Book Review: Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster

Celebration of Discipline: The Path To Spiritual Growth. Richard J. Foster. Harper Collins, 1978.

When I had in mind looking at the issue of discipline in our actions before Christ, I’ll admit I came back to the book “Celebration of Discipline” to source a few things enough that I thought it good to just go ahead and review the book instead of merely writing about the topic. When people talk about this season, it confuses me to hear people talking about a special day out of the year to remember the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Aren’t you supposed to remember the body and the blood every time you take communion? And forgoing certain controversies, isn’t every day supposed to be Lent, where you’re supposed to pray, repent of your sins, alms give, and a whole host of other things?

Mr. Foster’s book is “hailed by many as the best modern book ever written on Christian spirituality and described by Christianity Today as one of the ten best books of the twentieth century”. This is quite understandable, as there is a dearth of true discipleship within the church today. We are told to just show up on Sundays, give, and maybe serve a little bit. There is never a chance to get beyond the superficial, never a chance for someone to say “here is what you do now that you are a baptized member of Christ”. This book is quite functional as an introduction of the ground work for such things, remembering that there has been volumes written on each topic.

Mr. Foster describes the things the Christian does in terms of Inward Disciplines, Outward Disciplines, and Corporate Disciplines. The Inward Disciplines have to do with the inward self, the Outward Disciplines have to do with how one chooses to live their life, and Corporate Disciplines are what is done within the context of the Church. It can be said that one needs to watch their lives in these respects to find true freedom in Christ. The axiom of the tree is often used – if you look at a tree, you see much less above ground than if you were to see all the roots. This is the same in terms of a life in Christ – to have the house on the rock, versus one built on sand. Spent too much time on things outwardly seen and you risk being blown away, too little, you risk not flourishing in doing the words of Christ. There are seasons for each of these things.

The Inward Disciplines are described as such: Meditation, or the dwelling on God and the things of God to hear His voice. Prayer, or communication with God. Fasting, or self denial. Study or the analytical understanding of Scripture for spiritual transformation.

The Outward Disciplines are: Simplicity, or the reordering of one’s life on one unity of focus, removing the garbage or non-essentials of that focus. Solitude, or the state of mind of being alone and comfortable with one’s self, or being silent. Submission, or the freedom to give in and exercise self-denial before others in the pattern of Jesus in the ways He dictates. Service is the natural outgrowth of submission to Jesus, in terms of the willingness to do things for others in ways that might be sacrificial.

The Corporate Disciplines are: Confession of sins before both Christ and others. Worship, or as defined by Foster the honoring of God in gathering together. Guidance, or the help of others in determining paths. Celebration, or the shared joy or rejoicing in the blessings of the Lord.

As mentioned before, Celebration of Discipline is a serviceable introduction into all these topics and can be a useful launching pad into other parts of Scripture and texts if taken independently. However, as most texts go, they do need to be looked at critically and Celebration of Discipline is no exception. His frequent endorsement of mystical and New Age practices that would be more at home in Far Eastern religions than genuine Christian circles are problematic in terms of the spiritual adulteries that they would represent in wholesale practice. Then, Foster’s inability to concretely define what many of these disciplines look like in practice causes issues. Many of my definitions above are what I gathered out of the text or my own definitions and not quotes I lifted out of the book for that very reason.

While Foster’s book is formative in providing a good framework to begin looking at one’s life through the lens of Scripture, as with many authors it’s best to take what is said and think on it instead of merely following out what Foster dictates. In terms of practice, it would be better to use Foster’s Scriptural references as a springboard for things the reader needs to explore more independently, than to treat Foster’s work as a manual for spiritual living.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

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