DISCIPLINES OF GRACE: From Spiritual Routines to Spiritual Renewal

Essentially a very long list of disciplines that Christians should practice (e.g. prayer, Bible study, fasting and solitude), Moore's book is frustratingly tedious, saying little that his target audience does not already know. Moore's repetitious rallying cry is that when spiritual practices become routine, they simply support the status quo; when they rise to the level of discipline, however, they yield spiritual growth. Perhaps aware that his long list of shoulds sounds a bit too much like a works-based theology, Moore occasionally emphasizes that God alone gives spiritual growth. Despite this caveat, his dominant message is that Christians should devote most of their waking hours to one discipline or another (in fact, he suggests that Christians should sleep less in order to have more waking hours for these pursuits), and that failing to do so precludes the possibility of real spiritual progress. Moore ventures tentatively into slightly novel territory by suggesting chanting as a spiritual practice and by quoting Christians from various eras and branches of the church, such as the ancient Celtic church, that most evangelicals tend to elide. End-of-chapter questions make this book well-suited for individual devotions or group study, but only the most earnest believers will make their way through this exhaustive and exhausting to-do list. Pass over this in favor of Richard Foster's classic Celebration of Discipline, as fresh and important now as it was in 1978. (Aug.)