I am enjoying reading the assigned texts, Holy Invitations and Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls. I think the concurrent reading of two books about the same topic will result in a more balanced understanding of the art and discipline of Spiritual Direction.
In Holy Invitations, Jeanette Bakke defines spiritual direction as a "particular kind of helping relationship whose primary objective is to discern how God is inviting someone to be, to live, to appreciate, and to act in the midst of life" (11).
In Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls, Gary W. Moon and David G. Benner do not offer their own definition of spiritual direction. They rather endorse a definition by William A. Barry and William J. Connelly: "…[a] help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God's personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequence of this relationship. The focus of this type of spiritual direction is on experience, not ideas, and specifically on religious experience, i.e., any experience of the mysterious Other whom we call God" (15).
The former definition emphasizes discernment while the latter emphasizes a lived out experience in addition to discernment. In my opinion, that makes the latter statement a more complete definition of spiritual direction. (However, Bakke does address obedience in her book.)
A difference that particularly stands out to me is how the authors saw spiritual direction in the greater scheme of things. Moon and Brenner view it as a component of soul care, which involves a wider group of relationships such as pastoral care, pastoral counseling, and clinical psychotherapy. Bakke, however, sees spiritual direction as "…a part of many elements of faith life" and states it is most closely related to "pastoral counseling, mentoring, and discipling" (27). I will withhold my verdict until the end of my reading, but preliminary indications point to Moon and Brenner placing spiritual direction as a discipline that can be learned, whereas Bakke indicates that it is a ministry more along the lines of a spiritual gift.
WORKS CITED
Bakke, Jeanette. Holy Invitations. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000.
Moon, Gary W. and David G. Benner (editors). Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004.
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