A Testament of Devotion

by Thomas R. Kelly

Since its first publication in 1941, A Testament of Devotion, by the renowned Quaker teacher Thomas Kelly, has been universally embraced as a truly enduring spiritual classic. Plainspoken and deeply inspirational, it gathers together five compelling essays that urge us to center our lives on God's presence, to find quiet and stillness within modern life, and to discover the deeply satisfying and lasting peace of the inner spiritual journey. As relevant today as it was a half-century ago, A Testament of Devotion is the ideal companion to that highest of all human arts-the lifelong conversation between God and his creatures.

I have in mind something deeper than the simplification of our external programs, our absurdly crowded calendars of appointments through which so many pantingly and frantically gasp. These do become simplified in holy obedience, and the poise and peace we have been missing can really be found. But there is a deeper, an internal simplification of the whole of one's personality, stilled, tranquil, in childlike trust listening ever to Eternity's whisper, walking with a smile into the dark."

Genres: Spirituality, Christian, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction, Theology, Faith

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Thomas Raymond Kelly (1893-January 17, 1941) was an American Quaker educator. He taught and wrote on the subject of mysticism. His books are widely read, especially by people interested in spirituality.

Reviews

[Scott Jeffries · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect when I first opened Thomas Kelly's A Testament of Devotion. I knew the book was listed among the best in Christian spirituality but I didn't know anything about the book.

I didn't know that Kelly was a Quaker and that the essays within the book were taken from talks that he gave. I didn't know how much my favorite Christian writer, Dallas Willard, was influenced by Kelly.

I also didn't know that I would need to read it more than once to fully appreciate it. The first time I read it, I was underwhelmed and slightly disappointed in the overtly Quaker teaching. I mean, I am a Baptist, and any talk of the light within makes me think of Shirley MacLaine and "woowoo" New Age stuff. But then I read it a second time and appreciated it so much more. I began to take in some of the rich passages that were inspiring and convicting. For example, he mentions that "complete obedience" is our goal not "amazing revelations." I particularly liked his discussion of having the "simplicity of the trusting child." And Kelly's explanation of the "Holy Now" was excellent.

Finally, I really appreciated his moment to moment approach to the spiritual life. Highly influenced by Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God, Kelly detailed the experience of connection with God in the midst of everyday life. This is a very good point and one that gets completely ignored in Evangelical circles who never seem to take the spiritual life beyond morning BIble study and prayer.

I don't know if I would recommend this book to a young believer but for a seasoned disciple looking for a challenge to live "the other half," this book would be much better than 90 percent of what is coming out of Christian bookstores.

[Elizabeth Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friends recommended this book when they heard my 2012 New Year's resolution was to not be overwhelmed by life. A good dose of Quakerism is a nice antidote. I can't say Thomas Kelly led me to calm and simplicity, but he did offer me understanding: "For, except for spells of sickness in the family and when the children are small, when terrific pressure comes upon us, we find time for what we really want to do." With a small child, yes, living a focused life of service can be hard.

While his language and theology are old fashioned, Kelly's faith nonetheless inspires me:

I am persuaded that religious people do not with sufficient seriousness count on God as an active factor in the affairs of the world. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” but too many well-intentioned people are so preoccupied with the clatter of effort to do something for God that they don’t hear Him asking that He might do something through them.
…For the Eternal is urgently, actively breaking into time, working through those who are willing to be laid hold upon, to surrender self-confidence and self-centered effort, that is, self-originated effort, and let the Eternal be the dynamic guide in recreating, through us, our time-world. 71-74.

I want to pray unceasingly, as Kelly describes. The joy of spiritual community he portrays seems impossible to me, but I want it nonetheless. Most of all, I want to face this complex world with profound trust. I'm grateful for the guides that help me on this journey.

[Jaime T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art. What a beautifully written book. Kelly describes a Christian way of life quite different from what I've heard before, yet he writes in such a way that you know he's lived such a life - one that is deeply oriented towards the Center, and bursting with the fruit of years of steadfastness and faith. Just hearing that this intimacy with God is possible is encouraging, especially when the majority of modern Christians are satisfied with a dwindling flame for God and be quick to judge or question you if you have a seemingly "fanatical" desire for God.

“Religion as a dull habit is not that for which Christ lived and died.” (pg27)

Anyways, I was deeply encouraged by the "Holy Obedience" chapter and his descriptions of spiritual/mystical experiences in encountering God and visions that call us forward to where God is leading. Grateful for Christians who came before me, like Kelly, whose radical obedience affirms God's own call for my life and my response.

I was also deeply impacted when he described humility, expanding my idea of what it really means. Just read his words here:

“Humility does not rest, in final count, upon bafflement and discouragement and self-disgust at our shabby lives, a brow-beaten dog-slinking attitude. It rests upon the disclosure of the consummate wonder of God, upon finding that only God counts, that all our own self-originated intentions are works of straw.” (pg35)

As I've been struggling with social comparison lately which has caused doubt even in faith/vocation, this was such timely counsel. “The God-blinded soul sees naught of self, naught of personal degradation or of personal eminence, but only the Holy Will working impersonally through him, through others, as one objective Life and Power.” (pg36) So fire!

I could keep going about how impactful this book was. I didn't even talk about the chapter on "The Simplification of Life" - which is stellar for faith in modern busyness!! Solid book. Just didn't feel like giving it 5 stars, for no reason but that I didn't feel like it. Here's a dope quote to end this review off:

“There is a way of life so hid with Christ in God that in the midst of the day’s business one is inwardly lifting brief prayers, short ejaculations of praise, subdued whispers of adoration and of tender love to the Beyond that is within… One can live in a well-nigh continuous state of unworded prayer, directed toward God, directed toward people and enterprises we have on our heart. There is no hurry about it all; it is a life unspeakable and full of glory, an inner world of splendor within which we, unworthy, may live. Some of you know it and live in it; others of you may wistfully long for it; it can be yours.” (pg98)

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me of The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence but with a Quaker spin. It started out kind of vague and sometimes felt too much like New Age mush, but the book got better as it went on. I think I got the most out of the final chapter, “The Simplification of Life.”

I suspect there’s more here than I was able to fully appreciate. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace (or heartspace) for whatever reason. Maybe I’ll come back to it again someday.

I’m saving some quotes from that last chapter as a reminder for me:


“Let me first suggest that we are giving a false explanation of the complexity of our lives. We blame it upon the complex environment. Our complex living, we say, is due to the complex world we live in…And I found that Americans carry into the tropics their same mad-cap, feverish life which we know on the mainland. Complexity of our program cannot be blamed upon complexity of our environment, much as we should like to think so.”

“We Western peoples are apt to think our great problems are external, environmental. We are not skilled in the inner life, where the real roots of our problem lie... We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering Life within us. Each of us tends to be, not a single self, but a whole committee of selves.”

“Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center. Each one of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace and serenity, of integration and confidence and simplified multiplicity, on one condition—that is, if we really want to. There is a divine Abyss within us all, a holy Infinite Center, a Heart, a Life who speaks in us and through us to the world.”

“We can get so fearfully busy trying to carry out the second great commandment, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,’ that we are under-developed in our devoted love to God. But we must love God as well as neighbor.”

“This love of people is well-nigh as amazing as the love of God. Do we want to help people because we feel sorry for them, or because we genuinely love them? The world needs something deeper than pity; it needs love. (How trite that sounds, how real it is!) But in our love of people are we to be excitedly hurried, sweeping all men and tasks into our loving concern? No, that is God's function. But He, working within us, portions out His vast concern into bundles, and lays on each of us our portion.”

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the perfect follow-up to Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God. While we learn from Brother Lawrence that an abiding presence with God is possible, we learn from Kelly how to acquire it, what it costs, and what fruit will be born from it.

This is a very quick read, but should be savored and re-read.

[Chad Stogner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books are great wisdom and some books are soul care. I'm grateful for books like this one that are both. The best thing about Thomas Kelly is how invitational he is into something more, something deeper, something better. Additionally, he writes with the same passion as modern day authors (like John Mark Comer) about the devastation busyness is causing our spiritual lives, and this being 80 years ago. Maybe if I read another 10 books on this subject, I'll finally start to take it seriously.

[Porter Sprigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely and Revolutionary

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spiritual classic worthy of your best attention. One I plan to read again.

[claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Interior Castle, Quaker edition

[David Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third or fourth Quaker author I have read that I have really enjoyed. Foster, Trueblood, now Kelly. Kelly actually took over a post for D. Elton Trueblood at Haverford College! I loved Trueblood's book "New Man for Our Time". Back to this book, it was a great collection of Kelly's writings on simply living in the Spirit, living in the presence of God, a lot in the vein of Brother Lawrence.

There is a 25 page biography written by a friend and colleague at the end of the book that I would have read first, so I would recommend doing so. I enjoyed the biography much also. This book, and others such as Severe Mercy always make me romantically wistful about life in the "Greatest Generation". Such a romanticized vision is not too healthy, but in multiple books of this time, as in this one, there is talk of small fellowship meetings, usually around a fire, with readings, philosophical discussions, prayer, joint quite time, etc. Something which I can't seem to duplicate here in this day. Maybe we can't sit quiet together, or reading together sounds like a waste of time to us in our multitask society. I also enjoy hearing of these great minds writing and receiving letters. Something that has been lost with the internet.

Back to the book itself, As Doug Steere, the author of the little Kelly biography says: "these devotional essays are gathered here w/o any of the cutting or clipping or critical revision which Thomas Kelly would certainly have given them had he lived. They are all written on the same theme and often develop an identical aspect, but always with some fresh illumination." There does feel to be a lot of repetition throughout, but that's okay. Go into this book knowing what it is, a collection of his writings, mostly on living in the presence of God, and you if that is what you seek, you will benefit from it.

In living in God's presence Kelly speaks of the work it takes to get to where you can spend "every moment behind the scenes in prayer, offering yourselves in continuous obedience". We will fail all the time, but he is encouraging when he says simply say a quick word of repentance, ask for help, and start again! "The crux of religious living lies in the will, not in transient and variable states".

[Glen Grunau · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I expressed in my recent review on a book about post-evangelicalism, I have been wondering if gathering with a group of Quaker Friends might satisfy my yearning for a more simplified form of worship that emphasizes quiet meditation and listening.

It seemed be a divine convergence when in looking for my next book to read, I looked on the shelf beside my bed and discovered that a book that had been waiting for me there for a couple of years was this book, written by a Quaker.

It has been sometime since I last read anything written by a mystic offering guidance for the inner life. This book was pure delight.

Thomas R. Kelly was a scholar who taught philosophy at Harvard. He possessed a life-long ambition to combine the philosophy of the west with that of the east. One of the chief ways in which Christian mysticism has benefitted from the philosophy of Buddhism is that God can truly only be encountered in the Eternal Now. Kelly knew this through his own intimate experience with God and gladly lights the way for others in this devotional classic.

It is obvious that Kelley was greatly influenced by Brother Lawrence as he makes repeated reference to the essential spiritual practice of maintaining a constant inner orientation toward God. Kelly recognized that those who abide in such spiritual simplicity are “really nullifying much of the external trappings of religion”. This has great appeal to me.

Kelly is convinced that this steady place of divine inner orientation inevitably brings a serene simplicity to one’s life. This theme becomes a thread throughout his book and is encapsulated in his final chapter “The Simplification of Life”. Kelly has little sympathy for those who excuse the hectic pace of their life based on the complexity of demands in their environment over which they have no control. He is convinced

“. . . We haven’t been able to say no to them, because they seem so important to us. But if we centre down, as the old phrase goes, and live in that holy Silence which is dearer than life . . . then many of the things we are doing lose their vitality for us.”

Reading this short classic has rekindled for me a renewed longing to reorient myself to this Eternal Now where God‘s joy, love, and peace fill more and more of me.

[Dave Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

At my high school graduation, some friend or relative (I don't know who) gave me a copy of "A Testament Of Devotion" by Thomas Kelly. I read this and was touched by the spirituality of the writing. He wrote of "The Light Within":

"Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself."

I gave away my copy but bought it again recently and still enjoy reading parts of it.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Quaker classic for a reason, this contains lots of clear articulations of things Quakers often say - enough that it can be hard to pick out what is uniquely Kelly about it other than the intensity with which he experienced the spiritual processes he describes. His close relationships to some other Quakers of the period, especially Jones and Steere, and to influential non-Quaker sources (including Whitehead, William James, and some contact with Japanese and Indian philosophy), are visible as well as his own religious experience.

[Philip Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this book is about anything it’s one word. Holy. This book definitely made me reconsider just how sold out I am and what else needs to be given up.

[Raven Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, short, read. A collection of essays. Need to revisit regularly:

“THE PROBLEM WE FACE TODAY NEEDS VERY LITTLE time for its statement. Our lives in a modern city grow too complex and overcrowded. Even the necessary obligations which we feel we must meet grow overnight, like Jack's beanstalk, and before we know it we are bowed down with burdens, crushed under committees, strained, breathless, and hurried, panting through a never-ending program of appointments. We are too busy to be good wives to our husbands, good homemakers, good companions of our children, good friends to our friends, and with no time at all to be friends to the friendless. But if we withdraw from public engagements and interests, in order to spend quiet hours with the family, the guilty calls of citizenship whisper disquieting claims in our ears. Our children's schools should receive our interest, the civic problems of our community need our attention, the wider issues of the nation and of the world are heavy upon us. Our professional status, our social obligations, our membership in this or that very important organization, put claims upon us. And in frantic fidelity we try to meet at least the necessary minimum of calls upon us. But we're weary and breath-less. And we know and regret that our life is slipping away, with our having tasted so little of the peace and joy and serenity we are persuaded it should yield to a soul of wide caliber. The times for the deeps of the silences of the heart seem so few. And in guilty regret we must postpone till next week that deeper life of unshaken composure in the holy Presence, where we sincerely know our true home is, for this week is much too full.”

[William Adam Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short devotional book written by a Quaker writer who flourished during the 1930's and 1940's. I had not heard of him before reading this book. It is five chapters long, with the main theme perhaps being that we need to keep God at the center of our life. There are a lot of things that will try and crowd God out from being at the center of our life. Kelly focuses on keeping things simple, not overdoing life with being busy, and being quiet in your life.

The chapters of the book are 1. The Life Within. 2.Holy Obedience 3. The Blessed Community 4.The Eternal Now and Social Concern 5. The Simplification of Life. I have been looking for ways to take stress out of my life and this book helped remind me of the importance of doing just that.

[Brother Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started to read this short 100 page book about 3 weeks ago. It stirred my heart so deeply that I would take it out for walks, mumbling prayers that some of the experiences and promises found in this book would come true. Kelly talked about things like “holy obedience”, “blessed fellowship” touched by the “dews of heaven”, a yearning and insatiable love for God — all things that I wanted to see in my life.

Most notably, God spoke to me through this book confirming for me a call to a life of ministry (2nd pic). I don’t really know the details of it yet, but I know what God wants me to do and I want to do it! Could you please pray for me as I wait and trust in the Lord to light the way and provide for me? 🙏

[Summer Cromartie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing little book. It combines the wisdom of Frank Laubach's Game with Minutes and Brother Lawrence's Practicing the Presence of God and puts them in the modern setting of frantically moving from one committee and volunteer project to the next. He puts the first half of the Greatest Commandment first and lets the love of neighbor flow freely from a constant connection with the Lord. Wonderful book.

[Sarah M. Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another refreshing and inspiring piece that bears witness to the love and life available to us all through union with God. An excellent meditation!

[Daunavan Buyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible and so deep. Not an easy read but it’s short which helps the reader digest the rich theology and invitations he presents.

[Luke Hillier · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Formal review to follow, but my quick take is that this was amazing!! It is short and not even especially dense, but I felt a real need to take my time reading slowly through it –– it is brimming with a holy wisdom that I just wanted to savor and allow to sink in. Definitely see myself revisiting this.)

For many, the modern experience is often marked by an ever-escalating sense of urgency at an individual and global level. We feel frenzied in our efforts, scattered in our attention, and depleted in our capacities –– or, perhaps, haunted by a sheepish guilt in moments of otherwise contentment. We are left with a pervasive question: How to engage with the world without being consumed by it? Voices throughout time have offered varied responses, and Thomas Kelley’s is one whose message rises compellingly above the chorus. At the center of his argument in A Testament of Devotion is a Quaker-shaped call towards a singular devotion to the present and active God. While at first glance this does not register as a particularly unique or applicable direction, Kelly excels at disarming expectations to offer a vital vision for a life of integration, peace, action, and love that arises out of one’s wholehearted devotion.

From a distance, this may sound like an exhortation only applicable to a select few –– those who can adopt the lifestyle of monks and desert mystics whose days are consumed with spiritual practices. Alternatively, maybe it registers as yet another example of religious programming expected to be crammed into one’s daily schedule. Perhaps in hopes of dispelling these suspicions, Kelly’s first essay clarifies that he is concerned with “ways of conducting our inward life so that we are perpetually bowed in worship, while we are also very busy in the world of daily affairs." This intertwining of the seeming polarities of spiritual worship and earthly action is fundamental to Kelly’s theological imagination, and he urges readers to pursue “not alternation, but simultaneity, worship undergirding every moment." While Kelly endorses the value of spiritual practices and participation in religious fellowship, his sense of devotion is crucially not a retreat from or rejection of the world; he seeks integration rather than separation, and an awareness of the concurrence of the Divine Life’s presence overlapping with the unfolding everyday. One’s thoughts become interwoven with a steady stream of prayer, and the day is imbued with an ongoing awareness of the permeating reality of God.

In Kelly’s fourth essay, “The Eternal Now and Social Concerns,” he most clearly articulates both his sense of the presumed tension between worship and action and how his vision of devotion climaxes in the coexistence of the two. He begins with a brief overview and careful critique of religion’s (and especially Quakerism’s) slide towards “This-sidedness,” which is to say its emphasis on the pressing needs of the present world over and against the heavenly world to come. For Kelly, the central Quaker teaching that “The possibility of the experience of Divine Presence, as a repeatedly realized and present fact, and its transforming and transfiguring effect upon all life” disrupts the binary of This-side and the Other-side, allowing for experiences of the Eternal Now. The Eternal Now is when God is present, rendering it the inbreaking of God’s agency and action in the world and the moment in which God’s reality is actually and accessibly possible –– and it is made possible often through the yielding of humanity. In other words, the Eternal Now is when those seeking God are found by God, when “We sing, but not yet we, but the Eternal sings within us."

We are wise to ask: What distinguishes our independent action from God’s within us? It is within the Eternal Now that we are freed to act unencumbered by the tyranny of past failures or future anxieties which so often hinder and limit us. Likewise, we remember, as Kelly writes in “Eternal Presence and Temporal Guidance” that “The world’s work is to be done. But it doesn’t have to be finished by us. We have taken ourselves too seriously. The life of God overarches all lifetimes." In the Eternal Now, the heavy burdens of overwhelming urgency and singular responsibility are replaced with a liberating trust in God’s everlasting commitment to the world and its immense needs. Kelly describes this as “contemptus mundi” –– a healthy, stable detachment from the frequent ebbs and flows of a world in the throes of injustice and sin. However, crucially, this is always balanced by an equal sense of “amor mundi” as we share in God’s cosmic love for the world. This, ultimately, is the mark of an encounter with the Divine Presence in the Eternal Now: “There is a tendering of the soul toward everything in creation, from the sparrow’s fall to the slave under the lash." The tendered soul is, of course, known not only by its empathy for the suffering of the world but also its action within it. In “Eternal Presence and Temporal Guidance,” Kelly writes that “the root experience of divine Presence contains within it not only a sense of being energized from a heavenly Beyond; it contains also a sense of being energized toward an earthly world. For the Eternal Life and Love are not pocketed in us; they are flooding through us into the world of time and men."

Kelly’s appreciation for the Quakerly notion of a “concern” is essential for understanding how one’s soul can be tendered and commissioned into a suffering world without being utterly consumed by its seemingly infinite needs. Although one develops a sensitivity towards all earthly plights, our task is not to attend to them all, but rather to discern which ones specifically demand our active engagement. He writes that “concern particularizes this cosmic tenderness. It brings to a definite focus in some concrete task all that experience of love and responsibility which might evaporate, in its broad generality, into vague yearnings for a golden paradise." In this way, discerning concerns protects us from being overburdened and underutilized, ensuring that we are not consumed by either the endlessness of work to be done nor the enormity of our overwhelming feelings about it. We can regard the concerns set before us as distilled expressions of God’s care for the world, and our action as a conduit for God’s responsive action.

Many of us are simultaneously hounded by the heavy burden of responsibility to the world around us and haunted by our inability to do more. At first glance, Kelly’s exhortation to listen for God’s knock at the door of our life and devote ourselves wholly to the one who finds us when we open it can feel like retreating from these realities, but he rejects such binary reductions. Indeed, such devotion reorders our lives in a way that relativizes these matters, but does not replace them. Steeped in awareness of God’s eternal faithfulness to the troubles of this world, we even begin to share in such tenderness more and more, but from the steady ground of God’s Eternal Now rather than the shaky territory of the ever-changing present. Instead of being drowned in the endless waves of the world’s infinite demands, we are gifted the clarity of concerns set distinctly before us as a means of participating in God’s response to the world. Ultimately, this imbues us with a share in the “Cosmic Patience” which frees us to find hope beyond the immediate outcomes of our efforts, trusting they are part of a much larger whole that can only be finished by God. And so it is from this place of deep peace, rather than frenzied desperation, that we meet the world each day, as well as the God who devotedly loves it.

[Jeremy Manuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books where the way the book is presented is detrimental the message. I had to laugh a little bit when reading the back of the book after I started reading where it calls Kelly plainspoken. This is definitely not a book for you if you're looking for plainspoken.

I think that Kelly does present gems of wisdom here. However, it is so buried under long sentences that seem to bend back on themselves and words that seem to be used in certain ways unique to either Kelly's own theology or Quaker theology at large. Needless to say it made Kelly's message hard to follow and often left me wonder what exactly he was talking about half (or more) of the time.

That is often my disappointment with books of this nature. While ideas like praying and being connected to God as we go through our days or making sure that we don't over busy ourselves are good points, I feel like Kelly and other authors frame these ideas in such over the top ways that makes it hard for many to connect with these ideas in any meaningful ways.

I'm sure that there are those who enjoy this style far more than I do and that they may glean much more out of a work like this than I did. However, I didn't really enjoy reading it and while there are interesting ideas within, I'm not sure it's really worth reading to get at them.

[Gideon Yutzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend reading about 5 pages per morning as it's very deep. Oh, and some of it will seem esoteric at first but just go with it. You can pretty much take what he says to the bank. It turns out Kelly had a significant influence on his fellow Quaker Richard Foster and his book, Celebration of the Disciplines. It adds up, if you read both books. One of the main takeaways is, when you practice religion correctly, it's like finding wings; when you practice it incorrectly, it's like entering a bog (my words).

[Bud Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I couldn't finish this. I rarely, if ever, quit a book once started, but I found little satisfaction in reading this short collection of essays. While thoroughly enjoying similar themes by Brother Lawrence and Richard Foster, I found Kelly's writing style too abstruse to continue. I understand the content, and in some ways agree with his points, but reading became a pain rather than a pleasure. Yes, I know it's a classic. I suppose it's not so much a bad book as it is an ordeal to read.

[Silas Bergen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a healing joy to read, is this book. I'll let is speak for itself:

Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center…Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple. It is serene. It is amazing. It is triumphant. It is radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time. And it makes our life programs new and overcoming. We need not get frantic. He is at the helm. And when our little day is done we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.

[Jo Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And we know and regret that our life is slipping away, with our having tasted so little of the peace and joy and serenity we are persuaded it should yield to a soul of wide caliber. The times for the deeps of the silences of the heart seem so few. And in guilty regret we must postpone till next week that deeper life of unshaken composure in the holy Presence, where we sincerely know our true home is, for this week is much too full” (90).

[booklady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deceptively simple and wise book--and easy and quick read. Read it the year I did the Spiritual Classics.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must admit that I am not all that familiar with Quaker spirituality except for my criticism of its inveterate pacifism and pietism which for various reasons has formed an important influence on the Church of God.  This book is a well-regarded example of an ecumenical and mystical approach to Christianity that is particularly popular in our hectic age [1].  I would not say that this is a bad book, exactly, more like it is a book that is not easy to understand or relate to.  The author is a Quaker who appears to be somewhat driven and it is difficult to take claims that he lived with a peace and tranquility within him during his short life seriously.  Rather than viewing him as a hypocrite and discounting this book entirely, I tend to see this book as an expression of the author's hopes and aspirations to be a force for peace of not only a military kind but also a more personal kind, even if I have serious doubts that the author was a model exemplar of his ideals and the ideals of his faith tradition.

This particular book is a very short one, made up of a few short chapters that the author had written but not had the chance to edit and refine shortly before his death.  It is striking that it is these unrefined chapters in a book that even with an extensive biographical note lasts barely more than 100 pages are what made the author well-known and well-regarded within Christian mystical sources, but looking at the essays one can get some idea why this happened.  For one, these essays show a broad-minded view of the view of meditation in other traditions and engage the larger body of books about prayer and meditation that are generally well-regarded by Christian mystics.  The author also manages to discuss how we become more calm and more at peace with God and others by self-examination and reflection rather than trying to shape our world for our own convenience or think that merely changing our environment will change our mentality and approach to life.  In a subtle way, these essays on the light within, holy obedience, the blessed community, the eternal now and social concern, the simplification encourage the reader to take responsibility for the way that we live and how we relate to others.  They avoid a narrow focus on social issues while pointing out that in our search for the kingdom of heaven we are not to neglect the mundane matters of life on earth.

There is much to appreciate in a book like this.  One can doubt, as I doubt, that the author is a fitting model of his worldview, but I suppose if I ever wrote a book about peace and tranquility and not being too rushed that people would be just as eager to doubt that I really understood what I was writing about.  In a case like this, it is probably best to take what is written and to look at it on its own without trying to judge the messenger.  And on those grounds, this book does have a lot to offer in the way that it demonstrates the tension that Christians of all stripes feel about the pull of self-reflection and personal spirituality and the realization that as believers we are part of the larger body of Christ, as well as the tension between looking forward to God's Kingdom while also trying to do what we can to ease the plight of those who suffer in this present evil world.  As these tensions are a universal aspect of Christian experience, this book is a thoughtful one that places these concerns as part of a context of practical mysticism, something not too esoteric a concern for many people with able minds and sensitive hearts to the way that life goes on down here.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

[Greg Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of devotional essays by Thomas R. Kelly, a Quaker mystic. Although each chapter of this book is an essay that was written separately from the others, you wouldn't know it just by reading them. Each chapter is complete by itself and yet seems to flow logically into the next chapter. The focus moves from a discussion of the "Divine Center" in each person to what true obedience to Christ looks like, then onto how this way of living and thinking leads us into a "Blessed Community" of like-minded souls, then onto how God meets us in the present (the "Eternal Now"), then onto how this leads to a simplification of your life.

This is a short book, just 5 chapters. It is written in a down-to-earth way and yet it is also deep. I found that the writing led me to read it in a meditative way, reading slowly, pausing to think and pray along the way. It reminds me of other spiritual classics like "The Practice of the Presence of God" by Brother Lawrence and "Letters by a Modern Mystic" by Frank Laubach.

One of the key thoughts that I gleaned from this book is how God is initiator and we are the responders in our relationship with Him. The author highlights this in a memorable way with phrases like:
* "God the Lover, the accuser, the revealer of light and darkness"
* "God the initiator, God the aggressor, God the seeker, God the stirrer into life, God the ground of our obedience, God the giver of the power to become children of God"
* "God is at work, as the Aggressor, the Invader, the Initiator"

This leads to the idea that someone who is devoted to God and obedient to Him will allow God to live through him/her. The author writes:

Don't grit your teeth and clench your fists and say "I will! I will!" Relax. Take hands off. Submit yourself to God. Learn to live in the passive voice -- a hard saying for an American -- and let life be willed through you. For "I will" spells not obedience.

Contrary to what you might think, this life of obedience and devotion to God does not result in self-absorbed navel-gazing but instead leads us into a "divine but painful concern for the world". Our hearts become more sensitive to suffering in the world and the lostness of the people around us.

In the Eternal Now all men are seen in a new way. . . . We become identified with them and suffer when they suffer and rejoice when they rejoice.

However, this does not result in a life of striving to make a difference in the world. Instead life becomes simplified and unhurried. Because "after all, God is at work in the world. It is not we alone who are at work in the world, frantically finishing a work to be offered to God."

Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. . . . We need not get frantic. He is at the helm. And when our little day is done we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.

This book is a spiritual gem. I've read it 3 or 4 times now and can see that this is one of those books that I'll read again every year or two and get something new out of it each time. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in deepening their connection to God.