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The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life
One of the most popular current views on spirituality is that there are varied paths to God. In this new Ancient-Future series book, Bob Webber evaluates this common misunderstanding of spirituality as separated from God's story, extremely self-focused, and shaped by our surrounding culture. This challenging work offers a corrective, calling us to an alternative Christian spirituality, one that reveals two sides-that of God's "divine embrace" of us and our passionate response. The Divine Embrace is a fresh, grounded look at true spirituality that will be embraced by pastors, thinking Christians, and anyone looking for an engaging and thorough treatment of this topic.
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 3, 2016
This book describes very well the form of spirituality that I want to live out in my life. Easier said than done. The first part of the book describes the history of the Christian Church and its loss of the spiritual vitality that characterized it in its early stages. This loss is still evident today in our cultural surroundings and in the way nearly all churches function in varying ways and degrees. Spirituality has tended to become self-focused, instead of God-focused, making God the object of human knowledge and experience.
The second half of the book outlines a reorientation of Christian Spirituality for the future that is faithful to ancient Christian scriptural teaching and practice. It's an outline that few churches today fill in with substantive detail, but one that I think is vital to the distinctive work and witness of Christianity in the world. Robert Webber's vision is being carried out after his death by the Ancient-Future Faith Network. It's my fervent hope that it grows tremendously.
The second half of the book outlines a reorientation of Christian Spirituality for the future that is faithful to ancient Christian scriptural teaching and practice. It's an outline that few churches today fill in with substantive detail, but one that I think is vital to the distinctive work and witness of Christianity in the world. Robert Webber's vision is being carried out after his death by the Ancient-Future Faith Network. It's my fervent hope that it grows tremendously.
March 22, 2022
There is no way I'm going to do this book justice in my attempt at a review, but I will try.
This book began, in a way, as a conversation between the author and four young adults, about spirituality. He had already started working on it before the conversation, but changed the direction of it afterward. The book is about the story of this divine embrace, "God's passionate embrace of us; our passionate embrace of God." It's about God's initiative and our response.
Part of the premise comes from the fact that our culture has moved away from accepting argument as proof. "We now live in a world in which people have lost interest in argument and have taken to story, imagination, mystery, ambiguity, and vision."
The idea of this book, along with the rest of the Ancient-Future series, is to gain perspective on what our future should look like by digging into the traditions of the past. In this case, the author takes us back to "the earliest convictions of Christian spirituality."
The book is divided into two parts. In part 1, The Crisis, the author shows how spirituality has, over time, become separated from "the Divine Embrace." In the first century through about 1500, spirituality became entrenched in dualism and mysticism. From 1500-1900, it struggled with Intellectualism and Experientialism (the Enlightenment). During the 1900s and 2000s, spiritualism was buried in legalism and romanticism, and as we move forward in the twenty-first century, it is becoming tangled in New Age Philosophy and Easter Religions.
In short, the Church has lost the sense of the embodied spiritualism that should be associated with Jesus Christ. I believe that Webber does a fantastic job of chronicling this. It is not always easy to read, and I confess that I almost gave up a few times. I stand by my rating, however, based on what I perceive to be the total value of this book toward my experience.
In part 2, The Challenge, Webber gives suggestions on how we can return spirituality to "the Divine Embrace." First, he reminds us of God's story (see the final quote that I make reference to). He then tells us how our story relates to God's story. He continues by outlining the mystery that is God's life in mine and my life in His, and then goes on to show how we should worship.
During this part, he gives a wonderful description of Lectio Divina, a way of reading Scripture that has been recently rediscovered in the Church. He wants to help us rediscover our mystical union with God through this and through the art of meditation and contemplation.
There is so much information in this book that, as I said, I just can't do it justice here. There is a wealth of source material, both in the notes and in the bibliography. My "want to read" list grew a bit, as I was reading this one, based on his notes. And I want to share some quotes that spoke to me.
"When God lives in us and we in him, we lose ourselves through a surrender of ourselves to the purposes of God. We become transformed selves."
"God has come to us in Jesus so that we may come to God through Jesus."
"The church does not stand on its own in some autonomous way. It is not self-centered, does not exist for itself, does not speak for itself, does not act for itself. It is the family of God on earth called to envision community in the divine life of God and to act now in this world in the name of God revealing God's vision for the world." (I believe there are some "pastors" who really need to see that.)
"God has called the Christian to do work, not only in order to maintain body and soul and care for the family, but to do work that results in the common good of civilization and in the promotion of the dignity of every human being. Working, in God's story, unfolds civilizations and cultures in a way that contributes to making the world the theater of God's glory. Work is union with God in action, springing forth from our union with God's purposes for creation."
One of the concluding sentences sums it up well, for me. "There is no story in this world that is more profound than the story of God's embrace."
This book began, in a way, as a conversation between the author and four young adults, about spirituality. He had already started working on it before the conversation, but changed the direction of it afterward. The book is about the story of this divine embrace, "God's passionate embrace of us; our passionate embrace of God." It's about God's initiative and our response.
Part of the premise comes from the fact that our culture has moved away from accepting argument as proof. "We now live in a world in which people have lost interest in argument and have taken to story, imagination, mystery, ambiguity, and vision."
The idea of this book, along with the rest of the Ancient-Future series, is to gain perspective on what our future should look like by digging into the traditions of the past. In this case, the author takes us back to "the earliest convictions of Christian spirituality."
The book is divided into two parts. In part 1, The Crisis, the author shows how spirituality has, over time, become separated from "the Divine Embrace." In the first century through about 1500, spirituality became entrenched in dualism and mysticism. From 1500-1900, it struggled with Intellectualism and Experientialism (the Enlightenment). During the 1900s and 2000s, spiritualism was buried in legalism and romanticism, and as we move forward in the twenty-first century, it is becoming tangled in New Age Philosophy and Easter Religions.
In short, the Church has lost the sense of the embodied spiritualism that should be associated with Jesus Christ. I believe that Webber does a fantastic job of chronicling this. It is not always easy to read, and I confess that I almost gave up a few times. I stand by my rating, however, based on what I perceive to be the total value of this book toward my experience.
In part 2, The Challenge, Webber gives suggestions on how we can return spirituality to "the Divine Embrace." First, he reminds us of God's story (see the final quote that I make reference to). He then tells us how our story relates to God's story. He continues by outlining the mystery that is God's life in mine and my life in His, and then goes on to show how we should worship.
During this part, he gives a wonderful description of Lectio Divina, a way of reading Scripture that has been recently rediscovered in the Church. He wants to help us rediscover our mystical union with God through this and through the art of meditation and contemplation.
There is so much information in this book that, as I said, I just can't do it justice here. There is a wealth of source material, both in the notes and in the bibliography. My "want to read" list grew a bit, as I was reading this one, based on his notes. And I want to share some quotes that spoke to me.
"When God lives in us and we in him, we lose ourselves through a surrender of ourselves to the purposes of God. We become transformed selves."
"God has come to us in Jesus so that we may come to God through Jesus."
"The church does not stand on its own in some autonomous way. It is not self-centered, does not exist for itself, does not speak for itself, does not act for itself. It is the family of God on earth called to envision community in the divine life of God and to act now in this world in the name of God revealing God's vision for the world." (I believe there are some "pastors" who really need to see that.)
"God has called the Christian to do work, not only in order to maintain body and soul and care for the family, but to do work that results in the common good of civilization and in the promotion of the dignity of every human being. Working, in God's story, unfolds civilizations and cultures in a way that contributes to making the world the theater of God's glory. Work is union with God in action, springing forth from our union with God's purposes for creation."
One of the concluding sentences sums it up well, for me. "There is no story in this world that is more profound than the story of God's embrace."
February 7, 2020
Like many other reviewers here, I am a Webber fan too! He is our hero in so many ways and a safe guide as we wade through the waters of post-modernism with its many seductions and threats. Webber has in so many of his other works shown us how to live out the Christian faith in an era that bears much semblance to the pre-Constantinian period where many other faiths are giving the Christian story a run for the money!
This last book in his ancient-future series serves more as a broad overview of his understanding of the Christian story vis-a-vis the various distortions that have crept in through the ages.
The Church has had to battle the heresies of Platonism/Gnosticism that splits matter from spirit in favor of the latter, medieval obsession with one's forensic status before God with its accompanying guilt and legalism, intellectualism and Romanticism which are opposite outcrops of the Enlightenment split between the intellect and experience, and modern day spiritual narcissism and private interiority. Webber lays out these distortions with candor and poignant critique and invites us to recover what the ancient Patristic Church has maintained as the first order understanding of the Christian story, which is 'recapitulation' - the healing and reconciliation of the fallen world to God through the redemptive works of Christ.
By pointing us to the core of the Christian story, he then lays out the ways in which Christians can make this story their own through the core practices of baptism,repentance and cultivation of Christian virtues, daily disciplines such as work, study and prayer as well as worship and immersion in the life of the church.
This pretty much sums up the scope of Webber's legacy in writing and teaching and serves as a good refresher and one-volume condensation of his lifelong reflections on Christian spirituality. As such, it is a good resource that points us to the various aspects of his thoughts which one can pursue in a more focused way in his other books, such as 'ancient-future evangelism', 'ancient-future time', or 'the younger evangelicals' that go more into the brass tags .
As always, Webber is articulate and methodical, giving us neat schematics that help us recapitulate his thoughts. The references in his footnotes to some ancient sources are very helpful too. He brings out to us treasures of the church, ancient and new!
This last book in his ancient-future series serves more as a broad overview of his understanding of the Christian story vis-a-vis the various distortions that have crept in through the ages.
The Church has had to battle the heresies of Platonism/Gnosticism that splits matter from spirit in favor of the latter, medieval obsession with one's forensic status before God with its accompanying guilt and legalism, intellectualism and Romanticism which are opposite outcrops of the Enlightenment split between the intellect and experience, and modern day spiritual narcissism and private interiority. Webber lays out these distortions with candor and poignant critique and invites us to recover what the ancient Patristic Church has maintained as the first order understanding of the Christian story, which is 'recapitulation' - the healing and reconciliation of the fallen world to God through the redemptive works of Christ.
By pointing us to the core of the Christian story, he then lays out the ways in which Christians can make this story their own through the core practices of baptism,repentance and cultivation of Christian virtues, daily disciplines such as work, study and prayer as well as worship and immersion in the life of the church.
This pretty much sums up the scope of Webber's legacy in writing and teaching and serves as a good refresher and one-volume condensation of his lifelong reflections on Christian spirituality. As such, it is a good resource that points us to the various aspects of his thoughts which one can pursue in a more focused way in his other books, such as 'ancient-future evangelism', 'ancient-future time', or 'the younger evangelicals' that go more into the brass tags .
As always, Webber is articulate and methodical, giving us neat schematics that help us recapitulate his thoughts. The references in his footnotes to some ancient sources are very helpful too. He brings out to us treasures of the church, ancient and new!
November 7, 2019
One of the best, most well rounded books on Christian spirituality I've ever read. Rather than simply covering spiritual disciplines like Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" (which is totally valuable in a different way), this book covers the history of the practice of that spirituality that leads you to or from those practices. Foster gave me the how, but Webber deeply and thoroughly gave me the why.
As a Christian who grew up in a legalistic, fundamentalist, revivalistic restoration movement tradition (none of these are inheirantly bad words), I came into this book bound by the idea that spirituality came from myself and stretched to God, but this book has freed me from that prison and opened my eyes to see myself within God's Divine Embrace. Now when I come to God in prayer or other disciplines, I am not awaiting his opinion of my work that day, but am coming to Him as a loved Son entering His eternal community of love.
Incredible book. Would highly recommend, especially to other people raised in a faith like mine growing up.
As a Christian who grew up in a legalistic, fundamentalist, revivalistic restoration movement tradition (none of these are inheirantly bad words), I came into this book bound by the idea that spirituality came from myself and stretched to God, but this book has freed me from that prison and opened my eyes to see myself within God's Divine Embrace. Now when I come to God in prayer or other disciplines, I am not awaiting his opinion of my work that day, but am coming to Him as a loved Son entering His eternal community of love.
Incredible book. Would highly recommend, especially to other people raised in a faith like mine growing up.
November 22, 2021
This book covers a lot, bridging the gap between history and practical spirituality. However, it focuses on Baptism without mentioning Eucharist until the last three pages. It also assumes a fairly low view of the body and of pleasure, which is annoying. It attacks and denounces modern and postmodernist rationalism and enlightenment thinking, without acknowledging how that thinking formed the pages of the book and how it forms society. This book draws clear lines between sacred and secular, and argues for ancient spirituality. I'm afraid if it were to come to pass, the church would be irrelevant. Many problems are evident in this book, but he does make some valid points and points out many areas of growth in evangelicalism.
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June 9, 2020Ok. Lots of overlap with Ancient Future Worship, which I read right before this book.
August 14, 2021
This book was brilliant.
August 30, 2013
I do love Robert Webber, but it has been awhile since I have read any of his books. He died too soon, but I still remember his classroom presence. This book covers much of the ground he went over in a class on the Christian tradition, without him jumping up and down on his desk. I might quibble with some of his history, which at times feels like a romanticization of the early church, but this book is overall such a delight and a wonder. It provides a clear description of the nature of the Christian life around union with Christ and tells the story of our life in Christ with facility and winsomeness. His criticism of evangelical rational understandings of salvation, the Christian life, and conversion are all well put. It is also good to see him reaffirm the place of the church and of worship and of the necessity for an emphasis on the "proclamation and enactment of God's story" in worship.
"Delight ," I told him, "in the mystery of God revealed in Christ who, by the Spirit, is united to our humanity and opens the way to our union with God. Delight in the incarnation of God in Jesus, in his sacrifice for our sins, his victory over the powers of evil, and the good news that everything that needs to be done done to unite us with Goud and establish our spiritual relationship with God is done through grace by faith in our Lord and Savior; Jesus Christ. Affirm that Jesus, in union with God, dwells in you and you in him, and see the world through God's divine embrace. Then live in your freedom to participate in God in the life of the world!"
"Delight ," I told him, "in the mystery of God revealed in Christ who, by the Spirit, is united to our humanity and opens the way to our union with God. Delight in the incarnation of God in Jesus, in his sacrifice for our sins, his victory over the powers of evil, and the good news that everything that needs to be done done to unite us with Goud and establish our spiritual relationship with God is done through grace by faith in our Lord and Savior; Jesus Christ. Affirm that Jesus, in union with God, dwells in you and you in him, and see the world through God's divine embrace. Then live in your freedom to participate in God in the life of the world!"
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October 21, 2016Webber's work is two-fold. He first provides an overview of historical development and then lays theological foundation for spiritual formation. Webber's explanations are worldview-shifting. Among noteworthy is the shift from me-centered spirituality to spirituality being a gift from God. As much as historical part is informative, theological part may benefit from some development. His key symbols look more like lists rather than a system of thought helpful for spiritual focus. Webber's work is helpful for someone who is thinking through the subject of spiritual formation.
September 4, 2012
Helpful history of Spirituality and what the Reformation and Modern eras have added/done to the search for Spiritual Formation. Challenging approach to God being the Subject and not the Object of our worship and formation. Worthy of your time and effort.
June 19, 2009
worship is a person have relationship with God our creator.
March 31, 2012
I may go back to school as a result of reading this book.
July 17, 2015
Good info but a little repetitive
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February 20, 2016Great book.
September 5, 2009
Excellent thus far if developing in spiritual formation
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews