Life Together in the Spirit - by John Driver (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In this fresh approach to Christian spirituality, John Driver shows that the spirituality of the disciples and the early Christian church included every dimension of life. Grounded in the example of Jesus himself, this holistic approach to spirituality finds expression in the visible witness of the Christian community, and in the daily lives of faithful Christians who seek to embody Christ's presence in the world in service to others. This approach to Christian spirituality was recovered in a remarkable way by the radical reformers of the sixteenth century - the Anabaptists - and it continues to find expression among a wide variety of Christian groups around the world today. Life Together in the Spirit will inspire, challenge, and encourage you to experience the presence of the Spirit in all of its dimensions.

This edition, revised and expanded with responses and reflections from church leaders and scholars around the world, is the seventh publication in the "Global Anabaptist-Mennonite Shelf of Literature," an initiative of Mennonite World Conference. Contributors include Mvwala C. Katshinga (Democratic Republic of Congo), Christina Asheervadam (India), Rafael Zaracho (Paraguay), Hermann Woelke (Uruguay), Paulus Pan (Taiwan), Patricia Urueña (Colombia), and Nellie Mlotshwa (Zimbabwe).

Review Quotes

Driver's notion of spirituality-marked by a life of action and full of participation in the social order-offers us a great opportunity to reflect on and correct the course and form of our communal life in a region with "open veins" (in Eduardo Galeano's words) of inequality and social need.

I believe that this book provides a very rich and necessary doctrinal manual for the ongoing training of Anabaptist church members throughout the world.

It was both inspiring and renewing to read this book by John Driver - I have learned much from him. In the Latin American world in which I live and work, the Holy Spirit is often associated with loud music and spontaneous and emotional expressions. We should never forget that only in Jesus Christ will we be able to find the model of true Christian spirituality, even though it has diverse expressions in different historical, cultural, and geographic contexts.

John Driver's book could be very helpful to the Indian church. He insists that spirituality has to be reflected in our day-to-day life.

John Driver's book is a timely resource for Chinese churches. Driver defines Christian spirituality as "the experience of every dimension of human life being oriented around and animated by the very Spirit of Jesus." For Driver, Christian spirituality is the lifelong process of following Jesus...This spirituality has to be embodied within a faith community.

Our African churches, like Driver, would find it very difficult to accept the proposition of an abstract and obscure body of Jesus Christ. Driver taps into the Anabaptist definition of the true church as the concrete and visible body of Jesus Christ present in the world.

People today are drawn to finding a type of spirituality that will satisfy them and bring meaning and peace to their lives. In this book, John Driver...invites us to let ourselves be guided by the Spirit of God-to live our spirituality within the committed community, pursuing a way of life that is consistent with what we believe while transforming situations of oppression, injustice, poverty, exclusion, and violence.