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Johann Arndt, *
----- One of the greatest spiritual writers of the German
tradition. His four-part book is an eye-opener. To read Arndt
is to be drawn into the experience of really thirsting
for God. Arndt believed that the true Christian believer is to
model his/her life on Jesus' life on earth, 'a raising up of
the image of God in the believer'. He put so much stress on
turning away from sin that the sacraments and the gathering
together of the faithful were left too much to the sidelines.
Book one distinguishes the true Christian life from the ways of
this world. Book two takes us dauntingly into building a life
of prayer. Book three speaks of God's nearness and of what goes
on inside of us as we follow Christ. Book four observed nature for symbols of God. There
were also two additional books that tried to make clearer what
Arndt meant by 'union with God' and justification. He may have
understood his own viewpoints on these almost as poorly as his
opponents did.
Gary Badcock, *
----- it's mostly an overview of thinking about the Holy
Spirit, including a critique of some ideas of Augustine and
Moltmann, and a hard look at possible solutions to the filioque
controversy. (He works toward a fuller vision of reciprocal
relationships within the Trinity, using some Orthodox
insights.) Heavy slogging at times.
Dorothy C. Bass (ed.), *
----- a useful modern look at Christian spiritual practices,
such as hospitality, sabbath-keeping, testimony, song, and forgiveness. Its overall
vision (despite how it draws from a full range of Christian
tradition) adds up to that of left-mainline Protestantism. But
even that much-maligned approach has something to teach all
Christians, and in this book its best foot is put forward. (And
watch a proud papa tout his Indigo Girl !!)
Kamila Blessing, *
----- Blessing, an Episcopal minister, tells the story of
things that happened in her life and in the lives of those
around her, and how the Spirit spoke and worked through them.
She has a strong grasp of the supernatural in earthly life, and
teaches big lessons on grace and forgiveness. Work through the
'prayer starters' as you finish each chapter.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, *
----- *LT* is the posthumous translation of his powerful
*Gemeinsames Leben* (1939), on living together in Christ
in this world and what community is really about. *Discipleship*
is the translation of his 1937 *Nachfolge*, which
described cheap vs. costly grace and constantly called the
Christian believer to the cross of Christ. Other books included
*Ethics* (1943), and *Letters and Papers From
Prison* (1951). Bonhoeffer was martyred in the struggle
against the Nazis.
John and Therese Boutcher, *An Introduction to the
Catholic Charismatic Renewal* (Servant, 1994).
----- An easy-to-read 16-page booklet that describes the Roman
Catholic charismatic movement : how it arose and what it's
about.
Brother Lawrence (Nicholas Herman), orig. edited by
the Abbè Joseph de Beaufort, *
----- Brother Lawrence lived a spirituality that was stunningly
simple and direct : Do the things of daily life, not for our
own sake, but for God's. Spiritualistic methods may or may not
be helpful, but they are ultimately beside the point : one goes
to God only by way of a heart passionately committed to nothing
but God, serving others for God's sake -- that
is, to love God alone.
Frederick Dale Bruner *
----- One of the first sharp theological looks at
Pentecostalism, from a Reformed Calvinist (but Luther-informed)
view. He treats many major Pentecostalist premises (such as that
of 'initial evidences') in great, biblically-grounded detail.
He did not, however, understand all that much about how these
premises play out within actual Pentecostalist church life, nor
about how much difference there is on those same matters within
the Pentecostal and Charismatic camp. (But then, the keener
examples of Charismatic practice, such as Fullam-style Anglican
Charismatics or the Vineyard Fellowship or independent
congregations, hadn't yet appeared by 1970.) Read this if
you're serious about understanding the Holy Spirit's work in
the modern church and world.
Burgess and Vander Maas, ed.s, *
----- An encyclopedia, not a dictionary. This is a primary
basic resource book on Pentecostal and Charismatic theology and
history. It is thoughtfully written, and usually accurate. One
can find some reasoned insights on the troubling side of the
movement, if only between the lines. If you want to know
about who founded what church or led which split or what
happened in a specific country or a specific early US revival,
or just to get a Pentecostalist's-eye view on church history
and theology, this is the place to start looking. Don't
expect a real understanding of the opposing views of Calvin,
MacArthur, et al., nor much questioning of leading preachers'
credibility. The 2002 edition is easier to use and has better
information than the 1988 original.
Larry Christenson (ed.), *
----- Despite the repetition, confusion, empty phrasings, and
wooden writing, it has within it the best glimpse of what the
Lutheran Charismatic movement says and means. It was an
indispensable resource as I was creating the Spirithome Web
site, especially in filling out my own view of the movement. It
would help, though, if someone from within the movement
(someone new) distilled its current viewpoint(s), rooted
it more firmly in the Lutheran Confessions, and said it without
stooping to platitudes and churchisms. It's been 18 years now,
and a lot has happened since then.
Fyodor Dostoyevski, *
----- aside from being one of the greatest novels ever written,
and being a can't-put-it-down read that tends to stick with you
your whole life long, it's also one of the most profoundly
spiritual books ever written. If you're put off by the
intensity of Russian novelists, well, this one's a good excuse
to work past that hesitation. To catch one spiritual angle,
look at the characters, and what they do, and why. His *The
Idiot* and *Crime and Punishment* are also
great.
David DuPlessis, *Pentecost Outside
'Pentecost'* (DuPlessis, 1960)
----- An example of the genius of DuPlessis from one of his
important privately-published materials that were an
'underground' of sorts for ecumenically-minded Pentecostals.
DuPlessis saw the standard Pentecostal doctrines from just a
wee bit different of an angle, an angle which was opened up to
other Christians.
Gordon Fee, *First Epistle to the Corinthians*
(New International Commentary; Eerdmans, 1984).
----- Fee's works, especially this one, are the most thorough
examinations of the passages which help us understand the
operation of the Spirit in the Body of Christ and its parts,
including each person who believes in Christ. Also read his
*Paul the Spirit and the People of God* (Hendrickson,
1996), which is an overview of Fee's approach to the Spirit in
the New Testament, especially Corinthians and Acts, and also
*God's Empowering Presence* (Hendrickson, 1994). And
don't read only Fee's Corinthians commentary, as good as it is;
please also see the First Corinthians commentaries by C.K.
Barrett, R.C.H. Lenski, and Hans Conzelmann.
Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, *A Worldly
Spirituality : The Call To Redeem Life on Earth* (Harper,
1984)
----- Instead of cooking up a new spirituality for ecological
questions, this book sets out to show how the whole of creation
is best honored by a conscientious life of existing Christian
spirituality, when it is rightly understood and rightly made
aware.
Wayne Grudem, *The Gift Of Prophecy In the New
Testament and Today* (Crossway, 1988)
----- An Evangelical, Pentecostalist-informed look at the
differences (and a few common ties) between Biblical prophecy
and the gift that is given to people within modern
congregations. He's good at this stuff, though his views on
women in the church could use some, er, revision.
St. John of the Cross (Juan de Yepes), *Ascent of
Mount Carmel* and *Dark Night Of the Soul*
(1587).
----- The books are closely woven together : *Ascent*
for intimacy with God through doing things which detach one
from oneself; *Dark Night* for the passive part of the
journey. It may help to use a collection of his work, such as
*Collected Works Of St. John of the Cross*, ed. K.
Cavanaugh & O. Rodriguez (ICS, 1979).
Ben Campbell Johnson and Glenn McDonald, *
----- Johnson the theologian/educator describes how some parts
of the US mainline Protestant churches are awakening to the
fact that they are no longer the linchpin of US society, and
where their re-thinking is taking them. McDonald the pastor
describes this re-thinking as it happened to him and his
Presbyterian congregation after years of being slaves to the
pattern and outlook he inherited. Mainline parish pastors and
lay leaders should read this, and try some of this stuff
out.
Morton Kelsey, *Encounter With God* (Bethany,
1972)
----- Kelsey was an important Episcopal writer on spiritual
things, and picked up on the Anglican Charismatics as they
grew. He's not entirely orthodox, and often gets really
strange, but he's always interesting, and often insightful. Try
also his *The Other Side of Silence* (Paulist, 1976),
possibly the most mysterious, yet strangely clearest, of his
spiritual books. He shows what a Christian means by
'meditation', stretches it wide and full, and then helps us do
it.
Philip D. Kenneson, *
----- Kenneson takes the fruits on the list and sets each of
them off against a matching de-gifting force at work in today's
daily life. It is brimming with the belief that the followers
of Christ can overcome the mind-traps of the consumer mindset,
and that the life of the Spirit can be emBodied by the church
in today's world.
Peter Kjeseth, *The Final Act* (Augsburg,
1967)
----- Kjeseth tries to give a Lutheran spin on the Spirit, but
suffers from having drawn too much from the theological
currents of his time, and too much from doubt over trust. He
(mostly) forgets it is the church that is to be bound to the
Spirit, not the other way around.
Kenneth Leech, *Experiencing God : Theology as
Spirituality* (Harper & Row, 1985). Also try Leech's
*Soul Friend* and *True Prayer*.
----- The Spirit is out to transform everything about us,
including our habits, our schedule, and our close
relationships. Leech lays this daunting task before us in its
full glory.
Martin Marty, ed. *Health and Medicine in the
Lutheran Tradition* (Crossroad, 1983)
----- Marty is one of the world's most recognized Christians,
but also no slouch as a scholar or editor. This look at health
care and the Lutheran faith, along with Marty's material for
the Park Ridge Center in Chicago, can help to give a more
rounded view of healing and spirituality than is found in the
popular, New Age, or Pentecostal press.
Kilian McDonnell (ed.), *Presence, Power,
Praise*, vol.1-3 (Liturgical Press, 1980)
----- McDonnell is perhaps the foremost scholar about the
charismatic and Pentecostal movements. A Catholic, his rather
pointed viewpoints have been a spur for charismatics to examine
and re-examine some of their operating principles. He has also
acted to gather other peoples' information on it, especially
from those intimately involved in the movement who normally
don't like dealing with others or explaining themselves to
others. Hence this book.
McNeill/Morrison/Nouwen, *Compassion : A
Reflection on the Christian Life* (Doubleday/Image,
1983)
----- The question that separates the wise from the wimps in
spirituality is how to serve others, especially those others
who are dealt the worst of hands by our society. It's where
most people's spirituality (Christian or otherwise) turns tail
and runs. No turning tail here : the writers teach us big-time
lessons in real compassion.
Brennan Manning, *The Ragamuffin Gospel*
(Multnomah, 1990).
----- In all of his materials, Manning helps us free ourselves
from the pretensions we erect, so that we can have a child's
relationship with God. Manning is a captivating story-teller
whose passion for Christ and grasp of God's grace cuts through
even to those with cynical minds. This book is to be taken with
*Abba's Child* (Navpress, 1994) and his other fine
books. (Manning needs no intro to fans of the late Rich
Mullins' music.)
Thomas Merton, *Spiritual Direction and
Meditation* (Liturgical Press, 1960)
----- Merton is at once one of the most over-rated (in his most
adventurous moments) and under-rated (for the depth of his
overall approach) spiritual writers of recent times. He brought
the spirituality of the Catholic contemplatives into fresh
contact with daily living in the world. One always comes away
with something from reading Merton, and even more from using
his insights. Another great choice would be his *Seven
Storey Mountain*.
Johannes Metz, *Poverty Of Spirit* (Paulist,
1968)
----- It's short, but it's awesome, direct, and penetrating.
Metz cuts down the idea that achievement or growth or thought
or feeling or anything else is worthwhile by itself. Our only
road forward is that of 'spiritual poverty' in its truest sense
-- a radical dependence on God.
Jürgen Moltmann, *The Spirit of Life
(Fortress, 1992)
----- The sharpest heavy-duty theological book on the Spirit,
by a great systematic mainline-Protestant theologian. He is
very much in dialogue with most of the new currents in
theology, usually without losing track of where the Holy Spirit
is in it all. Usually. He toes the edge of some
heterodoxies, but when you talk about the Spirit, that's a risk
you have to take if you want to say something meaningful.
Douglas Nelson, *For Such A Time As This*
(Univ of Birmingham UK, 1981)
----- A key doctoral dissertation on the beginnings of
Pentecostalism and the people who led Azusa.
Henri Nouwen, *The Wounded Healer* (Harper,
1985)
----- A spiritual classic which conveys a clear element of the
Gospel of Christ : Jesus was a healer, who suffered to make us
whole. Nouwen takes healing and suffering and binds them together in ways
that leave their mark on the attentive, prayerful reader, in
understanding and caring with other people through our
woundedness. Nouwen also lived the vulnerable way he spoke
about, right up to the time of his death in late 1996, spending
his days with the profoundly handicapped at L'Arche.
Paul Opsahl (ed.), *The Holy Spirit In the Life Of
the Church* (Augsburg, 1978)
----- Another of those essay collections which contain several
studies which are alone of their kind or subject. These
collections are crucial for the scholar or advanced student,
but are not meant for anyone else. In this set, Karlfried
Froehlich and Harold Ditmanson have the freshest and most
insightful chapters, while Warren Quanbeck and William Rusch
have the most generally-useful.
Mark Pearson, *Christian Healing* (Chosen
Books, 1990)
----- This longtime Episcopal leader (now a leader in the )
writes mostly about creating a healing ministry within the
congregation. A spiritual healing ministry is sorely needed and
sorely neglected in most churches today. Pearson's work is a
bit narrow and unusual, but it's the best that I've read on
that specific aspect of this ministry, catching the flavor of
something that is at once vastly mysterious and very down to
earth.
Eugene Peterson, *Earth and Altar* (IVP,
1985)
----- In a way, this book follows on his *Traveling
Light* and presages *The Message*. Using several
Psalms, he teaches Biblical lessons on how to pray with people
and for a society, and goes a long way in leading the reader
away from self-obsessive prayer and living.
Clark Pinnock, *Flame Of Love* (IVP, 1996)
----- A theology of the Holy Spirit from an Arminian viewpoint.
Pinnock deals candidly with recent theological ideas on the
Spirit's work in the world around us and in the Church. He's
got a different slant than Spirithome does, seen most strongly
on his view of universality and on his use of "Spirit" instead
of "the" Spirit. But it's real meat for the intellectual
carnivores.
Regin Prenter, *
----- Prenter, in several books he wrote in the 1950s, became
the foremost (and for quite some time, just about the only)
Lutheran writer on how the Reformers, and especially Luther,
handled matters of the Holy Spirit. He caught the wide, yet
specific and detailed, vision of the Holy Spirit and the
Spirit's work which empowered the Lutheran reformers, and found
the Spirit of that vision to be at the center of what they were
doing.
Jon Ruthven, *On the Cessation of the
Charismata: The Protestant Polemic on Post-Biblical
Miracles* (Sheffield Academic Press, 1993)
----- Ruthven takes on the faulty logic of cessationism in laser-sharp
detail. It's not really for those who have a hard time with
dense writings.
Agnes Sanford, *
----- Sanford was a leader in causing non-Pentecostalist
Christians (and especially Anglicans) to think anew about the
spirituality of healing and the work of the Spirit regarding
'health' and
'medicine'. For a glimpse of what made her tick (at least as
she saw it), see her autobiography *Sealed Orders*
(1972).
Edward Sellner, *Wisdom Of the Celtic Saints*
(Ave Maria Press).
----- A good place to start for understanding Celtic Christian
spirituality.
William Stringfellow, *The Politics of
Spirituality* (Westminster, 1984)
----- Stringfellow was a leading New Left political activist
Christian of the 1960s, but he was more profoundly Christian
than just about any of them (outside of Dr. King, that could
have been true merely by default, but it isn't). This book
explains the faith behind his political views, and how the
faith connects with the situation of the poor and despised. If
you're one of those who doesn't think it connects, please read
this book.
Lèon Joseph Suenens, *
----- Suenens was the Belgian cardinal who blazed a trail for a
renewed Catholic church as an architect of the reforms of the
Second Vatican Council. In his Malines documents, he gave key
guidance for the Catholic Charismatic movement. In this book,
he explains his own Charismatic involvement and what he saw as
the most valuable gifts that the Charismatic movement could
give to the Catholic Church. His support of both Vatican II and
Catholic Charismatics was solid to the end (which came in
1996), but he was saddened that some were starting to reclog
the 'pipes of the organ' that both renewal sources had tried to
unclog. Read this to catch the heart of the movement and of a
great saint of the church.
Vinson Synan, *The Century Of the Holy
Spirit*, (Nelson, 2001).
--- On the cover, it says "How God used a handful of of
Christians to spark a worldwide movement". It is a partisan
viewpoint, and Synan is the historian of choice for doing it.
He gives a good look not just at the usual stuff (like Azusa,
the Great Awakenings, and charismatics in mainstream churches)
but he also gives proper due to women, African-Americans, and
(thanks to David Barrett) the world scene. It's not the place
for talk of the downside of the movement. There's too much of
the names -- who did what, not much of why or how. Barrett's
time line has some entries that are part of the lineage because
of 'manifestations'; however the key to the Spirit's move is
not signs, but the fruit of life, and the truths of faith found
in the Scriptures. So Barrett's time line has the wretched
likes of Tanchelm, or Gerard of Borgo San Donnino?
Howard Watkin-Jones, *The Holy Spirit In the
Medieval Church* (1922)
--- One of his two histories of theological and churchly
thinking, this one goes from the end of the Church Fathers to
the Counter-Reformation. Most of this period is a very
checkered and often neglected time of the Church's history. His
other major work was *The Holy Spirit from Arminius to
Wesley* (1929), useful mostly for those who want to
understand the roots of Pietism. His mentor, H.B. Swete,
wrote several classic works on the Spirit in the first five
centuries of church history, now quite dated but still
informative.
Charles Williams, *The Descent Of the Dove*
(Longmans-Green, 1939)
--- A somewhat mystical view of the Spirit by a popular English
writer. And no, as far as I know I'm not related to the
publishers.
John Wimber and Kevin Springer; *Power
Healing* (Harper, 1987) and *Power Evangelism*
(Harper, 1993)
--- Two key books that express the views of the Vineyard
Fellowship movement, by its primary leader and spearhead
(Wimber, who died in 1997), and a well-known author of popular
materials on the Spirit (Springer). Their key theme is that the
Spirit will deliver whatever power is needed for the task.
Thus, the Christian can step out in faith to do the tough stuff
-- even what seems impossible. By 'Power' evangelism, Wimber
means witness for Christ that's backed up by God
supernaturally through something happening that shows
that God is there, knows, and cares -- usually through the
Christian's use of a gift.
There have been many recent reprints of the pre-Pentecostal
and early Pentecostal books written by people who had much
impact. Most of these are, to be honest, very sluggish reading,
and filled with doctrinal curly-queues and empty phrasings. But
many of you have been asking, so here's a few :
Maria Woodworth-Etter, *The Holy Spirit*
(Whitaker House, 1998)
*Understanding the Holy Spirit* (AMG, 1995) -- a reprint
of two books in one volume : G. Campbell Morgan's
*The Holy Spirit of God* and Charles Spurgeon's
*Twelve Sermons On the Holy Spirit*. (To get the impact,
read Spurgeon as if you were hearing him.)
R.A. Torrey, *The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit*
(Zondervan, 1974)
A translation of an important ancient work on the Holy Spirit is St. Basil's *On the Holy Spirit* (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press).
You can also check out what's listed in Camellia's .
and there's also a list of books on prayer.
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