Below are some resources for spiritual formation and growth, along with a short description. They are recommended books, unless otherwise stated.

CONTEMPORARY WORKS

MANSIONS OF THE HEART: Exploring the Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth, by Thomas Ashbrook.

This is one of the best discussions of the stages of spiritual growth in a contemporary book written at the popular/leadership level. Using contemporary language and illustrations the author uses the idea of the seven mansions of the soul from Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle as an outline for explaining stages of growth.  As the author explains the sever different stages of growth he also provides case studies of people in each stage. The case studies are very helpful and make this an excellent group study book. There is a study guide available.  The one major weakness is that maturity is is measured by one’s experience in prayer as much as it is measured by one’s acquisition of the fruits of the Spirit, so this needs to be kept in mind as you read. The seven stages move from transformation on the surface to deep transformation.  One of the keys to the process are times of dryness or suffering. As one grows they progress to greater reliance on the Holy Spirit and are able to achieve a quieter, more receptive inner life and Jesus lives through them.  Highly Recommended. This is a top choice for contemporary books.

SEASONS OF THE SOUL: Stages of Spiritual Development by Bruce Demarest.

Excellent book on the different seasons we go through on the way to maturity, especially suffering or dry periods. The author uses a general outline for the spiritual life of: orientation, disorientation and reorientation. He asserts that dry and painful times are normal for the Christian life and constitute disorientation. God will feel absent. Then in reorientation deep roots of bitterness, inferiority, superiority, mistrust and painful memories are transformed into healthy traits. The author quotes many Christian classics and the appendix has a short description of the process of growth taught by key historical figures. The whole book is a treasure trove of wisdom for spiritual growth, probably more so than any other contemporary book written at the popular/leadership level. Dr. Bruce Demarest was professor of theology and spiritual formation at Denver Seminary. Highly Recommended. Amazon

AUTHENTIC FAITH: The Power of a Fire-Tested Life by Gary Thomas.

An excellent book with great stories that illustrate the way we grow and the value of testing. Very readable but also goes deep.

SACRED RHYTHMS: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton.

This is an excellent explanation of the various habits that will bring us closer to God. Barton looks at solitude, meditation, prayer, self-examination, discernment and other disciplines. Every believer should read this book and develop these habits. Barton is easy to read and the main body of the book is only 168 pp. From InterVarsity Press, 2006, 191pp.

SACRED PATHWAYS: Discover Your Soul’s Path to God by Gary Thomas.

This book looks at the different spiritual temperaments and the practices that are most natural to each temperament. This can bring much freedom, especially for people who connect with God through less conventional practices.

SATISFY YOUR SOUL: Restoring the Heart of Christian Spirituality by Bruce Demarest. 1999.

(Paperback only)This book is an excellent explanation of what spiritual formation is all about and a guide to actually practicing biblical principles of growth. The author explains some interesting history and practices that have helped Christians grow through the ages. This may be the single best book on the biblical foundation and practice of spiritual growth.

THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard.

This book had a big impact on the evangelical world, moving them towards classic Christian formation. It is fairly long but it is thorough in its coverage of questions and issues people have about spiritual growth. It can even be used as an evangelistic tool for any of your more intellectual friends. One caution is that Willard is wordy and will seem too intellectualized for some, at least in places. He was a professor of philosophy at USC. Willard makes the case for the idea that Christians can attain a high degree of maturity. On page 311 Willard states that “it must be possible to hear and do what [Jesus] said.” This is his comment on two passages he quotes, Matt 7:24-25 and Matt. 28:20 (“Teach them to do everything I have told you.”) If you are from a tradition that doesn’t teach that we can become Christlike in this life this book will challenge you. It will challenge everyone else too. This is highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand why spiritual formation is needed and what it involves.

RENOVATION OF THE HEART: Putting on the Character of Christ by Dallas Willard.

This book is a sequel to The Divine Conspiracty and also had a big impact on the evangelical world. It focuses more on actual transformation than the prequel, looking at transformation of the mind, will, body and relationships. He is more analytical than some would prefer and doesn’t go into much practical detail compared to others, but he lays down an excellent foundation for complete transformation.

PRAYER by Richard Foster, 1992, 2002.

This may be the best contemporary discussion on the various types of prayer. It is helpful both for individuals and as a text. Foster explains the various types of prayer and how they draw us closer to God. From Amazon.com: “He clarifies the prayer process, answers common misconceptions, and shows the way into prayers of contemplation, healing, blessing, forgiveness, and rest.”

PURSUIT OF THE HOLY by A. W. Tozer

Though relatively short, this appears to be Tozer’s most influential book and is considered a classic of 20th century spirituality. Tozer was a Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor in Chicago in the mid-twentieth century. Pursuit of the Holy focuses on instructing believers in the way of full surrender to God in Christ in order to find intimacy with him. Tozer emphasizes complete renunciation of anything that would come before God and highlights common pitfalls and failures in this area. Tozer also emphasizes the reality of experiencing God and regularly refers to other great Christians throughout history who did the same. He directs readers to faith and receptivity to the kingdom of God available to all. He also writes against the the intrusion of casual entertainment-oriented Christianity he saw springing up in America. In his chapter titled “The Gaze of the Soul” he encourages believers to practice a continuous inward gaze on God. He also advises readers to let go of every pretense and learn true humility. Amazon

KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY by A. W. Tozer

As the title implies, this book focuses on the nature of God. In the Preface he notes the “The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.” He goes on to expound on aspects of God such as self-sufficiency, omniscience, wisdom, goodness, mercy and many others in twenty-three short chapters. This has been a popular book on the spiritual life since it was published in the mid-twentieth century.  His style is direct, almost adversarial, and his aim is to impact the reader and remove false notions of God. Amazon

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION/COACHING

THE PRACTICE OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION by William A. Barry & William J. Connolly

(Harper San Francisco, circa 1980, rev. 2009)

This is a classic work on spiritual direction and probably deserves to be. It provides very helpful guidance on the some of the essentials of spiritual direction, including some dynamics of growth and specific guidance for a director’s interaction with a directee.  Their general definition of spiritual direction is: “We define Christian spiritual direction, then, as help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with God, and to live out the consequences of that relationship (p. 8). (Quotes are from the original edition.)

The authors go on to define spiritual direction narrowly to include primarily the directee’s experience of God, especially affective experience, during prayer .This narrowness means that their approach to direction does not include much time spent on examination of a directee’s relationships and accountability for actions in every area of a directee’s life. (However, on p. 143 they give an example of a time when obvious sin must be discussed.)

The book is also soft on the way of the Cross, though the authors do say there are times when the director must come right out and highlight a problem in the directee (p. 114).

The authors also do not provide a foundational theology of spiritual growth so a director is left somewhat floundering when trying to understand the biblical path to growth on which they should be leading the directee. This is a serious omission, with the only consolation being that all other books I’ve seen on spiritual direction appear to have the same fault. Also, related to this fault, the book is also not nearly as explicitly Christocentric as it should be, though it is implicitly Christocentric.

The authors are Catholic Jesuit priests. Fortunately, it does not appear that the authors reject any of the essentials of the faith as many other Protestants and Catholic spiritual writers do. We did not see any indications of universalism.

The book has helpful chapters on evaluating religious experience (Ch. 7), the qualifications of a spiritual director (Ch. 8), and establishing the relationship with the directee (Ch. 9).

This book is recommended but is not sufficient as an overall guide because it lacks a biblical theology of spiritual growth. Unfortunately, there is no standard book on this subject so I would recommend Bruce Demarest’s Seasons of the Soul  and Thomas Ashbrook’s Mansions of the Heart. See also other books reviewed on this page.

FORMING THE LEADER’S SOUL: An Invitation To Spiritual Direction by Morris Dirks

(Pub. 2013)

Forming The Leader’s Soul is a very good introduction to spiritual direction. It has very good background information and does a great job of persuading readers that spiritual direction is important. The author is obviously knowledgeable and experienced and I’m guessing he has a great ministry. Many parts of the book are aimed at people from less experiential traditions because he takes a lot of time persuading readers that a relationship with God includes experience.

The author does a good job of explaining the need for discernment, detachment, and understanding consolation and desolation. He also helps readers understand the need for self-examination and processing one’s inner world.

However, the book is not a practical guide to actually doing spiritual direction and I think the author would agree that there is a lot to learn if one is going to be a good spiritual director. The book spends most of its energy on explaining what spiritual direction is and giving some basic principles of direction.

A practical guide to spiritual direction would include a discussion of the many dynamics of spiritual growth, what the director is actually supposed to do in typical situations, how to adjust for personality types and history, how to hold directees accountable for holiness, what to do in various stages of growth, what to do in a “dark night” and all the things God wants to accomplish in dark nights. Many directors make serious mistakes in their direction and the great teachers have pointed this out.

Strangely, there are very few contemporary books that actually teach one how to do direction. A couple good books are Nemeck and Coombs, The Way of Spiritual Direction (Catholic), and Bruce Demarest’s Seasons of the Soul. Other writings that would train someone to do spiritual direction would include: Pseudo-Macarius’ Fifty Homilies, Walter Hilton’s Ladder of Perfection, Imitation of Christ, Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle (Tom Ashbrook wrote a contemporary version of this Mansions of the Heart), John of the Cross’ Ascent of Mt. Carmel and Dark Night of the Soul (Susan Muto has contemporary versions of these), and John of the Cross’ Spiritual Canticle. It is also important to be skilled at taking someone through deep forgiveness of offenses and to bring someone through healing of shame or self-rejection; the author touches on these issues.

Even more important, a good spiritual director must study scripture for the purpose of understanding spiritual growth. Many go astray because they lack this, and honestly, few really understand biblical spiritual growth because there is so little written on this.

Another major issue is the author’s almost exclusive focus on Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. It would have been helpful to have wisdom from some of the books I mentioned above but maybe that would have been beyond the author’s intended scope.

The Exercises are mostly a series of meditations on scriptural topics and on the life of Christ. The purpose is to bring one to full surrender to God in Christ and to receive guidance from God for direction in one’s life. The Exercises also discuss the issues of consolation, desolation, and discernment of God’s movement in one’s life. The Exercises are a great way to ground oneself in the life of Christ and to begin to learn about spiritual growth. They are also a great help in detaching one’s heart from anything other than God.

However, the Exercises have some weaknesses:

1. 1. They do not contain a coherent spiritual theology (theology of spiritual growth). Rather, the book is short and doesn’t discuss the foundational biblical principles of spiritual growth, the stages of growth and what a mature Christian should look like, the complete biblical conception of the means and causes of growth, a discussion of the various scriptural directives for growth, and a unifying conception of our biblical telos.

1. 1. More specifically, the Exercises do not exhort one to become absorbed in scripture and remain there for one’s life so that the word can transform them from their deepest center. There are many meditations on episodes from Jesus’ life but almost nothing from all the New Testament epistles. Ignatius was a committed Catholic and self-discovery of truth through scripture was often considered a threat to the Catholic church, especially in Ignatius’ home which was 16th century Spain.

1. 1. Ignatius did not incorporate much wisdom from other great spiritual teachers of the church. He had some knowledge and appreciation for them but they don’t play a big part in the Exercises.

1. Ignatius’ explanation of consolation and desolation lend themselves to thinking that one should expect to have consolation (spiritual sweetness) most of the time.

Overall, like many coaching and spiritual direction books this book does not have a lot of practical advice for the various situations that spiritual directors will face. In order to bring people from intermediate maturity to higher maturity a director must learn from the great directors. It takes a long time to become skilled enough to avoid giving bad direction and work through the complexities of spiritual growth in another person. Forming the Leader’s Soul is a very good introduction and if coupled with other classic works on spiritual growth could be part of solid instruction for spiritual directors.

MENTOR FOR LIFE: Finding Purpose Through Intentional Discipleship by Natasha Sistrunk Robinson

(Zondervan, 2016)

As the title indicates this book is focused on mentoring and discipleship in general and not directly on spiritual direction. It would also be helpful for coaches. It is addressed mostly to women but nearly all the ideas apply to men also. It explains the basics of mentoring. Part 1 discusses the need and impact of good discipleship. Part 2 looks at “six mentoring commitments: presence, discipline, mission, community, relationships, and love.” (P. 80). The author does a very good job of covering the important topics for mentoring.

SACRED COMPANIONS: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship and Direction by David Benner (Not recommended for general use.)

(IVP, 2002)

This book attempts to explain the basics of spiritual friends and spiritual direction. It has several good chapters on spiritual direction. The author explains that spiritual direction is “help in cultivating a deeper relationship with God,” focused on “increaasing awareness of God” and “directed towards surrender to God’s loving will.”(Headings in chapter four.) Chapter five focuses on attuning to God. Chapter seven looks at the qualifications for a spiritual director.

Unfortunately, the book takes a very narrow view of spiritual direction that the author does not support from scripture and will leave directees lacking. The author states in chapter four under the section What Spiritual Direction Is Not that “Spiritual direction is not giving advice”, “Spiritual direction is not discipling”, “Spiritual direction is not counseling”, and “Spiritual direction is not teaching.” Also, it is frustrating that more than once Benner contradicts these headings of his in the body, for example, by saying that learning “forms an important part of the relationship” and then says it is not primarily about teaching. This is confusing and devalues the importance of these activities. He does not provide scriptural justification for these statements. Benner also downplays the role of accountability and giving direction (Chapter four, under “What Spiritual Direction is Not”; Kindle loc. 1125). He also does not give much weight to exposing sin and helping with purification.

Yet when we look at the way in which Jesus and Paul helped individuals develop a deeper relationship with God we find that they do all these things that Benner separates from spiritual direction. Moreover, throughout the history of the church spiritual direction has included all these elements in spiritual direction. This makes one think that the author has been over-influenced by our culture (which hates conviction of sin) and by the practice of psychological therapy, which usual excludes the most of the same elements that the author does.

How can a director help someone in “cultivating a deeper relationship with God” if they are not going to tell the directee what to do at times and give unilateral teaching  when the situation merits it, or hold the directee accountable, or focus on spotting and avoiding sin – especially blind spots about which the directee is not able to hear from God, or do counseling (to the extent the director is able) or do inner healing (if the director knows how)? Obviously when a director does these things they should be gentle and sensitive, but how can anyone justify excluding them from spiritual direction. Of course one does not use heavy pressure to motivate someone, but one does speak words to motivate them.

The author’s approach is like replacing one of the four bad tires on a car. The one area they focus on is not enough to make the car drive well. Even worse, their type of direction can condition believers to think that spiritual direction – a process for spiritual growth – does not include accountability or finding and purifying sin in their life. A director is in an ideal place to do powerful one-on-one teaching, counseling, accountability, and giving advice. It may take time to master all these elements but that doesn’t mean a director should ignore them. Based on scripture we believe that a director should take a holistic approach to direction and acquire all the tools available to help form someone into the image of Christ. 

We cannot recommend this book for general use. It has some helpful material in places so it would be good to read if one understands the shortcomings of the book. But we do not think it should be given to people as a guide to learning spiritual direction.

CLASSIC WORKS

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST by Thomas a Kempis.

This is considered the second most influential book on Christian growth in Christian history after the Bible. It was written in the 15th century by a monk in the same religious order as Martin Luther (who loved this book.) His order was Augustinian Canons Regular and Kempis’ monastery grew out of the Brethren of the Common Life who promoted teachings that were developed further by the leaders of the Reformation (and the Brethren were persecuted for their teachings). This book is packed with wisdom on spiritual growth and it is probably best to read it slowly, perhaps as a devotional. The edition shown is from a Catholic Press, but if you are not Catholic don’t worry: the translation is very good and it doesn’t push doctrines that Protestants would oppose. Also, this is an inexpensive edition.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES by Ignatius Loyola, 16th century.

Ignatius wanted to help people discern God’s will for their vocation and to move people to full surrender to God so he created spiritual “exercises” for potential members of his ministry. The exercises are a series of meditations and questions on key biblical themes. The exercises last for four weeks. The first week focuses on one’s sin; the second week focuses on the Kingdom of Christ including key events in Jesus’ life; the third week focuses on the passion of Christ; and the fourth week focuses mostly on other events from Jesus’ life. Ignatius also adds advice throughout the book and also gives some very helpful guidelines for discernment. This book is the most widely used set of exercises in Christianity and can definitely change your life. You can find guided Ignatian retreats in many places. If you like, you can add your own scripture for the exercises. (You can also find some 99 cent kindle editions.)

THE INTERIOR CASTLE by Teresa of Avila.

This is one of the greatest books on spiritual growth in Christian history. It will challenge you to a serious and deep walk of Christformation. It was written in the 16th century by a nun who got in trouble with church authorities for reforming convents so the nuns actually became transformed to be like Christ.

THE COMPLETE FENELON by Francois Fenelon, edited by Robert Edmonson.

Fenelon is one of the most popular spiritual life writers among Protestants, and many Catholics are inspired by him as well. Fenelon was a 17th century Roman Catholic French archbishop who wrote many letters of spiritual counsel and was influential at the court of the king of France. He is known for his teachings on learning to let go and surrender oneself wholly to God. If you take time to reflect on his teachings this book will definitely change you. A collection of Fenelon’s letters, Christian Perfection, was a favorite of John Wesley, as well as recommended by A. W. Tozer. At over 300 pages, this edition is a larger collection of letters than Christian Perfection and a treasure trove of brief spiritual advice on many different topics. Excellent for reading as a devotional. (Also, see the lower cost edition below this one.)

THE INNER LIFE by Francois Fenelon. (See description of Fenelon above.)

This is a powerful .99 Kindle edition collection of Fenelon’s advice on the inner life. Obviously, worth far more than the cost.

TEXTS AND REFERENCES

THE BRAZOS INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY by Evan Howard.

(Amazon: Hardcover: $39; no kindle.) (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2008, 496 pages.) This is a comprehensive textbook on spiritual formation. It is arguably the best historically orthodox, non-sacramental text for spiritual formation and a remarkable and long-awaited achievement. It is evangelical in the broad sense of the word. There is much helpful discussion on human dynamics and processes. Criticisms would be that it is too light on the way of the Cross; that is, that it under-represents the scriptural and historical emphasis on death to self. Thus, it doesn’t challenge the narcissistic and conviction-resistant attitudes of our day in the same proportion that scripture does. It can also be criticized for a lack of scriptural analysis and not making the scriptural foundations explicit. If one supplements this text to fill in the weaknesses (e.g. for the way of the Cross see Bruce Demarest’s Seasons of the Soul or Susan Muto’s John of the Cross for Today (Ascent and Dark Night editions)) then one would have a fairly well-rounded set of texts. However, at this time there is no good text or work (now or historically) that fully develops the scriptural foundations of spiritual formation.