Over the past half-century, evangelical Christians have rediscovered spiritual formation. Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, and more recently John Mark Comer have helped re-emphasize spiritual practices and the interior life. But why does so much popular writing and teaching on spiritual formation lean on Catholic sources – mystics and monks and Merton? Is there a distinctly Protestant stream of spiritual formation that we can rediscover? If so, what might it teach us? In this episode, we interact with a new book from Matthew Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God. Bingham asserts that there IS a deep Protestant tradition of spiritual formation, and one of its distinctives is the centrality of Scripture. In this episode, we discuss why we tend to minimize Scripture in spiritual formation, why the Puritans saw Scripture as central to spiritual formation, and how we can practically foreground the Scriptures in our spiritual practices.
Chapters:
(0:00) Introductions: Have We Lost the Thread on Spiritual Formation?
(4:26) The Primacy of the Word of God
(13:23) Some Critiques of a Word-Centric Spiritual Formation
(20:43) What the Puritans Have to Say
(26:22) Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You Richly
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