Customer Reviews

Celebration of Discipline, the Path to Spiritual Growth, Revised and Expanded

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Richard Foster has served the Church and Christians well by writing this book, "Celebration of Discipline." Modern Christians have so separated their head knowledge from their heart knowledge and behavior that our faith is weak. It's no wonder that many people are leaving the faith or that the behavior of Christians doesn't match what they say they believe. One of the things missing from the contemporary church is discipline, the will to follow God, and also the disciplines, the particular spiritual practices that help lead us to Christ and stay connected to Him.

"Celebration of Discipline" is largely responsible for Christians knowing about and taking the spiritual disciplines more seriously. The title itself is aptly named, for practicing the spiritual disciplines leads ultimately not to oppression but to joy. Foster presents 12 key spiritual disciplines which are grouped into 3 sections:

The Inward Disciplines - meditation, prayer, fasting, study

The Outward Disciplines - simplicity, solitude, submission, service

The Corporate Disciplines - confession, worship, guidance, celebration

In each chapter, Foster explains the nature of each of the disciplines, as well as giving some good advice about how to profitably practice each. He draws upon writers from many Christian traditions, and usually his advice is very good. If this book did nothing but introduce Christians to the spiritual disciplines and help them begin to practice them, then it is a work well worth reading and calling a classic.

It's not a book without its problems, however. Some of the negative reviews are wildly off the mark (Foster is not a Roman Catholic), and yet some of the negative criticism is justified. It seems contrary to the Incarnation and rather Gnostic to advise Christians, when preparing for meditation, to "allow your spiritual body, shining with light, to rise out of your physical body." While Foster does include "the corporate disciplines," it's too easy to get the idea from this book that Christianity is primarily an individual religion and relationship to God. He's separated the spiritual disciplines out of the only context in which they make sense: the Church, and not the solitary individual. Even in the chapter on "Celebration," which Foster includes as a corporate discipline, he fails to put celebration in the context of the Eucharist or "thanksgiving" of corporate worship.

In spite of these and other important limitations, this work has been of such value to the church that I give it 4 stars.

The book was received as described and shipped quicker than expected.

My wife is loving reading it.

I'm only currently on the 5th chapter of this book and some have been good while others could be better. I'm excited enough to finish, both because it's currently involved in a small group discussion study and because it would be good to help lay out some foundational spiritual exercises we should all be doing everyday.

I was INCREDIBLY disappointed with how long it took to arrive at my home - I realize I selected standard shipping and all products sent from Amazon I've ordered have arrived (on standard) either early or on time. There was almost a month's window for a book of all things to get to me. Other books never took that long. Just really disappointed that it took waaaay longer than it should have.