Customer Reviews

Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries

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I found this to be a good book that covered many different parts of Christian history. It was not dry and technical, but was very engaging and multiple times I found myself putting the book down to reflect what was being said.

Also, since it gave such a warm summary, it spurned me on to use other resources to do a more indepth study of the topics that really interested me. It really help cultivate a passion to engage in my studies, not for the sake of rote, but to embrace and appreciate the different aspects of my Christian faith.

Jerry's ability to display his passion for the history of Christian Spirituality is second only to his desire for us to glean wisdom and practice in our spiritual lives through reflection on the saints. His representation, as a whole, of the history of Christian Spirituality is seamless. The written testimony of so many great saints and fathers of "the way" directs us towards the practical outcroppings of our faith in our daily walk with the Lord. History textbooks on this subject are needed and wonderful, but Jerry takes the history of the past and makes it the spiritual workings of the present; were we to lose the Christian foundations that we find in these martyrs and saints, we would be like a man who having climbed to the top of Mt. Everest could not remember his trek up the vast mountainside, but instead stood on the peak and asked his fellow climbers, "how did we get here?"

Jerry's passionate display for history to shape and impede upon us is a refreshing walk in the land of Christian Spirituality. If your feet are weary from the journey, take off your shoes and dip them into this refreshingly crisp deep well that is sure to invigorate your soul.

Sitting down to coffee with Dr. Sittser after having read his book confirmed my understanding of a common theme in his book all the more: "drinking from the same well" (p. 295). Sittser claims that though "we will never understand Christian spirituality...unless we grasp the significance of martyrdom" (p. 28), "we all may not be called to martyrdom but we all are called to surrender our lives to God" (p. 31).

Sittser does a balanced service to Christendom by giving us a climpse of the many ways "greats" of the faith have been refreshed from the well--Christ. He provides an informative historical review of martyrs (in death and bloodless) from the Apostolic fathers until recent yet ties it all into the average man and women who have to live their faith in the rush of modernity. An impactful book that will leave you thinking and hopefully to dipping deeper into the well.

Just finished Gerald Sittser's book Water from a deep well for my next D.Min. class. I have to admit, this is not a book that I would have sought out or even stumbled across in a bookstore, but it is a treasure. This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read, and that is saying a lot, since I've read a few.

What Sittser does is something that every Christian needs, not just leaders, but everyone who claims to follow Jesus. He gives us a history lesson.

So many of us have no idea about the history of Christianity, why at its heart it is a missionary religion, the passion of those who have gone before, the blood that was spilled for the movement of Jesus to be where it is. It is so rich, so powerful and gives us such passion and enables us to continue following after God to this day.

It starts by looking at martyrs throughout church history. For many of us in the Western world, the idea of dying for your faith is remote, if not a non-thought. But, as "missiologist David B. Barrett estimates 160,000 Christians were martyred in the year 2000 alone. They died that year for the same basic reason they died in the year 155, when Polycarp was marytred, or in 202, when Perpetua was martyred. The early martyrs believed that if Jesus is Lord and the only Savior, then he accepts no rivals - no person or religion or ideology or empire. They affirmed that the Christian faith requires nothing less than a firm and joyful commitment to this conviction. Jesus came as God in human flesh to show the way to God and to be the way to God for us. This is the only Jesus there is. A lesser Jesus is not the real Jesus at all, at least not according to the testimony of the martyrs, from Stephen to the present."

Here are a few things from the book I highlighted:

The only way to understand something is to love it first, that is, to study it with sympathy, patience and appreciation.
That we might not have to die for Christ is irrelevant. How we live for Christ is the real issue.
It is easy to gawk but not learn, listen by not sympathize and thus trivialize what is sacred. These stories are not fanciful, fictional accounts that have been recorded and passed down for our entertainment. The martyrs were real people who did in fact die horribly. They had families and friends, hopes and longings, and they wanted to live a long, peaceful and prosperous life, just like us. They chose to accept death rather than renounce their faith because they believed something was more valuable than the long and happy life for which they longed.
The early church lived by a different ethic, which impressed the very people who suffered the most as victims of Rome's immorality and injustice.
The appeal of Christianity still lay in its radical sense of community: it absorbed people because the individual could drop from a wide impersonal world into a miniature community, whose demands and relations were explicit.
To love all members alike, pastors have to love them all uniquely.
Struggle is normal, necessary and even healthy in the spiritual life. Struggle proves that we are taking the Christian faith seriously.
Mystical spirituality is concerned with one basic question: how can we truly know God?
Preaching is the Word of God only if the sermon itself actually proclaims the Word of God.
This statement summarizes the essence of the book: "The Bible tells the story of human resistance and God's persistence. The story is full of flawed heroes and strange twists of plot, of the wretchedness of evil and the triumph of good, which was accomplished in a way that no one could have predicted, namely, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ."

This book was one of those books that impacted me on a personal and professional level, which is quite rare for a book to do. The stories, especially chapter 5 "holy heroes" left me with a sense of awe for the legacy and history of Christianity and what God calls each of us to.

Chapter 9 on the reformation showed me the high view of God and the Bible that the reformers and their churches had. Their role in communicating the words of God and their love and passion for the people they were called to lead was inspiring.

This is one of those rare books. If you want to know more about how Christianity got to where it is today, this is the book to read

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Sittser's own story of terrible grief and loss (shared in his book on loss) makes him tuned to the important role of suffering in the life of Church across the centuries. With a Christ-centered perspective Sittser details the important contribution and inspiring sacrifices Christians have been making since the beginning of the Church. This book is a great tool for helping the believer discover God's work outside of his/her own tradition and learn to value the Christianity of those who may not necessarily look at the Christian life through the same lenses.

Great Book so far! Very insightful, thorough, and deep. Gives a really good foundation for church history and its relevancy in some key themes applicable today. Definitely recommend if you are thinking about buying it.

Gerald L. Sittser has written a wonderful review of Christian Spirituality from the days of the early martyrs to such contemporary spiritual giants as Desmund Tutu. I learned more about evangelical spirituality than I had ever known. The connection between the spiritual life and the corporate worship life of the Sacramental Church was very special.

This is a book for a class that I am taking (Spiritual Theology). The book arrived in plenty of time and in very good shape. Everything was better than I expected. It is what I call and "easy read book". I would recommend it for anybody that wonders about "early times" Martyrs.

Quite simply this was a surprisingly wonderful book to read. Gerald Sittser makes history come alive with his engaging style and flowing style. They say that you must understand something profoundly in order to explain it simply. This is true for Sittser. His scholarship is impressive but his scholarship does not make this book hard to read.

This is also an important book. The study of Christian Spirituality in Church History in one volume is a great resource. Tracing the various forms and practices of spiritual life in the major epochs of the Christian Church is eye opening - not just in how spirituality develops but in both the differences AND the similarites. Sittser is broad and fair in his study covering a large spectrum of traditions and theologies. Sittser does not focus on the differences, or the problems - he acknowledges that there are many problems between the various denominations. Instead he has focused on the positives and that is a good thing. The subject matter of this book is important and now, with this volume, is it available in the form of an excellent book. I have a shelf of books which I try and read each year. This book is going on that self. It will also be in the top 3 books i will recommend for Church History reading. Highly recommended.

Jerry Sittser's book WATER FROM A DEEP WELL offers readers a refreshing drink from the well of Christian spirituality. Sittser writes this survey of Christian church history with clarity and depth, with mind and heart fully engaged. For anyone wanting an overview of the great movements within Christian orthodoxy, this book provides a great resource. The format of this book flows chronologically, beginning with the early martyrs, concluding with modern pioneer missionaries. Each chapter focuses upon one specific character trait of Christian spirituality. For example, his chapter on monasticism, Sittser focuses upon the important spirituality of a balanced, rhythmic life. Give this book to friends who are spiritual seekers and may not know the great depths and wealth available to them through the Christian past. For another book surveying Christian spirituality, for the family and home, take a look into: The Busy Family's Guide to Spirituality: Practical Lessons for Modern Living From the Monastic Tradition