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Dear
Friends,
I want to share my heart with you about a project
that writing-wise I have given myself to for the
last four years—The Renovaré Spiriual Formation
Bible.
SEARCHING
FOR A SUBSTANTIVE RESOURCE
For many years we sought to develop substantive
resource materials that would help our RENOVARÉ
community grapple with the Spiritual Formation
implications of the Bible. More than once we commissioned
one of our team members to write something, but
each time we found that we were not producing
what was really needed, and so we would halt the
project. Finally, we determined to wait quietly
on the Lord for guidance.
Then
five years ago Steve Hanselman, Vice President
and Publisher for HarperCollins, sat down with
our team and proposed to us the development and
publication of a unique Bible that would work
with Scripture through the lens of Spiritual Formation.
Now, you need to understand that I had been approached
about specialty Bibles before and I have always
refused. I turned them down because what people
really wanted was little more than a “Hallmark
Bible”—nice pictures and quotations that will
reach a specialized consumer market. “Sorry,”
I would say, “I am not interested in producing
a niche Bible.” So, you can imagine I was not
especially warm to Mr. Hanselman’s idea when he
first began. But I did listen, for I knew Steve
to be a solid person, quite astute both in theology
and publishing. For two days we vigorously discussed
with Steve this Bible project idea:
•
Dreaming of a Bible project that might bring together
the best of biblical scholarship with the best
of devotional thinking.
•
Dreaming of a Bible project that was for the “educated
plumber,” ordinary men and women who are serious
about their faith.
•
Dreaming of a Bible project that would recover
Scripture for the purposes of Christian Spiritual
Formation for people in the real press of real
life.
After
two days I could see, first of all, that this
was a serious proposal. Second, it soon became
clear that Steve had a grasp of what needed to
be done if we were really going to be helpful
to people. And third, I could see that he was
prepared to get the muscle of HarperCollins publishing
behind this effort. Well, that put me into a writing
task that has taken four years and involved over
fifty theologians, pastors, and ordinary folk
from all walks of life. This task will be completed
next spring with the release of The Renovaré
Spiritual Formation Bible.
A
MOMENT OF GREAT OPPORTUNITY
Let
me explain to you why I feel this Bible project
is so vitally important. When I first began writing
about Spiritual Formation many years ago the soul
hunger in people was so very obvious and the resources
so very meager. Since that time a publishing avalanche
has occurred on the subject—some writings genuinely
helpful, some less than helpful. But throughout
there has remained a huge gap, a gap that if not
filled will seriously undermine all the gains
that have been made. The gap I refer to is a substantive
resource for approaching the Bible through the
lens of Christian Spiritual Formation.
The
desperate need today is for a richer, fuller understanding
of the relevance of Scripture for daily living.
•
We need a study Bible that will help us experience
Scripture as living and active, forming and transforming.
•
We need a study Bible that will combine the highest
possible biblical scholarship with the deepest
possible heart devotion.
•
We need a study Bible that will lead us step by
step into the glorious and terrifying “with-God
life” which, like Ariadne’s thread, weaves its
way throughout Scripture.
•
We need a study Bible that will be substantive
and accessible, serious and inviting,
rigorous and hopeful.
•
We need a study Bible that will aid us in seeing
the great panorama of Divine interaction with
the People of God throughout history and will
invite us into this ongoing story.
•
We need a study Bible that will draw us irresistibly
into the biblical drama of love and terror and
pity and pain and wonder until the biblical witness
becomes all over autobiographic of us.
This
is the gap needing to be filled, and I believe
The Renovaré Spiriual Formation Bible.
will go a long way in this direction so that people
can once again have a deep confidence in the Bible
as a reliable resource for Christion Spiritual
Formation.
Every
feature in this Bible—from the Essays explaining
the “with-God life” and showing how God has worked
throughout history to nurture intimate fellowship
with the people of God to the Introductions
and Notes for each book of the Bible that
provide the best scholarly background information
and that highlight those issues that feed our
souls to the Spiritual Exercises in each
book that help us move beyond understanding the
text to putting it into practice to the fifty
Profiles of biblical characters that not only
tell their stories but also reveal the secrets
of how they found intimacy with God to the
Spiritual Disciplines Index that defines sixteen
Spiritual Disciplines and provides multiple Scripture
references to unlock their central role in how
we relate to God to the Responding Questions
and Exercises that move the text from the
head to the heart, from theory to practice--every
feature focuses attention on God’s action in human
life to produce one soul growth in grace. I am
genuinely pleased with the result. This could
well be the most important resource Renovaré will
ever produce.
WHAT
WE LEARNED
Entering into this project we, the General Editors
(myself, Gayle Beebe, Lynda Graybeal, Tom Oden
and Dallas Willard), learned quickly that we are
not in charge of this effort; God is in charge.
It is not up to us to control what comes out of
the Bible. We cannot “tilt” Scripture this way
or that, rather we must give it complete freedom
to “tilt” us as it will.
We
came to understand that the Bible is all about
human life “with God.” It is about how
God made this “with” life possible and
will bring it to pass. In fact, the name Immanuel,
meaning “God is with us,” is the title given to
the one and only Redeemer because it refers to
God’s everlasting intent for human life, namely
that we should be in every aspect a dwelling place
of God. Indeed, we came to see that the unity
of the Bible is discovered in the development
of life “with God” as a reality on earth, centered
in the person of Jesus.
But, we quickly came to the realization that we
cannot simply add this “with-God life” into our
little lives, picking and choosing what we want.
No, if we want to receive from the Bible the life
“with-God” that is portrayed in the Bible,
we must be prepared to have our dearest and most
fundamental assumptions about ourselves and our
associations called into question. Indeed, it
requires that we give up our life and accept the
divine invitation to participate in God’s great
LIFE . . . which paradoxically will give us our
true life.
We
learned that we must come to Scripture humbly
and in a constant attitude of repentance. Only
in this way could we gain a thorough and practical
grasp of the spiritual riches that God has made
available to all humanity in his written Word.
We came to understand that the proper outcome
of studying the Bible is growth in the supernatural
power of love: love of God and of all people.
And so much more.
AN
INVITATION TO GATHER . . .
As we were working hard to bring this Bible resource
to completion we also began dreaming about having
an International Conference which would focus
on Scripture and its importance in the Spiritual
Formation of human beings. While this gathering
will coincide with the launch of The Renovaré
Spiriual Formation Bible it is in no way a
four day “infomercial” for it. It is a serious
wrestling with many of the themes in Scripture
and will work to give us both a sense of the unifying
sweep of God’s action in history and a practical
grasp of how the Bible functions today as a primary
resource of Christian Spiritual Formation. And
so, I want to extend an invitation to you to gather
with us for this prayer-filled, energetic exploration
into the dynamics of Scripture for Christian Spiritual
Trans^Formation. The enclosed brochure
will give you the details.
AND
TO GATHER
What
I want to stress here is the life-giving message
of the Bible that the aim of God in history is
the creation of an all-inclusive community of
loving persons with God himself at the very center
of this community as its prime Sustainer and most
glorious Inhabitant. Scripture traces the formation
of this community from the creation in the garden
all the way to the new heaven and the new earth.
And God is extending an invitation to you and
to me to come on in, to GATHER if you will,
into the Life of this blessed community.
My
dear friend, there is a great river of Life that
flows through Scripture into the thirsty wastelands
of the human soul. Oh, may you, may I, surrender
freely to this river of Life within the Bible,
and increasingly receive this Life as our own.
Peace
and joy,
Richard J. Foster
P.S.
Related to the 2005 RENOVARÉ
International Conference, if your church or organization
is interested in becoming a regional, national,
or international event Partner, please visit www.renovare.org/2005ic-partner
or contact Lyle SmithGraybeal at 303-485-0670
or
for more details.
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