Renovaré
More on Renovaré
09/18/2008 10:57 Filed in: Faith & Reason
See “A Life Formed in the Spirit” as well as the sidebar “Richard Foster on Leadership.”
On a related note, I’m still investigating the Renovaré movement, and I appreciate all the helpful comments in my earlier post. I pulled Celebration of Discipline off the shelf and plan to go through it again (this time because I want to, not because it’s an assignment). I’ve also obtained Streams of Living Water and The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible.
I like what I’ve seen so far because it seems to be an intelligent manifestation of Christianity that does not lapse into the realm of the overly academic. I often read very good books that unfortunately because of their level of content, I couldn’t simply hand over to the average person in my church. The Renovaré materials aren’t necessarily material that one progresses through quickly--to take them seriously they need to be digested at a slower pace than some books. Nevertheless, they are more accessible than some of the materials I work with in my regular pursuits.
Further, while there seems to be quite a few titles if one looks at Renovaré strictly in terms of publications, I don’t get the impression that these are materials that are overly commercialized. In other words, none of this strikes me as “the hot Christian book or Bible study of the moment.” There seems to be enough content involved here that this is more than a box to be checked, and happily none of it strikes me as another NBT (“next big thing” ).
Renovaré also seems to promote an experiential kind of faith that doesn’t bleed over into the sensationalistic.
I’ve been a Christian now for over thirty years. I’ve had a rich experience in which people have invested in me, and I’ve invested in others. But I don’t mind admitting that I feel like something is missing. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not speaking of a lack of faith or anything in that regard. I’ve felt for a while that something in the experiential realm of my faith that is lacking. In reflection about this, I’ve often wondered if those of us who call ourselves Protestant, and even those of us who claim the title of Baptist, haven’t worked so hard to separate ourselves from the rituals associated with the Catholic Church that we threw out the baby with the bath water (my apologies to my current writing class students for resorting to a cliché ).
Traditions do not have to be bad. They give us something tangible, something to hold onto. And so now when I look at the spiritual disciplines again in Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, when I see the six traditions described in Streams of Living Water, when I begin to reorient my thinking about the Kingdom of God as a necessary experiential part of my life as Dallas Willard describes it in The Divine Conspiracy, I have to wonder if I have now begun to find what I’ve been missing?
One minor nitpick... The Renovaré Bible comes in two editions, one with the Deuterocanonicals and one without. Although I do not view these “extra” books as canonical, I do find them to be of value and even inspirational (but not inspired). So when presented with the two editions of the Renovaré Bible, under normal circumstances, I would have preferred to have the one with the extra books. However, while searching for reviews of this Bible on the internet, I came across Zondervan’s webpage for the Bible in which it was advertised that there was an “Italian Duo-Tone Edition” of the Renovaré Bible:
My desire for what sounded like a “leather-like cover” trumped my appreciation of the Deuterocanonicals (I’ve got copies of them in other Bibles anyway, right?), so I found the matching ISBN edition on Amazon and ordered the Bible from there. The Amazon page did not mention Italian Duo-Tone, but since Zondervan is a sister company of HarperCollins, the actual publisher of the Bible, I assumed the Zondervan page was correct.
Not so. To my disappointment the edition I got in the mail--the edition with the same matching ISBN--is decidedly NOT Italian Duo-Tone. It’s merely the same black hardback edition I’ve seen in every edition of the Renovaré Bible I’ve handled in bookstores. If I’d known this was the case, I would have ordered the copy with the extra books, if for no other reason than to have the associated spiritual formation commentary accompanying them.
I don’t know what’s going on with the ad as seen above. It’s a mistake or someone has redefined Italian Duo-Tone as “black hardcover.”
I know I should quit my whining, and I’m sure there’s something about contentment in this Bible, but I haven’t read that section yet...
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What of Renovaré?
09/07/2008 18:32 Filed in: Faith & Reason
I’ve really gotten a lot out of Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy (in spite of the Greek grammatical fumble) as I’ve been listening to the unabridged audio version of the book. His characterization of the Kingdom of God as something immanent and experiential has led to great reflection and re-evaluation of both how I look at my world and live my life. I’ll write more on that when I am through with the book (or perhaps after I’ve gone through it a second time).
Since the book has been so good, I thought I might pursue some of his other writings as well as some of his associates in the Renovaré movement. I read Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline in 1991 when it was required reading in a Spiritual Formations class, but because it was an assignment, and because there was no follow-up to what we read, it never really had life changing impact upon me. Certainly I’ve looked to that book and some of Foster’s other writings when I occasionally taught on a subject that touched on spiritual disciplines, but I’ve had very little interaction otherwise.
I also just read “A Life Formed in the Spirit,” an interview with Foster in the current (September) issue of Christianity Today. That’s the kind of interview that makes me hungry for more. [And I also hope one day to have a job that allows a cool ponytail like Richard Foster, although Kathy says she won’t allow it.]
So, readers of This Lamp, in all seriousness, what are your thoughts on Renovaré and the attached personalities? Has anyone ever been part of a Renovaré small group, and if so, what is your evaluation? Does anyone have the Renovaré Spiritual Formations Bible? When I look at the Renovaré website, there are so many resources, I wouldn’t even know a good place to jump in. What would you suggest?
I welcome your insights and thoughts.
Since the book has been so good, I thought I might pursue some of his other writings as well as some of his associates in the Renovaré movement. I read Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline in 1991 when it was required reading in a Spiritual Formations class, but because it was an assignment, and because there was no follow-up to what we read, it never really had life changing impact upon me. Certainly I’ve looked to that book and some of Foster’s other writings when I occasionally taught on a subject that touched on spiritual disciplines, but I’ve had very little interaction otherwise.
I also just read “A Life Formed in the Spirit,” an interview with Foster in the current (September) issue of Christianity Today. That’s the kind of interview that makes me hungry for more. [And I also hope one day to have a job that allows a cool ponytail like Richard Foster, although Kathy says she won’t allow it.]
So, readers of This Lamp, in all seriousness, what are your thoughts on Renovaré and the attached personalities? Has anyone ever been part of a Renovaré small group, and if so, what is your evaluation? Does anyone have the Renovaré Spiritual Formations Bible? When I look at the Renovaré website, there are so many resources, I wouldn’t even know a good place to jump in. What would you suggest?
I welcome your insights and thoughts.