The Art of Spiritual Direction: Giving and Receiving Spiritual Guidance

Paul Jones offers a fundamental and comprehensive approach to spiritual direction. He describes the eight major types of spiritual direction and indicates basic characteristics expected of a spiritual director. In addition to providing insights for personal spiritual direction, Jones advances a chapter for doing communal spiritual direction based on John Wesley’s model of covenant groups.While examining foundational principles of spiritual direction, Jones’s book rests in concrete clarity. He concerns himself with teaching people how to do spiritual direction. Jones explores Christian faith as a process of redemption, detailing how spiritual direction particularizes healing for each unique person.This comprehensive manual employs case studies. The book includes appendixes that include Group Consensus Discernment, Myers-Briggs usages, the Enneagram, TDF Inventory, Family Systems, and the Jo-Hari Window. Jones’s approach makes this book an exceptional textbook for colleges and seminaries as well as for those who seek understanding of spiritual direction.