Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion [Hardcover]

Richard J. Foster (Author), Gayle D. Beebe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 2009

2010 Christianity Today Book Award winner! 2010 Golden Canon Leadership Book Award winner! Think of the moment you last experienced God. Do you know him that closely in this moment? Truly experiencing the love of God gives us a taste of his goodness and his love for us, but often those moments are fleeting. We get distracted by life. Our awareness and understanding fade while our longing to experience him that way again increases. In these pages you can begin to fill that longing by developing your capacity to receive and respond to God's love. Spiritual formation is the process through which one's inner self is opened to the work of the Holy Spirit, who forms us into the image of the Son. Here Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe, both experienced leaders in spiritual formation, introduce you to people from the past who have known God deeply. Each person helps you to grasp one of the seven primary paths to intimacy with God that have been developed throughout Christian history. Chapters are divided into sections, each segment surrounding a key figure and concluding with a reflection and prayer. This rich resource can guide you into the same deep intimacy with God, opening you to the Spirit's work of transformation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coauthors Foster (Celebration of Discipline) and Beebe (A Concept to Keep) have much to say on the variety and history of Christian devotion. They develop seven ways of characterizing methods for spiritual development, and illustrate those methods by classifying major Christian figures according to these paths. The work of Augustine, for example, illustrates the right ordering of love. The seven paths are not equally obvious: the meaning of action and contemplation is more apparent than the right ordering of love, which is more metaphoric but also cryptic. A better balance between the frequently scholastic-sounding treatments of the major Christian thinkers and the warm, informal reflecting and responding chapter conclusions – written by Foster – would have broadened the book's appeal. Some who are strongly inclined to devotion may be taken aback by the book's varied tables and lists. On the other hand, this is a meaty, thoughtful book that will satisfy those who want substantive prescriptions for ways to grow spiritually. One bonus is that it includes not only fathers but also mothers of the church. This book puts religion back in spirituality, a good, true home for it. (Apr.)
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Review

"This is a feast for the mind and the soul.?This is the best and richest of Christian thinking and soul-making made accessible to everybody. It would be very hard to read this without having your heart grow." ----John Ortberg, author and pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 366 pages
• Publisher: IVP Books (March 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830835148
• ISBN-13: 978-0830835140
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent intro to spiritual growth, May 17, 2009

By 

Daniel E. Ritchie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion (Hardcover)

Richard Foster has opened up the field of the diverse approaches to spiritual growth, historically considered, for a wide public. This volume, co-authored with Westmont College President Gayle Beebe, introduces seven approaches ("Spiritual Life as a Journey," "Action and Contemplation," etc.). Each one is accompanied by three or four examples from Christian history, from Augustine and Benedict to Thomas Merton. Each example may be read in a single sitting. Without dumbing down the thought and practice of these great figures, the authors communicate effectively to a general audience. The book will make many readers want to go deeper - which is no doubt the authors' intent. An excellent volume.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part Devotional, Part Lesson in Church History, and Part Challenge for Deeper Spiritual Growth, June 10, 2009

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion (Hardcover)

When it comes to growing in-depth in one's spiritual life, Richard Foster is one of the first authors to whom you should turn. Founder of Renovare in Denver, Colorado and author of many books --- including the classic CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE: The Path to Spiritual Growth --- he has long been known for challenging followers of Jesus to reflect more of God in every area of their life.

In his latest book, Foster teams up with Gayle D. Beebe, president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, on a project that has taken three years to develop and write. LONGING FOR GOD: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion, is well worth the wait. The book is based on the idea that throughout history, both individuals and societies have taken different paths to become alive to God. Once these spiritual awakenings occur, a hunger for God's habitual presence often lingers. So how do we encounter God's love in a way that stirs up the spiritual longings inside of us? Foster and Beebe believe there is no cookie cutter answer. Rather, our own capacity to receive and respond to God's love needs to be cultivated. We must be intentional about Christian spiritual formation.

They observe: "Today there is a growing awareness, reflected in an important body of literature, that we have destroyed the main centers of meaning and value to such an extent that we are left with few resources to cultivate and sustain our common life. At the same time a significant chorus of writers is seeking to recover the rich spiritual resources that once guided us morally, sustained us spiritually and satisfied our deep longing for God."

LONGING FOR GOD explores the seven primary paths to God that have developed throughout Christian history: right ordering of our love for God, journeying with God, recovering knowledge of God lost in the Fall, intimacy with Jesus, right ordering of our experiences with God, action and contemplation, as well as divine ascent. Each of the seven sections highlights three or four spiritual writers who illuminate this path of the Christian life. For example, in right ordering of our love for God, the lives and teachings of Origen of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Blaise Pascal are all explored. While the authors uncover the principles of each person's journey and teachings, they do it in a quick but thoughtful way. As a result, the material throughout the book is not only accessible but also enjoyable.

Along the way readers will come across Christian classics that they may not have heard about, or aspects of writers and thinkers of which they were unaware. Some of the familiar names, including Francis of Assisi, John Wesley and Teresa of Avila, are still given a fresh look and provide rich insights. As a result, the book is part devotional, part lesson in church history, and part challenge for deeper spiritual growth. Reading the pages is a rich reminder that we are not alone in our journeys of spiritual formation --- God is with us, and many have gone before us.

--- Reviewed by Margaret Oines

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Systematizing paths of Christian devotion, May 30, 2009

By 

Alex Tang "the reader" (Malaysia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion (Hardcover)

This book reminds me of the approach taken by Richard Foster (2001) in his book, Streams of Living Water. While in Streams, Foster divided the Christian traditions, here they try to divide the spiritual life as seven paths of Christian devotion. These paths are
(1) The right ordering of our love for God
(2) The spiritual life as journey
(3) The recovery of knowledge of God lost in the Fall
(4) Intimacy with Jesus
(5) The right ordering of our experiences with God
(6) Action and contemplation
(7) Divine ascent

The authors have selected a few Christian spiritual saints from the past to support each one of these path. For example in the path of action and contemplation, John Cassian, Benedict of Nursia and Gregory the Great were chosen as examples and a small sample of their wrings were quoted.

As a student of Christian spirituality, I welcome the revival of interest in the leaders of the spirituality tradition. The Desert Fathers and Mothers, Christian mystics, spiritual directors and spiritual writers are enjoying a revival of sorts. Their works are being taken down from dusty shelves and their writings are being reprinted. These saints are very complex people and they lived in a time and space very remote to our time and space. Therefore I fear when they and their works are used to support certain views of spiritualities without reference to the context in which their works were produced. Oops. Sorry about the rant.

This is a well written book by two scholars of Christian spirituality. The seven paths mentioned are well defined but somehow felt too 'neat.' I hope now that Christian devotion is categorized, it will not be systematized and formulatized. In his book, Streams, Foster identifies six dimensions of the Christian life. After the publication the the book, Renovare organises spiritual formation groups which meet regularly. During each group meeting, they make sure they study or conduct activities that touches upon these six dimensions. While this sounds like a balanced Christian life, somehow it is too artificial and again, neat. Christian life is more complex than that. It is not a formula but a way of life.

After saying all that, this is a good book to read about Christian spirituality.