Sometimes I sit in my church office amid towers of books on ministry strategy and discipleship DVDs and wonder, Is any of this stuff really necessary? Last year Americans bought $4.34 billion worth of Christian T-shirts, Thomas Kinkade calendars, and devotional books. The proliferation of “Jesus junk” makes you wonder how Christians communed with God before singing vegetables and purpose-driven ministries.
Tony Jones’s book reminds us that before Christianity was a retail market it was sacred. The Sacred Way awakens us to the simple practices of the spiritual life believers for centuries have used to commune with God. Not intimidated by labels, Jones removes the barriers between Evangelical, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox spirituality, and acknowledges that we “live in a time of unprecedented cross-pollination” in the church.
The admiration for different traditions flows from Jones’ frustration with his own narrow spiritual journey. “I was raised in a nice, Midwestern, church-going family. I went away to college and got involved in a conservative evangelical college group then went straight to seminary after graduation. In other words, by the time I was 25, my views of God, prayer, the Bible, etc. were pretty screwed up.”
Organized into two sections, Via Contemplativa (contemplative spirituality) and Via Activa (bodily spirituality), the book covers 18 practices, including familiar disciplines like solitude and fasting, and those foreign to most evangelicals such as sacred reading, labyrinths, icons, and pilgrimage.
Aware that his readers will be unfamiliar with some of the practices and downright disturbed by others, Jones uses stories and humor to identify with his audience.
For example, Jones writes, “Everything in my American bloodstream, everything in my DirectTV, two-car-three-bedroom-one-and-three-quarter-bath DNA is repelled by the disciplines.” And when studying the use of icons he admits, “To a Protestant like me, the difference between praying through (rather than to) an icon or saint is a nuance I have a hard time grasping.”
 The Sacred Way:Spiritual Practicesfor Everyday Life by Tony Jones Zondervan, (2005) |
In each chapter Jones studies a spiritual practice in three parts. First, he recounts the history of the practice, outlines its theology, and finally offers guidance for practicing the discipline.
Between each chapter is an excerpt from Jones’ own journal revealing his introduction to, or struggle with, a particular discipline. Jones’ combination of scholarship, authenticity, and irreverent humor makes his book a refreshing journey few authors of this genre have achieved.
His is a historically rich perspective. The Sacred Way is filled with hundreds of quotes from the likes of Thomas a Kempis, John Chrysostom, Brother Lawrence, Aelred of Rievaulx, St. Ignatius, and more contemporary writers like Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Phyllis Tickle. Jones also takes us to Christian communities in France, Spain, and England that constructively confuse readers who may be suffering from megachurch myopia.
Jones’s postmodern pedigree ensures that references to coffee shops, websites, and pop culture abound. And his struggle to employ spiritual practices into his own life as the father of young children is a reality I identify with every diaper-filled morning. His is no ethereal spirituality, but a gritty, earthy, honest seeking after God.
In the end, The Sacred Way effectively links past and present, scholarship and humor, high church and low church into a practical guide that takes the Christian deeper into his or her own soul to meet with God.
Used in a class or small group, as I intend to in my church, The Sacred Way welcomes those with a 30-minute quiet-time spirituality and bumper sticker theology into a much larger world.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
