Perspectives on Prayer and Spirituality

By Wipf and Stock

"Spirituality" has become a buzzword in our contemporary culture as individuals strive for meaning and fulfillment. Its detachment from the church and conventional definitions of religious practice highlights the seeming redundancy of what has come before. "Spirituality" in this light signals a new attempt to find wholeness unencumbered by outmoded doctrines and stale rituals.

It is the conviction of this publication that the intuition behind contemporary searches for spiritual reality is a good one. It acknowledges that there must be more to life than what secular media or consumerism might tell us. The joyful message of Perspectives on Prayer and Spirituality is that the spiritual quest is a valid one and worth exploring. There is treasure to be found. However, the surprise is that we must rediscover what we have left behind. In the words of G. K. Chesterton, "it is not that the Christian ideal has been tried and found wanting, rather it has been found difficult and left untried."

This book offers us the tools to mine the riches of Christian spirituality and find that elusive treasure. The title, Perspectives on Prayer and Spirituality, alerts us to the fact that life-giving spirituality stems from relationship with a personal God who can be known.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Feb 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781532688089

Book preview

Introduction

Maurice Elliott

There is a level of impossibility inherent within the writing of this book. Any volume that sets out to explore the related topics of prayer and spirituality has to begin with at least two major acknowledgements: First, it must be conceded that the sheer vastness of the potential subject matter goes far beyond the confines of any single publication. Regardless of common themes, established parameters and theological underpinning, any attempt to fasten down these twin concepts will be inevitably overtaken by the arguably limitless nature of the canvas on which the study is set. Prayer is relationship with God, and it is worship of God; for some it is duty, for others it is joy; prayer can be spontaneous, and at times it can feel laborious; it is sometimes austere, yet it can equally be artful; prayer is empathy, it is prophecy, it is nourishment, it is fellowship; in many ways prayer gives meaning to life, and yet sadly there are also those who find it ultimately elusive. And spirituality, likewise, can mask itself under any and all of the same categories. Mindful of this, the work that follows is necessarily selective, yet it does carry a carefully considered rationale. It offers perspectives, but does not claim to be an encyclopaedia.

Secondly, there is an important caveat that none of the contributors would wish to claim that they have become fully expert in the areas that they have agreed to explore, or indeed in the overarching discipline of prayer itself. Adducing a salutary warning from Israel’s history, Paul cautions the Corinthian Christians that the very ones who consider themselves to be standing firm need to be careful lest they too fall (1 Cor 10:12). All of the authors within this collection would be first to admit their own weakness at times with the practices of prayer, and perhaps on occasions even in the very areas which they have so generously agreed to explore. Hence each author’s writing is offered with an admissible degree of tentativeness and provisionality. Yet with that each of them is deeply committed to the development of personal spirituality and intent on offering both encouragement and instruction. The contributors all believe that it is entirely possible for any individual who keeps to the right foundations and who is committed to the requisite disciplines to make fruitful progress in a life of prayer.

With that preamble established, it is worth remembering just how important prayer is for those who desire to live as Christian disciples. As a young Christian in my teenage years I remember being in the habit of underlining favorite Bible verses. If the text had somehow marked me as I read it, it seemed entirely appropriate to mark it visibly in an effort to make it an authentic part of my own spiritual formation. Reflecting now on that particular Bible, I can observe how I was spoken to by passages as diverse as Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6 NIV); Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go (Josh 1:9 NIV); Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation (Mark 14:38 NIV); and See, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (Rev 22:7). What I have also found interesting in retrospect, however, is my capacity in certain instances to unhinge particular verses from their immediate and hence critical context. Perhaps the most striking example of this is in Ephesians 6, where my teenage underlining ran tidily all the way from verse 10 to verse 17. Clearly what was engaging for my youthful spirit was the idea of joining in a cosmic struggle, of waging war against principalities, powers, authorities and the like, and of taking up the great weapons of the gospel as made available in and through Christ—the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the boots of readiness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. But that, it would appear, is precisely where my apprehension then ground to a shuddering halt. There was no underlining of verse 18 with its injunction to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints, and the net result of course was that I had essentially missed the apostle’s emphasis on prayer as the key to everything else that he quite rightly mentions. Read in context, the way in which the various pieces of spiritual armor are held in place is none other than the discipline of what John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress referred to as the weapon of All-prayer.¹

This illustration establishes a vital point of departure for this collection of essays: Prayer is sine qua non for the Christian disciple. In some salutary words of Richard Clarke in a publication to mark the sesquicentenary of disestablishment in the Church of Ireland, . . . we must always remember that at every time of the year and in every place, you and I must become better at the business of praying . . . surely something on which the church must be truly able to rely, if it is to face its future with confidence, with hope, and hence even with joy.² Without apology, therefore, the primary purpose underlying this volume is to incentivize both fresh discovery and deepening rediscovery of various facets of this most precious gift that goes to the very epicenter of Christian identity and belonging.

Rationale

The precursor, and in many ways sister volume, to this work was a collection of essays dedicated to the topic of preaching.³ Together these sought to open up renewed awareness of the various exigencies of that noble art with the goal of enabling the church better to hear the voice of God and preachers better to proclaim it. But having heard from him who is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, how else can those who listen give utterance to their first response, their penitence, their praise, their commitment, their hopes and their fears except through prayer? It is out a place of prayerfulness that we express our dependence upon God for life, for sustenance and for godliness. It is through personal prayer that we enter into the reality of what it actually means to be in a relationship with the living God. It is by dint of learning to pray and worship with others that we can embrace the privilege of what it means to belong to God’s people in the church and to stand supportively alongside others. It is prayer which sustains us in our daily walk, our various trials and our missional endeavours, and all of this in turn forms the bedrock of healthy Christian spirituality. In some words of Keller, Prayer is the way to experience a powerful confidence that God is handling our lives well, that our bad things will turn out for good, our good things cannot be taken from us, and the best things are yet to come.⁴

Other publications in this general field have tended to focus on either prayer or spirituality. Take, for example, Thompson’s excellent introductory guide to Christian spirituality.⁵ The study moves through a thematically driven historical overview before bringing the reader to an holistic set of practical applications which range across areas as diverse as ethics, morality, psychology, sexuality, mysticism, science and creation. Whereas this breadth does create a potent sense of engagement with the topic of spirituality, the author’s apparent aim of being exhaustive has the net result of making the encounter feel somewhat exhausting. In True Spirituality Roberts draws from his own post-conversion crisis of understanding the person and nature of the Holy Spirit to offer a superbly detailed exposé of the various themes within 1 Corinthians as being fundamental to spirituality—amongst others, the cross of Christ, the need for wise leadership, the demands of holiness, having concern for others, the place of spiritual gifts and the assurance of future hope.⁶ Conversely, the likes of Keller, Packer, Nystrom and Yancey each tackle the subject of prayer per se.⁷ In so doing, whereas they advocate certain practices of prayer by way of equipping diligent readers, the bulk of what is presented necessarily focuses on more biblical and theoretical exposition—how prayer should be understood, why it is desirable and how it can be learned.

By way of contrast, one of the aspirations behind this collection of essays is that complementary aspects of both prayer and spirituality might be fruitfully held together. The bottom line does not change in the sense that prayer, whilst never easy, remains absolutely foundational; however, the contention of this volume is that the gift of prayer can also be accessed, enjoyed, developed and deepened through a wide variety of differing practices. Straightforward awareness of such diverse possibilities is surely the first step towards avoiding stagnation and enabling momentum, and, arguably, it is in holding together these twin aspects of prayer and spirituality that a true sense of intentional discipleship might begin to be realized.⁸ Our hope, therefore, is that this niche publication, whilst remaining grounded in Scripture, may open up a broader perspective, that it may facilitate a new flourishing of personal discipline and communal adherence to prayer, and that it may lead towards renewed desire to uncover the beauty of holiness and fresh understanding of the many charisms with which the Spirit of Christ has endowed his people. Effective discipleship requires the making of definitive choices and commitment to ongoing patterns of behavior—this book outlines what some of those choices and patterns might usefully be.

Contents

The contributors to this volume are connected by two things in particular: First, they each share a passion for the importance of healthy spirituality, and they bring that deep sense of personal investment to the subjects on which they have written in such an accessible way. Beyond that, the fulcrum around which all of the authors coexist is that they have all been connected with the life and ministry of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute in Dublin as either students or teachers, although not all are Irish. Within the delivery of the Institute’s training programs there is a strong emphasis on the importance of Christian spirituality. For those involved in training, for example, this typically takes the form of weekly one-hour morning sessions with a taught input on a set topic, community silence for personal prayer and reflection, and a plenary, liturgical response. This discipline has been embraced by staff as well as students, and, aside from the fact that it feeds into an aspect of final assessment, it allows for the community as a whole to inhabit a core principle of entering into the rhythm of study and work from a place of prayerful dependence and creative exploration. This same emphasis is therefore reflected in the shape of the chapters that follow.

Healthy prayer life invites individual Christian disciples to orient themselves in a number of different directions: In the first instance, prayer must be Godward; it invites an intentional focus on that primary relationship, and this is turn must be grounded in both Scripture and a clear sense of self-discipline. Secondly, prayer has the capacity to take the individual on a journey of personal and inward discovery—it was Calvin who rightly observed that nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists in two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern.⁹ In other words, there is a causal connection between getting to know God and getting to know oneself. Thirdly, it cannot be ignored that a fully rounded experience of prayer must afford the individual opportunities to place oneself within a sense of community and to be enriched by praying with others. And lastly, prayer ought to lend itself to a sense of being for the benefit of others, and needs, therefore, to push beyond mere selfward pietism. In consequence of this, the book itself is divided into four sections which together encapsulate these various axes of a robust and vibrant prayer life: Relating to God, Discovering Ourselves, Worshipping Together and Serving Others.

Under the first heading, Relating to God, the collection begins with three chapters that explore foundational principles. Patrick McGlinchey opens the discussion with a strong appeal for re-engagement with the centrality of spiritual disciplines. Whilst not oblivious to some of the reservations that certain sectors of the Christian church may have concerning the exercise of such disciplines as being semi-Pelagian, McGlinchey asserts that they do rest on secure biblical legitimacy, that they are entirely congruent with wider catholic tradition and that, properly understood, they carry real potential for personal transformation and effective mission within the contemporary culture. In particular, he assesses how an appropriately inhabited discipline of confession might become a means of progression in both self-honesty and personal holiness.

Following this, Maurice Elliott unpacks the theory and praxis of the quiet time. The regular pattern of individual Bible reading with accompanying personal prayer finds its roots in Scripture and has been consistently advocated, across ecclesial traditions, as the most effective pathway to spiritual vitality and nourishment. According to Elliott, maintaining a quiet time is tantamount to the expression of God’s ongoing kingly rule within a believer’s life. He grounds his appeal for such awareness in Psalm 1, and he references a broad range of voices, all of which support a similar emphasis. Nevertheless, since nowadays there are many would-be disciples for whom the actual practice of keeping a pattern of quiet time can be a real challenge, Elliott proceeds in the latter part of this chapter to identify both underlying theological diagnoses and suggested antidotes for this malaise; together these disclose a variety of further perspectives, including the pneumatological, the doctrinal, the ecclesial, the psychological and the spiritual.

Finally in this section, William Olhausen takes the reader on a delightful excursus into the spirituality of Paul as the apostle of the free spirit, and as located predominantly in the Corinthian correspondence. Olhausen sites his discussion within the metanarrative of God’s plan of redemption for the world, which, according to Paul, centers on the twin coordinates of Christ’s death and resurrection as the guarantee of God’s offer to forgive sin, and as brought to reality in a believer’s lived experience through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. For Paul it is the Spirit alone who animates all the various dimensions of authentic spirituality, and an appreciation of God’s gift of the Spirit is thus key to faithful praying and fruitful living, even when such praying and living are beset by adverse circumstances. In summary, the first section insists that faithful praying rests on an intrinsic synergy of Word and Spirit, and that it can only arise out of suitably embodied self-discipline.

The three chapters in the second section invite the reader to consider a range of spiritual practices, each of which provides a resource for going deeper into the life of prayer. In his overview of the discipline of journaling, Ken Good draws on a combination of his own rule of life and the patristic idea of holy leisure to suggest that the keeping of a prayer journal holds out a genuinely constructive means of attaining greater depth in one’s relationship with God. Good writes with a high level of practicality, and he proposes the use of journaling as a way of enhancing discipline, clarifying thought, anticipating new possibility, enabling reflection and releasing thanksgiving. To keep a journal presents itself as a splendid, yet sadly neglected, channel of God’s grace.

In a similar vein Adrian Chatfield’s piece concerning retreat begins with an overview of just how much potential might be actualized through such ventures into the wilderness. Considered biblically, going on retreat can assist in being prepared for mission, it offers refreshment and recovery, it suggests itself as a moment of revelation and insight, it can enable acceptance of God’s will even when this may be inherently challenging, and it can bring about a clearer understanding of what it means for the believer to be in the world but not of it. Chatfield helpfully unpacks the monastic tradition, the place of pilgrimage and the usefulness of both belonging to a cell and being in an intentionally mentored relationship for the purpose of personal spiritual growth. The chapter ends with a fascinating assessment of three core themes that must be clearly associated with the undertaking of a retreat, namely, Sabbath, fasting and silence.

Lastly in this section, Kieran O’Mahony considers the topic of contemplative prayer. Like Chatfield, O’Mahony begins with an assertion of contemplation’s revolutionary potential in the face of pressing cultural, ecclesial and personal exigencies. Without compromising his own rootedness in the biblical tradition, he notes how this particular spiritual discipline can also transcend the Christian religious worldview. Striking a rich blend of theoretical foundation and useful practical advice, O’Mahony cites some searching words of Rowan Williams, Contemplation is . . . learn[ing] to look to God without regard to my own instant satisfaction . . . [it is] to allow God to be God, and thus to allow the prayer of Christ, God’s own relation to God, to come alive in me,¹⁰ and his chapter ends by advocating for the incorporation of silence into both personal and communal spirituality, with such silence being aptly focused on the word of the Lord in Scripture. From the second section, then, faithful praying requires intentionality and is constantly inviting us to go further so that as we discover more of ourselves, we actually come to understand more of God.

The third section, Worshipping Together, begins with a thoughtful essay by Bridget Nichols in which she addresses the heritage of the Prayer Book in the formulation of Anglican spirituality. The Prayer Book is about rhythm, pattern and repetition; it invites an inescapable sense of belonging and uniformity; its liturgies are aesthetically edifying and necessarily selective. To pray after the manner of the Prayer Book is to realize that worship must carry ethical implications and, far from allowing oneself to become detached from the world, insists on both prayer for the world and direct engagement with the world. Nichols’s piece is comprehensive in its overview, rich in its illustrations and gritty in its appeal for a rediscovery of the full measure of true holiness.

Building on this, Janet Unsworth picks up the thread of communal praying according to a ninefold discussion of relevant characteristics: When Christians pray with others, or are led in more formal praying by others, it is advisable that they should experience an articulation of remembrance; a sense of corporate belonging; an invitation to face in multiple directions; silent, written, spontaneous and ultimately Trinitarian prayer; personal and shared formation; and an appeal to both the body and the senses. For Unsworth, such vibrant communal prayer can be equally fitted into family devotions and even private praying, insofar as it remains true that no one ever prays completely alone.

Thirdly, Ian Mills offers a beautifully crafted and technically specialized piece on the place of hymnody within the life of prayer. He suggests that hymns, being communal and personal, are useful in undergirding four essential anchor points of the Christian life: baptism, Bible reading, participation in the Eucharist and prayer. When combined, words and music can have the capacity to color the everydayness of the Christian journey; they create resonances, they stir emotion, they help Christian people to understand God better, they intrigue and they simplify, and above all, they add further depth to the sometimes mundane task of praying.

Finally in this section, Rob Clements explores and evaluates the issue of Spirituality for All-Age Worship. Writing out of his own extensive experience of working creatively with this aspect of church life, Clements asserts that espousing such an approach will make for good theology, good ecclesiology, good sociology and good liturgy. His primary appeal is for a substantive move beyond the tokenism and gimmickry which so often accompany the matter of an all-age profile within worship, and for the discovery of fresh commitment to holistic practice and habitual regularity. It can never be too early, he submits, for the next generation to begin to discover personal spirituality.

Given that the third section insists that the fullness of prayer life must strike a healthy balance between private devotion and a broad range of communal forms, the final section leads the reader further towards an awareness that prayer and spirituality must move together beyond a solely inward focus. The acid test of whether the right kind of spiritual foundations are appropriately in place must be that personal prayer life reaches beyond self and towards a true sense of serving others. In her chapter on praying for others through intercession, Christina Baxter takes the reader on a journey from beginning to learn how to pray for others in ways which are biblical and which accommodate the right balance of grace and truth, to encountering what it might mean to pray perceptively, expectantly, with authority in the name of Christ and by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The thrust of Baxter’s writing is genuinely faith-filled, inspiring and allocentric.

A similar note is struck in Suzanne Cousins’s piece on the importance of developing a compassionate spirituality. Again what comes through here is the imperative of allowing individual spiritual practice to impact the way in which believers should engage with the world and with others around them. In building her case for the godliness of compassion, Cousins wrestles with the major theological questions of divine passibility and impassibility, and she concludes with an assertion of the virtuous significance for mature Christian discipleship of empathy, advocacy and social justice.

Lastly, Rebecca Guildea invites the reader into a consideration of the increasingly common practice of prayer ministry. Guildea is acutely aware of the challenges which this type of prayer raises and the pitfalls into which it can descend. However, through a nuanced appeal to scriptural mandate and the need for sensitivity, she argues persuasively for the importance of what prayer ministry can come to realize within the life of the church, whether the presenting need be spiritual, emotional or even physical, and, moreover, that it may be possible for God to speak helpfully into someone’s life through the carefully chosen words of the prayer minister. In summary, the final section insists that authentic spirituality will always manifest itself as true godliness in relation to one’s dealings with others.

Conclusion

Our hope, therefore, is that this volume may prove itself useful for personal reflection and group study alike, and that it may indeed bring about a renewal of joy and fresh impetus for many in the life of prayer. To that end each chapter ends with a select bibliography and suggested discussion questions. There are of course many aspects of prayer and spirituality that remain untouched. Returning to the other authors cited earlier, one notable common thread is that of recognizing how often committed Christians are apt to find difficulty with the discipline of prayer. Yancey notes that only 23 percent of respondents to a survey conducted by his publisher expressed satisfaction with their own prayer lives,¹¹ and amongst the aspects which he then addresses are prayer as a wrestling match, the sound of silence, living with mystery, whose fault is unanswered prayer and, perhaps inevitably, the very delicate matter of prayer for physical healing. Even with their insistence on the need for perseverance in prayer, Packer and Nystrom also engage the theme of hanging on through periods of drought, and they too note the dilemma of unanswered prayer.¹² As a final word, some reflections of Basil Hume may thus be apposite:

I am quite sure that there will always be moments of inner peace and joy as a result of spending time in prayer for those of us who do not regard ourselves as greatly advanced in the spiritual life. Nevertheless, the experience of many of us is that prayer can be very hard work indeed. Quite often prayer is unrewarding and there is not much joy in the doing of it. It is at moments like these that we can be tempted to give it up. That would be a fatal mistake. We have to keep going. One reason is this: we are learning that an important part of prayer is to please God. We want to please, so that is why we pray. Carrying on when we seem to be getting nowhere is a proof of our faithfulness to God, and it shows that we are selfless and generous in our service of him. We are prepared to do the right thing for his sake, and not for ours.¹³

Hume goes on to note that spiritual books and fine thoughts can leave us cold and unresponsive. We hear his word of warning! The essential matter, however, is that we simply go on praying so that faith can be purified, and when that happens, even though it can be painful, that charity may increase. As editors we fully recognize the limitations of what we have set out to achieve. Yet in so doing, we also believe that to stimulate the conversation, and to create awareness of the importance of learning what it means through prayer to love God more and to love others better, is an essential first step.

1

. Bunyan coined this description from the four alls in Eph

6

:

18

—all occasions, all kinds of prayer, all perseverance and all the saints—and it became the weapon which guided Pilgrim through the valley of the shadow of death. See Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress,

77

.

2

. Clarke in Milne and Harron, Irish Anglicanism,

26

.

3

. Elliott and McGlinchey, Perspectives on Preaching.

4

. Keller, Prayer,

73

.

5

. Thompson, SCM Studyguide to Christian Spirituality.

6

. Roberts, True Spirituality.

7

. Keller, Prayer; Packer and Nystrom, Praying; Yancey, Prayer.

8

. Many churches are currently adopting a much more deliberate focus on this topic. See, for example, Anglican Communion, Season of Intentional Discipleship and Disciple-Making, https://www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/intentional-discipleship/discipleship-path/discipleship.aspx.https://www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/intentional-discipleship/discipleship-path/discipleship.aspx.

9

. Calvin, Institutes,

1

.

1

.

1–2

, in Kapic, Little Book, 25

.

10

. Williams, Address, para.

9

.

11

. Yancey, Prayer,

7

.

12

. Packer and Nystrom, Praying,

207

.

13

. SPCK Book of Christian Prayer, xvi

–

xvii.

Relating to God

The Spiritual Disciplines

Patrick McGlinchey

Introduction

The anti-Christian writer Friedrich Nietzsche hit the nail on the head when he suggested that Christians would have to look more redeemed before he would believe in their Redeemer.¹⁴ It would be hard to quibble that Nietzsche had somehow misrepresented the church. There is a dreadful disparity at times between what Christians claim to believe and how they actually live. But this is not the only problem. The hostile rejection of religion that this provoked in Nietzsche is becoming evermore commonplace today. This is particularly evident in the religious attitudes of Millennials. Surveys conducted by the George Barna group in the United States reveal that while 85 percent of Americans not identifying as religious in 1996 had a favorable view of the church, this was reduced to just 16 percent among the young non-affiliated in 2006.¹⁵ What might be the way forward in such an unpromising situation for the church? Various solutions have been mooted. Harking back to the revivals of the past, some hope for a sweeping move of God’s Spirit which converts unbelievers and literally changes the spiritual climate of the nation. Others seek personal revival through a defining religious encounter which elevates them to a new level of sanctity and goodness. Yet another cohort seeks evangelistic strategies which will enable the church to break through the wall of resistance put up by the culture.

The argument of this chapter is that the Christian faith has its own means towards church growth and spiritual transformation which are not dependent on revivals, one-off religious experiences or magic-bullet evangelistic strategies. These mirror the life and teaching of Jesus and the early church, and provide a genuine path towards moral transformation. I am speaking of the spiritual disciplines which marked the life of Jesus and enlivened the church at critical points in its history. Over the next few pages we shall explore these practices from three vantage points: their congruence with the Christian tradition as a whole; their practical value