Spiritual Mentoring | Book Review

Reviewed by Thomas Scarborough

This is a book you are likely either to love or to hate.

Faith, it begins, is an “imitative faith”. It is a “faith taught by one to another”. Imitative faith is “passing on the traditions of the faith”. Therefore faith is about “teaching” and “instruction” and “formation”.

This immediately begs a definition of faith. How should faith (Gk. pistis), which has as its object the living, sovereign Lord, be imitative of the behaviour of others? While the Scriptures indeed encourage us to imitate faith (Hebrews 13:7), does this refer to a passing on of traditions, or does it refer to a direct approach to God? Does it refer to the emulation of certain qualities, or to a radical, transcendent relation? Herein lies a great theological divide.

The book presents seven saints of the Church as “models” who might be imitated thus. I shall focus on Ignatius of Loyola.

Ignatius proposes that “the soul [should] rid itself of all inordinate attachments”. This, too, is a theological Shibboleth. The Protestant view has generally been one of incarnation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer commented: “It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe” (Bonhoeffer 1956:125), while C.S. Lewis considered that one is not to seek “insurances against heartbreak” through unnecessary disengagement (Lewis 1960:146).

A major feature of the Ignatian way is its emphasis on “the purification of the soul from sin”. Here we meet another Shibboleth. To some this would seem a fine ideal. To others it would seem a superficial view of sin — a view that would not appear to take into account the second repentance that has been termed “repentance from good works”. The Ignatian way has been described as “a dealing of man/woman with God on the highest level (of the soul), not the dealing of God with man/woman on the lowest level (of sin).” (Malek 2001:20).

The book presented a considerable problem in its use of theological terms, which were deposited largely without definition or explanation: the activity of God, chosenness by God, the mind of Christ, the heart of God, the true self, the inner relationship, God in everything — to name but a few. Such terms, without definition, tend to be unfathomable.

By now you should understand the point of view of the book. It does have a following. James M. Houston advises in the foreword: “Read this excellent book.”

CITATION OF REFERENCES

Anderson, Keith R. and Reese, Randy D.

1999 Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide For Seeking And Giving Direction. Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

1953 Letters & Papers From Prison. London: S.C.M. Press.

Lewis, Clive Staples

1960 The Four Loves. London: Harper Collins Publishers.

Malek, George N.

2001 The Ontological Question of Western Spirituality, its Effect and Influence on Christian Theology and Education Analysis and Critique. Cape Town: The Ecumenical Pastoral Institute.