The Lost Discipline of Conversation: Surprising Lessons in Spiritual Formation Drawn from the English Puritans

by Joanne J. Jung, Kyle Strobel (Foreword)

Recovering Spiritual Practices of the Past titles reach beyond commonly known spiritual formation practices in order to mine the wisdom of the past, bringing to light ways of thinking, living, and growing in Christ that the church today has largely overlooked.

In The Lost Discipline of Conversation, spiritual formation professor and author Joanne Jung walks readers through the Puritan practice of "conference," or focused, spiritual conversations intended to promote ongoing transformation. An antidote to privatized faith, conference calls believers to biblical literacy and soul care in a context of transparency and accountability.

Useful for believers in any sphere or ministry or stage in life, conference is ultimately a tool for nurturing mutual, godly authenticity within community.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Christian Living

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 12, 2018

About the author

Joanne J. Jung (PhD, Fuller Seminary) is a professor of biblical and theological studies and the associate dean of online education and faculty development at the Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. She is the author of Knowing Grace; Character Formation in Online Education; and The Lost Discipline of Conversation. She and her husband, Norman, attend Harvest Community Church in Irvine, California.

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an oft-cited truth of 21st century life that the technology claiming to connect us has, ironically, left us more isolated and unable to make meaningful connections with other people than ever before. While we are in constant contact with others, personal interactions are often superficial and meaningless, leaving us lonely and craving deeper connection.

Church bodies and individual Christians are rightly concerned about this trend, noting that a central part of Christian spirituality is the communion of saints, spiritual life together as the body of Christ. How can we build one another up and walk together as a body of believers if we are unable to talk about spiritual matters in a meaningful way?

Joanne Jung, professor of biblical and theological studies at Biola University, adds to the discussion surrounding the spiritual dimension of this crisis with this new work, pulling insights from Puritan spirituality to provide a framework for deeper community and spiritual communion among Christians.

The focus of this work is the Puritan practice of "conference," or focused, spiritual conversation. It weaves together descriptions of historical spiritual practices and their context, explanations of the benefits of such practices, and practical tips to incorporate these practices in our modern context.

The result is mixed.

Clearly, this is a relevant and necessary topic, and I greatly appreciate the author's work in bringing a helpful historical practice to modern Christians in an accessible way. The discussion questions and Bible studies in the back of the book are valuable resources for churches, Bible study groups, families, and individuals. Her style is full of depth and scholarly research, and yet accessible to laypeople.

However, a couple of flaws keep this from being a really great book.

1. I found the structure of the book and the organization of individual chapters challenging. There's lots of good information, but the flow is scattered and not terribly cohesive, which doesn't lend itself well to use in a group discussion. This is unfortunate, since this is a book that begs to be discussed in a group setting.

2. The theology, perhaps unsurprisingly for a book about Puritans, is overly focused on spiritual growth as our work and a result of our effort. God's grace and the work of the Spirit in us to nurture faith are mentioned, but only briefly. For a book on spiritual practices, it's also a bit light on Scripture and heavy on sociological research.

Overall, this is a book worth picking up, but it may need a bit of effort, discernment, and tweaking to be truly helpful for practical use.

[Emily Crutchley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Currently in my Puritan era. They really had it nailed.

Lots of the perspectives and pointers are quite intuitive but Jung does helpfully put into words what feels common sense and so encourages us to keep being alongsiders... but with a better grasp of why and how.

Introduction was particularly good in setting the scene with a call to humility in our view of others and a challenge to be attentive at the soul level, highlighting that attentiveness is much more of an investment than accountability.

The basic premise of conversation:
Speak in a way that encourages people to listen and listen in a way that encourages people to speak.

(as a book, it's written slightly annoyingly... The sentences feel back to front?!)

[ME · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deserves more time than I gave it in spite of sections being focused on areas given to church leadership which don't apply to my context. I will be going back to it as I have more opportunity. I think this would be an excellent resource for parents, discipleship mentors, and especially small group leaders. The Informational, Transitional, and Transformational questions were especially good (would love to see them in a graphic for each section since the questions build on what came before) as were the short but intensive Bible studies at the end of the book. I bought the Kindle version and would rather have had the physical book for referencing the different sections more easily.

The Puritans certainly had a different mindset about their faith and the way it invaded every aspect of life. This is not my experience with the Evangelical church, at least to the depth described in the book, and it is both challenging and exciting to think about moving my own faith in the directions the book suggests. I can't say everything here resonates, or will resonate with every reader, but there will be helpful information and inspiration for anyone who culls it for the means to growth.

[Jason Baskerville · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very different book than I expected, but with useful bits. The Puritan idea of "conferencing" is the main focus, and the author gives many different scenarios in which this can be accomplished along with prompts (questions) and resources for getting underway.

I chose this book with the hope that it would add to the skills that I have developed through my training as a Spiritual Director and Companion - there were some things that I could use, and there were also things that seemed to be less useful than the skills I already had.

I did appreciate the focus on smaller gatherings (such as small groups) and the fact that these types of conferencing about holy matters could happen at any time, any where. It is true that we can continue to grasp these opportunities to care for the souls of those we love and share our thoughts and experiences after experiencing a Pastor's teaching, or reading through Scripture together.

[Hobart · Rating 3 out of 5]

★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK:

Recovering Spiritual Practices of the Past titles reach beyond commonly known spiritual formation practices in order to mine the wisdom of the past, bringing to light ways of thinking, living, and growing in Christ that the church today has largely overlooked.

In The Lost Discipline of Conversation, spiritual formation professor and author Joanne Jung walks readers through the Puritan practice of "conference," or focused, spiritual conversations intended to promote ongoing transformation. An antidote to privatized faith, conference calls believers to biblical literacy and soul care in a context of transparency and accountability.

Useful for believers in any sphere or ministry or stage in life, conference is ultimately a tool for nurturing mutual, godly authenticity within community.

BEYOND THE BACK OF THE BOOK:
Part I, "Rediscovering a 'Lost' Means of Grace," outlined the need for community and the benefit of this practice (although equating it with the Means of Grace is questionable).

Part II looks at the various contexts in which conferencing can take place and suggests some ways to promote it. I lost track of the idea of conferencing during this Part—it seemed so flexible so as to maybe lose meaning.

PART III
Part III is called "Soul-to-Soul Bible Studies," and added nothing to the work. They were scripts/prompts to guide you through a one-on-one (or larger) study of a handful of seemingly random New Testament passages. The explanatory notes were redundant, and not incredibly useful.

I didn't see the point of this part at all.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE LOST DISCIPLINE OF CONVERSATION?
Seven years before this was published, Jung published Godly Conversation: Rediscovering the Puritan Practice of Conference, and I can't help but wonder what my reaction to this book would be if I'd read it first. This feels like it's building on the work done in the initial book. Maybe I'd walk away from this with a greater understanding of both Jung's overall project as well as the Puritan practice of conference. Still, this book needs to be able to stand on its own, and it just doesn't.

The biggest question I have from this book is what's the foundation for this practice? How is "conferencing" based on, or built on, Puritan thought? You can't follow Puritan practices (on this or any other point) without their teaching backing it up—it just doesn't work that way. Leave that to Finney and those who follow in his footsteps, not to Bownd, Owen, or Alleine. Practices without the theology are meaningless actions. It's not "do X, Y, and Z" to get spiritual growth in a mechanistic/automatic way, it's not powdered milk where you just add water. The Puritans acted in certain ways (like conferences) because of something. Jung did her readers a disservice leaving that out.

I don't necessarily contest the value of the practice, but I don't know that she's convinced me that it's as valuable as she sets it out to be. I've read a good number of the original sources she cites, and I never got the inkling that this was particularly vital—useful, potentially, but as important as this?

I do have to wonder why the title specifies "English Puritans" when there's so many citations of New England Puritanism. The distinctions aren't huge, but there are differences. Just delete the word "English," and it's better. That seems picky, and probably is. But at a certain point, the quibbles I had with the material overwhelmed the pros, and the little ones got under my skin more than they should.

I feel bad about thinking like this about the book, because the person that recommended this to me clearly thought I'd appreciate it—and I wanted to. But this is largely a swing and a miss for me. At the risk of repeating myself, I do wonder what my reaction to this would've been had I read Godly Conversation first. As it is, though, I'll chalk this up as a well-intentioned miss.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the effort of the author to revive the lost discipline of conversation, however the book is not as inspiring as I hoped for. First the book is full of cliches like: “Engaging in conference results in minds being challenged and souls becoming attentive to one another.” And: “Empathy is developed when listening is done wel.”

Second, Jung needs a lot of words to make a small point. For example, Jung uses eight pages to admonish us to read Bible, and to listen, remember, repeat and talk about sermons (chapter 3). I think no more than 500 words would be sufficient.

Further, it’s not clear to me how this book is built up. I fear that the quote of John Preston on page 37 of the book says much about the book itself: “...to preach (or to write) without method was equivalent to putting ‘water into a sieve that will run out.’” Unfortunately, a lot of the good info of this book is seeping away.

Lastly, it is a bit moralistic: do this, do that, it’s important et cetera. The most inspiring passages are the scarce quotations of the puritan writers themselves. However, even a lot of those quotations are meaningless because they only stress the importance of conversation, but not tell you how the puritans themselves practiced this forgotten discipline.

[Brandi Breezee · Rating 4 out of 5]

One way God transforms us is through biblical conversations filled with transparency and accountability. This “Puritan practice of conference” is one we should learn from and apply.

[LisaO · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty dry and difficult listen for me.