Celebration of Discipline, R. Foster, Review

Two million copies!

Celebration of Discipline has taken up lonely space on my bookshelves for some twenty-five years now, proving my lack of discipline. Or at least my skill in building a world-class to-be-read library. But I came across the special anniversary edition, published in 2018, and had to have it. After all, the world loves a winner, and this book has sold an amazing two million copies.

I wonder what I would have thought had I read it when it first came out. Both the author and I were younger, and he was connected to my grandparents’ Friends or Brethren church, which I always enjoyed. He strikes me now as shouldering a large load of California hippie hangover, which shocked me too, since neither evangelicals nor Catholics I read typically go for that mood.

I admit to expecting something different, a treatise maybe, on effective prayer or methods of study in the manner of the church fathers. Maybe a long dissertation on how Franciscans spend their days praying continuously and without ceasing. I suppose – in a word – I was looking for magic, and Foster gives none. What he gives is an overview of the classic Christian disciplines and explains what each is and how they’ve been used to transform, and how to incorporate them into life.

I’m thankful he offers few rules. Some reviewers take him to task for this, but his goal is well served: to shed light on a path, instead of telling us what shoes or coat to wear. He’s not trying to make little Fosters, and recognizes that the goal is a relationship with the Father and transformation, not how you sit or stand while you pray. In Knowing God, J.I. Packer writes about Christians on the path and the observers in the balconies above. Foster is on the path and points you in the right direction with him. This is not a book for the balcony crowd.

Comments by others

Foster does, in fact, gloss over the disciplines, giving few hard and fast scriptural rules. I think this is on purpose, and I appreciate it. Foster is writing for the seeker, not the observer. Scripture tells us to pray, and reason tells us there is great value in studying G’s word. The church fathers, the Catholics, the Brethren, and the Southern Baptists have all walked down their own paths to explore ways to find G. Foster’s goal – I think – is for you to start your own journey and make your own guidelines as you discover your transformation.

While there are a few 1-star reviews on Amazon – cranks!- there are reams and reams of five-star reviews hailing this as the one book that changed readers’ Christian experience decades ago. But I favor three-star reviews and agree with a few here: the book drones a bit, and Foster isn’t afraid to argue for Quaker theology. If you’re looking for John MacArthur or John Piper, this ain’t it.

The meat

He explores the classic disciplines of the Christian faith: the inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study; the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service; and the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.

We all have habits, and Foster takes Thomas à Kempis’s words seriously: “Fight like a man. We all have habits!” Or, in modern parlance, habits overcome habits, and he encourages each one to build habits that keep us on the path. And as much as he walks you through each discipline, he then leaves you there, alone, like a good teacher, allowing you to figure out. You and G. This isn’t you and Foster, after all…this is you and G. It’s a bigger thing.

This is the key to the entire book. And to the Christian life. He outlines the rudiments, and then, within that idea, seeks only to place you before G. It is your job then, to keep coming back to G, to place yourself before G, in prayer or in study or in whatever way you’re led. The disciplines promote growth and transformation, not because of a magic rite, but because we place ourselves before G, the G who seeks a relationship with us.

As stated, there is no magic in the book, no secret that makes it all easy. No spiritual liposuction. But, there is a means here. Means that have transformed thousands throughout history. Thousands from all lands and all churches, and all walks. I take it back…there is a promise here. The promise is that if you seek, you will be found. Foster gives legs to the seeker.

Thanks so much for reading. Won’t you pass this on the others who might like it? And wont you leave me our email address? Thanks! And I hope you’ll comment!

Foster bio at Renovaré here.