Celebration of Discipline (Google eBook)

Richard J. Foster

HarperCollins, Mar 17, 2009 - Religion - 256 pages

In the twenty years since its publication, Celebration of Discipline has helped over a million seekers discover a richer spiritual life infused with joy, peace, and a deeper understanding of God. For this special twentieth anniversary edition, Richard J. Foster has added an introduction, in which he shares the story of how this beloved and enduring spiritual guidebook came to be.

Hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Celebration of Discipline explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.

Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study, offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration, bring us nearer to one another and to God.

Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities-and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and "sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help motivate Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.

What people are saying

Review: Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

User Review  - Nathan - Goodreads

I have some major theological disagreements with Foster. Nonetheless, I have profited from reading Foster's advice on how to pursue a more authentic, simpler, deeper relationship with Christ.

Review: Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

User Review  - Rachel Lewis - Goodreads

An absolutely astounding book which was a refreshing and challenging read. It goes against the grain of so much modern 'pumped-up,' superficial faith. Richard Foster outlines 12 ways to place ...

Contents

• Door to Liberation: 1
• Meditation: 15
• Prayer: 33
• Fasting: 47
• Study: 62
• Simplicity: 79
• Solitude: 96
• Submission: 110
• Service: 126
• Confession: 143
• Worship: 158
• Guidance: 175
• Celebration: 190
• Comments in Celebration of Celebration of Discipline: 202
• Notes: 211
• Bibliography: 219

About the author

Richard J. Foster is the author of several bestselling books, including Celebration of Discipline, Streams of Living Water, Life with God, and Prayer, which was Christianity Today's Book of the Year and the winner of the Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. He is the founder of Renovaré, an organization and a movement committed to the renewal of the church of Jesus Christ in all its multifaceted expressions, and the editor of The Life with God Bible.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Celebration of Discipline
• Author: Richard J. Foster
• Publisher: HarperCollins, 2009
• ISBN: 0061800392, 9780061800399
• Length: 256 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth; Religion / Inspirational; Religion / Spirituality