Customer Reviews

Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction (Spiritual Directors International) (Spiritual Directors International Books)

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3 star:		(1)
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I am a spiritual director in training and I have already discovered several persons who are exploring their own journeys with God through music, art, and dance. I wish that I had this book a year ago when I had my first spiritual direction session with an older lady rediscovering her love of drawing after years of listening to her strict religious father tell her it was a useless waste of time. In recent years, I have even found myself drawn to art journaling and poetry, both of which are included in this book.

Another reviewer mentioned that this book was not helpful in terms of traditional spiritual direction. There are numerous other books that address that subject. If that is what you are looking for then I would recommned the classic text The Practice of Spiritual Direction by William A. Barry and William Connolly. But, if you find yourself and/or your directees interested in the creative arts then this book is a goldmine of ideas to help you. There is also a very useful bibliography in the back listing many other useful sources.

Thanks for this book. It's just what I needed and I will definitely keep it as a reference in my spiritual direction library!

Since I am a spiritual director, I will find this book a great help as more often than not the inner life and desires of a person are revealed in other than words. I appreciate this source as a help to such people. It will also be helpful for me to process my inner journey.

Given that this book title refers to spiritual direction, I was surprised to find there is virtually no focus on classic direction within these pages. What is present in this work is a great overview of the use of arts in spiritual formation work. As individuals seek to find ways to encounter the Holy, these activities are quite useful. What is lacking in this book is the whole dimension of traditional direction--how is the Holy encountering the individual? What is God doing here? This unfortunate lack of a traditional contemplative listening focus betrays the title.