Spiritual Formation

Review: Passions of the Soul

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Cover image of "Passions of the Soul" by Rowan Williams.

Passions of the Soul, Rowan Williams. Bloomsbury Continuum (ISBN: 9781399415682) 2024.

Summary: An exploration of Eastern Christian writing on the passions that may be distorted into sin, paired with the Beatitudes.

One of the consequences of interest in the Enneagram is a renewed interest in Evagrius, a fourth century Eastern Christian monastic who wrote about the deadly sins, the passions of the soul that may be twisted in temptation to lead us into sin. In this slim booklet, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Willliams, acquaints us with Evagrius and other Eastern Christians as well.

What identifying the passions does is give us a vocabulary to name the propensities within us that turn our hearts away from the love of God and neighbor. Williams counsel as we discern these things is simple. Face it. Give it to God. And get on with our work. Rather than obsessing about self-denial, the real question is “What has God asked me to just get on with?”

With that, Williams briefly maps out eight passions. Then in the next four chapters, he takes them in pairs setting them over and against a contrasting virtue found in the Beatitudes. He begins with pride and contrasts it with the dependence that knows one’s need of God. Likewise, the boredom of listlessness is offset by the invitation to mourn, to truly feel, and find comfort in God. Anger is offset by the blessing of meekness, the knowledge of who we really are that needs no defense. Gluttony, the craving for more than we need, is countered by hungering and thirsting for justice in the world.

Avarice, a longing for control, comes in the absence of a sense of God’s mercy and is offset in the yielding of control to showing mercy to others, in which we know the mercy of God. The inordinate desire of lust is met in the longing for purity of heart. Envy is the zero sum world in which another’s gain means loss. To embrace peacemaking is to embrace the mutual flourishing of shalom. Finally, despair or dejection centers on one’s self assessment that one has failed and there is no hope, remedied by the promise that faithfulness, even in the worst of persecution and seeming failure eventuates in seeing God.

Williams appends two chapters to these meditations. The first, “To Stand Where Christ Stands” explores what we mean when we talk about the “spiritual.” This chapter, I found was not easy to follow. Williams says it is “about what it is for a whole human life to be lived in the ‘place’ defined by Jesus.” He traces how this has been developed by saints as diverse as Gregory of Nyssa and the Spanish Carmelites, John and Teresa. The last chapter, on “Early Christian Writings” reminds readers of the real dangers early Christians faced, even in gathering for the Eucharist. Prayer, doctrine, and ethics all posed a challenge to the state, and formed the early Christians into both a disciplined and inherently political community.

This slim book challenges our modern ways of being Christian, both in reviving the language of sin, calling us to grow in holiness, and defining our life in the world as the place where spirituality is lived. Rowan Williams introduces us to Eastern Christians with a compelling message for our times.

Review: Finding God Along the Way

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Cover image of "Finding God Along the Way" by Christine Marie Eberle

Finding God Along the Way, Christine Marie Eberle. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609891) 2025.

Summary: An account of hiking with a group whose average age was 67 on the 300 mile Ignatian Camino.

Christine Marie Eberle was at a juncture in her life. Finishing a career in campus ministry, a friend asked her to help organize a pilgrimage. Most people hear “pilgrimage’ and think of the Camino de Santiago. Instead, Christine helped plan a pilgrimage on what is known as the Ignatian Camino. She had always admired Ignatius and this pilgrimage followed the steps of Ignatius from the Basque region of Spain to Montserrat and Manresa in Catalunya. But what made this unusual was that she was part of a group from the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, whose average age was 67 (she was in her late fifties).

The narrative begins with her headaches over organizing travel and the pilgrimage leader’s simple question: Why did you not tell these people to meet you in Loyola? For her, the pilgrimage had begun with this lesson in relinquishing control.

In a series of short chapters, chronicling the stages of the journey, organized into the four weeks of the pilgrimage, Eberle unfolds how she learned the wisdom of pilgrimage. She recounts the important places of Ignatius journey from the “cannonball moment” as Ignatius recovered in Loyola from a near death experience after a cannonball shattered one leg. Then there are all the daily practices of the Camino, from a gathering song, walking two hours in silent reflection, staying together, gathering for delicious meals and bedding down each night in guest facilities.

In addition to all that, there were the blisters that plagued her most of the journey. She learned to get help from other hikers, including veterans. A key turning point came when the director, Father Jose, decided her blisters were so bad, she needed to rest and take the train on the next leg. She felt she had failed, not getting good enough shoes and training. Her spiritual director emailed back, “You cannot fail the Camino if you truly see it as a spiritual quest.” She invited her to let go of her dreams of Camino and accept the reality and what was being offered her. Another time, an offered short cut led to lessons on simplifying one’s life.

The book comes to a close with arriving in Montserrat and Manresa. At Montserrat, they describe how pilgrimage has affected them. At the close, Father Jose blessed them with the words, “May God teach you to be pilgrims forever.” Then at Manresa, they leave the prayer requests others had given them at the altar. They took turns interceding for them each day of the journey. It was a tangible expression of the larger body of which they were part.

She describes three ways she felt changed through the Camino: silence, spontaneity, and serenity. She also recounts how they learned to:

  • Travel lightly.
  • Stay in the present moment.
  • Open yourself to the wonder of each encounter.
  • Ground your day in prayer, and your prayer in gratitude.
  • Rely on (and be reliable to) those who share the journey with you (p. 181).

The lessons she shares speak to far more than an extended pilgrimage like the Ignatian Camino. As the reflection questions concluding each chapter emphasize, we are all pilgrims. Therefore, her five traveling rules apply to us all. Although I may never walk the Ignatian Camino, Eberle’s account encouraged me in my own walk with Jesus.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Easter

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Cover image of "Easter" by Wesley Hill

Easter (Fullness of Time Series), Wesley Hill. IVP Formatio (ISBN: 9781514000366) 2025.

Summary: Explores the history and significance of Easter, not only as a day but as a season of celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

“He is risen!” “He is risen indeed”

This call and response captures the incredible news of Easter, that the crucified One lives, that death is defeated, and in Him, we live. Yet, amid our flurry of Easter finery and family gatherings, the words lose their import. There is even a danger that they will become “ho-hum.”

That’s why the reading of Wesley Hill’s Easter was so good for me. Hill explores the history, traditions and significance of our Eastertide celebrations. And did you notice I said “Eastertide”? Easter isn’t one day of celebration after the forty days of Lent. It is a season of fifty days, filled with the appearances of the risen Lord, his restorative and commissioning work with the apostles, his ascension, culminating in Pentecost. In sum, it is a season of celebration and in this slim volume, Wesley Hill walks us through that season.

He begins with the Easter Vigils some churches hold where believers gather in the darkness of waiting. New believers are baptized, and then with the rising of the sun, the proclamation “He is risen!” rings forth to the accompaniment of noisemakers. Let the celebrations begin!

Hill takes us back to the first Easter and to the resurrection appearances, first to Mary and the other women, to most of the gathered disciple, then to Thomas, and finally the lakeside restoration of Peter, the repentant betrayer. He then explores the implication of the resurrection, that “we shall also live with Him.” He reminds us of our baptism, the picture of cleansing, dying, and resurrection as an ongoing reality into which we live. Hill delves into the history of how Easter became one of the “moveable feasts” of the church and all the ways saints have celebrated it. Hill then recounts how the proclamation of the resurrection has turned the world upside down throughout history.

Finally, the concluding chapters reflect on the significance of the Ascension and Pentecost. He notes how we’ve neglected the meaning of the Ascension. In ascending, the risen Lord takes up his rule over all things. Not only that, but as the Incarnate lord, he presents our humanity to the Father, going before us. Then, in Pentecost, we celebrate that Jesus has kept his promise to always be with us. He sends his Holy Spirit to indwell and empower us.

This slim volume makes for perfect devotional reading for Eastertide. Hill combines story with historical and theological reflection. And he invites us into a celebration lasting not one day but fifty. Most of all, he reminds us of how the awesome event of the resurrection turns the world upside down.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Hunger for Righteousness

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Cover image for "Hunger for Righteousness" by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

Hunger for Righteousness, Phoebe Faraq Mikhail. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609341) 2025.

Summary: Drawing upon Coptic and other church tradition, explores how Lent may be personally and communally transforming.

I grew up in a Protestant tradition that did not observe Lent. But I lived in a Catholic neighborhood where the conversation before Ash Wednesday was a discussion of “what are you giving up for Lent?” For most, it was something like candy, or perhaps more narrowly, chocolate. I was never quite clear why God needed people to give up chocolate, or other things during this time. For many of us as adults, that is the extent of our knowledge of Lent. Phoebe Farag Mikhail, who has been shaped by the Coptic Orthodox tradition, fasting, and what one fasted from wasn’t a choice. But what her community abstained from reflected a deeper longing, a corporate hunger for righteousness. She writes of this in her introduction.

If we pay closer attention to the earliest Christian Lenten traditions, we’ll discover how Lent was a period during which individuals who wanted to become Christian prepared themselves not for personal transformation, but to join the body of believers, the communion of saints, through baptism. By examining our liturgical prayers and Scripture readings developed over centuries, we’ll discover the ways Lent has always been a time for individual repentance, yes, but first for giving and forgiving, for mending relationships and building new ones, for fighting injustice, and for growing in intimacy with God communally, not just individually (pp. 13-14).

This book is designed to be read and meditated upon and applied during the weeks before and during Lent. One chapter covers each week, as well as a final chapter on Easter. The first week “trains us for the climb” in preparation for Lent by considering Jonah and the Ninevites through practice of the three day Jonah fast. Subsequent chapters consider:

  • Abraham, reckoned righteous by God, who negotiated with God for Sodom.
  • St. Abraam of Fayoom, a nineteenth century ascetic who gave generously to the poor.
  • The faith that moves mountains, including the mountain of forgiveness.
  • Abba Serapion and the challenge to grow as repentant readers of Scripture.
  • St. Paesia, a trafficked woman, her turning from despair, and the ways we wrongly judge others.
  • The righteousness of Tamar, more determined to perpetuate her husband’s family than Judah.
  • The righteous faith of Abraham again, in the sacrifice of Isaac.

We conclude on the note of Resurrection. Mikhail considers the pilgrimage accounts of Egeria enroute to Jerusalem during Roman times. Egeria walks the way of Jesus passion, and we read of her joy in God and rest in the risen Christ.

Each chapter offers questions for reflection and application. Two appendices offer further resources including the Great Lent Lectionary of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

Mikhail helps us see the fast of Lent as a hunger for righteousness, glimpsed in the lives of biblical figures and saints we may not have heard of before. Whether we adopt the practices of Coptic Christians or not, her reflections help us deepen our own practice of Lent. She helps us move beyond the “give up” to the promise for those who hunger for righteousness. They shall be filled.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Word Made Fresh

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Cover image for "Word Made Fresh" by Abram Van Engen

Word Made Fresh, Abram Van Engen, foreword by Shane McCrae. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802883605) 2024.

Summary: An invitation to delight in poetry while discovering how form and language help make meaning that may enrich our lives.

A recent survey found only twelve percent of Americans had read poetry in the past year. I wonder if many are like friends of my who are put off by one or both of two things. Firstly, they find poetry confusing or obscure. Secondly, they don’t know where to start. By contrast, Abram Van Engen believes poetry is for all of us, an invitation to pay attention, to delight, and reflect. For Christians, he goes further. Poetry may be found in much of scripture, most notably in the Psalms. They both disclose God to us and give us language to disclose ourselves to God at all the turns of life. Van Engen believes poetry is for you and he sets out in this book to show how you may enjoy it and find your life enriched by it.

He keeps it uncomplicated. He invites us to just pick up a book of poetry and begin reading until something catches us. Don’t worry about meaning to start with, just notice what caught our attention, and why, in our lives, that might be. Initially, he invites us to read for pleasure, and at the beginning of the book, shares a number of poems. If we like them, he invites us to pay more attention, and if not, to move on.

For example, in one chapter, he considers poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins (sonnet), William Carlos Williams (three four line verses), Gwendolyn Brooks, Denise Levertov (free verse), Lucille Clifton, Luci Shaw, Scott Cairns, Mary Karr, Richard Wilbur, James Weldon Johnson, John Donne (sonnet), Countee Cullen (also sonnet), and Robert Hadyn. By doing so, Van Engen offers us his own curated anthology, offering us the change to discover what we like, while offering very introductory comments.

While he discourages starting by asking what a poem means, he does encourage us to ask questions of the poems that catch our attention, For example, “Why was I struck by this poem?” What about this poem made us stop? “What gave us pause or pleasure? Was it the sound of the poem? Was it a certain memory the poem invoked or revived?” He then takes us through a very short poem (“This Is Just to Say”) by William Carlos Williams, considered previously and notices how each stanza is a literal room, adding to what has come before about eating plums another has set aside in the icebox. He asks questions about the structure, the line breaks, and the repeated “so.”

Before going further into technical matters, he invites us to think of poetry like a friendship. Like a friendship, poems travel with us through life. Along they way, they show us different things as we change and grow. Then Van Engen turns to form. He considers different forms and how form, rhyme schemes, and content interact. Another practice he encourages is erasing. For example, we erase all but the verbs. Or we isolate the requests in a prayer.

Then Van Engen explores how poets use words to name, the oblique ways they express truth. And he devotes two chapters on how poetry helps us rejoice with the rejoicing, and weep with the weeping. Poetry offers us language to express how glorious our life in the world can be, and how wretched. Finally, returning to Hopkins, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” he shows how poems enact life. Van Engen contends that as “the just man justices” so poems poem as we read and experience them.

In recent years, I’ve been on a journey of discovery poetry. Van Engen makes this so approachable, so enjoyable. He introduces us to forms and uses of words and more. Mostly, he invites us to read a lot of poetry, guiding us lightly, asking us questions to help us discover for ourselves the wonder of poetry. And for Christians, he tips us off to a rich vein of devotional material many of us may have neglected. He show us how poetry and the poetry of scripture may enhance and enlarge one another. Read this book if you are in the place of feeling both drawn and daunted by the call of poetry. Read this book with a group, using the group guide provided. I believe you will find that which pleases and enriches you and your friends for the journey.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Discipleship: Living for Christ in the Daily Grind

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Cover image of "Discipleship: Living for Christ in the Daily Grind" by J. Heinrich Arnold

Discipleship: Living for Christ in the Daily Grind, J. Heinrich Arnold (Foreword by Henri J.M. Nouwen. Plough (ISBN: 9780874868760) 1994.

Summary: Discipleship: Living for Christ in the Daily Grind is a collection of forthright counsel on various aspects of following Christ.

One of the questions I wrestled with as a young follower of Christ was “now that I’ve begun following Jesus, how do I practically live this life?” Often, it seems that the answer was “read your Bible and God will show you.” I longed for a more mature believer who might walk alongside and offer practical counsel for questions like, “How do I know I am fully converted?” “And if so, why do I sin and what do I do about that?” “How do I remain pure in thought and action as a healthy young man?” “How do I discern and walk in God’s will?” “What is my place in God’s mission?” “What are my gifts and how should I use them?” “How do I cultivate a relationship with God and what is that really like?”

For over forty years J. Heinrich Arnold served as a leader in the Bruderhof movement until his death in 1982. Over that time he counselled many on various aspects of living for Christ “in the daily grind.” Plough Publishing, the publishing arm of the Bruderhof movement has collected the instruction of Arnold on various aspects of discipleship, organizing it by topics. The editors drew much of the material from letters to individuals. And in it, Arnold addresses all the questions I mentioned and many more.

First of all, Arnold has a clear and penetrating vision of the gospel. He writes:

“Anyone who has not been troubled by the scandal of Christ’s sufffering and his complete humilistion is ignorant of the meaning of belief in him.”

Second, I notice how forthright, to the point of bluntness, many of his statements are. He explains why in a letter quoted in a section on Sincerity:

“It is important to be straightforward and honest about your true feelings. Rather be too rude than too smooth, to blunt than too kind. Rather say an unkind word that is true than one that is ‘nice’ but untrue. You can always be sorry for an unkind word, but hypocrisy causes permanent harm unless special grace is given.”

For instance, his writing about sex exemplifies that forthrightness:

“Sex has no purpose apart from marriage. Outside of marriage it is sinful. The Bible demands chastity before it and outside of it; that is very clear. So if you have not always followed the chaste and pure way, then you must find forgiveness in order to stand upright before God. But Jesus wants to give you that forgiveness.“

Throughout, he points people to Christ’s provision and God’s care. To a young person, he concludes his letter thus:

I wish you the protection of God in all you may go through. May the pierced hands of Jesus hold you firmly as you hold firmly to him.”

No sugarcoating. Rather, the promise that God will meet one in trying times and hold one firmly.

The readings fall under three main headings: the disciple, the church, and the kingdom of God. We move from the personal life of the disciple to the community in which the disciple lives to the big picture of God’s bracing vision for the world. His words equally challenge young disciples and leaders. He tells leaders their authority is not over people for whom they humbly care. Their authority is over the spirits! Connected with that, he reminds leaders that their battle is not with people but with evil spirits, a word that seems important for our time.

The call to discipleship is for life. While I wish I had this book as a young man (or Arnold in person!), I’m glad I have it now. Arnold’s writing challenges and encourages young and old alike, beginners and leaders. Sometimes his incisive words are the faithful wounds of a friend that heal. At other times, his word offer spiritual and moral clarity needed in our murky times. And always he keeps central the main thing of Christ, his cross, his kingdom, and our future hope.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.