Book Report

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated this in a while but I've been pretty busy with school and work here and I haven't had a lot of free time. Here is a book report I wrote last week on a book called "Longing for God" so I hope you enjoy it and it gives a little bit of a sense of what I'm doing here at ACU. It's not academic but it's a good representation of what we've been generally learning about in Spiritual Formation.

This book is about the ways that different kinds of people from different walks of life have sought after God. Christians throughout the centuries have desired to become more intimate with their creator and savior, desired to increase their knowledge of him and desired to lead the kind of life that he wants them to live. Just as there are different kinds of people there are multiple journeys or paths to God. This book highlights 7 of these and gives three or four examples of great Christians who have sought God along these paths. Many of these paths co-mingle with each other and none of them are mutually exclusive. The one thing that all these paths have in common with each other is that everyone on each of them, regardless of class, age, or walk of life, has a longing for God. This book aims to help people who have this longing but do not know how to pursue it by giving them concrete examples of some of the great Christian thinkers and writers that have gone on before.

The seven paths identified in this book are: The right ordering of our love for God, the spiritual life as journey, the recovery of knowledge of God lost in the fall, intimacy with Jesus Christ, the right ordering of our experiences with God, action and contemplation, and divine ascent. As pointed out above none of these paths are exclusive. It would be impossible to recover knowledge of God lost in the fall and not begin to become more intimate with Jesus. All of these paths borrow and take from each other but the emphasis of each one is different from the others. In each of these paths there are three or four examples of Christians who longed for God in this manner. Each chapter has a brief synopsis of their work and then a couple pages of reflection by the authors on their teachings which are followed by a short prayer inspired by the person.

This book tries to make relevant many of the great Christian thinkers and authors who have impacted the life of the church and other Christians in so many ways. Many of these thinkers may be known to lay people but they might have no knowledge of them other than their name. Thinkers like Augustine, John Wesley, Calvin, and St. John of the Cross have relevant messages for people today but too often people consider them unapproachable and distant. This book attempts to take their most important thoughts on how to order one’s life and pursue God and distill them into easily understandable and readable chapters. The book does this very well and the reflections by Foster and Beebe at the end of each chapter are also well written. In them they try and make the author’s thoughts and theories more applicable by showing how their own lives have been shaped and molded by them as well. Foster and Beebe also offer critique and criticism of some authors by showing that although they had many good things to say they are still human as well and fallible just like the rest of humanity.

Although the book entails all seven pathways to God it does not stop there. It also offers three appendixes which address relevant issues of Christian spiritual formation that were not addressed in the main chapters or the introduction or conclusion. These include pre-Christian influences on spirituality, women and spirituality, and the contribution of the Orthodox Church and Eastern Spirituality. These are also helpful as they seek to clarify different issues not presented in the book itself in the form of history and other examples.

Path one presents the journey to God as the process of organizing love into the correct order. The great thinkers of this path include Origen and Augustine. In this path seekers attempt to draw closer to God by ridding our lives of things that we love more than God and by exalting God to his proper place within our lives. This thought is incredibly important because it addresses one of the greatest sins and temptations of humanity, that of idolatry. Only by ordering our love and making sure that we place God above all others can we begin to grow and draw close to him.

Path two sees the spiritual life as that of a journey. This path presents our life not as a series of steps that we can simply do, but as something that we must journey through. Although all the paths have this aspect within them this is the path that sees the journey itself as the means to drawing closer to God. This path attempts to recognize that every choice and decision that one makes in life takes one towards one’s destination--hopefully toward God. This path is especially helpful for those that face big questions about life, themselves and situations they will face in life.

Path three tries to recover knowledge of God that has been lost in the fall. It is only through recovering this knowledge that people will be able to draw close to God and to really know what right is, what the truth is and to know our Creator. This is knowledge that humanity had before the fall and sin entered the world, and this path seeks to regain this knowledge to aid people in their spiritual life.

The fourth path sees Jesus Christ as the primary way that we long for God and become spiritually formed. Although the other paths would be loath to renounce that intimacy with Christ is important, this path sees it as the primary way to spiritual formation. Those who find this path appealing try to embody Christ in his struggles and his being in the world. The highest form of spirituality is not the cloistered monk or apophatic prayer but engagement with Christ in ministry to the world

The fifth path sees religious experience as the primary way to knowledge of God. In this view, although scripture, reason, and the church play a discerning role, religious experience can provide actual knowledge of God. This path seeks to engage God in a way that is both real to the soul and real to the body in religious experience. This path of spiritual formation puts the most emphasis on feeling the direct presence of God and letting him form oneself through these experiences.

Path six tries to view the world in a balance between action and contemplation. It tries not to put too much emphasis on actions and human effort nor does it put too much emphasis on contemplation and apophatic knowing of God. It sees these two extremes as both sides of the same coin. The world needs both Mary and Martha and it is for the Christian to learn to experience God through both of these ways.

Finally, the seventh path views spiritual formation as that of divine ascent. This path closely resembles the path of the journey. It could be described as climbing a mountain. Sometimes pilgrims need to stop, they become weak and wonder if they can go on. It is after these periods of doubt and emptiness that the pilgrim can climb over the next rise and see a whole new landscape and beauty of God that he has never imagined.

Each of these seven paths holds something of value to pilgrims journeying towards God. Different people approach God in different ways and at different times. It is likely one of these paths will appeal to a reader more strongly than others based on their circumstances in life and their attitude toward spiritual formation. None of these are more correct than the others and all lead us to God. Foster and Beebe’s work provides modern Christians with easily accessible examples of all seven of these spiritual paths and an easy point to jump into the waters of spiritual life and begin the journey of spiritual formation. An excellent read that will surely open the door to the spiritual life for those intimidated by it or simply searching for a place to begin.