This paper presents a critical analysis of the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. Each discipline is first summarized. This is followed by a selection of one discipline which is critiqued on a personal, biblical, and psychological level.
Meditation is said by Foster to consist of contemplative thought focused on God's Word. It's entire purpose is to hear from God and obey His lead. It is this focus on faithfulness to hearing and obedience to what is heard from God that is said to distinguish Christian mediation from eastern meditation which has a focus of reaching a more "cosmic" consciousness.
The Biblical foundation for meditation is that of reaching Jesus who even now speaks for us and acts on our behalf. He is alive and still performing miracles. As we allow Him to teach us, rule over us, and guide us, He changes our inward personalities conforming us to think as He thinks and behave as He would behave.
According to Foster, there are different forms of meditation but all of them should be thought of as natural, simple and easy to perform rather than as some complicated process only "spiritual giants" can accomplish. The different forms of meditation discussed by Foster are: (1) Meditation on scripture wherein one analyses some passage from the bible; (2) Re-collection meditation which involves centering the mind and releasing all to God; (3) Meditation on creation in which one contemplates the glory, order and beauty of all of God's creation; and (4) Mediation on current events in order to perceive their significance; this meditation has as its focus the building of a prophetic perspective.
Prayer is like meditation in that it also focuses on thinking as God thinks and aligning ourselves in communion with Him. However, Christian prayer is also focused on changing life events and circumstances; in other words, it is a sort of work the Christian takes to determine the outcome of events.
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