Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 05:1 (Fall 1987)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

Books By The Faculty

Discovering the Depths, by William P. Clemmons. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987 (Revised Edition). 138 pp. $7.95.

Some books are to be read. Some books are to be prayed. William Clemmons invites us to pray this book. He provides prayer exercises at the end of each chapter as he invites us to spend a week praying over the contents of each of the twelve chapters.

Personal spiritual growth is not an instant transformation. Rather, it is a costly and gradual journey inward. It involves the painful process of letting go of the false masks which hide our true selves. It involves the stilling of our hearts, minds, and bodies to discover God’s presence at the deeper levels of our existence.

While reading these pages, I remembered the often-repeated reproach of a seminarian from India who lived with me last year: “You are so American.” It may be a measure of the cultural captivity of the American Church that we approach life, and even ministry, with such aggressive willfulness. We find it hard to live our lives from a quiet center which comes from wasting time for God by slowing down, by experiencing silence, by cherishing moments of solitude. It is hard for us to experience God’s unique love for us by seeking God’s will in obedience and abandonment. If you find hard the discipline necessary for spiritual growth, then you also may find yourself exposed in these pages. However, the author gives many practical suggestions for beginning again the journey of discipleship.

Walter Rauschenbusch once observed: “Ascetic Christianity called the world evil and left it. Humanity is waiting for a revolutionary Christianity which will call the world evil and change it.” Dr. Clemmons avoids the pitfall expressed by this quote. Much of our writing about spirituality is presented in a much too privatized manner. In contrast, this work leads the reader to Christian community and to engagement with the broken world about us.

Ironically, many spiritual writers present an agenda which is much too spiritualized. In contrast, Discovering the Depths is firmly planted in the here and now of discovering God’s self revelation from moment to moment in the midst of our normal everyday activity.

The chapter end notes show that the author has been in dialogue with the best of the current Roman Catholic literature on spirituality. It is my conviction that this must be the next arena and focus for the ecumenical endeavor. Missions, what we do for God, brought the denominations together originally. Ecumenical dialogue, what we think and believe about God, has progressed in recent years with meager results. Spirituality, who God is for us and who we are for God, can ...

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