In Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation, Cindy S. Lee proposes that we as the church need a new way to engage in spiritual formation. To thrive in our increasingly diverse contexts, we need an unforming and a reforming of our souls. We need to unform the ways Western-dominated church leaders have understood formation. We need to reform—to imagine and create a more intricate spirituality that includes diverse experiences of God.

Our Unforming is organized into three cultural orientations and eight postures. Lee proposes that when we consider non-Western cultural ways of being—turning from linear to cyclical, from cerebral to experiential, and from individual to collective—the formation journey shifts. We live out these movements through postures, ways of entering into deeper spiritual transformation. The eight postures reflect our experience of time, generations, imagination, uncertainty, language, work, dependence, elders, and harmony.

Lee offers a more robust spirituality to hold the complexities of a multicultural God and the God-human relationship. Our Unforming is sure to inspire further conversation as it shifts how we approach formation in our diverse communities.