Intimate Faith (A Woman's Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines)

Evangelical Christians have long been interested in spiritual disciplines, especially daily Bible study and prayer. In 1978, Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline brought other practices such as meditation, fasting and confession to evangelical attention, and since then publishers have released a spate of spiritual discipline books by evangelical Protestants who like to read Catholic authors. Winebrenner continues this tradition, referencing Catholic writers such as Thomas Merton, François Fénelon and Henri Nouwen along with Protestants including Eugene Peterson, Oswald Chambers and Dallas Willard. Director of the Dallas Christian Writers Guild, she has an easy-to-follow workmanlike approach, laced with homey illustrations about horses and football and children leaving for college. To the frequently taught disciplines of study, prayer, worship, fellowship and service, she adds a dozen others, including humility, chastity, secrecy, silence and celebration. All disciplines, she repeatedly emphasizes, have one goal: a passionate romance with God. On nearly every page she writes rhapsodically about God's personal love, connecting it with whatever discipline she is presenting. For example, in meditation, "my mind becomes filled with awareness of God's tender love for me, and I am quickly at peace, quickly settled and almost instantly relieved of any desire to think of anything but God." As a basic introduction to various Christian disciplines as well as an inspirational paean to God's love, this book will appeal to evangelical women (and likely men) who might be put off by the scholarly approach of some of its predecessors. A study guide is included. (Jan.)