Sam Hastra and Sam Cocar's Practicing the Monastic Disciplines: Finding Deep Spirituality in a Shallow World is not what readers would most likely expect from its title. This isn't an academic tome on classic monasticism. Instead, it's a very practical, very pastoral, extremely modest handbook on becoming a follower of Jesus in a world so insistent we follow other leaders.
In this delightful little book, the authors work together to craft short chapters that highlight how the desert mothers and fathers -- those Christians who lived and prayed in the mountains of the Mediterranean East in the fourth century -- "wrestled with many of the same issues we wrestle with today". These women and men were not attempting to earn their salvation (as, sadly, most Protestants envision them). Instead, they were working out that salvation in a divisive and distraught world. These were soldiers of Christ who fought the principalities and powers of their age -- greed, sloth, anger, and the rest -- to become living martyrs. They sought a union with God in Jesus Christ through the Spirit that provides a depth for Christians seeking the same in our world and time.
Hastra and Cocar co-wrote the chapters that comprise this book, and focus on ancient women and men of faith from Egypt, Syria and Palestine, who struggled with
- Gluttony or hoarding,
- Lust or impurity,
- Avarice or greed,
- Anger,
- Sadness or dejection,
- Acedia or listlessness,
- Vainglory or vanity, and
- Pride
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I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.