A Language for the Soul
An Experiential Dictionary of the Christian Spiritual Life
- Prayer & Spiritual Formation
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2024
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Publisher's Description
This volume offers Christian spiritual instructors a language for the soul uncovered from the storehouses of Christianity's ancient living spiritual tradition. That language describes the deep soul movements that unfold in the interior life of believers in response to the Divine invitation. It presents an accessible language of the soul for use in today's professional, educational, ministerial, and everyday life situations. The end product is an experiential dictionary comprised of sixty word-concepts, which name and explore the inward human reactions to the whispering of God's Spirit. Those reactions result from inward desires that lead to the embrace of faith, the quest for consecration, and the journey of discipleship. Nurturing these intra-personal choices and commitments is the central task of Christian ministry, but many faith instructors remain unaware of these critical inner-life processes. More than other resources available today, this experiential dictionary informs, enriches, and intensifies the spiritual journeys of genuine disciples and seekers. The volume is tailored for seminaries, churches, schools, and community settings. It has application to the training of ministry leaders, the instruction of believers, and in supporting the growing number of secular mystics who are open to merging their journeys of self-discovery with the quest for Christ-discovery.
Endorsements (7)
“This book by Stuart Devenish is a retrieval of many key concepts of the spiritual life that have been developed over two millennia of prayer and reflection. It is especially valuable for Protestants, who have historically lacked a robust language of the soul. The love, devotion, and scholarship poured into this book is truly remarkable. A rare gem!”
“Stuart Devenish draws on both his true life of faith and wide, deep reading, when he puts before us here a delicious meal: the experience of Christian spirituality. The adventure of faith is always transformative, touching the mind as much as the spirit, changing how we sense life and how we live, concretely and in many respects. We are blessed in this book with the ingredients that flavor Devenish himself: a farmer, a missionary, a pastor, an academic; a practical Christian; a reflecting believer. Always with a lively, attractive Australian tang of freshness. We are all nourished by this food for the soul.”
“Stuart Devenish is passionate about the spiritual quest in a post secular world, where language about spiritual experience is often lacking. Based on his pastoral and teaching experience, he offers a select dictionary (sixty entries) of terms relevant to a spiritual journey. Aimed at both Christian believers and committed spiritual seekers, this work offers concepts that help both pastors and practitioners name, understand and make meaning of their experience of the transcendent.”
“The literature of Christian spirituality is filled with countless word-concepts but suffers from a lack of a defining and integrating center. In this volume, Devenish has gathered selected word-concepts into a lexicon of language that enables us to communicate the substance of the faith we profess and experience as more real than real. He has given teachers of the Christian spiritual life an enormous gift by producing a shared and accessible language for the soul that enables us to make the unfamiliar familiar, and the sometimes opaque clear. This volume will be a key text for Christian spiritual education into the coming decades.”
“When platitudes, memes, and GIFs predominate communication, how do we learn to speak about the interior life and our relationship with God? Devenish’s examination of Christian traditions from across the breadth of time provides a necessary resource to plumb the depths of the human soul that we might recover what it means to experience authentic spiritual conversation with God and one another.”
“To grasp the spiritual wisdom of past saints is essential to personal growth as a disciple today. A Language for the Soul provides a tremendous service in bringing to our attention the depth and breadth of the Christian spiritual tradition. The interior life of grace and charity is where the personal encounter with Christ occurs. This book is a must read for anyone seeking the path of wisdom for greater intimacy with God in their own lives and for instructing others in the faith.”
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