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I read the assigned chapters of The Spirit of the Disciplines and find myself at once attracted and put off by Dallas Willard's call to take up the disciplines. He succinctly describes and defends the disciplines on page 86: "The disciplines … are time-tested activities consciously undertaken … to allow our spirit ever-increasing sway over our embodied selves. They help by assisting the ways of God's Kingdom to take the place of the habits of sin embedded in our bodies." Fifteen disciplines are listed on page 158, including seven of abstinence and eight of engagement, with the author's comment that these "make especially important contributions to spiritual growth". I want to add my "amen" to the disciplines of study, worship, celebration, and prayer. Practice of these four disciplines places us in communication with God and help us to fulfill the first and great commandment "to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind". I also fully support the disciplines of service, fellowship, confession, submission, frugality, silence, secrecy, and sacrifice. Any habit that builds relationship with other people assists God's kingdom on earth. I believe that practicing these eight disciplines will make us better neighbors to our brothers and sisters, thus fulfilling the second law that is like unto the first: "to love our neighbors as ourselves". The remarks that follow pertain most pointedly to ascetic practices that are not primarily aimed at communion with our Lord or help for our neighbors, but serve no purpose other than to train our spirit to overcome our flesh. The three practices that bother me most are solitude, fasting, and chastity. Dallas Willard is alarmed that no book about fasting was published for 100 years. He criticizes a superb biography of the Apostle Paul because the author does not mention his ascetic practices. I proffer that maybe it is the recent glut of "discipline" books that is alarming and that perhaps personal ascetic practice deserve little attention in the life of Saint Paul. Allow me to lay out my four lines of thought. First, an emphasis on "disciplines" shifts Christian focus away from God and others and places a focus on self. This is especially for the three ascetic disciplines. After all, I am the one doing the discipline. Does the author really mean for us to "place the disciplines at the center of the new life in Christ" (page xi) ? Did Jesus say in John 13:35 "by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye fast, and pray and seek solitude"? What about the "more excellent way" of First Corinthians 13? Is that way now of secondary excellence, next to the disciplines? I personally think that Paul is addressing Corinthians who, like the author, would put ascetic practice at the center of their lives when he says "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Maybe it's just me, but to claim that self-transformation resides in the practice of spiritual disciplines approaches the Phariseeism that our Lord condemns in Matthew 23:23: "for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." I think that our Lord is telling us that practicing disciplines is fine, but please emphasize first principles first. Second, I think that the author illustrates hubris on page 16, when he glibly remarks that "just as you will not find any national leader today who has a plan for paying off the national debut, so you not find any widely influential element of our church leadership that has a plan-not a vague wish or dream, but a plan-for implementing all phases of the Great Commission." I have news for Dallas Willard. In the year 2000 two presidential candidates DO offer real plans to pay off the national debut, and I DO belong to church that has plans to implement the Great Commission. I believe that in twenty years or so, a book that exhorts disciplines will appear as dated as his remark about the national debt. Third, I have seen ascetic practice first hand in Asia. Some of it is not pretty. I personally watched a friend hold his hand over a candle until it blistered. He said that the pain brought him closer to God. Did my friend follow Willard's lead; "to allow his spirit ever-increasing sway over his embodied self". I do not think that pain for pain's sake is redemptive. If fasting (or sexual abstinence or solitude) unto the point of suffering brings one closer to God, then what about lying on a bed of nails? What about dragging a wooden cross across America? What about keeping a pebble in your shoe so that you will always suffer? I personally believe that there will come sufficient pain and suffering in my life to test my faith. I do not believe that I must introduce more. Fourth, I think that an insistence to place ascetic practices at the center of our faith is dangerous to new believers and presumptuous to mature believers. I have mentored newly-minted Christians and the last thing that I would imagine to do is set up a structure for them with periods of fasting, solitude, and sexual abstinence. At the other end of a maturity continuum, most long-time Christians of my acquaintance are "hopelessly" in love Jesus Christ. In their own ways, they do practice prayer, solitude and giving. Maybe their practice is not as defined and structured as mine is. Nevertheless, it would be presumptuous of me to say as Willard implies on page 126 "Jesus did these things and you need to do them too" . On a positive note, I do see one instance where a call to the disciplines may be appropriate. Paul writes letters to both churches and individuals. Is it an accident that Paul saves his strongest exhortations for Timothy, his young apprentice? Perhaps in a teacher/student relationship touting personal ascetic practices would be appropriate. (Maybe this explains why Dr. Thompson includes this book in our required reading. - we're like Timothy. Would Dr. Thompson exhort the disciplines upon his church as a whole? - they're like the Corinthians) Finally, I find a parallel concept to the disciplines more to my liking. I see my moment-to-moment challenge as "the practice of the presence of God". Many years ago, I read a little book by this name written by a Carmelite Friar and cook known as Brother Lawrence. I feel that Christian discipline, attitude, and morality are summed and balanced in this little book with an intriguing title. Dr. Thompson, just to show that I do appreciate the writings of Willard Dallas, I have attached a favorite article for your attention. |