A Reading Guide for A Testament of Devotion

Chapter Four: The Eternal Now and Social Concern

General Introduction to the Reading Guide

Should you accompany me in exploring Christian spirituality utilizing the Christian spiritual classic, A Testament of Devotion, by Thomas Kelly as a guidebook, I have committed to furnishing you with a written reading guide each week. I will present a video introduction and reflection on the chapter we are currently reading on Thursday this week. (Last week it became necessary to offer a transcript of the video, not the video itself.)

Reading Chapter Four is the goal for this week. Chapter four is three things:

1. This chapter is especially timely given the moral deterioration in our cultural and political worlds.

2. It is unique in the field of Christian spirituality and social justice. There are several books that might help us experience God more deeply. Many works discuss the looming gloom that grows greater by the day. Few Christian books attempt to show how spirituality is the foundation for how to live in the growing darkness than this one chapter. The more you read it, the more you will see that Kelly does not intend this to be a theory or an ideal but a "serious, concrete program of life, to be lived here and now, in…America, by you and by me." Whenever i read chapter four, I rejoice that someone put these two elements together.

3. This is a chapter that will need more attentive reading than any other – perhaps, this guide will assist in making accessible the concepts hidden in some of the older language that appears in Chapter Four.

Now that you know how chapter four—The Eternal Now and Social Concern—impacts me, let me tell you three things about it as a general introduction to the chapter:

1. It was written as a stand-alone essay, not as chapter three in a book. I have said this before but Kelly did not intend it to follow what the book calls chapters one, two, and three or precede chapter five. So, the ideas contained in chapter four are wholly intact, not conditioned by what comes before or after. So, you can read it this one chapter as a complete thought, with everything he wanted to say about how to live in this world contained in this chapter.

2. While everything I just stated is entirely correct, the editors positioned this chapter after The Light Within (Chapter One), Holy Obedience (Chapter Two), and The Blessed Community (Chapter Three). Kelly's editors were close friends who, after his tragic passing at a young age, wanted us to know what he had uncovered. The greatest calamity of his life, his inability to pass his PhD examinations at Harvard, destroyed his dreams and hopes for the future. Kelly had been living his dream until that terrible moment. He was chasing his ambitions. It was his exclusive focus; there was little room for inclusion within a community. However, the destruction of his aspirations and desires produced the ideal circumstances for the discovery of a lifetime: there is a sanctuary inside us — the soul — where the divine person — the Living God — and the human person live in intimacy with one another. He was astounded by humans' ability to know God intimately and be known by God in such depth. Previously, he had been planning, with the help of a philosophical lens, to study the idea of God. Following his academic disaster, he found himself experiencing and encountering the Presence of God directly, or to use his word, in “immediacy.” This is described wonderfully in Chapter One.

   1. In Chapter Two, the emphasis switches from the spiritual experience of God in Christ to Christ's authoritarian claims over our lives. In the divine center where Christ resides with us and we dwell with Christ, "No remnant of reservation of 'our' rights can remain. Straddle arrangements and compromises between our allegiances to the surface level and the divine heart are unsustainable." Once Christ is known intimately, the only alternative is absolute obedience to Him.

   2. The Third Chapter delves into another implication of the experience of God: the actuality of a new kind of human community formed by the experience of God. As more people experience this profound communion with God, it must bind hearts together in a sort of fellowship that cannot be replicated by political allegiance, religious membership, or national and ethnic identity. It is a chapter that will severely confront today's disastrous culture of tribalism and hatred.

   3. After getting us from an intense personal experience of God (chapter one) and into a richer-than-anticipated experience of community with other people who are also experiencing God (chapter three), Kelly will, in Chapter Four, broaden our vision of how to live as spiritual people in a culture where wounds, darkness, suffering, and evil grows in intensity.

3. The fourth chapter, The Eternal Now and Social Concern, will introduce you to one of the most important theological words you will ever discover: concern. Spoiler alert: He is not referring to a worry, an anxiety, or a fear. He is taking an ordinary English word and filling it with the love and presence of Jesus. It will be worth the entire chapter!

May your awareness of how to live as a responsible member of the kingdom of heaven in your local community grow as you read and reflect on chapter four.

I’ve prepared a reading guide to help you get more from the fourth chapter. It has two sections: Suggestions for Reading a Spiritual Classic and Chapter Four Reading Guide. As you keep reading, you’ll find both of these sections.

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Suggestions for Reading a Spiritual Classic

First, begin with prayer

God is going to reveal Himself to you. He is going to reveal a word that will kindle your imagination. Prepare yourself for this discovery by breathing a short prayer to prepare your mind, spirit, and soul for receptivity. It can be as simple as, “God, open my eyes that I might see.” Whatever words you breathe will help center your focus as you begin to read.

Second, slow is the speed of discovery

Just as when you read a portion of scripture meditatively, select a manageable portion of the chapter and read until an insight leaps out at you. Do not intend to read the entire chapter from beginning to end in one sitting. Much will pass you by that you fail to notice. When a verse, a few words, or even one or two words strike a chord within you, pause and consider what you have discovered.