You can say a lot of things about the ills of the modem world.
People are selfish, lustful, lacking self-control. The world is violent, pandering, greedy. But perhaps the most important diag- {1931 nosis is that people are shallow. We have learned to define reality in two dimensions, accepting only what we see on a screen—a movie screen, a TV screen, a computer monitor. We judge others by how they look rather than how they act, by how they talk rather than what they say, by what they drive rather than what they dream.
And you would think that Christians would be different. Some are. But far too many of us share in that shallowness. We worship rock stars who happen to sing about God. Like our neighbors, we long for more money, though we do give some of it to the church. We design our church programs so the beautiful peo-pie will want to come, attracting other beautiful people. We have a vague sense that there's something wrong with all our attention to the surface of things but we lack the spiritual resources to do anything about it. We just don't have the depth.
That's the problem Richard Foster tackles in Celebration ofDis-cipline. "Superficiality is the curse of our age," he begins. That "age" was the 1970s, the era of discos and Charlie's Angels. The back-to-basics enthusiasm of the late sixties had faded and we were solidly in the "Me Decade." Other than the hairstyles, not much has changed since then. Foster's words still ring true at the birth of the new millennium: "The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."
But Foster wasn't just a voice complaining in the wilderness.
He had a plan. How do people grow deeper? By recovering the traditional spiritual disciplines of the church.
For evangelicals, this was edgy stuff. Oh, we had no problem with disciplines like prayer and Bible study. Our shelves were packed with books urging us in those directions. But Foster was also talking about meditation, fasting, solitude, submission, and spiritual guidance. He was plumbing the depths of not only his own Quaker background but also the rest of a church history chock full of monks and mystics. This scared some potential readers but it excited many others. In just over two decades, his book has sold a million copies.
Richard Foster has quietly challenged Christians in other books as well. His Freedom of Simplicity (1981) recommends a lifestyle less encumbered by consumerism. Money, Sex and Power (1985) got some flak for its bold title but it pointedlv addressed the three main idolatries of our culture. More recently Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (1992) was named Christianity Today's book of the year. In his books, and in his work with Ren-ovare, the church renewal ministry he founded, Foster is committed to helping Christians dodge the darts of the world and live as close to Christ as they possibly can.
Foster's books always get great buzz among church people, but none have had the impact of Celebration of Discipline. This has been a life-changer. In it Foster divides the. spiritual disciplines into three categories. The inward disciplines include meditation, prayer, fasting, and study. The outward disciplines are simplicity, solitude, submission, and service. Then there are the corporate disciplines, which the church practices together—confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.
But Foster does far more than just present the idea of these disciplines. This is a how-to book, giving practical steps for practicing these disciplines. He uses examples from his own life and others' to illustrate his points, in the process, however, he makes it very clear that this is not a new legalism. No one is earning salvation by being devout. This is simply a path to a deepening spirituality, a growing awareness of Christ in all the nooks and crannies of life. Many Christians have followed Foster down that path and are deeply grateful.