A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original review appears below. Mike Cheney is an M.C.S. student at Regent College, and an adherent of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. Richard J. Foster, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978. 179 pp.
Foster, convinced that mediocrity and superficiality are epidemic in twentieth century society and church life, focuses on rearticulating for the twentieth century Christian the necessity of spiritual discipline. He does not, however, confine his book to a merely theological treatise on the spiritual disciplines. His treatment of the subject is eminently practical. This thoughtful practicality launches the reader on a journey through a conceptual, practical and spiritual world which, though not new in an historical sense, has certainly been infused with freshness and personal reality in the author’s presentation. His clearly intended aim in this work is to set before the reader the challenge of the spiritual disciplines and the joy of the spiritual depth that results from their proper practice. Strategically speaking, Foster’s approach takes up the offense, thereby achieving a strong defense. The spiritual disciplines are the means of liberation from mediocrity and superficiality.
The book is organized in three parts, each of which is dependent upon and interconnected with the section that precedes it. Foster builds up his case by moving from a treatment of the various disciplines relating to the inner life to the area of Christian behaviour to church life, interweaving these three broad areas together at spiritually significant junctures. This book clearly goes beyond the level of the average “how to” book in that it presents a schema which is designed to give the reader the equipment to live out an entire life characterized by spiritual growth. Thus, even though most readers will finish Celebration of Discipline with a desire to pursue further reading in Christian spirituality, no reader will feel irresistibly compelled to go and buy “Step #2” in order to proceed with his or her spiritual life. In this way, Celebration of Discipline intends to surpass both the theoretical and the technical (or methodological) aspects of Christian spirituality by providing something of a blend of both.
Foster has achieved most of his stated aim. His presentation is clear, his style, lucid and uncomplicated. This simple, clear style allows the author to avoid many of the pitfalls and complications of writing on the Christian spiritual life. The result is a very readable, highly enjoyable challenge to pursue a deeper spiritual life by means of the classical spiritual disciplines.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about writing in order to challenge people on a spiritual level is that the level of encounter between the author and the reader is really much deeper than any analysable aspect of the book’s contents. The writing is directed at the very center and mainstay of the reader’s being. The author is also placed at a severe disadvantage; he may only contribute to our continuing dialogue with him through the concepts and images that he has, as it were, once and for all laid out for us in verbal form. My point here is simply that the criticisms which follow are simply my side of the dialogue with the book.
First, much of what Foster says is very helpful to Christians who find themselves in ambiguous situations. Nevertheless, some of his examples see “clearer than life”, causing one to wonder whether Foster sees all the categories of spiritual discipline as making uniformly compatible demands on the Christian (see, e.g., p. 120). Second, Foster relies on the authority of three interlocking sources of spiritual life, Scripture, personal experience and mystical tradition. Though I sympathize with many of Foster’s conclusions, the theological and biblical basis of the book remains a crucial concern. Many who read Foster’s book from an evangelical or fundamentalist perspective may see this triad as a mixed blessing and a dangerous thing. To some readers, I am sure, Foster’s sources of authority will be seen as an unpalatable combination of the Word (sic), the flesh and the devil, in that order. Third, the account given avoids taking on an eschatological perspective (i.e. neither individual nor final). Foster, while relating the spiritual disciplines superbly to life, does not spend time relating them to death or judgement. The book is a good manual on how to proceed day by day but it contains no sweeping views of heaven and hell to fortify and encourage the believer toward the “finish line” to which all spiritual efforts are rightly directed.
Despite the above comments, it is clear to me that this book has contributed and will continue to contribute greatly to the praise and glory of God among his people.