Tilden Edwards

Spiritual friend is about that special friendship of supporting and guidance that one Christian can give to another over time, a relationship in recent centuries called spiritual direction. The roots of this kind of friendship stretch back into scripture and tradition. The book also extends into the present religious and social framework for an understanding of its current need and possibilities. Much of the book is given over to practical considerations of what to look for in searching for show more a spiritual director, how to be one, and how to better prepare those who are gifted and called to this distinctive ministry. show less

The book focuses on the nature of the soul, the ways we know a spiritual experience, on the different layers of community experience that a person brings to spiritual direction, and on an overall contemplative stance. The author describes a range of ways to nurture the soul, offers many practical suggestions about the way a spiritual director is present with a directee, among other things.

The author developed "prayer exercises" for individual and group use. The exercises are expected to be used differently, since "different people, regardless of background, tend to respond quite differently to these exercises, given each person's unique, evolving relationship to God...".

The author has a longterm connection to the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, and worked with Father Thomas Keating, and the Venerable Tarthang Tulku. As a result, this book provides an especially good show more interpretation of "centering prayer".

As we relinquish attachment to the material world, and turn to "our real freedom and security in God", we are "slowly moved from the latent image of God in which we are born toward the actual likeness of God, for which we were made." [15, FN 6 crediting James Finley's "Merton's Palace of Nowhere: A Search for God through Awareness of the True Self." (1978) p. 134.

Finley provides a "fine summary of Merton's lifetime struggle to understand the true and false self in relation to God....".

Chapter 5 "Communing". The chapter epilogue says "Community: what everybody wants, but almost no one is able to sustain well for long." [61] show less

Offers a contemplative perspective on contemporary social problems.