A review by davehershey
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life In Christ by Peter Scazzero
4.0
The premise of this book is you cannot be spiritually mature while being emotionally insecure. I had heard great things about this book and as I read it, I could see why. There is a lot here. I especially appreciate the deep connections to the church tradition intertwined with scripture as well as real world application. This is not a simplistic spiritual growth book. Instead, Scazzero is rooted in the best of the church tradition rooted in scripture.
One of my roles in campus ministry is staff development and I am planning to go back to this book and incorporate elements of it into both our new staff training as well as our upcoming summer staff retreat. I guess, in that, this is the best thing I can say about it - this book is not just something you read and move on but it is a resource. There are literal resources - workbooks and courses - on the book’s website. Those may come in handy in the future; if you are looking for small group resources, I’d check them out. For now, I am going to be spending more time with this one.
As a side note, or maybe a note of where I am personally making changes due to this book, I especially liked his writing on the “rule of faith”. Part of my own developing rule of faith, which is essentially just a plan of spiritual practice, is reading some sort of spiritual book right before I go to bed. I often read on my kindle, with the light off, in the silence. This was the book I read for a while, as well as sections from the Philokalia (for two years now!). Its been a good practice for me - Bible reading in the AM, spiritual reading in the PM. This book gave me ideas for other things to incorporate (I’d like to journal more in the PM). All that to say, once again, this book is a practical resource and not just a book to read.
One of my roles in campus ministry is staff development and I am planning to go back to this book and incorporate elements of it into both our new staff training as well as our upcoming summer staff retreat. I guess, in that, this is the best thing I can say about it - this book is not just something you read and move on but it is a resource. There are literal resources - workbooks and courses - on the book’s website. Those may come in handy in the future; if you are looking for small group resources, I’d check them out. For now, I am going to be spending more time with this one.
As a side note, or maybe a note of where I am personally making changes due to this book, I especially liked his writing on the “rule of faith”. Part of my own developing rule of faith, which is essentially just a plan of spiritual practice, is reading some sort of spiritual book right before I go to bed. I often read on my kindle, with the light off, in the silence. This was the book I read for a while, as well as sections from the Philokalia (for two years now!). Its been a good practice for me - Bible reading in the AM, spiritual reading in the PM. This book gave me ideas for other things to incorporate (I’d like to journal more in the PM). All that to say, once again, this book is a practical resource and not just a book to read.