Analysis of Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster - Book Report/Review Example

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster Book Review Introduction Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster is one of the best contemporary books based on spirituality of Christians. Since its first publication in 1978, book sales have been commendable. In the book, Foster digs into the fundamental spiritual practices concerning the faith of Christians in his bid to demonstrate the balance in spiritual life achieved through the embracement of these practices. Foster doubles up as the founder of the Renovare, an intrachurch movement. Through the book, Foster has positively motivated Christians across the world to embark on their spiritual journey. Summary The book, Celebration of the Discipline, presents Fosters aspiration overview on the Christian faiths’ classical disciplines. Foster avers that spiritual growth is acquired only through these central spiritual practices. By dividing the disciplines into three forms in which the spirit moves, inward, outward and corporate, Foster explicates the saliency of these disciplines in striking a balance in spiritual faith. The Inward Disciplines include fasting, meditation, prayer and study intend to provide a person with a form of self-examination and change. On the other hand, Outward Disciplines include solitude, service, submission and simplicity and are calculated to aid in the preparation of Christians in their bid ameliorate the world. Finally, the Corporate Disciplines include celebration, confession, guidance, and worship, which aim to bring Christians closer to God, besides drawing the Christians close to one another. Moreover, Foster supports each of the discipline’s exploration with quotes from scholars and Scriptures that aid in drawing Christians closer to God. In addition, the author depicts the importance of integrating love, hope, and faith into the spiritual journey and the gains of embracing discipline in one’s life. Foster uses personal experiences and scriptures to establish that it is possible for Christians to adopt these disciplines into their daily lives and the role they play in bringing the copiousness of God into their lives by shedding off the superficial habits. With equal importance, each discipline has explanations and the anticipated challenges in practicing the disciplines. However, an important insight on simplicity highlights how it can bring a balance in out inward and outward lives besides bringing us joy. Through simplicity, the author asserts that Christians will be able to appreciate God’s provision as a gift to all as opposed to a single person. In addition, the author expounds on celebration, a Disciplines that is often ignored, to show its saliency as it stands at Christ’s heart. Through the growth in spirit, people transform into what God wants them to be. Foster maintains that when Christians are faced with challenges in the journey, the only feasible option is to look up to Christ as an example and hence guidance thereof, since he cleared the path for us by walking the journey before us. The book, indeed, will aid Christians on their bid to embark on a journey of spiritual growth and prayer. Analysis of the book The central theme of the book is on actions. An initial read may prompt the reader to think that Foster is promoting a salvation based on work. He writes, “The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do, they are actions, not merely states of mind” (Foster, 1988, 105). Even so, the author’s intended believers and audience are those people who have already achieved salvation but are held back by the enslavement of the flesh and hence undisciplined. The author endorses Paul’s utterance tot the Philippians where he stated that “Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), by showing the intended believers that they can walk the path that Paul suggested for the Philippians. To that end, the analysis hinges on the nature, purpose, process and product of the disciplines. Foster has selected four, out of the twelve, disciplines in the book that are primal to the overall collection of the disciplines. Joy, prayer, celebration and simplicity hold all the other disciplines together in various ways. As he asseverates, “Joy is the keynote of all the disciplines” and that it is “liberation from stifling self-interest and fear” (Foster, 1988, 2). In a tactical way, he chooses to begin with joy and ends with it, as well. Joy is experienced because of obedience (Foster, 1988, 192). As the cliché lines in children’s’ songs’ go, obedience serves as the key to joy and it is a way of showing that one believes, substantial evidence that the end result of the disciplines is joy, and hence the nature of disciplines thereof. Joy is what the believers seek when; they start embracing the disciplines, struggles through them and sometimes, when one wants to give up. Foster’s assertions are in line with the scriptures’ teachings that “for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). For Jesus also endured the identical struggle stop those that Christians are encounter, they should never be discouraged and instead push through due to the joy set before them, just like Jesus did. Foster introduces the discipline of simplicity as an elevation over the other disciplines because of its inherent nature. He terms it to be the most visible discipline and one that is vulnerable to corruption (Foster, 1988, 85). The reader is able to infer that simplicity is the acquiring of pleasure of contentment at the expense of materialism and greed. Prayer and celebration are also central to all the other disciplines. Celebration has the ability of bringing joy to one’s life and the resulting joy brings strength. Intrinsically, celebration takes us back to joy. On the other hand, prayer is primal because of its ability to usher believers into the perpetual communion with God (Foster, 1988, 33). Meditation, study, solitude, worship, fasting and confession Disciplines have prayer as an even and basic product. There is no spiritual gain derived from these disciplines without prayer. Clearly, prayer and celebration are central to all the other disciplines, as Foster presents them. The disciplines play various general purposes as Foster affirms. In a fundamental manner, the Disciplines result to existential Christianity (Foster, 1988, 1). The will of a man, in isolation, cannot be able to induce a transformation of the inner spirit, and hence the urgent need for the Disciplines to aid in performance of this task (Foster, 1988, 6). The disciplines place Christians before the Father in order for Him to transform them. The author, also, attributes spiritual growth to the disciplines by posing the help that the believer gets from the disciplines and then follows with demonstration of how the believer can practice the disciplines. Further, the author writes that the disciplines transform a person entirely (Foster, 1988, 62). A reader does not get the full information on what level of change Foster is referring to, despite the statement being explicit. These doubts are laid to rest when he mentions the purpose of the disciplines to be freedom at a later chapter in the book (Foster, 1988, 110). Generally, the disciplines serve a supplemental role to each other. More specifically, Foster sheds light on the various functions of specific disciplines. For instance, mediation is purposed to enable a believer appreciate the presence of the Lord in refulgent reality rather than in perpetuity (Foster, 1988, 19). Fasting creates time for glorifying the Heavenly Father (Foster, 1988, 55). For a believer to be able to hear and see, Foster suggests that the discipline of solitude and silence should be in place. In an enigmatic manner, Foster explicated the purpose of the disciplines for a believer, something that aids in the embracement of the values suggested thereof. Foster is considerate in his authoring. He does not anticipate a perfect practice of the disciplines and instead present s two of the main challenges that believers may face in practicing the disciplines. First, he affirms that a believer may question his or her ability to undergo anything, other than physical, in the spiritual world. Secondly, the believer may not be able to start practicing the disciplines due to the lack of knowledge thereof (Foster, 1988, 2-3). The book is practical given that it has provided for this important consideration. In the Bible, Jesus often got request form the disciples asking him that “Lord, teach us to pray” (21). Exemplarily, many believers in the contemporary world are contented that they need education before they can embrace the disciplines. Indeed, Fosters expectations are potent. Foster inspires believers by stating the product of the Disciplines’ practice. In his words, “Spiritual Disciplines Open the Door,” and continuous to explain what the open door consists of, inner righteousness (Foster, 1988, 6). Throughout the book, Foster has referred to this inner righteousness as an imitation of the righteousness that the Pharisees, those “whited sepulchers filled with dean men’s bones” (Matthew 23:27), practiced. He concludes by alluding to this inner righteousness as the transformation that the disciplines realize. By presenting the book with a word of encouragement at the end of every chapter, Foster has had a major impact on the spiritual journey of many Christians. In conclusion, Foster encourages oodles of believers to concentrate on pursuing their spiritual growth through his book. Centralizing his book on actions rather than a state of mind practice, he has presented the twelve disciplines of the Christians faith using four central disciplines of all. He has presented joy to be a sure way of expressing one’s interests and fears. Simplicity is a virtue of giving up materiality for contentment. Through celebration, joy is achieved whereas prayer is a basic element for almost all the other disciplines since it brings believers into communion with God. Together, the four cardinal disciplines relate to the others effectively to serve a general purpose of transforming the believer. However, the readers may find difficulties in believing in themselves when it comes to experiencing the transformation in the spiritual world and starting off the practice without proper education. At the end, the believers achieve a transformation in the form of inner righteousness. Succinctly, Foster has been able to urge believers to adopt the disciplines using heart-felt encouragements, practical advice and scriptural advice. Indeed, the book is one of a kind under the purview of Christian faith. Reference Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline The Path to Spiritual Growth. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988. . Read More