Spiritual Counsel in the Anglican Tradition

As the world grows increasingly complex, human beings need more, not less, good counsel for Christian living. This book reaches into the treasury of Anglican spirituality and draws out pearls of wisdom for today's needs. The Anglican tradition has shown an abiding concern for a holy living that leads to a holy dying. Spiritual Counsel in the Anglican Tradition offers earnest, practical devotion to inspire and to instruct the Christian pilgrim in the path of discipleship. Here readers will find not a general collection of spiritual writings but direct words of spiritual counsel on such crucial subjects as discipleship, vocation, scripture, sacraments, vice and virtue, money, patience, forgiveness, perseverance, marriage and family, friendship, and the natural world. Readers will also encounter many passages selected for both authoritative content and surpassing beauty. Represented in these pages are fifty Anglican authors, including Lancelot Andrewes, John Donne, Austin Farrer, C. S. Lewis, Samuel Johnson, William Law, Hannah More, J. B. Phillips, Michael Ramsey, Frederick W. Robertson, Dorothy L. Sayers, Robert South, Geoffrey A. Studdert Kennedy, Jeremy Taylor, William Temple, Evelyn Underhill, and Olive Wyon. This book takes seriously the Anglican emphasis on a form of religion that quickens the mind, forms the conscience, guides the will, and lifts the spirit.

A "fine book": "helpful and accessible."
-Peter Carrell, The Living Church

"David Hein with Charles R. Henery have put together extracts from the writings of fifty authors of Anglican background. ... There is a short biography of every author, which is very helpful in assessing the contribution. ... The book seeks to reflect the 'Anglican tradition of spiritual reflection' with emphasis on spiritual responsibility and the use of the mind. ... An interesting book, and one never knows what golden nugget may be forthcoming in the lucky dip."
--David Streater, Churchman (UK)

"Anyone seeking a way of deepening their spiritual life could hardly do better than buy this [book] and read an extract each day. It is a well-produced and accessible introduction to some of the many stars in the Anglican firmament with a great deal to offer us today."
--Gordon Mursell, Modern Believing

"One thing this book accomplishes is to demonstrate the wideness of Anglicanism, with the 'usual suspects' joined by the unexpected. Here is Noble Powell, bishop of Maryland, addressing his diocese in the early 1960s, Charles Martin's Letters from a Headmaster's Study, and George Washington Doane, the mid-nineteenth-century bishop of New Jersey, right along with Andrewes and Keble and Temple and Austin Farrer. So much the better. As Julia Gatta says in her foreword, 'Our sense of the communion of saints is immensely deepened.'"

--James Dunkly
Sewanee Theological Review

"Probably every Christian who has led others through a crisis or rallied for a controversial issue knows what it's like to stand alone. For such times, as well as calmer ones, Spiritual Counsel in the Anglican Tradition offers friendship with wise counselors. Their deep familiarity with the vagaries of the spiritual life carries the reader from struggle to enlightened companionship with God in Jesus Christ, and to a wonderful, existentially felt participation in the Communion of Saints."
--Elisabeth Koenig
Professor of Ascetical Theology
The General Theological Seminary

David Hein is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Hood College. He is the author of Geoffrey Fisher: Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961 (2007) and coauthor with Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr. of The Episcopalians (2005) .

Charles R. Henery is Director of Spiritual Life at St. John's Northwestern Military Academy and Priest-in-Charge of the Church of St. John Chrysostom in Delafield, Wisconsin. He is the editor of A Speaking Life: The Legacy of John Keble (1995) and of Beyond the Horizon: Frontiers for Mission (1986) . Read more Continue reading Read less REVIEW
"The text themselves, on which a book such as this must stand or fall, are rich, challenging and rewarding reads for any who take the path of costly discipleship seriously. [ ... ] Let those who will, come; let those who come, read. Those who read will be blessed." (Adrian Chatfield Anvil 1900-01-00) --This text refers to the digital edition. Read more Continue reading Read less