Review:

Longing for God

Bringing the past to the present

Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe’s book on the inner lives of historical figures has spiritual depth but also partiality

I need to start with a confession. Though I have had a lifelong interest in developing my own spiritual devotion, I have never been a fan of books that tell you how to do it. If you’ve ever tried to learn to dance by getting instructions from a book, you’ll understand why. There are some things that you can learn only by doing. For me, any personally empowering experience is most likely to be something that happens in engagement with other people who will show me what to do and themselves be a part of the experience. You’d be right to think that preference is more to do with my temperament and personality type than anything deeply theological (though I would still defy anyone to learn dancing from a book).

So why do I like the book? Largely because it tells the stories of different individuals over the centuries who have explored ways of cultivating their own inner life. The emphasis being very firmly on ‘inner life’, because it will appeal most to the quiet reflective types among us.

Each chapter begins with a Bible verse and an introduction to its theme, which is then expanded through the stories of individuals who have used the particular approach, and then a concluding page or two of reflections. There is certainly a wide variety of experience and (to a lesser extent) theological opinion included here. Origen (ancient Church Father in Alexandria, Egypt) rubs shoulders with Thomas Merton (20th century monk), along with John Calvin (classical Reformer), Ignatius Loyola (founder of the Jesuits), George Fox (founder of the Quakers) and John Wesley (Methodist pioneer) – just to mention a few. One of the great strengths of the book is its historical breadth, and if you’ve never heard of some of these characters then just reading it will give you a fascinating insight into much of Christian history, whether or not their spiritual practices appeal to you.

This strength is also a weakness, though, as it means that the focus of attention is on people who are more or less historically remote from today’s world, with Merton (who died in 1968) being the most recent. It is also an account based on the history and experience of the western church (western in a historical sense, that is, reflecting the story of Roman Christianity and the Protestant Reformation that grew out of it), though there is a short appendix highlighting a handful of significant characters from the eastern Orthodox tradition. And it is almost entirely a male story, with a disappointingly short appendix on ‘Christian women and spirituality’ (only 17 of the book’s 347 pages).

Inevitably, the personal preferences of the authors have determined the selection of material included here, and the way it is presented. Both are white western men (so don’t imagine that someone with a name like Gayle could only be a woman). Richard Foster is a Quaker and Gayle Beebe is president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara (a traditional conservative evangelical institution), which no doubt also explains the absence of any significant reflection on the sacramental aspects of spiritual devotion, even though that was central to the practice of many, if not most, of the individuals whose stories are included here. I looked forward to reading the chapter entitled ‘action and contemplation’, only to discover that the choice of people whose stories are included there (John Cassian, Benedict of Nursia and Gregory the Great) ensured that the main emphasis was on contemplation rather than action.

I kept wanting to see something on people whose spirituality is worked out in different ways – individuals like William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King or Jackie Pullinger, for example. And I kept wondering what they might make of the sort of spiritual devotion you would encounter in places like a skate church, where highly energetic physical movement is an integral aspect of faith in Christ.

HIGH: The historical accounts of western spiritual practices.

LOW: You would think the 21st century hadn’t happened yet, not to mention women’s spirituality, the charismatic movement, and a few other things.

Published by: Hodder & Stoughton