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jenny_islanderToday I started another read-through of a book that I think is important. I was going to tackle The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups by Starhawk, but I took stock of my life and my resources first. I realized that when it comes to the work of organizing, my knowledge must remain that of D'Artagnan for now. I don't feel qualified to comment on that book, although I do encourage you to read it.
So I turned to another book, or rather a pair of books. I was happy to see positive recognition, even some dissemination, of my earlier read-through of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. I expect that this one is going to get fewer, because it covers a topic that is uninteresting, even distasteful to some. In short, I am Christian, and I want to get better at that. Feel free to block me.
Richard J. Foster is a theologian, as well as a retired pastor and an author of devotional books. Back in 1978, Foster wrote Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth; he later added Study Guide for Celebration of Discipline. The first book became a best seller and both books are still in use.
Passages in these books suggest that at the time, he had never lived at the mercy of a corporation or landlord or had to run a household by himself. However, he does not often fall into the trap of assuming that his experience and opportunities are everyone's experience and opportunities. He also owns his mistakes. In short, he is not a self-anointed messianic figure or a puffed-up preacher. In fact, Celebration of Discipline is a sharp antidote to the kind of religious book written by someone who thinks that feeling strongly about something is the same as being divinely inspired about it. Foster draws on classical Christian thought, by which I mean the thoughts of people who had what we call a classical education. Classical education begins with grammar (how to communicate), rhetoric (how to persuade), and logic (how to avoid fallacy and tihsllub). (These are very rough paraphrases in the interests of brevity.) These all demand slowing down and thinking things through. They also require checking primary sources, which Foster does with awe-inspiring frequency. He quotes people who died a thousand years ago alongside people who rode in airplanes, and he has read everything he quotes in context.
So what is Celebration of Discipline about? In short, it's about the methods, some devised long before Jesus was born on Earth, by which people can learn to live fully in the real world, which comprises both the material, temporal world and everything that lies around and within and above and beyond it. It is not a book for spiritual supermen, although it isn't for people who are living in emergency mode either. It is an inextricably Christian book, which, again, may not be what you want.
The main text is about 200 pages long, to which the study guide adds another 50 or so. I don't have a lot of energy or unencumbered time, so I won't try to tackle a full chapter all at once. I will read a little bit at a time and post about it at Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Slacktivist, as before.
I am not turning away from activism. Remember that according to Snyder, who is conveying the painfully learned wisdom of survivors of tyranny, choosing to devote time to something like this is one form of activism. We must not stop being who we are--we must not stop living--because something horrible is happening. Tyranny wants us to think and speak and act only in its light. Look past its capering, stamping, shouting figure to what really matters. So many unholy holy emperors have died since the foundational text of Celebration of Discipline was written. Cruelty devours itself again and again. The real world remains. It's our world, so we should continue to live in it.
So I turned to another book, or rather a pair of books. I was happy to see positive recognition, even some dissemination, of my earlier read-through of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. I expect that this one is going to get fewer, because it covers a topic that is uninteresting, even distasteful to some. In short, I am Christian, and I want to get better at that. Feel free to block me.
Richard J. Foster is a theologian, as well as a retired pastor and an author of devotional books. Back in 1978, Foster wrote Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth; he later added Study Guide for Celebration of Discipline. The first book became a best seller and both books are still in use.
Passages in these books suggest that at the time, he had never lived at the mercy of a corporation or landlord or had to run a household by himself. However, he does not often fall into the trap of assuming that his experience and opportunities are everyone's experience and opportunities. He also owns his mistakes. In short, he is not a self-anointed messianic figure or a puffed-up preacher. In fact, Celebration of Discipline is a sharp antidote to the kind of religious book written by someone who thinks that feeling strongly about something is the same as being divinely inspired about it. Foster draws on classical Christian thought, by which I mean the thoughts of people who had what we call a classical education. Classical education begins with grammar (how to communicate), rhetoric (how to persuade), and logic (how to avoid fallacy and tihsllub). (These are very rough paraphrases in the interests of brevity.) These all demand slowing down and thinking things through. They also require checking primary sources, which Foster does with awe-inspiring frequency. He quotes people who died a thousand years ago alongside people who rode in airplanes, and he has read everything he quotes in context.
So what is Celebration of Discipline about? In short, it's about the methods, some devised long before Jesus was born on Earth, by which people can learn to live fully in the real world, which comprises both the material, temporal world and everything that lies around and within and above and beyond it. It is not a book for spiritual supermen, although it isn't for people who are living in emergency mode either. It is an inextricably Christian book, which, again, may not be what you want.
The main text is about 200 pages long, to which the study guide adds another 50 or so. I don't have a lot of energy or unencumbered time, so I won't try to tackle a full chapter all at once. I will read a little bit at a time and post about it at Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Slacktivist, as before.
I am not turning away from activism. Remember that according to Snyder, who is conveying the painfully learned wisdom of survivors of tyranny, choosing to devote time to something like this is one form of activism. We must not stop being who we are--we must not stop living--because something horrible is happening. Tyranny wants us to think and speak and act only in its light. Look past its capering, stamping, shouting figure to what really matters. So many unholy holy emperors have died since the foundational text of Celebration of Discipline was written. Cruelty devours itself again and again. The real world remains. It's our world, so we should continue to live in it.
