Work Cited
Thanks to those who sent emails or made comments on facebook about my BookNotes review of Reading the Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals, a splendid and mature new book published by IVP Academic. The two editors, Jamin Goggin and his colleague Kyle Strobel (www.metamorpha.com) curated and compiled a wise and theologically sane guide to how to best approach the depths, benefits, and foibles of various sorts of devotional and spiritual classics. It is a book about reading well, and it is a guide to different kinds of Christian spiritual formation.
I started with an appreciative shout-out to authors who have become popular in the last 25 years, especially in more mainline denominational circles, authors who we are proud to stock, such as Henri Nouwen, Tilden Edwards, Joyce Rupp, Richard Rohr, Basil Pennington, (and so many more) who have much to offer those who care about their interior lives. These authors are among our biggest sellers when we set up book displays for UCC clergy, for Episcopal priests, for Lutheran folks.
I did say, though – and I hope you give it a fair read if you didn’t – that I worry about the lack of robust, Trinitarian theology and Christ-centered substance in some contemplative literature. Some tend towards a vague sort of pantheism and others are mostly about one’s true self and less about God and Christ’s Kingdom. I am no rationalist and don’t fear creation-based theology (a term Matthew Fox coined back in his less eccentric days) but, still, I believe that those of us who read widely and ecumenically should stand firmly in a firm orthodox center. On Christ the solid rock we stand, I was taught to sing. All other ground is sinking sand. The new book, Reading the Spiritual Classics: A Guide… is a bit deep and demanding, and it covers a very broad range of writings from throughout church history and from throughout the wide Body of Christ. It is a very, very important reminder to read discerningly, and apply insights faithfully. Although it offers a uniquely evangelical vocabulary and offers a few warnings, it is not the least bit mean, and it does not foster fear or a critical spirit (it is not even what I would call parochial) but is inviting and informative. It is an example of ecumenical discourse at its finest, useful for evangelicals and others, who want to have a balanced view of this important body of literature.
DAVID WELLS AND RENEWING THE EVANGELICAL MISSION
In that column I tossed off a phrase stolen from the old Oldsmobile ads — hinting at a bit of
a concern – that some contemporary evangelicals are “not your father’s evangelicals.” In that big list of 50 books that I did on the webinar last month I mentioned a book called Renewing the Evangelical Mission, edited by Richard Lints (Eerdmans; $34.00, but on sale at 20% off for BookNotes readers.) It is a collection of firm essays about the erosion of central truths and practices, that is, the distinctives of evangelicalism, and is important to mention here. Renewing… is a collection of pieces which interact with and bear witness to the critical work of David Wells, professor at Gordon Conwell, by authors such as Mark Noll, Os Guinness, Miroslov Volf, Michael Horton and other big picture, confessional thinkers. Wells is a dear, good man, a very rigorous scholar, and even when I do not agree with him or fully share his numerous anxieties about the shape of evangelicalism in our time, his work is extraordinarily important. If you only read a couple of serious theological books this year, this overview of Well’s work by a wide range of scholars, pastors, theologians and cultural critics, is worthy of your consideration. (This is certainly true regardless of your own theological orientation and regardless of whether you know Well’s quartet of books about these themes.) The concerns raised in the anthology edited by Lints about cultural accommodation, mushy theology, the idolatry of the self, the pragmatic marketing ethos of the mega-churches, the disconnect nearly everywhere with historic, classical Christian thinking, will remind you why the Reading the Spiritual Classics is so very important. We need, as Lewis reminded us years ago, old books. But we also need help in reading them afresh. Reading… and Renewing… are very different sorts of books, but both share a concern for the edification of God’s people by standing within a robust, historic orthodoxy.
SPIRITUAL HUNGER
Two stories from yesterday: After my review of Reading the Spiritual Classics the other day a mainline denominational pastor friend wrote an noted a benediction he recently heard at a gathering somewhere. It invoked a trinity of self, others, and Mystery. Well, that is just fine – who doesn’t know that these three mysteriously go together, that all selves, alone and together, swim in what singer Bruce Cockburn once called “the ocean of love.” But to replace traditional One-God-in-Three-Persons language in our liturgy for this clever truism? Puh – lease. And mainline folk wonder why their numbers are dwindling…
And then, while I’m thinking about this, recommending these good books to our astute readers on line – and our tribe here at BookNotes is mostly pretty sophisticated, I’d say – a smart young customer came in to the shop. He was forthright with us: his intellectual life is rich and full; his relational and social life is good. Then he held up his forefinger and thumb, making a circle the size of a pea and said “my spiritual life is like this – virtually nothing.” Or maybe he was making that universal sign of a zero.We have these conversations from time to time. Often, such folks — often baby boomers, but sometimes sharp young adults — are not interested in religion, per se, and in a few quick comments back and forth (as those of us trained to hand sell books do) we learn whether they are interested firstly in proofs for the faith and apologetics. Sometimes skeptics and seekers warm up to The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, The Reason for God by Tim Keller, or any number of books by the eloquent Ravi Zacharias, or the grand and practical survey of world religious options, The Long Journey Home by Os Guinness. I have several lists of books I can share with you if you want apologetics and books for smart skeptics.
These folks are often eager to know that there are intellectually plausible reasons for Christian faith and they ask about faith and science; we start off suggesting stuff like The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins (Free Press; $15.99) or the fantastic reader he put together as an anthology of important essays and chapters from books that he could easily offer to his scholarly friends. That is called Belief: Readings on the Reasons for Faith (HarperOne; $19.99.) Or they want to know if the Bible’s central teaching about Christ and his resurrection are reliably true. Or are authors like Reza Aslan, citing those same tired sources and outmoded conjectures correct after all, insisting that we can’t really trust the New Testament documents?But earnest conversations with such inquirers often reveal that they aren’t really skeptics, they might be glad to know there are intellectually sounds reasons to hold to conventional, historic orthodoxy, but, really they are seekers. They aren’t needing answers, but insights, not apologetics but spirituality. They are like our new friend from the other day, hungering to deepen their grasp of spiritual things. Such folks often are keenly aware that we all have this looming hole in our hearts. To use Buber’s language they want an I-Thou relationship.
One book that helps us understand this, and is perfect for somebody pondering their heart’s deepest longings is Yearning for More: What Our Longings Tell us About God and Ourselves by Barry Morrow (IVP; $15.00.) There is hardly a book out that is just like this, and I adore it — very highly recommended because it shows how our daily sense of things, our yearnings, are themselves avenues through which we can come to deeper spiritual insights. Morrow, as Kenneth Boa writes in the foreword, “has a penchant for leveraging culture to illuminate timeless spiritual issues.” He does more, though: he helps us turn our longings for God into ways to enter His very presence.Listen to what John Wilkinson (author of the cleverly titles No Argument for God) says:Yearning for More uncovers the reality of God in the most unexpected places. Barry Morrow cleverly identifies ‘signals of the transcendent’ in our hatred of death, our desire for heaven and even the humdrum of daily living. So often we are told to ‘go with your gut.’ Morrow takes this to a whole new level.
Many people who visit our store and people that I suspect who talk to you are looking for Something, something akin to what Tozer called (in his book by this name) The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine (Wing Spread Publishers; $12.99.) We have more books on the intellectual plausibility of the gospels and stuff on apologetics than any store we know of. Yet, it is not common to come across open minded skeptics who need such resources. Rather, folks hunger for and experience of God. They are yearning.
USE BOOKS OF ALL SORTS TO HELP OTHERS
And so, as if you didn’t know it, I say again that this stuff about spirituality and knowing the classic devotional literature is so, so important. There is goofy mystical literature out there and some that are less than Biblical and there are books solid as steel, theologically speaking. But some of that is off putting, dry or harsh. But, of course, we can have both. Lots of books are mysterious and mature, creative and classic, interesting and orthodox, beautiful and Biblical. (Come on, somebody stop me. You get the point — haha.)Those of us who care about these kinds of conversations about our yearnings, and helping others with theirs, and who want to use books wisely will realize that there are a whole lot of varying styles and tones and approaches that work well for this person or that, depending on her or his interests, temperament, needs at the moment. All kinds of books can be tools to help folk take one step at a time, closer to the Light.
I’m really not that fastidious, but I do hope that we ground ourselves in the deep gospel, that we take on the ways of Christ, the Kingdom-bringer promised in the Hebrew Scriptures, the incarnate human one who is the second person of the Holy Trinity, that we are guided by the Holy Spirit in Biblically-shaped ways. And I want to share some books that will help you on that very thing.As we deepen our own worship of the Triune God of the Universe, we can effectively help
others, sharing our favorite authors in fruitful and gracious, life-giving ways. Used with discernment, any number of kinds of books can work. We love helping people discover different kinds of resources that are “just right” so give us a call if we can help you start conversations with good books.
If that means using Joyce Rupp’s liberal Catholic, poetic, image-rich, tender-hearted, evocative (feminist) spirituality or if it means slowing wading through amazing and often remarkably relevant Puritans like John Owen, Richard Baxter or Jonathan Edwards, or if it means studying together a contemporary, contemplative evangelical like Ruth Haley Barton or David Benner or Richard Foster — tolle legge. Start big or small, but start reading about spirituality! Share books, read them prayerfully, start a lectio reading group, pray and talk and care and love. Worship daily by using prayer books and journals and be a part of a real church. There are so many resources on starting a lifestyle of spiritual practices and while there are some weird things it may be wise for some to avoid, I think reading widely in this every-expanding field of spirituality is not just healthy, but essential.
FOR BEGINNERS
For instance, for real beginners, we often suggest a lovely book on setting priorities by Gordon MacDonald Ordering Your Private World (Nelson; $15.99) There is a great chapter in there called “The Sadness of a Book Never Read” which reminds us that to grow in life, one does need to read and study and learn to be reflective. The book isn’t exactly about prayer or spirituality, but on attending to one’s “under the waterline” stuff. I guess one could say it is about discipline and priorities and being self-aware. Any of his fantastic books would be good to start with, by the way.For those who think of spiritual disciplines as being mostly about prayer, there is much more to learn. But learning to pray is certainly basic, and we often tell people to start their prayer life with Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels (IVP; $16.00) which is truly a fabulous starter book, enjoyable and inspiring, or Prayer by O. Hallesby (Augsburg; $11.99) which is also a magnificent and very thorough overview of clear instruction. It might be a bit more heady, but the excellent Catholic priest, Ronald Rolheiser, has a very short (65 pages) new one coming the end of August (2013) simply called Prayer: Our Deepest Longing (Franciscan Media; $8.99) and I am looking forward to it. Write to us if you want a longer list of books about prayer. I mentioned his classic The Holy Longing in my previous post, and it is a masterpiece.
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e two most popular books we’ve sold in the last few years about prayer are a bit deeper, but still quite accessible. First, we must commend the very popular A Praying Life: Connecting With God in a Distracted World by Paul Miller (NavPress; $14.99.) It is gospel-centered, full of anecdotes and Biblical exposition and is very, very popular these days. Another amazingly rich, insightful, and impeccable book is Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers by Gary Neal Hansen (IVP; $15.00) which draws deeply on the very best of a wide posse of oldsters, from Calvin to Luther to St. Teresa of Avila. You can learn from how to write prayers (by drawing on the Puritans) and how to pray for healing (drawing on Agnes Sanford) and how to use the Jesus Prayer by drawing upon the anonymous Pilgrim. I have to say I am very, very fond of it, and intend to spend more quiet time learning from its historic riches. Gary is obviously ecumenically minded, but studied at Princeton and now teaches at a Presbyterian (USA) seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.
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or those wanting to start a more focused and multi-dimensional spiritual life, after getting some of the above under one’s belt we often recommend starting with The Life You Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People by John Ortberg (Zondervan; $18.99) or the sequel, God Is Closer Than You Think (Zondervan; $18.99.) Ortberg is conversational and upbeat, uses clear illustrations and is a fabulous guide and friend for entering this new world of deeper spirituality. (There are DVD curricula for each of these to and I can’t say enough good about them. Very well done! Shoot us an email or call if you want more info.)We always suggest Ruth Haley Barton’s fabulous titles. You may know how much we esteem her, and how proud we were to have her here in our community. Her books are among my favorites, and you should at least have Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence and Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation (both IVP; $18.00 and $17.00) although her others (one specifically for women, one on the spirituality of leadership and one on communal discernment practices for church ministry leadership teams.) By the way, there is a very nice DVD study version of Sacred Rhythms, too that we love to suggest. Call us!
Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life Marjorie Thompson (WJK) $15.00 This is also quite nice, mature and thoughtful but still approachable for beginners. Many, many have found it very useful. She is a Presbyterian (USA) specialist in this field, and we take her book everywhere we go!
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Donald Whitney (NavPress) $15.99 We really like this as it is theologically clear, mature, with a heavy emphasis on Biblical truth as shaped by this wise Reformed leader. It may be a tad tedious for some, but I think it is pretty accessible, and helpful for those who don’t trust medieval Catholic writers. And important for those that do. There is a fine forward by J.I. Packer where he suggests reading the book three times over! He thinks it is that good, and that transforming.
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acred Pathways: Discover Your Soul’s Path to God Gary Thomas (Zondervan) $14.99 I am a huge, huge fan of anything Gary Thomas writes, and he is on my short list of those who I’d read anything he does. His guide to the ancient classics will be listed below, but this one is so foundational, so helpful in a very basic way, that we often suggest it to those who feel a bit unsure of the next steps they should take as they deepen their “heart and mind.” In a nutshell, Thomas wisely shows how we are all “wired” differently, and that we tend to resonate with different sorts or style of spiritual communion. Love the out of doors? Like to sing? Are you rather intellectual and like to plumb the harder Scriptures or are you emotive, drawn to the Psalms? Does the very idea sitting still make you break out in sweat? Are you an introvert? You get the idea — and it is helpful to be self-aware and then apply that to the ways in which you are most likely to nurture your inner journey. There is a self-inventory inside as well. I love the playful quote on the back “Thou shalt not covet they neighbors spiritual walk.”
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riting in the Margins: Connecting with God on the Pages of Your Bible Lisa Nichols Hickman (Abingdon) $16.99 I will tell you much more about this brand new book later (to which I wrote the foreword, the first time I ever had the privilege of doing that.) This is a splendidly interesting book, wonderfully designed, about knowing God by way of marking up one’s own Bible. It is not quite about the quiet process of lectio divino where one meditates over and over on a text. And it is more than inductive study. She shows how to draw on the spiritual discipline of using our imaginations to pay attention to the Bible and its connection with our lives. As Minister of Education at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton NJ Joyce Mackichan Walker puts it, her “instructions lead to reflection and wonderment, encouragements that draw out our true and truer selves. Lisa Nichols Hickman shows us that in discovering ourselves, we discover God.” One theologian noted that he thought the book was going to be about how to read the Bible, but learned it was really about how to pray, concluding that “those things go hand in hand.” Exactly.W
onderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God Margaret Feinberg (Worthy) $14.99 I exclaimed about this when it came out. You may know Margaret’s other good books –The Organic God is now out in paperback! – and her upbeat presence at conferences and young adult gatherings makes her a bit of a rock star. She seems exceptionally comfortable talking about the role of the Holy Spirit in her life, and clearly believes in the power of God.This may be her best book yet, a wonderfully candid story of her awakening to the goodness of God and God’s creation, explaining in colorful prose how to stand in awe. It is certainly not “deep” or heady but it is passionate. She reminds us to be attentive, and gives wise advice about practices of rest and friendship and nurturing attitudes about gratitude and grace and mercy. There is a chapter on prayer, a chapter on forgiveness, a chapter called “the wonder of restoration.” Never wanting to only inspire with beautiful writing or good stories, Ms Feinberg has a 30-day study guide in the back of Wonderstuck which she calls “Thirty Days of Wonder: A Challenge to Experience God More.” She thanks me in it, too, but I’m just braggin’ now. It is a delight to have acquaintances like her, to offer feedback on manuscripts as they are coming to their fullest fruition. Buy her book – give it to somebody who wants deeper awareness of the Holy Presence, but who isn’t going to wade through the Puritans or Richard Foster. I love Ann Voskamp’s lovely endorsement: “With eyes on the heavens and His Word in hand, Margaret Feinberg tells the wonders of God’s love in ways you’ve never known. Who in the world doesn’t need joy like this?
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