Foster, Richard J. and Beebe, Gayle D. Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion. InterVarsity Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-8308-3514-0.
Meet the Authors
Richard Foster is the founder of Renovaré, which is a nonprofit organization that advocates, encourages, and resources intentional living and spiritual formation. Additionally, he is the author of many books including Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation, and Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World.
Gayle Beebe is the President of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. Previously, he was the President of Spring Arbor University. He is the general editor of the Renovaré Spiritual Formation Study Bible.
Book Basics
Thirty years ago, Beebe was Foster’s student in an undergraduate class and read a draft of his Celebration of Discipline, which has since become a classic. Seventeen years ago the two men developed and co-taught a class titled “The History and Practice of Christian Spirituality,” which became the foundation of Longing for God. The intent of this book is “to blend an understanding of the core texts with an interactive style that will help you use them on your own spiritual journey” (p.10). It has two main purposes: provide an overview of the seven primary paths to God that developed throughout Christian history and to help the reader wrestle with and appropriate wisdom from these paths into her or his own life (p. 13-14).
The seven paths are
- The Right Ordering of our Love for God
- The Spiritual Life as Journey
- The Recovery of Knowledge of God Lost in the Fall
- Intimacy with Jesus Christ
- The Right Ordering of Our Experiences of God
- Action and Contemplation
- Divine Ascent
Each of these seven paths are developed with a brief introductory chapter and three to four additional chapters each focused on the contributions of one person (for example, Julian of Norwich, George Fox, John Wesley and Friedrich Schleiermacher bring to life the fifth path).
So What?
There is truly something for everyone in Longing for God. To glean as much wisdom and practical application as possible from this book, I would encourage readers to consider either reading and discussing it in community (Sunday School or mid-week class, small group, or with a partner) or taking the time to read select primary texts from at least one of the examples given of each of the seven paths. While this book does an excellent job in overviewing the contributions, its scope is such that it does not utilize primary texts beyond brief quotations.
Which of the seven paths has been your primary path in recent years? How has it helped you grow in your faith?
Which of the seven paths is new to you and seems to be suitable for further inquiry? How will you seek not only to learn more, but to put this knowledge into practice?