How will 1997 CTA conference speakers address the theme of spirituality for the 21st century? Here is a sample of what four major presenters have been saying in print:

Joan Chittister frequently writes about the need for a spiritual life that can abide diversity and ambiguity in our church. As she wrote last year in the Pax Christi USA quarterly, "We get beyond polarization only by honoring the process of darkness, by allowing ambiguity, by trusting time to bring clarity where there is only confusion, by admitting our uncertainties. No one is out to ruin the church. We are all just stumbling through its next stage of growth together. The problems are real. The questions are sincere. The answer lies in building a personal spiritual life and a supportive community that sustains us, but does not disengage us from the rest of the church while the spirit leads us by cloud and fire to wherever we are going."

Brian Swimme sees our new spirituality linked to our new cosmology -- the most recent scientific discoveries about the origins of the universe. In his book, "The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos," he asserts, "It is simply not human to live a life sealed off from all conscious contact with those powers at work throughout the Earth and universe and within every one of our cells." Once we grasp that the universe began as a "titanic bestowal, a stupendous quantum of free energy," Swimme says we can know the joy of "radical relational mutuality." In other words, "this body of ours could have been a giant sequoia É a migrating pelican...molten lava, or a man, or a woman, or taller or shorter, or more right or wrong." Such insights lead to a spirituality of wonder, openness to diversity, humility and hope.

Jim Wallis, ordained Evangelical minister and editor of Sojourners magazine, sees a new ecumenism possible as churches, like Catholic religious orders, return to their earliest charisms and find common ground. If we don't, he warns in the June issue, "a new period of division awaits us, perhaps not along denominational and constituency lines but along social and cultural cleavages. Instead of helping to resolve society's deepest conflicts, the church would likely ratify them. How tragic if the future church were simply defined by pro-gay and anti-gay congregations, pro-choice and pro-life partisans, and conservative and liberal voting blocs. It's a future we can avoid, but only if we let our theological vision and spiritual clarity -- rather than political positions -- define our public witness."

Miriam Therese Winter describes herself as a "radical feminist." At the CTA conference Winter will discuss New Testament women from a feminist perspective. A sample of her approach came through in her cover interview in the July-August issue of Sojourners: "One starts with where one is as a woman and realizes that one has been excluded, disempowered, and disadvantaged. From that experience one tries to change one's reality, then connect with others so that in solidarity we can make the larger changes. I would simply say that feminism is about making room at the table for all people." This feminist-based drive for inclusive justice colors Winter's whole spirituality: "I don't think I could write, teach, imagine, or function without that dimension of commitment to those made poor."