I couldn't help but notice how 90% of the reviewers gave the book 3 or more stars. That speaks for itself, especially in today's world where it seems no two people can agree on much of anything. I also noticed several of the critics didn't even read more than a paragraph or two. I spoke with one pastor who rejected it based only on Internet reviews. Following is my review, and I've read it three times.
Foster writes with the authority of someone who not only knows about his subject matter but has made it an intimate and integral part of his person and life. The book's purpose is to respond to the desperate need in the world for deep people, specifically deep Christians, who would become "the answer to a hollow world" (1). The reviewer loved the analogy comparing ingrained habits of sin with the dirt on the ocean floor, even finding the perfect verse (Isa. 57:20). Foster points out that what people need is an inside job, which only God can do (6), and the spiritual disciplines are that "path of disciplined grace" (7) that will "reconstruct us into the image of Jesus Christ" (8). Foster completes his analogy by stating that the Spirit's work changes the natural motions of sin into natural motions of good (9). It is complete, well-supported, thoroughly accurate observations like this throughout the book that make Foster a true joy and inspiration to read.
While there were no bad chapters, some stood out as particularly exceptional for the reviewer, such as meditation (chapter two). The Christian's adversary, says Foster, majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds (15). The Christian's arsenal of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study are perhaps not often associated as a collective set of resources used offensively against an organized assault on multiple fronts. This, the reviewer perceives, is Foster's gift, to reveal old truths with new light, and thus become himself a powerful tool in the hands of the Spirit.
Through Foster's mature eyes, readers can see more things more clearly and more readily. Of particular interest to the reviewer was the masterful way he weaved together each set of disciplines as separate and distinct yet interactive and interdependent. One meditates better when one has studied well, and one fasts more richly while praying more fervently; likewise, one studies more deeply when one's spirit has united with God in prayer, and one's fast is more joyful when accompanied with great meditation. As Foster puts it, "We are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God" (55). When all twelve disciplines are considered together, each pair feeds and informs the other in a dazzling set of interwoven strands, creating a spiritual tapestry that is incomparably transcendent and infinitely beneficial. A church whose members gather with such deep, inner transformations truly can change the world.
Fenelon said it all with five words on the subject of simplicity, another chapter with particular appeal to the reviewer, "The pearl of the Gospel" (79). Foster adds his own generous and classic quotations, such as the following for solitude, "Jesus calls us from loneliness to solitude" (96). Each of just these two jewels is enough subject matter for an entire pastoral retreat. Yet Foster is not content to add a few such rich snippets--his entire work is saturated with them. He found this from T. S. Eliot about modern culture, "Where will the word be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence" (96). Many have written about the dark night of the soul, but none the reviewer has read to date has married the entire painful experience with something positive, until now: "The dark night is one of the ways God brings us into a hush, a stillness so that he may work an inner transformation upon the soul" (102). It is one thing to point to the value of silence; it is quite another to make it so appealing as to be irresistible, such as Foster makes it with the following: "Listen to God's speech in his wondrous, terrible, gentle, loving, all-embracing silence" (109).
Directly related to the silence found in solitude, one's service to others also involves silence, as Foster captures, "To listen to others quiets and disciplines the mind to listen to God" (138). The matter of confession was a fresh issue on the reviewer's mind, having recently heard that an inmate confessed something egregious to his pastor, who then gave him the choice of turning himself in to Child Protective Services, or he would. Foster's words could not have been better timed. Rather than dismissing the discipline outright for fear of those who would abuse it, the reviewer came away with a more balanced and healthy view. Consider this from Foster: "We are sinners together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied, but transformed" (146).
The reviewer could use many pages just to skim the surface of the majesty of Foster's masterful work. His objective, of course, is met so very thoroughly, if only readers will take his words to heart and truly respond to this hollow world with more depth, sincerity, and maturity, all of which are only gained through the classic spiritual disciplines.
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Popular Highlights in this book
Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word.Highlighted by 4,565 Kindle readers- God spoke to them not because they had special abilities, but because they were willing to listen.Highlighted by 3,395 Kindle readers
- Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind.Highlighted by 3,303 Kindle readers
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Reviews with images
Very good on stilling ones mind for hearing the soft spoken voice of YHWH.
Received my book when I returned home from church. It was packaged nicely. Have read the preface and am really excited about reading this book. If you are a Christian, I recommend this book as a helpful guide to quieting ones self.
Top reviews from other countries
Mayce atzu
Ein tolles Buch über die Geistlichen Übungen
Reviewed in Germany on February 27, 2019