The Upper Room Dictionary of Christian Spiritual Formation

Whether you're just beginning to pay attention to the spiritual life or are helping others as a friend, pastor or spiritual director, here's a good place to start seeking information about spiritual formation.

With the help of more than 50 scholars from many denominations, The Upper Room has prepared a basic introduction to Christian spiritual formation: your guide to great teachers of the past and present, to important topics in Christian spirituality, and to ways of praying and leading groups in prayer and spiritual growth.

With enough information to get you started but not so much to overwhelm, the more than 470 articles are the first place to turn for answers to questions like these: * What's spiritual formation? * What's grace? How does grace help me grow? * Who's Hildegard of Bingen? What did she write? * How can I grow in forgiveness? * What are Fowler's ""stages of faith""? What are other ways of talking about stages of spiritual growth? Additional features include a comparative chart of different Christian spiritual traditions and a listing of significant spiritual classics by title so that you can find the author.

Each Christian generation must discover for itself that experience of God and a living relationship with God are more important in our lives than knowledge about God. Christian spiritual formation is more vital than Christian theological information. This was the great truth discovered by John Wesley in 18th century England, by Jonathan Edwards in the American Great Awakening, by evangelists like Dwight Moody and Phoebe Palmer in the 19th century, and by many recent writers on prayer and on worship. We hunger to know God, not simply to know about God. Our goal is to offer you a basic resource for exploring the history and practice of spiritual formation. This is a basic resource for exploring the history and practice of spiritual formation. The primary emphasis is practical: how we are formed and re-formed as Christians, and how we can be transformed by God's grace.