Foster's Celebration of Discipline

1. Foster's Celebration of Discipline (1998) consists of an introductory chapter and one chapter on each of the four Inward, Outward, and Corporate Spiritual Disciplines. Each chapter is summarized here.

The Spiritual Disciplines are the means of bypassing the superficiality of the age and moving into the depths of the spiritual realm. They are not, as is often suspected, intended only for the use of "spiritual giants," but for all humanity (p. 1). There are, however, two difficulties that often bar people's way to the disciplines. The first is the prevailing materialism of the age that has instilled in so many people very serious doubts about their ability to reach beyond the material world to the spiritual. The second is a practical difficulty: ignorance of "how to go about exploring the inward life" (p. 3). Thus Foster provides information on the mechanics of performing the twelve disciplines--but cautions that mere technical knowledge is insufficient and the proper "inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial" (p. 3).

Foster explains that we have grown to think of sin primarily as the individual act of disobedience to God, but warns that the ingrained habits of the heart and of belief and behavior are also very significant and the purpose of the disciplines is to achieve communion with God as a means of rooting out these enslaving habits. The ordinary approach to the individual sin is the exercise of willpower against it. But these isolated efforts most freq

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of 'thought' and meaning that God invested in each aspect of Creation. Or, conversely, one might study the events of the present time and analyze, in a "spirit of discernment, what things our culture lifts up as 'great events'" (p. 75). Thus the individual studies the culture and can ascertain the degree to which it is, for example, in tune with the teaching of Christ or perceive the consequences inherent in trends in the culture. 6. The discipline of simplicity is "an inward reality that results in an outward life-style"--and both of these aspects of simplicity are essential (p. 79). Contemporary culture is unbalanced in regard to the competing attachments promoted by the consumer society in which people deeply desire things that they do not need or enjoy. The Bible offers numerous examples of simplicity in its many references to economic questions, of which the most famous, because it is the most pointed, is the parable of the lilies of the field. Wealth actually belongs entirely to God and an undue attachment to the things of this world results in selfishness that is soul-destroying because, as Jesus said, "no servant can serve two masters" and a choice must be made between serving God and serving mammon (Luke 16:13). Th

Category: Philosophy - F