There are many who regard spiritual formation as the latest fad in the church especially in North American evangelical faith communities. Others including some scholars have suggested that the modern spiritual formation movement has stalled. It is therefore heartening to me to know of a group of people who have come together under Renovare and Spiritual Formation Alliance and has formulated a document named "A Call to Spiritual Formation".
They defines Christian spiritual formation as the process of being shaped by the Spirit into the likeness of Christ, filled with the love for God and the world.
Read the document here.
I hope that the formulating of this document is the beginning of a renewal with the spiritual formation movement.
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It seems really odd to me that anyone would question the validity of the spiritual formation conversation. I've heard that recently as well, and I find that it is both a naive and shallow assessment, usually predicated on the fact that some of the voices int he movement, move notably Willard and Foster, are growing older. On the other hand, if you look at the amount of masters degrees in spiritual formation that have popped up over the last 5 years, that tells a very different story.
ReplyDeleteHi Kyle Strobel,
ReplyDeleteWelcome and thank you for your comments. I agree with you that there is an increasing number of masters degrees in spiritual formation but I am curious that there is not an equivalent increase in PhD s in the subject. Most higher degrees in spiritual formation is done at the D Min level.
I will be interested in your comments on Chris Armstrong's article on The Rise, Frustration, and Revival of Evangelical Spiritual Ressourcement published in Spring 2009 issue of Journal Of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care.