Study Guides by
Richard Foster
2 discussion guides available
Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home
Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (1992, reissued 2012) is one of the most beloved and comprehensive guides to the life of prayer ever written. Foster's central thesis is deceptively simple: prayer is not a technique to be mastered but a relationship to be entered — specifically, the relationship of a beloved child speaking to a loving Father. Drawing on the great classics of Christian spirituality (from Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross to the Desert Fathers and Julian of Norwich) as well as his own honest personal experience, Foster maps twenty-one distinct forms of prayer, organizing them into three broad movements: Moving Inward (prayers that deepen our inner life), Moving Upward (prayers that adore and commune with God), and Moving Outward (prayers that intercede for and serve the world). The result is not a how-to manual but an invitation into the full, rich terrain of Christian prayer.
View Discussion GuideCelebration of Discipline
Richard J. Foster's Celebration of Discipline is widely regarded as one of the most important books on Christian spirituality written in the twentieth century. Its central thesis is both simple and revolutionary: the spiritual life is not a matter of trying harder but of training wisely. Foster argues that the classical spiritual disciplines — practices like prayer, fasting, meditation, confession, and worship — are not burdensome rules for the religious elite but are, in his memorable phrase, the "path to spiritual growth." They are, he insists, a means of grace: ways of placing ourselves before God so that He can transform us from the inside out. Organized into three movements — the Inward Disciplines, the Outward Disciplines, and the Corporate Disciplines — the book invites readers into a whole-life spirituality that touches solitude and service, simplicity and celebration alike.
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