Adam McHugh provides a very reflective and open-minded resource in his Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture (Intervarsity Press, 2009). As I began to digest it, I soon thought of two books published in the past few years—one, Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking (Penguin, 2012) and second, more tangentially related, Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016). As it turns out upon my investigation, Adam McHugh has been a contributor to the Quiet Revolution blog (www.quietrev.com), an online resource led by author Susan Cain. While McHugh has also published more recently with IVP (The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction, 2015), his title that has been out for nearly a decade now contains some personal account of his own struggle during the time of his preparation for pastoral ministry, struggle which nearly prompted him to take the step of resignation from the ordination process following seminary study, and potentially shutting the door on a future in ministry. He relays the connection he experienced early on with the persevering, studious characteristics needed in the academic aspect of graduate school; and yet, while enjoying close relationship with others, he struggled to maintain the pace of public interpersonal interaction that is often called for in the work of ministry. [Read more…] about Book Review: Introverts in the Church
lectio divina
Book Review: Discovering Lectio Divina
Editor’s note: In response to Bob’s review of his book Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers, Gary Neal Hansen commented that this Lent he’s trying to engage in a more serious lectio divina. For those desiring to learn more about this spiritual practice, Discovering Lectio Divina: Bringing Scripture into Ordinary Life by James C. Wilhoit[1] and Evan B. Howard[2] (InterVarsity Press, 2012) provides helpful insight.
Lectio divina is an ancient practice of reflective reading and praying about the scriptures that includes the elements of slow and repeated reading (lectio), reflection (meditatio), prayer in response to one’s reflections (oratio) and resting in God’s presence (contemplatio).
What Wilhoit and Howard give us is not a “how to” manual for lectio so much as a deeply theological and formational reflection of what it means to weave this discipline into one’s life. They begin with our thirst for God and the scriptures as God’s speech, his invitation to relationship. [Read more…] about Book Review: Discovering Lectio Divina