Where Prayer Becomes Real: How Honesty with God Transforms Your Soul

What does a Christian life lived “by the Spirit” look like? Bringing together scholars and practitioners of spiritual formation from across the Protestant spectrum, this volume offers a distinctly evangelical consideration of the benefits of contemplation. The contributors draw on historical examples from the church-including John Calvin, Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley-to consider how contemplative prayer can shape Christian living today. The result is a robust guide to embracing contemplation that will help Christians as they seek to keep in step with the Spirit.

Ever since Richard Foster wrote Celebration of Discipline in 1978, evangelicals have hungered for a deeper and more historic spirituality. Many have come to discover the wealth of spiritual insight available in the Desert Fathers, the medieval mystics, German Pietism and other traditions. While these classics have been a source of life-changing renewal for many, still others are wary of these texts and the foreign theological traditions from which they come. The essays in this volume provide a guide for evangelicals to read the Christian spiritual classics.

What does a Christian life lived “by the Spirit” look like? Bringing together scholars and practitioners of spiritual formation from across the Protestant spectrum, this volume offers a distinctly evangelical consideration of the benefits of contemplation. The contributors draw on historical examples from the church-including John Calvin, Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley-to consider how contemplative prayer can shape Christian living today. The result is a robust guide to embracing contemplation that will help Christians as they seek to keep in step with the Spirit.