Rating: 
Summary: Life Changing Journey
Review: I was assigned this book for a class that I originally thought I would despise. I entered the class thinking it would be probably the largest waste of 3 credit hours in my college experience. I had a radically wrong attitude.
When I finished the first chapter I was hooked. I have been struggling recently with my personal walk. The information in this book, step-by-step motivates me into a wonderfully productive relationship with Christ.
This book will be the theme of a Discipline Sunday School class I will begin teaching soon. I plan to devour the book time and time again. I already have a short essay for each chapter detailing what I enjoy, don't enjoy, or am motivated to do as a result of reading this book. (My don't enjoy questions were often left blank, except when I felt that there was more information that I wanted to hear)
I would suggest this book to any reader that has a genuine interest in developing a more beautiful walk with their Savior. It has done this and much more for me. (I would give more testimony, but this review is about content!)
Rating:
Summary: A "how to live" study for Christians.
Review: A substantive 'tour' of the Christian disciplines -- study, meditation, service, simplicity, and so on. In its first printing this book quickly became a Christian classic. Foster draws on the thoughts and counsels of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Kierkegaard, Merton, Bonhoeffer, Kelly, Wesley, and many others, and the thoughtful pilgrim will here find both practical instruction and reflective inspiration. Of the discipline of study Foster says: "It soon becomes obvious that study demands humility. Study simply cannot happen until we are willing to be subject to the subject matter... Study is an exacting art... Most people assume that because they know how to read words they know how to study. This limited grasp of the nature of study explains why so many people gain so little from reading books." This volume is a beautiful study of how to live the Christian life, understanding and embracing its "exacting art".
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Christian Books ever
Review: Richard Foster's work is a classic! It is probably the most challenging Christian work that I've ever read. Reading it inspired me to purchase his other works, which are also quite good. Celebration of Discipline will challenge the way that you think about the Disciplines and provoke you to a fundamental shift in your priorities. Foster provides practical suggestions, not just theological study, so his work is meaningful in everyday life. Please purchase this book. It will change your life.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful and inspiring guidebook.
Review: In Celebration of Discipline, Foster has provided a well-written guide to help Christians enhance their relationship with God. He breaks the book down into three major sections: the Inward, Outward, and Corporate disciplines. The disciplines covered are meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. For the most part, this book is a great starting point. Foster backs up each of his statements not only with Biblical references, but also with quotations from Christianity's most prominent writers and thinkers. I found, however, that he falls just short of providing a complete picture of each discipline. Often additional time is required of the reader to research the writings that are quoted. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to move forward in his or her relationship with God.
Rating: 
Summary: Homophobic!
Review: Let me quote from the book (emphasis mine): "We can pray for sexual deviations with genuine assurance
that a real and lasting change can occur. Sex is like a river
- it is a good and wonderful blessing when kept within its
proper channel. A river that overflows its banks is a
dangerous thing, and so are perverted sexual drives.
What are the God-created banks for sex? One man and one woman
in marriage for life. When praying for persons with sexual
problems, it is a joy to picture a river that has overflowed
its banks and invite the Lord to bring it back into its
NATURAL channel." How disappointing - I had so looked forward to reading
this book, but after this paragraph, I just couldn't take
the author serious anymore. Good thing I hadn't wasted
much time, the quote occurs fairly early in the book...
Rating:
Summary: Homophobic!
Review: How disappointing - I had so looked forward to reading
this book, but after this paragraph, I just couldn't take
the author serious anymore. Good thing I hadn't wasted
much time, the quote occurs fairly early in the book.
I guess I'm going to sell it on [INTERNET SITE] to get at least some
of my money back.
Rating: 
Summary: Gather some friends
Review: Our lives are too rushed and we often push out our time with God. And even if we have been taught from our youth of God's acceptance through grace, we tend to heap guilt on ourselves for missing our daily devotions. Practicing the presense of God becomes a burden. "Celebration of Discipline" causes many changes of heart and motivation. Countless times I found myself saying "I knew this but I never thought of it this way before." Foster's treatment of each topic broke the burden of having to spend time practicing different spiritual habits. He inspired me to want to practice these disciplines in order to place myself in God's presence. This book can be read alone, but you will find it much more alive and practical (and far easier to implement) if you read it with a group of friends who are seeking a deeper relationship with the Lord.
Rating: 
Summary: a dangerous book.
Review: Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" contains some very dangerous New Age and accultic concepts. It promotes meditation techniques and even the accultic practice of astral projection. Here is a quote from his book that can be found on page 27 of the 1978 edition of "Celebration of Discipline". "In your imagination allow your spiritual body, shining with light, to rise out of your physical body. Look back so you can see yourself...and reassure your body that you will return momentarily...
Go deeper and deeper into outer space until there is nothing except the warm presence of the eternal creator. Rest in his presence.
Listen quietly...[to] any instruction given." This is definately instruction in the accult practises of eastern meditation and astral projection and its promotion of these practices makes this book very dangerous and heretical. (In fact this is so blatant that it reminded me of the accultic practices of the New Age Professor Julleen Langstrat in Perretti's novel "This Present Darkness".)
For more information about the accultic roots of Foster's "Celebration of Discipline I would encourage you to read Dave Hunt's excellent book "The Seduction of Christianity"
Rating:
Summary: Seeking
Review: Foster's book surveys the "next level" that so many Christians seem to be aspiring to. It is a very practical approach to the Invisible. So often authors aiming to create that bridge build dangerously on imagination and fiction. Foster is a trustworthy guide, his advice is biblical, and his voice is void of condescension and pretension. It is the remedy for the Christian who feels he or she is not "growing" well or at all.
Rating:
Summary: Mystical 'Christian' Error
Review: The only path this particular book will lead you to is into error! I have owned this book for some time now and after checking this book out against the word of God, any discerning Christian will come to the conclusion that what it teaches is mysticism and a leaning towards the erroneous teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a book which is written in very deceptive Christian sounding language but remains one of the most dangerous, mystical 'Christian' books ever to have been written.
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