Taught By God: Teaching and Spiritual Formation

The history of the Christian spiritual life suggests that those who truly teach the spiritual life have been themselves "taught by God." The phrase "taught by God" occurs in Christian writings across several centuries. This book draws on the teachers and teaching models that animate Christian history, bringing it into conversation with the issues and concerns of contemporary teachers and learners who seek to follow Christ. The authors contend that the various strands of the Christian spiritual and mystical tradition provide continuing guidance for Christian teachers in the cultivation of their own spiritual lives and the lives of their students. They order this book around four aspects of Christian educational ministries: the identity of the teacher, contexts in which we teach, models for teaching, and evaluation of teaching. Readers are invited to look at the world of teaching through multiple sides of a prism, refracting differently with each effort, drawing the eye toward a variety of subtle nuance, and inviting varied interpretations of the subject we see. Each chapter focuses on particular spiritual teachers (Francis de Sales, Catherine of Siena, Søren Kierkegaard), practices (monastic rules, spiritual direction, examination of conscience), and images (pilgrimage, imitation, apprenticeship) as exemplars of or frameworks for teaching and spiritual formation in the church today.