Soul Friendship - Celtic Insights into Spiritual Mentoring

Soul Friendship: Celtic Insights into Spiritual Mentoring
By Ray Simpson
Hodder & Stoughton. 294 pages. £7.99

Despite its title, this is not a book about ordinary Christian friendship and fellowship. It's really about 'Spiritual Directors' - people who listen, discern, advise, challenge and given insightful direction to another Christian.

Simpson sees this as a special calling (in the USA, people may even pay a fee to see a 'soul friend'!), distinct from the work of a pastor, and even of a counsellor. And he illustrates the qualities and aspects of the work by drawing from the rich tradition of Celtic Christianity, going back through Columba to Patrick, and on to its roots in the Desert Fathers. The elder Zossima in Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov would certainly be such a 'soul friend'. One may well question whether, if the pastoral role of the minister/elder were properly fulfilled, such a specialist ministry would be needed. In our 'expert-obsessed' culture, one shudders at the thought of Christians running around to find a Soul Friend who directs them (in addition to a church where they like the worship-style, and a counsellor who deals with their neuroses!). Such 'direction' can too easily become eccentric or harmful and needs to be checked and balanced within the framework of the church. It also tends to disparage ordinary Christian friendship, which should 'naturally' develop in all the areas covered by the book - as the 'one another' passages of the Gospels and Epistles make plain.

Our modern world - and church - with its superficial lifestyle and lack of emotional literacy, certainly has much to learn from earlier 'traditions' within the Christian church. Reformed evangelicals, especially, tend to be cerebral and individualistic and would benefit from insights into mutual confession, self-denial, disciplined service and meditation. But reading the lives and writings of Antony, Columba, etc., would be a better introduction than this book.

John Nicholls,
Director of Training,
London City Mission

© Evangelicals Now - November 1999
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Main Articles

• When a good man falls
• The Commentary
  Roy Clements
• Do you believe this?
  One man's story of his pilgrimage out of Catholicism
• The people of the Book
  The importance of regular reading and study of the Bible Scriptures
• Love's argument
  What is love and what is the point of love?
• Go on - indulge yourself
  A papal pronouncement on indulgences sparks a new controversy (reprinted from World Magazine)

Other articles

• Roy Clements walks out
• Jesus 2000
• A Return To Modesty
• Looking Into Light - CD review
• Why Y2K?
• The Church That Went Under - The story of the parish church St Nicholas in Sevenoaks who built an undercroft - an extract from the book The Church That Went Under
• The Story of Christian Theology - 20 Centuries of Tradition and Reform
• A Midsummer Night's Dream - Film review
• The New Man - An extract from the book The New Man on Romans 6
• Conversations on Christian Feminism - Speaking Heart to Heart
• The Church That Went Under
• In The Firing Line
• Are We Getting Through?
• Soul Friendship - Celtic Insights into Spiritual Mentoring
• Conflict and Triumph - The Argument of the Book of Job Unfolded
• The Bible Made Plain and Simple
• Witness to the World
• Slandering The Angels - The Message of Jude (Welwyn Commentary Series)
• The Last Pope - The Decline and Fall of the Church of Rome