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Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith
The author of the bestselling celebration of discipline explores the great traditions of Christian spirituality and their role in spiritual renewal today. In this landmark work, Foster examines the "streams of living water" –– the six dimensions of faith and practice that define Christian tradition. He lifts up the enduring character of each tradition and shows how a variety of practices, from individual study and retreat to disciplines of service and community, are all essential elements of growth and maturity. Foster examines the unique contributions of each of these traditions and offers as examples the inspiring stories of faithful people whose lives defined each of these "streams."
424 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
330 people are currently reading
2717 people want to read
About the author
Richard J. Foster
92 books531 followersRichard J. Foster is the author of several bestselling books, including Celebration of Discipline, Streams of Living Water, and Prayer, which was Christianity Today's Book of the Year and the winner of the Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. He is the founder of Renovaré, an intrachurch movement committed to the renewal of the Church in all her multifaceted expressions, and the editor of The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
June 19, 2008
This book is a wonderful introduction and summary of six streams or traditions that have influenced Christianity:
*The Contemplative Tradition-the prayer filled life
*The Holiness Tradition-the virtuous life
*The Charismatic Tradition-the Spirit-empowered life
*The Social Justice Tradition-the compassionate life
*The Evangelical Tradition-the Word-centered life
*The Incarnational Tradition-the sacramental life
Foster does a wonderful job of presenting the best of what each tradition brings to the Church (universal body of believers across the world and across time, not the building on the corner) and the potential pitfalls of each one when it is practiced in isolation.
Each chapter opens with a historical paradigm, telling the story of someone whose life exemplifies that tradition. Foster then moves on to present a Biblical paradigm, doing the same with an individual from Scripture, and a contemporary paradigm with an individual from the 20th century. These stories almost define the traditions on their own, but following them Foster moves into a more detailed description of what each tradition is, its major strengths, its potential perils and practical ways the reader can begin incorporating that tradition into his or her life.
This is a wonderful read for Christians from any background. Although there will probably be one tradition that is more familiar than all the others, one primary influence in the reader's background, the beauty of all of these traditions is the way they work together--sharing their strengths and providing protection against the perils. When I read it, I found the exposure to different traditions brought my faith and the expression thereof to a deeper level and I gained new understanding and appreciation for the beautiful diversity of the Church.
The two appendices included provide snapshots of turning points in church history, and brief (one paragraph) biographies of individuals whose lives reflect the various traditions (30-40 people for each one). These are a great starting point for further exploration!
*The Contemplative Tradition-the prayer filled life
*The Holiness Tradition-the virtuous life
*The Charismatic Tradition-the Spirit-empowered life
*The Social Justice Tradition-the compassionate life
*The Evangelical Tradition-the Word-centered life
*The Incarnational Tradition-the sacramental life
Foster does a wonderful job of presenting the best of what each tradition brings to the Church (universal body of believers across the world and across time, not the building on the corner) and the potential pitfalls of each one when it is practiced in isolation.
Each chapter opens with a historical paradigm, telling the story of someone whose life exemplifies that tradition. Foster then moves on to present a Biblical paradigm, doing the same with an individual from Scripture, and a contemporary paradigm with an individual from the 20th century. These stories almost define the traditions on their own, but following them Foster moves into a more detailed description of what each tradition is, its major strengths, its potential perils and practical ways the reader can begin incorporating that tradition into his or her life.
This is a wonderful read for Christians from any background. Although there will probably be one tradition that is more familiar than all the others, one primary influence in the reader's background, the beauty of all of these traditions is the way they work together--sharing their strengths and providing protection against the perils. When I read it, I found the exposure to different traditions brought my faith and the expression thereof to a deeper level and I gained new understanding and appreciation for the beautiful diversity of the Church.
The two appendices included provide snapshots of turning points in church history, and brief (one paragraph) biographies of individuals whose lives reflect the various traditions (30-40 people for each one). These are a great starting point for further exploration!
August 16, 2020
Breaking up different spiritual movements is a class act for developing a holistic idea of the church. Foster proves to be a fantastic reporter on top of his own ability to write and conjure up ideas to spread. Unfortunately I just wanted to know EVERYTHING bout each movement listed, which left me wanting more from each description in the chapters. Another great one for sure.
January 18, 2010
While this wasn't my favorite of the (two) books that I've read of Richard Foster so far, it--like his other writing--still has his wonderful writing style that always seems inspiring and transcendent. I find it hard to describe, but maybe it's best likened to fresh, warm, hearty bread, although it's less earthy than that, so not the perfect metaphor. However, it's similar in that it feels at once comforting and heartening, rich and wholesome, and too-soon finished.
In this book, Foster discusses six "streams," or traditions, of Christian faith: contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical, and incarnational. In order to more fully flesh out each, he gives us a vivid sketch of how Biblical personalities and then saints or Christians ancient and more contemporary have embodied these traditions in their lives. For me, I felt that his descriptions of these different personalities were more vivid and enduring than what I learned of the traditions themselves, though he detailed each one in a very clear, charitable manner. (I still can't quite nail down what holiness is/how it is different from the rest, but that's probably more of a reflection on me as a reader rather than on Foster as a writer). Reading through about the different people, though, made me both feel incredibly ignorant about church history (maybe even history in general). Luckily for people like me (or maybe not since I felt obligated to read it because of my cluelessness?), he included at the end a basic outline of church history, and then short paragraphs about many notable people who exemplified the traditions throughout history, which were informative and pretty well interesting considering the fact that it was basically like reading through an encyclopedia. Still, despite the revelation that I know so little about anything, I was also grateful to now be introduced to so many amazing people. Among the ones that particularly stuck out to me:
St. Antony (Contemplative), who sold all that he had and went out into the Egyptian desert for twenty years to discover God. Foster tells about a few of the very vividly-detailed confrontations he had with demons/temptations, his miracles and healings, and his peace-making. I feel like I probably didn't know much about him since I know very little of saints and such having not grown up in the Catholic church, but was very... impressed, I guess you would say, at the supernatural character of his life.
Frank Laubach: (Contemplative) As someone who's interested in adult literacy/education, I could hardly not be attracted to Laubach, who did absolutely incredible work: his "each one teach one" campaign to try to spread literacy all over the developing world, his forming the World Literacy Committee, and his work on developing ways to teach people to read in dozens of different countries and cultures is almost overwhelming. For me, the part that is almost even more amazing is that he did all this while (because of?) doing things like his "Game of Minutes," where he tried to have God in mind every minute of the day, and ora et labora, a manner of working while praying from the Benedictine monks that makes work a true collaboration with God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Holiness): The German professor, theologian, double agent who worked to assassinate Hitler, and then ultimately prisoner and martyr after the plot failed. He sought to truly follow Jesus, "[leading:] him to an uneasy pacifism: desiring to be obedient to the peace commandment of Jesus while at the same time standing in firm resistance to the tyranny of Hitler," and developing the concepts of costly vs. cheap grace: ""Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ"" vs. the cheap grace of ""the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession"" (or, I guess in my opinion, many of the things that the modern church is accused of being hypocritical for). He spoke out against the beginnings of mistreatment of Jewish people during their deportation in a way that is admirable in its boldness: ""An expulsion of the Jews from the West must necessarily bring with it the expulsion of Christ."" He insisted, in a speech that many of his colleagues were furious at and walked out on, that the Church has an obligation to all members of society whether they are Christians or not. Maybe he wasn't the first to develop this concept, but it also seems like he very much was aware of the idea of multiple histories/the history of the oppressed, and tried to structure his life accordingly, trying to ""see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled--in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.""
William Joseph Seymour (Charismatic): I pretty much had no idea what the Asuza Street revival was/why it was significant, so I didn't know that Seymour was the one who lead it. Seymour left his Southern beginnings as a self-educated man and went to California after a time working with a white preacher, only to start church meetings three times a day for several years in the early 1900s, with consistent crowds of 800 inside the building, and 400-500 outside. Most amazing, in a time when blacks and whites rarely mixed, Seymour--a black preacher--was drawing crowds of every race and social status and giving women authority roles, gathering huge amounts of people with no choir, no church organizing behind what he was doing, no offerings taken, and no advertising. Behind it all was his vision of love (the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit, rather than speaking in tongues, as later Pentecostals would make it) and of uniting one common family, undivided by race, gender, class, or nation.
Dorothy Day (Social Justice): I had heard of her before and knew that the Catholic Worker movement grew from her, but had no idea how revolutionary she was in terms of campaigning for the poor, the homeless, and for workers, how she set up so many houses of hospitality to feed and give a place for the poor to sleep (but also to meet with them and truly know them and listen to them), and how she was an uncompromising pacifist, even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her bravery and willingness to serve perfect strangers and her unswerving commitment to what she believed in are astonishing.
Dag Hammarskjold (Incarnational): Secretary-General of the United Nations who served for eight years and was killed in a plane crash in Africa, who "transformed the UN from a forum for conference and controversy into an agency of creative action for peace." He, like Frank Laubach, absolutely amazes me because despite being the Secretary-General of the UN, he had a very deep and rich spiritual life. Upon his death, his secretary found a 175-page book that he had written called "Markings" that is an in-depth exploration "with merciless scrutiny and absolute honesty" of his personal and spiritual state that never directly mentions anything about the UN or his professional life. After helping resolve the Suez Crisis, he wrote: "Your own efforts 'did not bring it to pass,' only God--but rejoice if God found a use for your efforts in his work." Wow.
I feel very grateful to this book for again making me aware of the incredible richness there is in the lives of so many people who have gone on before, and I hope that it will help me to get around to reading some of their works. More than that, though, it has also been an inspiration and also, in a way, devotional: it is hard not to feel uplifted, thankful, and moved by these people, these acts, and these evidences of God's work in the world, especially in the beautiful way that Richard Foster describes them.
In this book, Foster discusses six "streams," or traditions, of Christian faith: contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical, and incarnational. In order to more fully flesh out each, he gives us a vivid sketch of how Biblical personalities and then saints or Christians ancient and more contemporary have embodied these traditions in their lives. For me, I felt that his descriptions of these different personalities were more vivid and enduring than what I learned of the traditions themselves, though he detailed each one in a very clear, charitable manner. (I still can't quite nail down what holiness is/how it is different from the rest, but that's probably more of a reflection on me as a reader rather than on Foster as a writer). Reading through about the different people, though, made me both feel incredibly ignorant about church history (maybe even history in general). Luckily for people like me (or maybe not since I felt obligated to read it because of my cluelessness?), he included at the end a basic outline of church history, and then short paragraphs about many notable people who exemplified the traditions throughout history, which were informative and pretty well interesting considering the fact that it was basically like reading through an encyclopedia. Still, despite the revelation that I know so little about anything, I was also grateful to now be introduced to so many amazing people. Among the ones that particularly stuck out to me:
St. Antony (Contemplative), who sold all that he had and went out into the Egyptian desert for twenty years to discover God. Foster tells about a few of the very vividly-detailed confrontations he had with demons/temptations, his miracles and healings, and his peace-making. I feel like I probably didn't know much about him since I know very little of saints and such having not grown up in the Catholic church, but was very... impressed, I guess you would say, at the supernatural character of his life.
Frank Laubach: (Contemplative) As someone who's interested in adult literacy/education, I could hardly not be attracted to Laubach, who did absolutely incredible work: his "each one teach one" campaign to try to spread literacy all over the developing world, his forming the World Literacy Committee, and his work on developing ways to teach people to read in dozens of different countries and cultures is almost overwhelming. For me, the part that is almost even more amazing is that he did all this while (because of?) doing things like his "Game of Minutes," where he tried to have God in mind every minute of the day, and ora et labora, a manner of working while praying from the Benedictine monks that makes work a true collaboration with God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Holiness): The German professor, theologian, double agent who worked to assassinate Hitler, and then ultimately prisoner and martyr after the plot failed. He sought to truly follow Jesus, "[leading:] him to an uneasy pacifism: desiring to be obedient to the peace commandment of Jesus while at the same time standing in firm resistance to the tyranny of Hitler," and developing the concepts of costly vs. cheap grace: ""Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ"" vs. the cheap grace of ""the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession"" (or, I guess in my opinion, many of the things that the modern church is accused of being hypocritical for). He spoke out against the beginnings of mistreatment of Jewish people during their deportation in a way that is admirable in its boldness: ""An expulsion of the Jews from the West must necessarily bring with it the expulsion of Christ."" He insisted, in a speech that many of his colleagues were furious at and walked out on, that the Church has an obligation to all members of society whether they are Christians or not. Maybe he wasn't the first to develop this concept, but it also seems like he very much was aware of the idea of multiple histories/the history of the oppressed, and tried to structure his life accordingly, trying to ""see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled--in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.""
William Joseph Seymour (Charismatic): I pretty much had no idea what the Asuza Street revival was/why it was significant, so I didn't know that Seymour was the one who lead it. Seymour left his Southern beginnings as a self-educated man and went to California after a time working with a white preacher, only to start church meetings three times a day for several years in the early 1900s, with consistent crowds of 800 inside the building, and 400-500 outside. Most amazing, in a time when blacks and whites rarely mixed, Seymour--a black preacher--was drawing crowds of every race and social status and giving women authority roles, gathering huge amounts of people with no choir, no church organizing behind what he was doing, no offerings taken, and no advertising. Behind it all was his vision of love (the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit, rather than speaking in tongues, as later Pentecostals would make it) and of uniting one common family, undivided by race, gender, class, or nation.
Dorothy Day (Social Justice): I had heard of her before and knew that the Catholic Worker movement grew from her, but had no idea how revolutionary she was in terms of campaigning for the poor, the homeless, and for workers, how she set up so many houses of hospitality to feed and give a place for the poor to sleep (but also to meet with them and truly know them and listen to them), and how she was an uncompromising pacifist, even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her bravery and willingness to serve perfect strangers and her unswerving commitment to what she believed in are astonishing.
Dag Hammarskjold (Incarnational): Secretary-General of the United Nations who served for eight years and was killed in a plane crash in Africa, who "transformed the UN from a forum for conference and controversy into an agency of creative action for peace." He, like Frank Laubach, absolutely amazes me because despite being the Secretary-General of the UN, he had a very deep and rich spiritual life. Upon his death, his secretary found a 175-page book that he had written called "Markings" that is an in-depth exploration "with merciless scrutiny and absolute honesty" of his personal and spiritual state that never directly mentions anything about the UN or his professional life. After helping resolve the Suez Crisis, he wrote: "Your own efforts 'did not bring it to pass,' only God--but rejoice if God found a use for your efforts in his work." Wow.
I feel very grateful to this book for again making me aware of the incredible richness there is in the lives of so many people who have gone on before, and I hope that it will help me to get around to reading some of their works. More than that, though, it has also been an inspiration and also, in a way, devotional: it is hard not to feel uplifted, thankful, and moved by these people, these acts, and these evidences of God's work in the world, especially in the beautiful way that Richard Foster describes them.
December 14, 2023
When I first heard about this book, I was pretty sure I disagreed with the premise of it. But I was intrigued enough by the conversation I had, that when I saw the book in a little bookstore not long afterward, that I impulsively bought it. I assumed by the title that it was all about drawing boxes, affixing labels, and shoving people and movements within Christianity into them, which is something I work hard to avoid doing. But very early on (the introduction) I could see that the heart of the book is to celebrate what is of Jesus in every stream and to help us each move into a fuller understanding of what following Him looks like. And when I got to the afterward I cried, because I have seen it too: all the streams flowing as one river, this people letting go of differences and gathering around Jesus. “I see a people…I see a people…even though it feels as if I am peering through a glass darkly.”
Along the way I got to meet some amazing men and women of God, some of whom I had never heard of before. Probably the one I remember the most is Phoebe Palmer. Her life story was inspiring to me, and I now hope to read more about her or some of her writings.
All-in-all, I highly recommend this book. It’s not one to sit down and read all in one sitting, but it’s worth the time.
Along the way I got to meet some amazing men and women of God, some of whom I had never heard of before. Probably the one I remember the most is Phoebe Palmer. Her life story was inspiring to me, and I now hope to read more about her or some of her writings.
All-in-all, I highly recommend this book. It’s not one to sit down and read all in one sitting, but it’s worth the time.
June 3, 2024
This look at the broader church with its various contributions and emphases leads me to a more full appreciation of different traditions and bolsters my sometimes-faltering hope in the church of Jesus Christ. Being too deeply entrenched in one particular “stream” leaves us susceptible to its weaknesses, blind to our faults, and unable to learn from those different from us. Audible has a free version read by Paul Michael, a reader I like.
February 18, 2024
Really good and an easy read. More an inspirational survey of predecessors of the faith than anything else.
May 7, 2021
"Jesus did not all of a sudden one day start spouting nice sayings about God. No, when he began his public ministry, he was speaking out of a life that had been tested and tried. He had proven the teachings to be true over and over again as he sawed wood and assembled chairs and built cabinets...we must recognize that the majority of Jesus' life--and of ours--is found in our families and homes, in our work and play, among our neighbors and in our everyday surroundings" (20-21).
The contemplative life "keeps saying to us, 'Fall in love with Jesus over and over and over again'...we need habitual reminders that the Christian life comes not by gritting our teeth but by falling in love" (51).
"Holiness means the ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done" (82).
"By undertaking Disciplines of the spiritual life that we can do, we receive from God the ability to do things that under our own steam we simply cannot do, such as loving our enemies" (88).
"There seemed in this law [the law of gleaning] to be an almost holy indifference as to whether the poor deserved their poverty; the simple fact of need was sufficient reason to provide for them" (169).
"In the institutional arena we engage in the 'cultural mandate.' Our task is to envision and work to realize a society where it is easier to do good and harder to do evil" (175).
"We cannot speak of love and at the same time be part of institutional structures that perpetuate injustice. It is not enough for us to care for individual cases of hunger if we are part of multinational corporations whose policies continually impoverish Two-Thirds World countries" (177-8).
"Too cozy a relationship with any political entity will blunt our prophetic edge" (180).
"We cannot preach the good news and be the bad news" (221).
"If ours is God's world, any true work for the improvement of human life is a sacred undertaking" (270).
The contemplative life "keeps saying to us, 'Fall in love with Jesus over and over and over again'...we need habitual reminders that the Christian life comes not by gritting our teeth but by falling in love" (51).
"Holiness means the ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done" (82).
"By undertaking Disciplines of the spiritual life that we can do, we receive from God the ability to do things that under our own steam we simply cannot do, such as loving our enemies" (88).
"There seemed in this law [the law of gleaning] to be an almost holy indifference as to whether the poor deserved their poverty; the simple fact of need was sufficient reason to provide for them" (169).
"In the institutional arena we engage in the 'cultural mandate.' Our task is to envision and work to realize a society where it is easier to do good and harder to do evil" (175).
"We cannot speak of love and at the same time be part of institutional structures that perpetuate injustice. It is not enough for us to care for individual cases of hunger if we are part of multinational corporations whose policies continually impoverish Two-Thirds World countries" (177-8).
"Too cozy a relationship with any political entity will blunt our prophetic edge" (180).
"We cannot preach the good news and be the bad news" (221).
"If ours is God's world, any true work for the improvement of human life is a sacred undertaking" (270).
June 6, 2024
I’ve always wanted to read Richard Foster because I see him quoted in many other books I enjoy. This book highlighted 6 different movements of Christianity: contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical and incarnational, giving biographies of people who have followed each movement, alongside biblical examples of each. Although I appreciated the content, nothing really captured me and made my heart sing. The most interesting part was the visceral negative reaction I felt to his largely positive description of the evangelical movement… which shows me I still have some healing work to do there to be able to acknowledge the positive aspects of Evangelical Christianity. I also appreciated his description of incarnational Christianity. I’ve heard Richard Rohr describe himself in using this term and have struggled to understand exactly what this means. This book (paired with a really beautiful chapter on incarnational Christianity in The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser) has given me a much clearer understanding of the term and I find myself really resonating. So this book did provide some good food for thought, but I just didn’t find it particularly engaging as a whole.
April 17, 2019
Foster's six traditions (contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical and incarnational) have a lot of explanatory power, with the exception of his social justice tradition, which is clearly the odd one out, even by his own standards of exegesis and biblical support. I would also re-term the 'charismatic' tradition as the 'pneumatic' tradition, for 'charismatic' carries all the anachronistic associations of the post 1960s movement. Some of Foster's chosen biographies also represent tenuous Christianity, in my opinion. Having said that, I think the general thesis represents a somewhat correct intuition. I would see A.W. Tozer as a model of combining the five that I think are valid, if rightly understood.
June 17, 2022
Comprehensive, yet doesn’t aim to be exhaustive. This is a really good resource, “of saints - for saints.” The way I see it, it’s almost impossible for a book like this to get a 5/5 (at least from me), specifically because its scope is so broad, and yet the specifics can’t be divorced from the whole. It needs to be as comprehensive as it is, yet consistently falls into either “too much” or “too little” being said, almost like it can’t win.
That being said, I think Foster nails it here as he usually does. You can really tell the sincerity and the intentionality he writes with, and I think discerning ears (like “the people” he prophesies of in the afterword) will delight in what this saint has to say.
That being said, I think Foster nails it here as he usually does. You can really tell the sincerity and the intentionality he writes with, and I think discerning ears (like “the people” he prophesies of in the afterword) will delight in what this saint has to say.
January 4, 2023
This was a fascinating read. My cynicism towards certain traditions was at the same time validated and set at ease. The parts of traditions that I feel cynical towards were the same parts that Foster cautions against as distortions of the heart of the tradition. The heart of the traditions that he describes are resplendent with life and peace. My biggest critique is the exclusion of non-Western expressions of these traditions (eg. Liberation theology, Eastern Orthodoxy, Chinese house church movement, etc).
July 22, 2024
“The Incarnational Stream of Christian life and faith focues on makign present and visible the realm of the invisible spirit. This sacramental way of living addresses the crying need to experience God as truly manifest and notoriously active in daily life.” p.237 “The Incarnational Stream of Christian life and faith focues on makign present and visible the realm of the invisible spirit. This sacramental way of living addresses the crying need to experience God as truly manifest and notoriously active in daily life.” p.237
May 19, 2020
I really enjoyed this book by Foster. I have always had a deep desire to see the body of Christ unified and this book helps paint the picture of how Jesus is in all of these streams and the danger of thinking your stream is the only "right" one. With many books, I may not agree with everything, but I appreciated the book overall
August 18, 2020
Genuinely stunning book about the diversity of practice in God's Church. A body with many parts. It can be easy to feel like there's so much your not doing as a follower of Jesus, so much you have to learn. As Foster takes you through the 6 great streams of the faith, you get a glimpse that, although we are to care about all of them, and grow in each of them, we as people are only one part of the body. Be a really good ear, and celebrate and support those that are noses or arms. This is genuine unity in diversity.
November 15, 2023
Richard Foster told Dallas Willard that this book was his magnum opus. Maybe not as good as Celebration, but still thoroughly fantastic.
April 16, 2024
Really appreciated this, probably lots skipped over when it comes to the history of each stream, but a good intro if you’re wanting to understand the history more of each Protestant stream.
March 28, 2025
Foster never disappoints. Read it and be blessed…
November 29, 2023
About 15 or so years ago, more or less for my own edification I suppose, I formulated an eschato-ecclesiological proposition along the lines of:
God has already revealed to a more than adequate, and quite beautiful, extent what is needed in terms of the preparedness of the Church (regarding daily Christian life, and the work at hand looking towards the return of Christ); and that revelation (and the praxes that accompany it) is found in the depth and breadth of the variety of Christian expression. That is, the full picture of what the Church is, as the Body of Christ, is found in the interweaving of the varieties of Christian expression across the denominational spectrum (breadth) and the 2000-year history of the Church (depth). All that's needed is there, beyond narrow and othering subcategories, echo chambers and denominational cliques.
I'm not too sure about the framing these days, but I still like the impulse and the picture.
Existentially, the idea had arisen via a few personal experiences. The first is that, in my life, I've had the privilege to have been in a lot of different Christian spaces (albeit with a bias towards the Evangelical quadrant)... charismatic, contemporary, traditional, Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, Open Brethren, Elim, AoG, Pentecostal non-affiliated... Not much in Catholic contexts, but by now I've read a good number of books by Catholic authors. Quaker and Orthodox are two (very different) forms that I feel drawn to but haven't yet experienced.
The second experience is that in my time I've heard a lot of snide and judgemental comments about other forms of Christianity, and sometimes those comments, especially as I matured, made my stomach turn (even when I'd made those kinds of comments myself). Why? Because I had been in a lot of different contexts and had noticed the heart of genuine people, with a desire for the divine and a love for others, in each one. Also, I had felt at home in places that other people said were 'dead'. And had experienced presence in places that other people said were 'shallow' or manipulative.
In my more zealous moments, 'righteous anger' was fuelled after I noticed that the last recorded words of Jesus in the Gospels are a prayer that we be One. Those snide and judgemental comments - little, and not so little, acts of division - seemed to fly in the face of that prayer.
The third experience was that at a certain point in my life I went looking for depth, and I found it in the history of the Church (the good bits I mean, not the thirst for power and control dressed up in religious attire) - in the tradition. The charismatic (and then Pentecostal) post-Reformation context I grew up in had (quite vigorously) edited out large chunks. That journey of discovery was wonderful, and continues to be.
Somewhere in the midst of all this I came across Richard Foster's 'Streams of Living Water' on my mum's bookshelf and I knicked it, because I thought I had found a published work that aligned with my grand proposition and existential impulse. It turns out I had. The book has sat on my shelf many years waiting to be read, hinting at the possibilities of connection, and it is excellent.
My tendency was always to view the variety of Christianity in categories related to denomination. But Foster's is a better approach: he views the picture in terms of 'streams' of practice and thought. Certain denominations will of course be more heavily related to particular streams, but ultimately the streams model has the strength of being trans-denominational.
Those streams are Contemplative, Holiness, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical and Incarnational. And each chapter contains (at some length) a historical, a biblical and a contemporary example, couched in a storytelling approach that makes for enjoyable reading. Then at the end are two impressive appendices: a brief survey of Church history, and a representative glossary of notable figures and movements.
It would be too easy to romanticise certain streams, denominations and movements. And indeed it would be too easy to romanticise the idea of a utopian interflowing of the streams, distinct but intermingling - if that is really a practical possibility. But while Foster is basically idealistic, he also tries to be realistic: each exploration includes a brief assessment of a few examples of the strengths and weaknesses, the pitfalls (we might say potential, or maybe even inherent, toxicities), of the stream.
Streams are a bit like personality types in regard to strengths and pitfalls. And indeed an individual's own personality and experience will have a bearing on which stream they are most drawn to.
My desire is most sparked by the first and last streams Foster explores: the Contemplative and the Incarnational. These have been a big part of my own spiritual explorations, theological thought-life and creative life. (Actually, I didn't think he quite nailed the full conceptual possibility of the Incarnational in terms of the sacramental and also embodiment, but he couldn't do everything!)
The Social Justice stream always stands as an important, compelling and undeniable challenge.
Meanwhile, the chapters on the Evangelical and Holiness streams were less enjoyable to me because those are the streams in which I've experienced and noticed the most harm. I would have expected to feel that way about the chapter on the Charismatic stream too, but there was something in the way Foster described it that was mitigating... he framed that stream in terms of the historical example of St Francis of Assisi, the biblical example of Paul and the early church, and the 'contemporary' example of Azusa Street (a movement heavily couched in racial and gender equality... these things rather than, say, the demon- and end-times-obsessed stuff that freaked me out when I experienced the Charismatic / Pentecostal streams as a youngster, or the lack of space for people with on-going illness later on). Foster does good work with his framing - even in those (for me) less enjoyable chapters. Baggage notwithstanding, it's a fresh look.
In looking for the good in any given movement, the key is to go to the heart of that movement to look at motivations and intentions - the core of what is driving the impulses that are manifested in the external effects and phenomena of a particular movement, denomination or stream. Often that means going back to originary impulses - those existential drives, responses and divine initiatives that sparked the movement, in the fleeting moments before things got complicated by power dynamics, religiosity, reductive moral codes and such.
Sometimes, without losing sight of the bigger hopeful dream, critique is important, even vital. Alongside this, it's necessary to hear the grievances of and hold space for those who have been harmed by the Church (in whichever stream). We must take account of the ways in which the Church can become toxic. The Church needs to do this itself, or the wider culture and society will do it instead.
On another tack of critique, I've noticed and seen situations where, in the quest for the so-called purity of doctrine or the 'gospel', rather than movements expanding outwards they get smaller, creating ever-decreasing and insular subsets consisting of fewer and fewer people. This phenomenon is ultimately expressed in the individual who thinks that he - and often it is a 'he' - has a handle on the complete truth. Rather than things expanding into a wider Body of Christ, things tend towards smaller and smaller subsets, until we reach the smallest unit: a highly judgemental individual who carries a strong whiff of self-righteousness.
Humility does seem to be the healthy, life-giving and perspective-widening key in much of this. And curiosity. A non-anxious sense of being, which allows us to hold space for things without immediately feeling threatened. An honest appraisal of our own weaknesses. And a true acknowledgement that actually we can't know all things. That we can't contain the multitude of being, or confine the divine.
As far as the proposition I formulated 15 years ago, clearly an integration of all forms of Christianity is difficult at an institutional level - for one thing, some forms are not compatible within the same space at the same time. Even though the dream is a good one, there are practical considerations and problems that I wouldn't presume to be able to resolve. We've gone a long way down separating paths. But we can at least hold respect for (or at least the legitimate possibility of) other streams and traditions.
Meanwhile, in the life of the individual, an openness is very possible. The internal, personal work of actively identifying and reducing othering tendencies and prejudices on the one hand; and the joy of discovery of and participation in other forms on the other.
God has already revealed to a more than adequate, and quite beautiful, extent what is needed in terms of the preparedness of the Church (regarding daily Christian life, and the work at hand looking towards the return of Christ); and that revelation (and the praxes that accompany it) is found in the depth and breadth of the variety of Christian expression. That is, the full picture of what the Church is, as the Body of Christ, is found in the interweaving of the varieties of Christian expression across the denominational spectrum (breadth) and the 2000-year history of the Church (depth). All that's needed is there, beyond narrow and othering subcategories, echo chambers and denominational cliques.
I'm not too sure about the framing these days, but I still like the impulse and the picture.
Existentially, the idea had arisen via a few personal experiences. The first is that, in my life, I've had the privilege to have been in a lot of different Christian spaces (albeit with a bias towards the Evangelical quadrant)... charismatic, contemporary, traditional, Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, Open Brethren, Elim, AoG, Pentecostal non-affiliated... Not much in Catholic contexts, but by now I've read a good number of books by Catholic authors. Quaker and Orthodox are two (very different) forms that I feel drawn to but haven't yet experienced.
The second experience is that in my time I've heard a lot of snide and judgemental comments about other forms of Christianity, and sometimes those comments, especially as I matured, made my stomach turn (even when I'd made those kinds of comments myself). Why? Because I had been in a lot of different contexts and had noticed the heart of genuine people, with a desire for the divine and a love for others, in each one. Also, I had felt at home in places that other people said were 'dead'. And had experienced presence in places that other people said were 'shallow' or manipulative.
In my more zealous moments, 'righteous anger' was fuelled after I noticed that the last recorded words of Jesus in the Gospels are a prayer that we be One. Those snide and judgemental comments - little, and not so little, acts of division - seemed to fly in the face of that prayer.
The third experience was that at a certain point in my life I went looking for depth, and I found it in the history of the Church (the good bits I mean, not the thirst for power and control dressed up in religious attire) - in the tradition. The charismatic (and then Pentecostal) post-Reformation context I grew up in had (quite vigorously) edited out large chunks. That journey of discovery was wonderful, and continues to be.
Somewhere in the midst of all this I came across Richard Foster's 'Streams of Living Water' on my mum's bookshelf and I knicked it, because I thought I had found a published work that aligned with my grand proposition and existential impulse. It turns out I had. The book has sat on my shelf many years waiting to be read, hinting at the possibilities of connection, and it is excellent.
My tendency was always to view the variety of Christianity in categories related to denomination. But Foster's is a better approach: he views the picture in terms of 'streams' of practice and thought. Certain denominations will of course be more heavily related to particular streams, but ultimately the streams model has the strength of being trans-denominational.
Those streams are Contemplative, Holiness, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical and Incarnational. And each chapter contains (at some length) a historical, a biblical and a contemporary example, couched in a storytelling approach that makes for enjoyable reading. Then at the end are two impressive appendices: a brief survey of Church history, and a representative glossary of notable figures and movements.
It would be too easy to romanticise certain streams, denominations and movements. And indeed it would be too easy to romanticise the idea of a utopian interflowing of the streams, distinct but intermingling - if that is really a practical possibility. But while Foster is basically idealistic, he also tries to be realistic: each exploration includes a brief assessment of a few examples of the strengths and weaknesses, the pitfalls (we might say potential, or maybe even inherent, toxicities), of the stream.
Streams are a bit like personality types in regard to strengths and pitfalls. And indeed an individual's own personality and experience will have a bearing on which stream they are most drawn to.
My desire is most sparked by the first and last streams Foster explores: the Contemplative and the Incarnational. These have been a big part of my own spiritual explorations, theological thought-life and creative life. (Actually, I didn't think he quite nailed the full conceptual possibility of the Incarnational in terms of the sacramental and also embodiment, but he couldn't do everything!)
The Social Justice stream always stands as an important, compelling and undeniable challenge.
Meanwhile, the chapters on the Evangelical and Holiness streams were less enjoyable to me because those are the streams in which I've experienced and noticed the most harm. I would have expected to feel that way about the chapter on the Charismatic stream too, but there was something in the way Foster described it that was mitigating... he framed that stream in terms of the historical example of St Francis of Assisi, the biblical example of Paul and the early church, and the 'contemporary' example of Azusa Street (a movement heavily couched in racial and gender equality... these things rather than, say, the demon- and end-times-obsessed stuff that freaked me out when I experienced the Charismatic / Pentecostal streams as a youngster, or the lack of space for people with on-going illness later on). Foster does good work with his framing - even in those (for me) less enjoyable chapters. Baggage notwithstanding, it's a fresh look.
In looking for the good in any given movement, the key is to go to the heart of that movement to look at motivations and intentions - the core of what is driving the impulses that are manifested in the external effects and phenomena of a particular movement, denomination or stream. Often that means going back to originary impulses - those existential drives, responses and divine initiatives that sparked the movement, in the fleeting moments before things got complicated by power dynamics, religiosity, reductive moral codes and such.
Sometimes, without losing sight of the bigger hopeful dream, critique is important, even vital. Alongside this, it's necessary to hear the grievances of and hold space for those who have been harmed by the Church (in whichever stream). We must take account of the ways in which the Church can become toxic. The Church needs to do this itself, or the wider culture and society will do it instead.
On another tack of critique, I've noticed and seen situations where, in the quest for the so-called purity of doctrine or the 'gospel', rather than movements expanding outwards they get smaller, creating ever-decreasing and insular subsets consisting of fewer and fewer people. This phenomenon is ultimately expressed in the individual who thinks that he - and often it is a 'he' - has a handle on the complete truth. Rather than things expanding into a wider Body of Christ, things tend towards smaller and smaller subsets, until we reach the smallest unit: a highly judgemental individual who carries a strong whiff of self-righteousness.
Humility does seem to be the healthy, life-giving and perspective-widening key in much of this. And curiosity. A non-anxious sense of being, which allows us to hold space for things without immediately feeling threatened. An honest appraisal of our own weaknesses. And a true acknowledgement that actually we can't know all things. That we can't contain the multitude of being, or confine the divine.
As far as the proposition I formulated 15 years ago, clearly an integration of all forms of Christianity is difficult at an institutional level - for one thing, some forms are not compatible within the same space at the same time. Even though the dream is a good one, there are practical considerations and problems that I wouldn't presume to be able to resolve. We've gone a long way down separating paths. But we can at least hold respect for (or at least the legitimate possibility of) other streams and traditions.
Meanwhile, in the life of the individual, an openness is very possible. The internal, personal work of actively identifying and reducing othering tendencies and prejudices on the one hand; and the joy of discovery of and participation in other forms on the other.
January 1, 2025
Between this review, and the one for the book of
Genesis
, you might be getting the wrong impression about my religiosity. Then again, with phrases like “God seems to be figuring it out as He goes” popping up in that former review, perhaps not. In truth, my interest in religion as a whole – from historical, cultural, worldbuilding, humanistic, academic, belief, moralistic, philosophical, and ideological perspectives – is probably more extensive than my interest in any one particular religion. This book would not have ended up on my reading list were it not selected as a discussion book in a group of which I’m a part and, in truth, it did not provide me with the kind of insight which others ascribed to it. Doubtless, this is testament to how much of your experience with a book is based on what you bring into it, not just on what is within its pages.
Of particular interest to me in recent years is the role of tradition in religion and belief. I reflected a little on this in our review for Sack’s Haggadah, and I considered Streams of Living Water, organized as it is around various “traditions,” a way to explore the role of traditions in Christianity, which my own religious experience has not particularly emphasized, at least not to the same extent that the Jewish tradition seems to, with its profound recollection of the Exodus and its emphasis on memory and the recreation of history. Perhaps it is the nature of Christianity to be less focused on traditions in that sense, though, because Foster means something rather different when he talks about the faith traditions or faith streams. Indeed, one could almost go so far as to say that Christianity is a more forward-looking, future-oriented religion than the Judaism from which it arose.
The book is well organized, split into six sections that each focus on a different “stream” of Christian faithful living. Each of those sections is further divided to include a historical example of that stream, an example from the Gospels, details about enacting the stream, its promises and perils, and instructions on integrating the stream into one’s spiritual and material life. If only Foster’s writing (or his editor) possessed the same discipline as the book’s structure. His incessant use of exclamation points, and overuse of conjunctions in lists, were irritating by the time I finished the first chapter, and downright obnoxious by the time I finished the book. Occasionally using conjunctions between every element of a list can be useful for emphasis or rhythm under certain circumstances, but using the technique for every list leaves me wondering if Foster and his editor don’t know about the invention of commas.
As for the exclamation points, they seem to serve as a copout. Any time Foster is at risk of plunging deeply into knotty philosophical or theological issues, the kinds I was really hoping the book would wrestle with, he deploys an exclamation, often in the framework of a rhetorical question, that amounts to avoiding such deeper thinking by repeating an emphatic “God is great!” as a solution and answer to any further questions. It’s probably expected that the reader of a book about religion will be willing to take things on faith, but I am not that reader – or, at least, I think the level of analysis available to our human faculties is greater than that on display here.
In a few instances, Foster also demonstrates an ignorance of, or preference to avoid, difficult historical questions. This is especially true with regards to the adoption of Christianity as a “mainstream” religion, and the compromises made to accommodate this. Christian pacificism, for instance, was a particularly difficult question for the early church when it stopped being a fringe movement and became a major religion (and especially after it became a state-sponsored religion), but Foster wrestles with none of the implications, historical or modern, of those positions. Without exploring this dimension, Foster leaves unplumbed significant portions of Christianity, past and present, and fails to address significant portions of his potential audience who are Christian without being pacifists. His discussion of vocation is similarly limited. Despite writing that the work of farming, cooking, caretaking, et cetera are as noble, praiseworthy, holy, and legitimate incarnations of the vocational stream as preaching and other direct forms of religious service, the larger context of his chapter on the vocational stream contradicts this stated message. His examples of vocational service to God are always about using vocation explicitly to further God’s ends, not about being Christian in pursuing one’s ordinary, everyday vocation. It is easy to depict some vocations as being “in service to God” when performed by a Christian. It is harder to answer how the solider, particle physicist, accountant, or astronautical engineer is embracing the vocational stream in their daily life, not merely in using the skills of that vocation in Church-related matters.
To be fair, significant stretches of the book were well-reasoned, I appreciated the historical examples (even if I think the book’s message would have benefited more from less perfect paragons of each stream), and the only marring in these portions were the aforementioned lists and exclamation points. Even here, though, Streams of Living Water suffers from a paucity of deeper thought and original insight. The core of the problem is that Foster approaches the question of how to live out each stream from a position of assumed acceptance. In other words, Foster writes as if it is a given that everyone should desire to live these streams in an apostolic way, and simply needs guidance on how to come closer to doing so, whereas I approach the book from a position of skepticism (as I try with most ideas), without immediately accepting the assertion that a given stream, or a given paradigm, is definitively right. Without that shared foundation, the rest of the contents are somewhat undermined.
This is not a bad book. I feel I should emphasize that, given the generally critical tone of this review. Streams of Living Water is not a bad book…if you are already a reasonably faithful Christian who accepts the same or similar assumptions to Foster, and who is seeking to further incarnate the various faith streams he discusses in your daily life. That is really its intended audience, and for them, I suspect it would be an easy 3.5 or even 4 stars. If you don’t share those assumptions, though, and certainly if you do not already accept that primacy of the Christian faith, this is not the book to use to expand your religious education and understanding, because it does not have that depth of thought and analysis. Foster wrote a how-to book, where I thought I was getting a theology/philosophy book. Once again, I am victim to mismanaged expectations.
October 10, 2020
One part history of certain figures of the church and one part broad introduction to six streams of theology, Streams of Living Water makes for an interesting book. Richard Foster is looking at Christianity and pulling out six streams of Christianity (Contemplative, Holiness, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical, and Incarnational). When discussing each of these Foster gives three examples of each stream and then gives a basic overview of the stream and its biggest strengths and weaknesses. He pulls the three examples from the distant past, the Bible, and from more recent times and these examples can range from Augustine to Dorothy Day to Billy Graham.
While I think that this book could be useful for someone who doesn't know much about church history or hasn't realized that there are multiple streams and ways of practicing the Christian faith, but for me it was just an okay book. I think he does a really good job of showing that there are different ways to practice the Christian faith. That our expression is not limited to just one way or the way that our local church may adhere to. The faith is wider than any one congregation. I think that's an important message.
I also really appreciate the examples he uses. I think it would be all to easy for a book like this to only use male examples, but he includes both male and female examples here. Some of these examples I hadn't heard very much about and others were well known to me. So I felt like it was a good sampling of people that he looked at.
I also felt that his summaries of each stream and the potential weaknesses and positives were fairly well done. There were maybe some that I felt were more or less valid than he gave credit for, but overall I felt like he made some fairly good points as he looked at each of these streams.
However, the book suffers from oversimplification and doing it in a very wordy kind of way. While I do enjoy him displaying the different ways of practicing Christianity it's not quite that simple. I think that many Christians are a mix of many streams and while he does hit on this a bit, it is never fully presented that way. This would be okay if the book was a bit shorter, but it's a rather lengthy book for what it is. I think he probably could have removed one of his examples from each chapter or shorted all three a bit, and it would have turned out a bit more manageable.
Overall, I don't think this is a bad book. It's an okay book and may even be a good book for those who don't know much history of the church or the different ways that Christians have practiced their faith over the years. I didn't really fit in either of these camps and even then its a bit of a weighty book for an introduction, so it's not the most approachable.
While I think that this book could be useful for someone who doesn't know much about church history or hasn't realized that there are multiple streams and ways of practicing the Christian faith, but for me it was just an okay book. I think he does a really good job of showing that there are different ways to practice the Christian faith. That our expression is not limited to just one way or the way that our local church may adhere to. The faith is wider than any one congregation. I think that's an important message.
I also really appreciate the examples he uses. I think it would be all to easy for a book like this to only use male examples, but he includes both male and female examples here. Some of these examples I hadn't heard very much about and others were well known to me. So I felt like it was a good sampling of people that he looked at.
I also felt that his summaries of each stream and the potential weaknesses and positives were fairly well done. There were maybe some that I felt were more or less valid than he gave credit for, but overall I felt like he made some fairly good points as he looked at each of these streams.
However, the book suffers from oversimplification and doing it in a very wordy kind of way. While I do enjoy him displaying the different ways of practicing Christianity it's not quite that simple. I think that many Christians are a mix of many streams and while he does hit on this a bit, it is never fully presented that way. This would be okay if the book was a bit shorter, but it's a rather lengthy book for what it is. I think he probably could have removed one of his examples from each chapter or shorted all three a bit, and it would have turned out a bit more manageable.
Overall, I don't think this is a bad book. It's an okay book and may even be a good book for those who don't know much history of the church or the different ways that Christians have practiced their faith over the years. I didn't really fit in either of these camps and even then its a bit of a weighty book for an introduction, so it's not the most approachable.
May 14, 2018
This marvellous book starts with this Thomas a Kempis's quote:
"We must imitate Christ's life and his ways if we are to be truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts. Let it be the most important thing we do, then, to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ."
A life of imitation.On developing an intimate relationship with Christ, Foster uses the analogy of the "rivers of living water" (John 7:38) to describe how we both live a life of imitation and how we are united together in community. He outlines six streams that define this paradigm of imitation:
1. The Contemplative Stream - or a Prayer-filled life
2. The Holiness Stream - or the virtuous life
3. The Charismatic Stream - the gifts of the Holy Spirit
4. The Social Justice Stream - a life of compassion
5. The Evangelical Stream - the Word-Centred life
6. The Incarnational Stream - Everyday Life with God
Foster outlines each stream and provides historical, Biblical and current examples of persons who display the individual streams so that we are able to get a glimpse of how each stream is lived out in practice. I particularly appreciated these illustrations as it provided much clarity around each stream.
Further, Foster provides a summary overview of the various critical turning points in the history of the church as well as a comprehensive list with one paragraph bios of people throughout history displaying the various streams.
This is a wonderful book and provides a practical and well researched outline on how to live a life of imitation of Jesus. It really should be compulsory reading for all believers.
"We must imitate Christ's life and his ways if we are to be truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts. Let it be the most important thing we do, then, to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ."
A life of imitation.On developing an intimate relationship with Christ, Foster uses the analogy of the "rivers of living water" (John 7:38) to describe how we both live a life of imitation and how we are united together in community. He outlines six streams that define this paradigm of imitation:
1. The Contemplative Stream - or a Prayer-filled life
2. The Holiness Stream - or the virtuous life
3. The Charismatic Stream - the gifts of the Holy Spirit
4. The Social Justice Stream - a life of compassion
5. The Evangelical Stream - the Word-Centred life
6. The Incarnational Stream - Everyday Life with God
Foster outlines each stream and provides historical, Biblical and current examples of persons who display the individual streams so that we are able to get a glimpse of how each stream is lived out in practice. I particularly appreciated these illustrations as it provided much clarity around each stream.
Further, Foster provides a summary overview of the various critical turning points in the history of the church as well as a comprehensive list with one paragraph bios of people throughout history displaying the various streams.
This is a wonderful book and provides a practical and well researched outline on how to live a life of imitation of Jesus. It really should be compulsory reading for all believers.
July 31, 2015
Fosters book is wearisome to read and one is at times tempted to skip a page or two. But the basic values and truths of this book is beyond description. He ends his book with a lengthy historical background of the Roman Catholic Church as well as Protestantism which is good for all to have in their library. Yet I cannot really conclude which one of these he would award the prize for having most of the mentioned streams. In my opinion that does not matter for if I understand the conclusion of it all correctly these streams have little to do with the denomination but everything to do with the individual. For when I as an individual have drunk from the Living Water I have to become a living stream. The onus is on myself. Foster combined the lives of many brilliant and spiritually strong people to try and convey the beauty of a live that has been touched by Christ and understood the meaning of this. Pinning the label ‘Christian’ onto my lapel brings with it great responsibility and accountability. And this is to be lived and not just preached. May God have mercy on me…!
June 30, 2013
In this book, Foster discusses the various traditions of the Christian Faith (Holiness, Evangelical, Social Justice, etc.). In each tradition, he discusses: how Jesus modeled the tradition, a timeline of prominent individuals and movements in the history of the tradition, a bio of a biblical, historical, and contemporary example of the tradition, the benefits and drawbacks of each tradition, and how to grow in each tradition.
August 27, 2023
Such a great read! First, this book reminded me of the expansiveness of the kingdom of God. People within these traditions - drastically different as they are - all loved and worshipped the same Jesus, and each of their lives is a unique expression of that. Second, this book outlined the strengths and weaknesses of each tradition, which, especially concerning the Holiness Tradition, was helpful for me.
January 3, 2024
This is one of my FAVORITE books from spiritual formation class with THE Judy Skeen. It taught me so much respect for different traditions of faith outside of my own. It also spells out the gifts and pitfalls of each tradition, like the evangelical stream or the charismatic stream. This is a beautiful hall of faith for the saints that have walked before us and brought peace to my own cynical heart.
May 19, 2021
Good historical review of six different traditions (or streams) within Christianity. The last chapter on the "Incarnational Stream" is not well done. When I'm feeling generous with Foster I say the last chapter is theologically sloppy (very sloppy!), and when I'm not feeling generous I say it's just plain old bad theology. But overall, the book is well worth the read.
December 15, 2024
I spent my entire time reading this telling other people about it and how much I loved it. Having been to some very exclusive churches, it was beautiful and refreshing to see how various faith traditions reflect the heart of Christ and how not one specific denomination holds all the answers.
April 10, 2022
A bit of a slog to get through. It contains much densely compacted information.
April 27, 2019
I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started this book, but I'm glad I did. As the subtitle suggests, Streams examines "Essential practices from the six great traditions of Christian faith." What Richard Foster does is find a "historical paradigm," a "Biblical paradigm," and a "Contemporary paradigm." The book is over twenty years old, so the "contemporary" paradigms are sometimes pretty early in the twentieth century.
The "six great traditions" as defined by Foster are as follows: The Contemplative Tradition: Discovering the Prayer-Filled Life; The Holiness Tradition: Discovering the Virtuous Life; The Charismatic Tradition: Discovering the Spirit-Empowered Life; The Social Justice Tradition: Discovering the Compassionate Life; The Evangelical Tradition: Discovering the Word-Centered Life; The Incarnational Tradition: Discovering the Sacramental Life.
I won't go into each of the paradigms of each tradition, but to give you an example, in the Contemplative Tradition, the historical paradigm is Antony of Egypt, also known as Saint Antony, who lived from approximately 251-356 AD. He is known as the founder of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Foster's choice for the Biblical paradigm was John the Apostle, and his choice for a contemporary paradigm was Frank C. Laubach. After each of the paradigms is presented, Foster then gives us some strengths and potential perils of each of the traditions, as well as some hints for practicing them in our own lives.
For the most part, this is well-written and well-presented. One thing I didn't care for was the way in which Foster presented each of the historical paradigms. To me, it was a little silly, as he mildly attempted to disguise who he was writing about by using a lesser known name for the person. Of course, when I read books, I always check footnotes/endnotes, so I already knew who he was writing about before he finally "reveals" it. I didn't care for this little "game." Otherwise, I had no objections to the main text of the book.
At the end of the book (approximately halfway through the pages of my edition), there are two appendices. Appendix A is "Critical Turning Points in Church History," and Appendix B is "Notable Figures and Significant Movements." The historical appendix is much more dry and was a bit hard to muddle through. I would rather read a book on church history than try to get a whirlwind tour of it in less than a hundred pages.
In Appendix B, there is some good information, as there is about a paragraph of each of the people/movements represented. They are all presented alphabetically, for easy reference. It was a bit of a challenge to simply read straight through it, but I did. Because I'm stubborn that way.
All in all, I find this to be a valuable work, especially for one who is not as well-versed in these "great traditions of Christian faith." Not only was it an enjoyable read, it is a great reference tool for the future. It would be quite simple to look someone up in the Appendix, and it would also be useful and simple to find information about any of the six traditions.
Another thing I really liked was Foster's way of connecting all of the traditions. You see, none of these exist in their own sphere. They are all, in some way or another, interconnected. A well-rounded Christian life should include bits of all of them. For example, to attempt to be Charismatic without being Compassionate would be somewhat contradictory. Or to be Evangelistic without being Compassionate, as well. As one who used to feel comfortable identifying as an "evangelistic," I've seen way too much of that in our modern culture.
The "six great traditions" as defined by Foster are as follows: The Contemplative Tradition: Discovering the Prayer-Filled Life; The Holiness Tradition: Discovering the Virtuous Life; The Charismatic Tradition: Discovering the Spirit-Empowered Life; The Social Justice Tradition: Discovering the Compassionate Life; The Evangelical Tradition: Discovering the Word-Centered Life; The Incarnational Tradition: Discovering the Sacramental Life.
I won't go into each of the paradigms of each tradition, but to give you an example, in the Contemplative Tradition, the historical paradigm is Antony of Egypt, also known as Saint Antony, who lived from approximately 251-356 AD. He is known as the founder of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Foster's choice for the Biblical paradigm was John the Apostle, and his choice for a contemporary paradigm was Frank C. Laubach. After each of the paradigms is presented, Foster then gives us some strengths and potential perils of each of the traditions, as well as some hints for practicing them in our own lives.
For the most part, this is well-written and well-presented. One thing I didn't care for was the way in which Foster presented each of the historical paradigms. To me, it was a little silly, as he mildly attempted to disguise who he was writing about by using a lesser known name for the person. Of course, when I read books, I always check footnotes/endnotes, so I already knew who he was writing about before he finally "reveals" it. I didn't care for this little "game." Otherwise, I had no objections to the main text of the book.
At the end of the book (approximately halfway through the pages of my edition), there are two appendices. Appendix A is "Critical Turning Points in Church History," and Appendix B is "Notable Figures and Significant Movements." The historical appendix is much more dry and was a bit hard to muddle through. I would rather read a book on church history than try to get a whirlwind tour of it in less than a hundred pages.
In Appendix B, there is some good information, as there is about a paragraph of each of the people/movements represented. They are all presented alphabetically, for easy reference. It was a bit of a challenge to simply read straight through it, but I did. Because I'm stubborn that way.
All in all, I find this to be a valuable work, especially for one who is not as well-versed in these "great traditions of Christian faith." Not only was it an enjoyable read, it is a great reference tool for the future. It would be quite simple to look someone up in the Appendix, and it would also be useful and simple to find information about any of the six traditions.
Another thing I really liked was Foster's way of connecting all of the traditions. You see, none of these exist in their own sphere. They are all, in some way or another, interconnected. A well-rounded Christian life should include bits of all of them. For example, to attempt to be Charismatic without being Compassionate would be somewhat contradictory. Or to be Evangelistic without being Compassionate, as well. As one who used to feel comfortable identifying as an "evangelistic," I've seen way too much of that in our modern culture.
July 1, 2023
An enjoyable look of the different Christian traditions and movements in different ideas including contemplative, holiness, evangelical, social justice, charismatic and incarnational traditions. Definitely ecumenical in its approach, this isn't for people of a highly conservative Christian background as it will be seen as either too "pro-catholic" or too "pro-sectarian".
Given the ideas, I find the book to be highly inspirational. It looks at people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was part of the confessional church. The choice of Dorothy Day in the social justice camp is highly interesting as I learnt a lot about her.
The other good thing about the book is the exploration of the pitfalls of the different traditions and looks at being a balanced way of professing faith. The only thing I would say is that I question what they define as part of the faith. Nestorian Christianity for example was considered heretical but has now back in communion with Catholicism for example. Also Oriental Orthodox is seen as not part of the church which again is questionable given that the main cause of the disagreement is that they are Monophysite or see the nature of Jesus differently to Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Christianity.
Given the ideas, I find the book to be highly inspirational. It looks at people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was part of the confessional church. The choice of Dorothy Day in the social justice camp is highly interesting as I learnt a lot about her.
The other good thing about the book is the exploration of the pitfalls of the different traditions and looks at being a balanced way of professing faith. The only thing I would say is that I question what they define as part of the faith. Nestorian Christianity for example was considered heretical but has now back in communion with Catholicism for example. Also Oriental Orthodox is seen as not part of the church which again is questionable given that the main cause of the disagreement is that they are Monophysite or see the nature of Jesus differently to Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Christianity.
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