What is your favorite book/s that best describes your idea of spiritual formation?

My answer to this question will not sound very characteristic of me, but my favourite book which I think best describes my idea of spiritual formation is the bible, especially the Gospels, and then the book of Acts.

It is in the Gospels that we see (in “real time”) how spiritual formation takes place through the sharing of the common life between Jesus and his disciples. It is also in the Gospels that we see the idea of the perichoretic life being best reflected through the life of Jesus and his companions. Jesus lived as a parable before his companions, being the perfect model of the perichoretic life, that they might imitate him in all dimensions of their lives.

In the book of Acts, we see how the followers of Jesus continued the legacy he had left behind for them. They kept on sharing in the common life and learning what it meant to live a life based on the perichoretic nature of God. We see how they met daily in the homes and how they shared everything they had with one another, no one claiming their possessions to be their own. They were doing the dance of life together. Christ was no longer present, but yet, still present in a very real way through his Spirit in their midst.

It seems to me that spiritual formation is often discussed as a very abstract concept. At best, it is cultivated through a series of “programmes” and “disciplines” seminary students or church members are put through. At worst, it is imposed as a set of legalistic requirements which has to be met in order to graduate from seminary.

But scripture imparts the idea of spiritual formation in a very different way. It imparts the ideal through the narration of a beautiful story and the passing down of a legacy from one generation to another. From the Gospels and the book of Acts, we can see that spiritual formation is about helping people to find their places in the Story of God, and in the process of finding their places, coming to understand who they are themselves.