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Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
Intervarsity Press, 2007)
 There is a song that says "Everything old is new again". This book provides the reader with a collection of ancient spiritual practices that can be restorative and transformative when we engage them and knit them into our modern devotional living.
Calhoun, trained in the Reformed tradition, serves as pastor of spiritual formation at Christ Church, Oak Brook, Illinois. She has composed a book which might appear at first glance to be a catalog of spiritual practices and disciplines (NOTE: don't run screaming because you hear the word "discipline"!!). What she provides for the reader is not a complete curriculum but rather a framework in which to discover how the Spirit will use the possibilities contained in the discipline when the sojourner prayerfully discerns to incorporate it into practice. She says that the book "is like a compass that gives you your bearings. It provides you with ways of responding to Jesus, the pole star of the soul. Once you figure out how to navigate the material, you can find your way forward from any point on the spiritual journey".
Calhoun provides a systematic presentation of her chosen disciplines – seminary graduates and EFMers will appreciate this, and will feel their hearts strangely warmed as they browse her handbook. She includes such ancient practices as confession and self-examination, holy communion, liturgical prayer, intercessory prayer and fasting, along with more contemporary avenues of spiritual discipline, such as prayer walking, labyrinth prayer, care of the earth, and unplugging. Each discipline is presented with a short reflection on the subject, some reflection questions, a series of spiritual exercises pertinent to the theme (NOTE: don't run screaming because you hear the word "exercise"!!), and some supplementary reading resources chosen by Calhoun. Each discipline is opened by a table which provides an understanding of the desire and definition of the discipline, scripture references to the discipline, characteristics of the practice, and the possible fruits which may be gained from its actual practice.
As Calhoun notes in her introduction, the point of practicing particular spiritual disciplines is not to "get it right" or to achieve a particular end. Engaging in any spiritual practice has at its center hope --- the hope for transformation and change through the graces of the Holy Spirit. "That doesn’t mean we give the Holy Spirit an agenda or a demand", say Calhoun in her Introduction. "We simply desire. We bring our ache for change, our longing for belonging, our desperation to make a difference. Then we keep company with Jesus by making space for him through a spiritual discipline. Our part is to offer ourselves lovingly and obediently to God. God then works within us doing what he alone can do".
The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook provides a rich and practical sourcebook of spiritual wisdom and practices for any follower of the Way of Jesus, no matter how short or how long the journey has been. |
