Spiritual Formation: A Close Examination
Mere Fidelity · Mere Orthodoxy
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Show Notes
Derek Rishmawy, Alastair Roberts, Brad East, and James Wood trace the evangelical spiritual formation movement from Richard Foster through Dallas Willard to John Mark Comer. They explore why disciplines resonate today amid technological distraction and desire for embodied faith, while navigating tensions between individual and communal formation, liturgy's role, and concerns about practices becoming self-optimization divorced from gospel foundations.
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Chapters- 00:00 – Introduction
- 01:06 – Tracing the Spiritual Formation Movement
- 08:35 – Why Spiritual Disciplines Resonate Today
- 19:45 – Technology, Attention, and the Appeal of Forms
- 25:00 – Critiques: Self-Optimization and Theological Drift
- 33:12 – The Role of Set Prayers and Liturgy
- 44:50 – Inhabiting Forms vs. Formalism
- 53:00 – Suffering as Spiritual Formation
- 58:47 – The Danger of Christian Elitism
- 01:12:54 – The Parable of the Three Bricklayers