The last two years, we have challenged our readers to work their way through a list of classic works of the Christian tradition. In 2021, we issued a challenge to read through twelve classics of Christian theology in general. In 2022, we read through twelve classics of Baptist theology. In 2023, we turn our attention to the topic of Christian spirituality for the CBR Reading Challenge.
At the Center for Baptist Renewal, our watchword is retrieval for the sake of renewal. We believe that contemporary Baptist churches will be renewed most fundamentally by a deep and prayerful engagement with the text of Holy Scripture, read in community with others and in the power of the Holy Spirit. But one crucial way to enrich our reading of Scripture is a deep engagement with the “Great Tradition” of Christian thought. We can sometimes narrow this focus on the Great Tradition to theology only, but retrieval is broader than explicitly doctrinal texts. We not only wish for more doctrinal retrieval; we also desire a retrieval of biblical interpretation, of liturgical and sacramental practices, and of spirituality. And, so, we want to focus 2023 on the last of these: classics of Christian spirituality. “Spirituality” is being used here in a broad sense to connote all of life lived coram Deo (before the face of God)—but especially to describe those practices, rituals, disciplines, and dispositions that foster our union with God.
As with our previous challenges, the list below is necessarily (and painfully) selective. Sometimes an obvious choice may be missing entirely (as with Augustine’s Confessions, which we would hope every Christian has already read or at least has on a very short list of must-reads!). At other times, a selection is included for its influence or representation of a particular strand of spirituality. Sometimes a choice is included just because it’s a personal favorite. Some books are paired together for thematic or historical reasons.
We have tried to be representative in era (patristic, medieval, Reformation, modern), in gender (male and female), and in tradition (everything from ancient Celtic to modern Baptist). The list covers a range of practices and themes as well: praying, fasting, meditation, contemplation, imitation of exemplars (chiefly of Christ), mortification and vivification, spiritual journey, spiritual darkness, communal life, and more. The list tilts toward Western spirituality, not necessarily because this tradition is superior but because it is ours. Other rich traditions—Syrian, Russian, Chinese, African, and more—could be tapped as well and would warrant their own lists.
Because of the wide diversity of traditions represented here, this list needs a bit more qualification than our previous two. We do not endorse every teaching, perspective, or experience in every one of these books. Though we read, for example, Roman Catholic authors with benefit, we remain convictionally Protestant and unapologetically Baptist. But this is the beauty our aspirations to an evangelical Baptist catholicity: because our Protestant, evangelical, and Baptist convictions are so strong, we have the confidence to engage other traditions without fear or undue suspicion. With every book other than the inerrant Bible, we must always seek to discern truth from error. Serious engagement with any text (or any cultural artifact, for that matter—a novel, a film, a song, a painting, a poem, etc.) should begin with an open-hearted desire for encounter: to be confronted with truth, goodness, and beauty as it is expressed through the medium of the text as it stands in own integrity, yet, parallel to this, we should also be reading critically by sorting truth from error, distilling the former and reinterpreting it within the framework of our own convictions. Reading for the sake of critique is uncharitable, but it is also boring. You will never expand your intellectual and spiritual horizons if polemics are your only aim in reading beyond your tradition. Even where we may differ with a particular author or perspective, we can still find points of underlying agreement. We can still seek for what ecumenical theologians call “differentiated consensus,” arriving at similar conclusions by different theological means.
So, without further ado, below is the list for the 2023 CBR Reading Challenge.
1. The Life of Antony, Athanasius (fourth century)
The great Alexandrian theologian Athanasius is known today for his book On the Incarnation and his stalwart defense of orthodoxy at Nicaea, but during his lifetime his most popular work was his spiritual biography of the desert father, St. Anthony.
2. The Life of Moses and The Life of Saint Macrina, Gregory of Nyssa (fourth century)
Taken together, this pair of books from the Cappadocian father puts on his display his allegorical reading of Scripture, the spiritual ascent to God that it inspires, and how he saw such a life exemplified in his revered older sister.
Buy The Life of Moses here Buy The Life of Saint Macrina here
Access both online here
3. Celtic Spirituality, various (sixth to thirteenth centuries)
Christian spirituality took root in some unique ways among the Celtic peoples. Most people are familiar with St. Patrick, and this volume includes the writings attributed to him, but this book also demonstrates that the rich tradition of Celtic spirituality is much more expansive.
4. Book of Pastoral Rule, Gregory the Great (sixth century)
Gregory is often described as the first of the medieval popes because of the long shadow he cast on the theology, liturgy, priestly ministry, and spirituality of the next thousand years. Though it was written as a manual for pastors, its reflections on the Christian life, especially the balancing of its active and contemplative aspects, make it universally applicable.
5. The Journey of the Mind into God, Bonaventure (thirteenth century)
According to Seraphic Doctor, all of created reality comes from God and, in its own, way returns to God. The human being, created in God’s image and redeemed by God’s grace in Jesus Christ, experiences this journey, this egressus and regressus, in a special way through the mystical experience of purgation, illumination, and the perfection of union.
6. Showings, Julian of Norwich (fourteenth century)
The fourteenth-century English mystic reflects on the revelations, or “showings,” of divine love that she experienced in a series of visions. This is book that may challenge our assumptions about the spiritual life, but it contains many warm reflections on God’s love for his people.
7. The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis (c. 1418); The Freedom of a Christian, Martin Luther (1520)
Two classics from either side of the Catholic-Protestant divide (though à Kempis lived before those cataclysmic events), these two books complement one another well. One calls us to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ; the other reflects on the radical gift of grace that makes such obedience possible.
Buy The Imitation of Christ here Access online here
Buy The Freedom of a Christian here Access online here
8. The Interior Castle, Teresa of Avila (1577); The Dark Night of the Soul, John of the Cross (c. 1578)
These two friends wrote some of the most piercing reflections on the spiritual life in Christian history. Teresa takes us within to the “interior castle” where God dwells with us in prayer. John reflects on what happens when we arrive there and God appears to be completely absent.
Buy The Interior Castle here Access online here
Buy The Dark Night of the Soul here Access online here
9. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, John Bunyan (1666)
Bunyan is best known for his allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress. But in spiritual autobiography, Bunyan shows us his own progress as a pilgrim, from rebellion against God to conversion, from his call to ministry to his imprisonment for the sake of that ministry.
10. The Books of American Negro Spirituals, various (nineteenth century)
Two books in one, this hymnal reveals how the biblical story of redemption sustained a people in the darkness of oppression and injustice. As Frederick Douglas argued, the slave hymns were never expressions of contentment and happiness but of relief in the midst of sorrow, “as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.”
11. Holy Spirit Power, Charles Spurgeon (nineteenth century)
Any list that a group of Baptists would compile on Christian spirituality has to include the Prince of Preachers. Any of his devotionals, sermons, or commentaries would be good choices for a list like this, but this collection of sermons on the Holy Spirit seems especially fitting on the theme of spirituality.
12. Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1939)
Christian spirituality is personal but never finally isolated. Our list began with a desert father and concludes with a book about communal spirituality. Forged in the context of an underground seminary during the Third Reich, this book remains a classic on authentic Christian community.
As in previous years, we encourage folks to read the books with a friend, in a small group, or as a family. Though most of the books are available online, some of you may want to purchase the entire list ahead of time and devote a separate shelf in your library to the challenge.
Stay tuned for posts and podcasts on the readings in the new year.