Description
As the world grows increasingly complex, human beings need more, not less, good counsel for Christian living. This book reaches into the treasury of Anglican spirituality and draws out pearls of wisdom for today’s needs. The Anglican tradition has shown an abiding concern for a holy living that leads to a holy dying.
Spiritual Counsel in the Anglican Tradition offers earnest, practical devotion to inspire and to instruct the Christian pilgrim in the path of discipleship. Here readers will find not a general collection of spiritual writings but direct words of spiritual counsel on such crucial subjects as discipleship, vocation, scripture, sacraments, vice and virtue, money, patience, forgiveness, perseverance, marriage and family, friendship, and the natural world.
Readers will also encounter many passages selected for both authoritative content and surpassing beauty. Represented in these pages are fifty Anglican authors, including John Donne, Austin Farrer, C.S. Lewis, Samuel Johnson, William Law, Hannah More, J. B. Phillips, Michael Ramsey, Frederick W. Robertson, Dorothy L. Sayers, Geoffrey A. Studdert Kennedy, William Temple, Evelyn Underhill, and Olive Wyon. This is a book that takes seriously the Anglican emphasis on a form of religion that quickens the mind, forms the conscience, guides the will, and lifts the spirit.
About the Author
David Hein is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Hood College. He is the author of Geoffrey Fisher: Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961 (James Clarke & Co, 2007) and co-author with Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr. of The Episcopalians (2005).
Charles R. Henery is Director of Spiritual Life at St John’s Northwestern Military Academy and Priest-in-Charge of the Church of St. John Chrysostom in Delafield, Wisconsin. He is the editor of A Speaking Life: The Legacy of John Keble (1995) and of Beyond the Horizon: Frontiers for Mission (1986).
Contents
Foreword by Julia Gatta
Preface by David Hein
Acknowledgments
Introduction by David Hein
1. The Love of God
2. The Spiritual Life
3. Discipleship and Vocation
4. Prayer
5. Holy Scripture
6. The Sacramental Life
7. A Pilgrim’s Journey
8. Vice and Virtue
9. Money
10. Wilderness Days
11. Patience, Pardon and Perseverance
12. Marriage and Family
13. Friendship
14. Human Beings and Nature
15. Toward the Abundant Life
16. Nightfall
17. The Holy City of God
Biographies
Bibliography
Index
About the Editors
Endorsements and Reviews
Probably every Christian who has led others through a crisis or rallied for a controversial issue knows what it’s like to stand alone. For such times, as well as calmer ones, Spiritual Counsel in the Anglican Tradition offers friendship with wise counselors. Their deep familiarity with the vagaries of the spiritual life carries the reader from struggle to enlightened companionship with God in Jesus Christ, and to a wonderful, existentially felt participation in the Communion of Saints.
Elisabeth Koenig, Professor of Ascetical Theology, The General Theological Seminary
These pieces of thoughtful holiness touch all sides of the life of faith and will help those who use them carry divine wisdom into living practice. We owe David Hein and Charles Henery much gratitude for sifting several centuries of Anglican faith for these gems. I will use this volume for the rest of my life.
Edward Henderson, Professor of Philosophy, Louisiana State University
David Hein with Charles R. Henery have put together extracts from the writings of fifty authors of mainly an Anglican background … There is a short biography of every author which is very helpful in assessing the contribution … The book seeks to reflect the ‘Anglican tradition of spiritual reflection’ with emphasis on spiritual responsibility and the use of the mind … an interesting book and one never knows what golden nugget may be forthcoming in the lucky dip.
David Streater, in Churchman, Autumn 2011
The text themselves, on which a book such as this must stand or fall, are rich, challenging and rewarding reads for any who take the path of costly discipleship seriously. … Let those who will, come; let those who come, read. Those who read will be blessed.
Adrian Chatfield, in Anvil, Vol 29 (1)
… anyone seeking a way of deepening their spiritual life could hardly do better than buy this and read an extract each day. It is a well-produced and accessible introduction to some of the many stars in the Anglican firmament with a great deal to offer us today. And, for this reviewer, the book is worth it for the penetrating, profound and beautifully written contributions from Evelyn Underhill and Austin Farrer alone.
Gordon Mursell, in Modern Believing, Vol 52, No 2
