4 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 7 illustrated, enabling the reader to identify the commonalities and variations between them. Walton reminds us something that may not be obvious at first glance and is especially relevant for those considering writing their own spiritual autobiography: "The challenge to write experiences as a means of articulating faith or values is a daunting one" (Walton 2014, xii). At the same time, she provides careful and helpful guidance to those who may want to embark on the process of reflective theological writing. Those with an interest in life writing through a theological lens should familiarize themselves with Walton’s work. 2 Transformative Power of Spiritual Autobiography: Personal Experience From the moment I converted from atheism to Christianity at the age of 18, I never doubted that spiritual autobiography could be an important means for transforming the heart and mind. At the beginning of my spiritual journey was the personal testimony of the former leader of the Brooklyn’s notorious Mau Maus gang, Nicky Cruz. The book and international bestseller Run Baby Run found me thanks to my close friend, and the rest is history. Until then, I was not an avid reader; I disliked books and do not remember having read more than three voluntarily. When I was in elementary school, my mother read my textbooks aloud and asked me what I remembered. My adversarial relationship to books was one of the main reasons it took me an extra year to graduate from high school; at the time of my conversion, I ranked at the very bottom of my high school class. But I could not put Cruz’s book down and after reading it asked my Christian friend to get me a Bible. Within a few days – I think exactly three – I read the entire New Testament, accepted the Gospel message, started attending my friend’s church, and soon afterwards experienced the call to Christian ministry. In short, reading the stories of Cruz and those by and about Jesus became a transformational experience for me. Harvey Cox wrote about these two kinds of stories in his book, When Jesus Came to Harvard (2004), which again has a strong autobiographical element as it is based on his fifteen years teaching one of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history: "Jesus and Moral Life." Cox told the stories by and about Jesus to his students and several thousand came to hear them, enrolling in his classes. For about fifteen years, I belonged to a Pentecostal church, eventually becoming an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. During those years I heard hundreds of personal testimonies and shared my own in private and public settings. Pentecostals are eager to share their experiences of God, which is one reason for its explosive global growth in the 20th century. Grant Wacker underscores the importance of "testimony" in early Pentecostalism and links this spiritual practice to ethics: "Like countless other Christians before them, early pentecostals assumed that their personal faith stories bore normative implications for others. Consequently, they devoted much of the time in their worship services – maybe a third of the total – to public testimonies about their spiritual journeys" (Wacker 2001, 58). Even a century after the powerful Pentecostal revival erupted on Azusa Street in Los Angeles and spread to all four corners of the world, testimony plays an important role in Pentecostal theology and practice. These experiences undoubtedly contributed to my desire to write my own spiritual autobiography, with the initial narrow view of it becoming a vehicle of personal conversion. I have contemplated this idea for over two decades, but other than occasional personal references in my op-eds and other writings that were mostly unrelated to spirituality or theology and a scholarly paper I delivered at a conference on Pentecostalism and later had published (Ondrášek 2013, 95–112), I have not written about my life. Regardless of the reasons that delayed this project, I am grateful that I did not write that story yet. Stories can both positively transform and misinform or mislead – spiritually or otherwise. To embark on such a project, one must be prepared intellectually, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. The idea to share my life story with others in writing – family, friends, and anyone willing to read it – never left me, together with the hope that God could use my account to bring about religious and ethical transformation. I have shared a portion of my testimony numerous times, seen its positive fruit, and was encouraged by others to put it in writing. I experienced a deep sense of assurance that this is in fact what God is calling me to do after discussing the issue with my academic adviser, Harvey Cox, in his Harvard Divinity School office in 2005. Since then, the question never was "if" but "when." I consider myself fortunate and blessed as well as a part of God’s providence that in January 2017, I was able to take a course from professor Claire Wolfteich at Boston University, who has been supportive and provided me with early guidance for this project.
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