Christian Spiritual Formation: An Integrated Approach for Personal and Relational Wholeness

by Diane J. Chandler

This comprehensive theory and practice of Christian spiritual formation weaves together biblical and theological foundations with interdisciplinary scholarship, real-world examples, personal vignettes, and practical tools to assist readers in becoming whole persons in relationship with God and others.

Genres: College, Christian

367 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2014

Reviews

[Esther]

This book is academic, but not deep. (The author gave a lot of information, but her depth didn't match her breadth.) Also, the author's writing style is disjunct. If you're looking for a book on spiritual formation, I'd recommend authors such as Richard Foster, Pete Scazzero, Dallas Willard, and Ruth Haley Barton.

[Maggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book perpetuates diet culture, eating disorders, and homophobia. It is beyond me why a book on Christian spiritual formation would equate diet and exercise with Christian maturity. This describes bondage, not freedom. It's embarrassing.

On the plus side, I do appreciate her gender-neutrality when talking about God.

Another negative is that she didn't write very much of her own. Every other sentence has a footnote.

[Phinehas Osei · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book talks about things we need as a church that we seem to not talk about because we prolly might be focusing on “more spiritual stuff”. I found it to be a good read. It got me thinking of how scripture has a theology of food. I hadn't thought about it initially. Really good book.

[Brian Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is maybe a 2.5-star book. The premise is good. The author states that Christian spiritual formation is based on the love of God, and involves seven areas of life: the spirit, emotions, relationships, intellect, vocation, physical health, and stewardship. Good and right idea. The problem is the book isn't written well. The author takes a bunch of research and puts into a blender for about a second or two. The result is a non-smoothie consisting of chunks of good information that don't quite cohere. If the author had spent a little less time quoting others and more time creating a coherent message in each chapter, the book would be better. I also found her inability to use the third person masculine singular personal pronoun for God almost comical. She writes all manner of clunky sentences in order to avoid referring to God as "he" or "him."

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out really good, but about halfway through the book it lost its zing. The author had good points, just beat them too far.