“ In Satisfy Your Soul, Dr. Bruce Demarest shares the story of his own spiritual awakening, from a intellectually trained and accomplished Christian of the mind towards an integrated, Christian lover of God, worshiping with heart, mind, body and soul. He endeavors to present simple, practical steps that will help the reader to move deeper in understanding and experiencing God. I resonated deeply with the relational lack he expressed, and therefore, his journey into greater intimacy inspired me with the desire to follow. Dr. Demarest's intellectual credentials gave me great confidence in his ability to discern the orthodoxy and Biblical basis of the spiritual disciplines and exercises, and he did indeed put each discipline through a test of Biblical orthodoxy in keeping with his call for discernment. Demarest then anticipates the arguments of conservative Christians who recoil from the kind of spiritual disciplines he presents as Gnostic heresy, or something approaching it. Placing Christian spirituality on firm Biblical ground, I could contrast the deep Biblical promises of intimate, face-to-face, God-chosen, parent-to-child, Lover-Beloved, Shepherd-to-Sheep relationship we are promised in Scripture to my own relationship with God – more propositional than experiential, and certainly a shadow of these relational metaphors – I was deeply convicted of a Breakdown of Communication with God. He is, “more than a conclusion to a line of thinking. He is a person to be engaged and enjoyed.” (Demarest, 119) I was (and am) ready to hear and engage on the journey of Christian spirituality.
Demarest presents a Theology of Silence, marking the importance of quiet reflection for deeper intimacy, and presents some breathing exercises to aid in stilling the mind, techniques for meditation on Scripture – Lectio Divina and Formative Reading – adding a different approach to exegetical study. I found these techniques helpful and exciting, helpful because I do have difficulty stilling my very active mind and exciting because they are not the same old methods I was using attempted with yet more discipline and vigor. Mining secondary Christian literature and art devotionally is on a bit less solid ground because I must engage in careful theological discernment as part of the process, but I am confident it will be helpful down the road. I was refreshed to read Demarest's redemption of Christian imagination, as a long-time fan of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien's writings on the subject of imagination and myth, also mentioned by Demarest. The practice of Biblical imagination has been a long-neglected aspect of my devotional life and, together with the techniques for quiet reflection and Scripture meditation, my devotional life has been rejuvenated even in these first weeks of the practice.
Dr. Demarest presents two methods of prayer, the prayer of the heart and contemplative prayer, as ancient, but neglected, forms of intimate prayer. The former, repeated phrases like “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” did strike the vain-repetition chord in me, and I struggle to understand Dr. Demarest's distinction of meaningful-repetition. I have long thought the Catholic practice of repeating the Lord's prayer dozens of times to be an ultimate irony, as the Prayer occurs in the context of vain repetition, a marked contrast of simplicity. I have begun the practice, however, on the assumption that, if it ministers the presence of God, it is certainly not vain. The contemplative prayer put me in the mind of my greatest moments of intimacy with God and I deeply desire the inner quiet and focus to regain that sense of wordless communion. I have committed to attempting these methods of prayer, and though I have not had the early successes I experienced with the techniques discussed above, I remain hopeful.
Throughout the book I was excited by the possibilities held out, but afraid that I would lose the drive to carry through. I felt (and feel) the desire for a spiritual director, as described by Demarest. I have spiritual friends, receive spiritual guidance, and have a pastoral mentor; yet none in my Christian circle, though mature and deep Christians, seem to have much experience in this sort of spiritual formation. I appreciated Demarest's listing of qualities as I engage on a search for such a mentor: a person of vital Christian faith, deep knowledge, loving concern, careful discernment, and experienced in failure as well as success. The integration of such mentorship with qualified psychological/psychiatric counseling was encouraging, and I have seen the impact of excellent Christian counseling in my wife's struggles with depression. Given my present un-discipled phase of spiritual formation, I am greatly excited by the opportunity to mentor under the Christian spiritual classics. As a bibliophile, it takes little encouragement to send me to the bookstore, and Demarest's brief introduction to some of these classical writers was more than enough to whet my appetite. In summary, this book made a deep impact on me, and I hope to look back on it as a major milestone in my Christian walk, one that the Holy Spirit used to spur me on into Christian formation.”
dustymack wrote this review Sunday, March 30 2008.
(
reply |
permalink )
