Summary And Interaction Of Celebration Of Discipline By Richard J. Foster

In Virtuous Minds, Phillip Dow helps the reader understand what it means to love God with all of their minds. Dow does this by giving the reader a list of seven intellectual virtues, which can be performed in good or bad ways. Some may choose the path of cheating, arrogance, laziness, or cowardice, but Dow hopes this book will provide an option for recovering intellectual character. He splits the book into three separate parts, part one defines the seven intellectual virtues, while part two presents the awards that will come with these virtues, and finally part three provides the reader with a series of steps to reach this character.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ book A Ray of Darkness, has been influential on my own journey with call and vocation. Prior church experiences taught me that introspection and self-exploration were too prideful and that it is the Christian’s duty to continually pursue difficult things, in spite of aptitude. The rationale was: if it is difficult, then it must be holy. It was this very mindset that for many years, kept me from pursuing my calling.

The book is divided into seven parts. The book focuses spiritual growth and it is a manual for building a Spirit-filled life in a world where perfection can only be found in God’s loving vision. Ortberg helps us gauge your spiritual health and measure the gap between where you are now and where God intends you to be. As the author emphasizes on

Living religious traditions are integrated meaning systems which provide adherents with comprehensive and distinctive answers to the enduring questions of human existence. Religious traditions are ultimately shaped and reformed by the actions of the individuals who practices the faith. In a contemporary Christian environment, prominent practices to have a significant contribution to Christianity as a living religious tradition are Baptism and the works of Pope John XXIII. The significant practice of Baptism, as a central element of Christianity, is an initiation of adherents to a “discipleship” with Christ as well as a reinforcement of the community’s relationship with God. Furthermore, the development and expression of the Christian tradition

Another, aspect, spirituality is not as much a prearranged system, it is a quest and a prolongation of one’s development.

For the Life of the World authored by Fr. Alexander Schmemann an Orthodox priest was originally intended as a “study guide” in the 1970’s for students preparing themselves for Missionary work, giving them a “world view”, helping to speak about Christian view points along with an approach to how they coalesce through the eyes of the Orthodox Church. A key theme Fr. Schmemann discussed is Secularism, which he believes developed from our progressive alienation of the Christian culture. Additionally, he presents his interpretation of the transforming biblical themes of creation, fall, and redemption through a sacramental understanding. Fr. Schmemann’s experiences within the Orthodox Church liturgy reveal unity in the meanings of these three themes. It is through these understandings he believes can effectively offset the disastrous effects of secularism while revitalizing the sacramental understanding of the world.

The book is composed of twenty chapters each with a separate contributing author(s). Each chapter has the same format as an essay with a brief overview of the section

As shown by his writing, Hodge must be a powerful preacher. The book is structured like a series of sermons. Yet, while this works wonderfully in the pulpit, it does not inspire as well in print. The text requires several readings to understand fully the one message – the cross.

In this paper, I am going to share my ideas of theology. I believe that one of the biggest mistakes I made in the past was that I was afraid of being rejected, so I wrote a theology paper and tried to give the previous COM what I thought they wanted to hear instead of what was truly inside of me. Fortunately for me, even though I was not given a green light in order to see the Eccleastical Council, I was licensed to preach and this gave me time

J.P Moreland’s second step to renovating the soul and returning to authentic spiritual renovation is fostering spiritual discipline. When you present your body to God as a living sacrifice it involves not only a one-time act of dedication, but a habitual,

Edwards’ begins his writing by further commenting of Peter’s words on persecutions. Further explain how trials of one’s faith serve as opportunities for a Christian to achieve true virtue and to test whether one’s religion is true or false. If one’s has true religion successful response to trials further purifies, refines, and increases her religion. Edward remarks, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” (141). Edwards further defines affection as one’s ability to follow the inclination of one’s soul. The soul holds two faculties: the first facility holds the task of understanding. The second facility controls inclination. Edwards reveals the physiological connection of our body and affections stating: “from

At work our manager decided to do something fun for the office to raise office morale. She got individual photos of us and stuck them on magazine pages. My photo was put on a 4 year old boy hanging from monkey bars for a Target advertisement. This magnified how I had felt most of my life. That people considered me to be the immature one. Therefore, when having to choose a discipline from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, the one that resonated with me the most was discernment as the desire is “to delight in and recognise the voice and will of God”.

Spiritual disciplines will prepare us for our journey in Christ. I feel if understanding correctly, the classical Christian Pilgrimage remind us that we all have issues requiring regular examination. In chapter eight, the classical Christian Pilgrimage tells us we are at different stages on the path of wholeness in Christ. However, in my thoughts some areas of our Christian journey we may be doing well, but in other areas we have not touched at all. Not to mention, these are the place we are not ready or capable of handling yet, however, as we mature in God and He knows what we can handle, then we are awakened. God awakens us to our true selves which have not been completely revealed. In reality, once we reach maturity to God, he reveals all that is hidden deep inside of us (the real us/you). By the same token, he let us see the inner behaviors, attitudes, desires, in fact how we measure up in them being Christ-like. I feel the awakening stage deals with the comfort of being set free of these issues that are holding us back also causing detours on our path to wholeness in Christ. Equally, the threat is being afraid to see who we really are; also how far from Christ-like we really are. We must first be awakened from our separation also alienation from God (Mulholland 79-82).

Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, was first published in 1978. It presented sets of Disciplines that, if followed, would serve as vehicles for a deeper relationship with Christ as well as preparation for service. These disciplines are divided into three broad categories: the Inward Disciplines, the Outward Disciplines, and the Corporate Disciplines (Foster, 2003). Each category contains four Disciplines, which indicated by their titles, moves the disciple from the very personal to the larger congregational community (Foster, 2003). Recognizing humanity’s trend to make any process a law or regulation to follow, Foster warned against this by reminding the disciple that to do so would turn

Celebration of Discipline by Richard F. Foster is a book about the path to spiritual growth. This book will help me train myself to be emotionally stronger while reaffirming my ethics and