Spiritual Disciplines for the Soul: Reading the Classics

William Gaultiere, Ph.D., © 2006

There’s more going on in Jesus’ glorious transfiguration than we’ve seen:

“Jesus took his closest friends, Peter, James, and John, up a mountain.  There he was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.  Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus… A bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’” (Matthew 17:1-3, 5b. NIV).

Here Jesus revealed his glory as the Son of God.  We know this.  What we don’t appreciate is that he also demonstrated his deep soul friendship with Moses and Elijah.  Jesus is the “I AM”, beyond space and time, so he was friends with Moses, Elijah, and all the other saints of the Old Testament long before his incarnation.  But in the limitations of his human flesh he needed to go back in time to befriend the great saints of the past.  He did this, not only in the miracle of his transfiguration, but also throughout his life in the ordinary way of reading.  We know this because he frequently quoted from Moses and Elijah, as well as David, Ezekiel, and others.

If Jesus – and his Apostles after him – found it important to befriend and learn from past heroes, how much more should we?  The Scriptures, Christian hymns, biographies of the saints, and classic devotional books provide a rich source of sacred companionship.  “Come near to the holy men and women of the past,” A.W. Tozer (one of my favorite authors who wrote the classic, The Pursuit of God) urges us, “and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God” (p. 15).  He says, “The whole testimony of the worshipping, seeking, singing church” leads us into living by an “experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints” (Tozer, p. 16-17).

Today, more than ever, we need to go back in time, to step outside the limitations and errors of our own materialistic and narcissistic culture and look to the heroes of the Bible and the great saints of the church age that followed them.  C.S. Lewis explains:

"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes.  We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period…  The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books" (“On the Reading of Old Books,” God in the Dock, p. 202).

William Law (another saint who authored one of my favorite classics, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life) gives an example of the helpfulness of befriending the classics:

“Of all human writings the lives of devout persons and eminent saints are [Miranda’s] greatest delight.  In these she searches as for hidden treasure – hoping to find some secret of holy living which she may make her own.  By this means Miranda has her head and her heart so stored with all the principles of wisdom and holiness that if you are in her company you must be made wiser and better” (p. 56).

The great Quaker writer and missionary Thomas Kelly’s life was dramatically transformed through gathering with spiritual friends to read devotional classics that, in his words, “speak the language of the souls who live at the Center” (A Testament of Devotion, p. 55).  His weekly meetings with sacred companions and old devotional books featured readings, silence, conversation, and prayer.  Their cell group was like a “little religious order” that became a spiritual dynamo for revitalizing their lives and ministries to others (Douglass Steere, A Biographical Memoir of Thomas Kelly).  In fact, it was this group that stirred the “Shekinah of the Soul” in Kelly and ultimately led to A Testament of Devotion, one of the most compelling writings of Christian devotion in history.  I was so moved reading this book that I was literally brought to my knees and I stayed there, kneeling at my tear-stained ancient wooden prayer bench and praying for three full hours, until I had read through the entire book.  I’m not alone in my reverence for God’s revelation through Thomas Kelly’s testimony.  After befriending Thomas Kelly through his book Richard Foster remarked, “Each time I leaf through the pages of this book, I know I am in the presence of a giant soul” (from the Introduction). 

So it's no surprise that second to the Bible, I find the classic Christian devotional books the most helpful reading for my own relationship with God because they offer Christ to my heart simply, authentically, passionately... and usually in a short book!  In their pages I meet holy men and woman who see God and life with him differently than we do today.  They offer an ancient wisdom that I need and they open their heart to me and their holy desire for God is a fire that warms my heart and draws me closer to God.  These authors become my companions in my journey with Christ and I love sharing their words and warmth with my friends. 

Here are some of my favorite classic devotional books which I've read (including some that even though they were written relatively recently still offer ancient wisdom, vintage faith, and godly living):

  - Athanasius: The Life of Antony, St. Athanasius, 356.

  - The Life of Moses, Gregory of Nyssa, 390.

  - The Rule, St. Benedict, 530.

  - Spiritual Friendship, Aelred of Rievaulx, 1160.

  - The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, 1250-1261.

  - The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A. Kempis, 1486.

  - The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, St. Ignatius, 1521.

  - Interior Castle, Teresa of Avila, 1580.

  - Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan, 1678.

  - Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, Jeanne Guyon, 1685.

  - Practicing the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence, 1692.

  - A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, William Law, 1728.

  - Abide in Christ, Andrew Murray, 1897.

  - Streams in the Desert, L.B. Cowman, 1925.

  - Letters by a Modern Mystic, Frank Laubach, 1932.

  - My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers, 1935.

  - A Testament of Devotion, Thomas R. Kelly, 1941. 

  - The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer, 1948.

  - Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1954.

  - Lord, Make my Life a Miracle, Ray Ortlund, 1974.

  - Hind’s Feet on High Places, Hannah Hurnard, 1977.

  - The Way of the Heart, Henri Nouwen, 1981.

Other classics that I am reading now or have on my shelf to start reading include:

  - St. Augustine's Confessions, St. Augustine, 397.

  - The Love of God, Bernard of Clairvaux, 1120.

  - The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night, St. John of the Cross, 1579-85.

  - The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, 1741.

  - The Way of a Pilgrim, Anonymous Pilgrim, 1861.

A great way to start into reading books like these is with Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals & Groups by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, which offers readings from 52 great writings of Christian devotion.

As mentioned above, the traditional hymns of the church usher us into the Christian devotion of past saints.  The Cyber Hymnal is a storehouse of these treasures and provides tunes to go with the lyrics: http://www.cyberhymnal.org.

You can buy many of these books at a significant discount in our Christian Soul Care Bookstore, which is in partnership with Amazon.com.