeying, suffering and dying for us. We participate in hope and 
anticipation, picturing the eating and drinking in the Kingdom of God.

The gradual sororal and fraternal relocation of those with whom we 
receive strengthens that sense of “my people”. This communal sense is further 
enhanced as we rehearse our identity in the Eucharistic prayer as a community 
centred on Christ. Hence we are a people who seek to love our enemies and bless 
those who curse us, who know we are weak and help each other to grow where 
we are weak, who see what God is building in others and who create belonging 
(Wilder, 2018: 233).

Finally we seek to embody Christ’s way in relation to those around us as 
Jesus’ words “do this” soak into our bodies and minds personally. While the 
Eucharist helps relocate others in Christ we slip from this relocation between 
Eucharists. Thus at every Eucharist we are led to consider what habits, practices 
and skills can reshape our desires and sharpen our eucharistic living outside of 
the formal liturgy. We submit our relationships, agendas, meals and all that is 
involved in the liturgy after the liturgy to Jesus’ presence and activity. Thus the 
Eucharist shifts from being a pious remembrance for personal encouragement 
to a social reality of Christ present among us. The sacrament shifts from being 
a performance of a redemption achieved in the past to being an inbreaking of 
the future Kingdom of God in the present, which inbreaking pervades our lives 
more and more (Cavanaugh, 1998: 222).

The evidence that character is shaped through such eucharistic worship 
(among other things!) is inevitably anecdotal. However my experience at Holy 
Trinity, Eltham suggested there was a gratitude embodied by members of the 
congregation which in comparing notes with neighbouring ministers (of vari-
ous traditions) was not the case. This generosity was embodied in paying ris-
ing parish costs and some significant examples of “good deaths” rooted in a 
felt awareness of being recipients of a generosity beyond merit or expectation. 
Such dispositions suggested to this vicar some settled patterns of will, thought, 
feeling and bodily actions were being re-formed in people as a result of how 
they had habitually lived their lives, not least as devout members of eucharistic 
community.



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102

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