Using the Bible in Spiritual Direction

by Liz Hoare, Daniel L. Prechtel (Foreword by)

Overview

Spiritual direction is increasingly popular among Christians of all mainstream traditions, with demand for directors outstripping supply in many places. And although the Bible is central to the practice of spiritual direction, very little has been published on how best to use it in this form of ministry.

Experienced spiritual director Liz Hoare explores the central role the Bible has played in Christian experience, in order to discourage poor, shallow, or rigid use of the Bible, which can lead to damage and inhibit spiritual growth.

According to Hoare, the goal of spiritual direction is not a personal improvement plan but a people who are being shaped into the likeness of Christ, for the flourishing of the church as a whole. Using different methods of praying with the Bible and drawing on historical traditions of Christian spirituality, as well as current literature and practice, this book offers a rich, stimulating, and thoroughly biblical resource for all those who give and receive spiritual direction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819232571
Publisher:	Church Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/10/2016
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Liz Hoare is Tutor for Spiritual Formation at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and has been giving and receiving spiritual direction for over twenty-five years. She is the author of Spirituality and Remembering (Grove Books 1996), What is Celtic Christianity? (Grove Books 2008), Nurturing the Spirit of a Child (Grove Books 2009), and the chapter on Anglican Spirituality in The Blackwell Companion to Anglicanism (Wiley-Blackwell 2013). She was one of the first women to be ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1994.

Daniel L. Prechtel is a spiritual director, educator, church consultant, retreat leader, and priest in the Episcopal Church who draws on more than 30 years of experience in spiritual guidance. His previous book, Where Two or Three are Gathered: Spiritual Direction for Small Groups, has been widely received for its contributions to the field of spirituality and spiritual guidance. He is founder of Lamb & Lion Spiritual Guidance Ministries and teaches at the Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership (CALL) at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, and at The Chaplaincy Institute.

Table of Contents

Prefaces
1 Introduction: What is spiritual direction?
2 Learning to reflect on our experience
3 The Bible and spiritual direction
4 The use and abuse of the Bible in spiritual direction
5 Stories
6 Themes in Scripture and spiritual direction
7 Models of relating in spiritual direction
8 Prayer and praying
9 Spiritual direction and non-literate approaches to
Scripture
10 alone and together in spiritual direction
11 Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In this new book about spiritual direction Liz Hoare writes with an insider’s understanding. She knows the work and feel of this one-to-one ministry of accompanying people on their spiritual journeys. She moves easily between the voice of the "director" and the shoes of the "directee" as she explores the connections between this work and its roots in the Bible.
As someone who has just completed a one-year introductory course to becoming a spiritual director, I found this a very helpful and interesting discussion of the many ways in which scripture lies at the heart of this role. The Bible is full of stories of people who are looking for God as they face real personal struggles, and God is there too waiting to meet them.
In 138 pages she provides a map of the territory across which the journeys of spiritual direction can travel. Her particular focus is on how people draw on the Christian scriptures. She engages in a gentle conversation with a wide spectrum of different readers: those who might not see big links between direction and the Bible, and those who are wary of reading the Bible in ways that use the imagination and reflection on experience. Her own spiritual life has been nourished by the scriptures and she suggests many ways in which they can speak to us: images, metaphor, pictures, prayers and story. She explores the use of questions (very common in the Bible), the importance of listening in silence and the dangers of inappropriate use of scripture.
She introduces us to a range of models commonly used in spiritual direction and highlights the way that the Bible is used in these approaches, drawing on the methods of the desert fathers, Ignatius, Benedict, the puritans and the Oxford Movement.
Central to her case is the person of Jesus himself, the great model of how to have spiritual conversations with people: his attentiveness to God and the person in front of him; his use of questions; his emotional empathy; his perceptive discernment; and his own rootedness in scripture – "Did not our hearts burn within us as he opened the scriptures to us?"
In an age where religion is out and spirituality is in, this field of ministry is increasing in popularity and significance. Liz has provided us with an important guide.

The Revd Canon Geoff Maughan

LIZ Hoare’s Using the Bible in Spiritual Direction (SPCK, £14.99) set me on a steep learning curve, not because the book is in any way difficult, but because the subject itself has, until fairly recently, been more commonly associated with parts of Christian tradition generally remote from Methodism, such as the Desert Fathers (and Mothers!), Benedictine lectio divina, and prayer in the tradition of Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. In later times, the directeur de conscience was a recognised figure in French Catholic history and literature (Louis XIV had one; their interactions would be an interesting subject of research).

Tradition:
Dr Hoare herself (her doctorate is in Tudor history) stands within a broadly evangelical Anglican tradition; she is tutor in spiritual formation at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Yet she writes with understanding and app recitation of (among many others) high Churchmen of the late 16th and 17th centuries and of leaders of the 19th-century Oxford Movement. In such a wide-ranging account, it is not surprising that Methodism and the Wesleys receive only passing mentions. Yet in fact several Methodist Districts, normally in co-operation with or under the leadership of Anglicans, have established courses in spiritual direction, while across the Atlantic, "Hearts on Fire" is the title of a Fellowship of United Met hodist spiritual directors and retreat leaders. Many readers, including the present reviewer, will welcome a definition of what is meant by spiritual direction, and what is not. Dr Hoare believes that spiritual direction is not, among other things, a self-improvement plan. Catholic writers have made a clear distinction between spiritual direction and the sacrament of penance. Others, including Dr Hoare herself, insist that it is not psychotherapy or counselling,
still less financial planning ("Sell all you have, and give to the poor"?). "It is not in the least about handing over responsibility for our lives to another human being. "More positively:" Spiritual direction is a relational ministry between two people whereby both are seeking to listen to the Holy Spirit ... It is God the Holy Spirit, in fact, who is the real director ..."

Quiet:
The author speaks with the quiet authority of one who has both received and given spiritual direction for many years. Although, like John Wesley, she is a person "of one book", she draws on a rich fund of old and modern sources, to which copious notes and bibliography bear witness. She does not question the value of academic study of the Bible, but she encourages her readers to place biblical texts themselves at the centre of their pilgrimage. She sees spiritual significance in the abrupt ending of Mark and in Luke’s setting Jesus’ great sermon on the plain rather than on the mount. No review can do justice to the drawing power of this remarkable book. Readers who have already experienced spiritual direction will find their experience deepened. Those who are taking their first steps on that journey will be encouraged to go forward in confidence and hope.

The Rev Dr Paul Ellingworth

... finding new insights in familiar texts ... Her writing is succinct and approachable, and offers a very readable introduction to spiritual direction. The book will be useful both to those involved in direction and those seeking direction.

Peter Thompson

Much-needed resource and aid to reflection.

From the Publisher