In 1978, evangelical Quaker pastor Richard Foster wrote a groundbreaking book, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Discipline. Named by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the twentieth century, it has sold nearly 2 million copies. The late Eugene Peterson, author of The Message and other books, said that this book and the disciplines it explores are “the instruments of joy, the way into mature Christian spirituality and abundant life.” This book has served as my roadmap for navigating the deeper Christian life for many years.
He divides the book into three sections, and for each section, there are four disciplines. Under the inward disciplines section are meditation, prayer, fasting, and study. Under the outward disciplines section are simplicity, solitude, submission, and service. Under the corporate disciplines section are confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. Foster refers to these disciplines as “classical disciplines” not only because “they are ancient … [but because] they are central to experiential Christianity.” He devotes a chapter to each and when explaining the purpose of the disciplines writes, “… God’s grace is unearned and unearnable, and if we expect to grow, we must take up a consciously chosen course of action involving both individual and group life. That is the purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines” (italics are mine).
The book appropriately begins with the inward disciplines or those disciplines pertaining to the interior life of the Christian. Foster starts with meditation by citing what it is and how Christian meditation differs from Eastern meditation. He notes, “Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it.”
The following chapter on prayer begins by stating, “To pray is to change.” Our prayers should be “like children to a father… Openness, honesty and trust mark a child’s communication with his father.” Foster reports in the chapter on fasting that this discipline is rarely if ever practiced. He cites its importance and defines it as abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. He concludes the inward disciplines by noting the importance of study, pointing out that the purpose of study is “replacing old destructive habits of thought with new life-giving habits.” The focus of study always begins with Scripture and “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).
From the inward disciplines, Foster moves to the outward disciplines which pertain to how Christians should engage the world around them. These disciplines are probably the most convicting because they challenge our prevailing culture. In the chapter on simplicity, he points out that “our contemporary culture lacks both the inward and outward reality of simplicity” and that “covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call prudence. Greed we call industry.” Jesus calls us to realize we own nothing, and he has given us everything. In the chapter on solitude, Foster calls us to “be still and know that He is God” and to practice the discipline of extended time alone with God.
And finally, in the chapters on submission and service, we are called as Christians to “lose our lives to gain them” and to realize that “the least among you will be the greatest.” All in all, the outer disciplines are in many ways the most countercultural. The section on corporate disciplines deals with those spiritual disciplines we share in Christian community. Of considerable importance is the chapter on confession. Foster notes that “at the heart of God is the desire to forgive and to give,” therefore, we are to do the same.
He notes the importance of confessing to God and each other and how this is healing. In the chapter on worship, Foster gives guidelines for preparing for worship and the heart attitude we should adopt towards it. Surprisingly, he describes the discipline of guidance as a corporate discipline. Foster states that clear spiritual guidance is always done in Christian community and that “individual guidance must yield to corporate guidance” because we are members of Christ’s body. Finally, the discipline of celebration is the act of “enjoying God forever,” as stated in the Westminster Catechism. It is the gathering of Christian community to rejoice, laugh, and sing together in all God has done.
In the conclusion to his book, Foster writes, “The classical disciplines of the spiritual life beckon us to the Himalayas of the Spirit.” My hope is that you will accept the climb.
Book review by Dr. Al Barrow
