This paper reviews Richard J. Foster's Celebration of Discipline (HarperCollins, 1998), examining his framework of twelve spiritual disciplines organized into three categories: inward, outward, and community. The review summarizes Foster's argument that modern individualism and self-obsession have left Christians spiritually impoverished, and that intentional practice of disciplines such as meditation, prayer, fasting, simplicity, solitude, confession, and worship can restore a balanced spiritual life. The paper also highlights Foster's ecumenical approach, his positive reinterpretation of submission and humility, and his Quaker-influenced vision of a non-hierarchical Christian community united in "holy expectancy."
The paper demonstrates evaluative synthesis: rather than simply describing each chapter, it draws connections across the book's themes — for example, linking Foster's critique of self-obsession to both the inward and outward disciplines — and assesses the broader argument Foster is making about modern Christian life. This technique is essential for book reviews at the undergraduate level.
The review opens with a contextualizing diagnosis of modern spiritual problems, then introduces Foster's three-discipline framework. It proceeds through inward, outward, and community disciplines in turn, pausing to highlight particularly significant or unconventional claims (e.g., the reinterpretation of submission and humility). It closes with Foster's ecumenical vision and the concept of "holy expectancy," providing a satisfying thematic conclusion.
Foster, Richard. The Celebration of Discipline. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1998.
Richard J. Foster's Celebration of Discipline acts as a powerful antidote to the extremities of attitude that often plague us in modernity, while the book still embraces many of the newer practices created by recent Christian spiritual leaders and teachers. Today, some people may seem to exist as entirely social creatures, living lives glued to their cell phones, chatting even while buying groceries or driving. They feel spiritually empty because of an inability to let God exist within them in solitude. In contrast, some people are entirely isolated from their community, making friends online rather than seeking out like-minded people in the real world. They lack a connection and a sense of their responsibility to others.
Individualism and an obsession with the self are endemic to modern society, regardless of whether one is an extrovert or an introvert. Solitary pastimes, or pastimes that isolate the individual from his or her community, dominate our lives, and this self-obsession makes our lives poorer and less spiritually interesting. Richard Foster addresses these very tendencies through a structured program of spiritual practice designed to restore balance and depth to the Christian life.
Foster suggests a series of disciplines to bring Christians back to the basics of their faith and to help believers move forward in their lives in a more productive fashion. He offers practical advice on how to practice these pillars of spiritual development and awakening, even while he defends them according to Christian philosophical doctrine. Through practicing the disciplines, a believer can place him or herself before God and be transformed.
He categorizes these disciplines under three headings. Inward disciplines involve the practices of meditation, prayer, religious fasting (as opposed to fasting for a political cause or for one's health), and study. Outward disciplines involve the cultivation of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service. Community disciplines are confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.
Inward and outward harmony is required; a believer cannot focus on one discipline to such an extent that it comes at the expense of another. For example, the disciplined community member who engages in weekly worship and celebration — no matter how many church activities she may organize — will not have a full spiritual life without some inward reflection and meditation about what church services mean. Christians must not leave meditation and prayer solely to "professionals" like priests and pastors; they must also have their own personal and direct relationship with God. But a contemplative scholar cannot simply study and hope that it will yield a revelation about the nature of the divine without engaging with others to see how what he studies works in the real world. Through self-fulfillment, self-actualization, loving ourselves, mutual submission, and coming to terms with our past, we must learn to heal others and take our knowledge about the self and use it in a meaningful and selfless fashion.
The inward disciplines are necessary to focus on the individual's personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to put the distractions of the world in perspective. The chief obstacles to mastering the disciplines are a preoccupation with worldly success to the extent that the believer cannot let God within, a lack of knowledge about how to practice, and a tendency toward passively waiting for change to happen rather than actively changing one's own life. As Foster observes, "Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."1 Moral superiority, setting unrealistic and fixed goals, and judging others are antithetical to good practice; self-knowledge and reaching out to others in an open and tolerant fashion facilitate spiritual growth.
Foster stresses that many Eastern practices are compatible with Christian practices. Meditation is not an esoteric element of discipline but is within every believer's capability, provided that he or she engages in the practice in a spirit of contemplation, using the correct posture, breath, and mindful isolation. "Christian meditation leads us to the inner wholeness necessary to give ourselves to God freely, and to the spiritual perception necessary to attack social evils. In this sense it is the most practical of all disciplines… Anyone who can tap the power of the imagination can learn to meditate."2 Journaling, as well as contemplative and centering prayer, can lead an individual to God, as can more conventional forms of prayer and practice in the tradition of Thomas Merton and Christian mystics such as Meister Eckhart.
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