Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion

2010 Christianity Today Book Award winner! 2010 Golden Canon Leadership Book Award winner! Think of the moment you last experienced God. Do you know him that closely in this moment? Truly experiencing the love of God gives us a taste of his goodness and his love for us, but often those moments are fleeting. We get distracted by life. Our awareness and understanding fade while our longing to experience him that way again increases. In these pages you can begin to fill that longing by developing your capacity to receive and respond to God's love. Spiritual formation is the process through which one's inner self is opened to the work of the Holy Spirit, who forms us into the image of the Son. Here Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe, both experienced leaders in spiritual formation, introduce you to people from the past who have known God deeply. Each person helps you to grasp one of the seven primary paths to intimacy with God that have been developed throughout Christian history. Chapters are divided into sections, each segment surrounding a key figure and concluding with a reflection and prayer. This rich resource can guide you into the same deep intimacy with God, opening you to the Spirit's work of transformation.

Richard J. Foster (D.Th.P., Fuller Theological Seminary) is founder of Renovaré in Denver, Colorado. He is the author of many books, including Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, which has sold over two million copies worldwide, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World, and coauthor (with Gayle Beebe) of Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion.

Gayle D. Beebe (Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University) is president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, and past president of Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan. He served as one of the general editors for The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible. He is also author of The Interpretive Role of the Religious Community in Friedrich Schleiermacher and Josiah Royce and coeditor of Keeping the Concept in the Social and Natural Sciences; Keeping the Concept in the Philosophical, Practical and Productive Arts; A Concept to Keep; and Religion and Its Relevance in Post-Modernism.