Webber is at his best when he is exploring the historical story of God and His Church. The Divine Embrace does just that exploring the topic of spirituality. Webber, addressing the evangelical church, wants his readers to first recognize how we got here. In other words, why do we view spirituality the way we do? The author analyzes and critiques the life of the church starting from the much celebrated early church and ending with our current postmodern state. Webber in “Part Two” changes gears in hopes that the modern church(or postmodern church) would explore early antiquity of the Church and view spirituality in much the same manner. We have lost our understanding of spirituality, whether it is because of the Enlightenment, existentialism or this hard to define postmoderitny. In other words, “What does spirituality need to be rescued from?” (25). Five chapters sums up this endeavor; God’s Story, My Story, His Life in Mine, My Life in His, and Life Together. My students probably get sick and tired of me talking about holistic theology. I am always asking them, how do live out our Christianity? Webber states early on in his book that ancient spirituality is in fact theological spirituality. To clarify, we live, “…in a theological consciousness of life shaped by the mystery of the Triune God reconciling all of life to himself” (44). This quote sheds light on what spirituality is: Trinitarian spirituality, creational spirituality, anthropological spirituality, incarnational spirituality, Christological spirituality, cruciform spirituality, resurrection spirituality, Pentecost spirituality, baptismal spirituality, communal spirituality, liturgical spirituality, Eucharistic spirituality, prayer spirituality, social spirituality, ethical spirituality, vocational spirituality, and revelational spirituality (44-45). Webber tightens this all up by reminding that viewing spirituality like this does indeed have a simplistic sense to it—it will be holistic. Webber then takes it upon himself to explain how we experience spirituality throughout the next 200 pages. Adamantly, Webber is sure to make it known that spirituality is not mustered up inside oneself. He confidently remarks, “Our spirituality is located not in self but in Jesus Christ. The spiritual life is contemplation of God’s story and participation in the life of God in the life of the world. When second-order convictions are made primary, they confuse the true spiritual life,” (98). Webber also provides an interesting diagram of circles that show Christ is truly the center of spirituality while experience, behavior, belonging, and belief (the Wesleyan quadrilateral) are important, but only under the authority of a Christocentric theology. Part two had many positive qualities to it as well. While studying at the Institute of Worship Studies, I have been introduced to using images—specifically typologies (Danielous’ book Bible and Liturgy does a wonderful job exploring the early church and its use of typologies). I was excited to see Webber use three typologies. I now want to go deeper and see how Old Testament typologies could be better utilized in our modern worship contexts and more specifically in songwriting. Things to consider in regards to this challenging endeavor of typological songwriting: scriptural and theological knowledge of the congregation, language limitations, privileges in regards to interpretation, wordiness and style. After reading the book, Young Evangelicals, and Webbers book, The Divine Embrace, I do wish I could ask Webber a couple of questions. First, how would Webber respond to his critics who think that he sees the early church with rose colored lenses. It did seem that anything after the early church had a negative bent to it. But I must mention that I do find myself with Webber, early Church writings do have a simplicity and richness to them. The church does have its ups and downs and it does not take long to find the Churches sin—secret and exposed. But is not the Spirit of God doing great things throughout the centuries? Is not embracing our whole history a part of entering the larger story? Second, how does Webber interact with larger culture – art, movies, books, music, etc. Did he separate himself like many early church fathers? And my last question is related: Did Webber follow the Benedict Order or at least a modified version? I found the writings on this subject to be very inspiring and am even exploring how to use The Rule of Saint Benedict for my own spiritual formation. One of my colleagues at Central Christian College who is a priest in the Anglican Church, told me they use this book for their deacon training. After reading the book, I can see why. It not only gives a good historical understanding, but also gives some basic guidelines for spiritual health. While reading this book I often wondered what kind of impact it would have on my student worship leaders’ spiritual formation. I am now exploring how to integrate this book into the lives of my students. It might be the perfect tool to provide them a healthy definition of what spirituality looks like – abiding in the Lord Jesus – the only way to truly experiencing spiritual health. Webber, Robert E. The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life. Baker Books: Grand Rapids, 2006.
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Book ReviewsWhen writing these reviews I am considering four specific conversations: first, a basic overview of the book, second, a reflection of an idea or two that impacted me the most, third, something that puzzled me from the reading, and finally, an idea from the reading that I could implement in my ministry context. Archives
November 2012
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