Review Essay, Keeping the Balance
Maintaining an integrated devotional life, David Cupples (42pgs)
Outline provided by the author:
| Introduction | 138 |
| Differing responses to the challenge | |
| Submission | 140 |
| Repression | 141 |
| Segregation | 142 |
| Integration | 146 |
| The purpose of the Bible | 147 |
| Distinguishing between academic and devotional Bible study | 150 |
| Setting | 151 |
| Passage of scripture | 152 |
| Levels of investigation | 152 |
| Areas of application | 153 |
| Maintaining the spiritual life | 156 |
| Handling critical questions | 161 |
| Beyond your studies | 165 |
| Turn your insights into prayer | 166 |
| Pray regularly with your fellow-students | 166 |
| Be a faithful member of a local church | 167 |
| Get a regular pastoral check-up | 168 |
| Be involved in active Christian service | 168 |
| Read devotional literature | 168 |
| Learn to relax | 169 |
| Devotion makes us better theologians | 169 |
| Pursuing the way of integration | 171 |
| Opportunity and privilege | 172 |
| We must do our work as unto the Lord | 172 |
| We must pray about our studies | 173 |
| We must look on our study as an opportunity to develop our gifts in Christ’s service | 174 |
Introduction Beginning with an inspiring quotation of Spurgeon reflecting on the discipline of theology and its vitalising effects upon the spiritual life, David Cupples observes that many people who take up the subject today experience something rather different. “None of us would doubt that he is right”, Cupples writes, “but then he wasn’t studying in our faculty, or our department!” Nevertheless, David believes our studies can indeed “lead us into a deeper experience of God …if we approach them in the right way”. He believes that “true theology is always a prelude to doxology” and his aim “is to convince you that Spurgeon is not hopelessly idealistic”.
Category: In Depth, Spring 2006
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