Meet the Editor and Authors
Allan Hugh Cole, Jr. has been on the faculty of Austin Presbyterian Seminary since 2003. Currently, he serves as Academic Dean and Nancy Taylor Williamson Professor of Pastoral Care. Previously, Cole served in pastoral ministry in Upstate New York and on Long Island, and was visiting lecturer in pastoral theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. His teaching and research interests include pastoral theology, loss and bereavement, anxiety, prayer and other faith practices, the psychology of religion, and congregational care. As editor, he writes an introductory chapter then presents essays on the spiritual life written by twenty-three others (Homer U. Ashby, Jr.; Deborah A. Block; Brad R. Braxton; Donald Capps; Kerry Egan; Ismael Garcia; Greg Garrett; Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher; Gail Godwin; Albert Y. Hsu; Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger; Michael Jinkins; Elizabeth Liebert; Michael L. Lindvall; Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore; Richard R. Osmer; Stephanie Paulsell; Sheri Reynolds; Marjorie J. Thompson; Theodore J. Wardlaw; William H. Willimon; Lauren F. Winner; and J. Philip Wogaman).
Book Basics
Spirituality may well be the most popular “religious” word of the last decade. Recognizing that the lived experience of the spiritual life is far richer than any single expression, A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers provides insight from two dozen mainline Christian leaders. While Presbyterian contributors outnumber all others, significant space is afforded to those affiliated with other traditions, including Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Episcopal, Methodist, and United Church of Christ. Cole identifies three “ways of discerning and living” the spiritual life, which form the book’s sections: poets, prophets and preachers (xvii).
This book is a must read for those seeking to better understand what it means to live an authentic Christian spiritual life because it offers contemporary experiences rather than formulas, blueprints or models. It also contains considerable wisdom crafted by humble writers, perhaps best exemplified in William H. Willimon’s critique of his own earlier use of the word practice and suggestion that “practice is what we sometimes do when our attention has been displaced from the living God” (p.227).
So What?
For mainline Christians, spirituality is now a common part of the vocabulary of Christian formation, discipleship, and engagement. What does it mean to you to live an authentic spiritual life? What sources have contributed to your current understanding?
Allan Hugh Cole Jr., ed. A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers. Westminster John Knox Press, 2011. ISBN:9780664234928.