Spiritual Direction (Wisdom For The Long Walk Of Faith) Order Printed Copy

Author: Henri J. M. Nouwen
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About the Book

"Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith" by Henri J. M. Nouwen offers practical guidance for individuals seeking to deepen their spiritual lives and navigate the challenges of their faith journey. Nouwen's insights on spiritual direction, solitude, and prayer provide readers with valuable tools to cultivate a closer relationship with God and find meaning in their spiritual practices.

William Tyndale

William Tyndale (1494 – 1536) was a scholar and theologian who made one of the first printed translations of the Bible in English. Executed for heresy, his English translations would later be published and form a significant part of modern Bible translations. “I had perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to stablish the lay people in any truth, except the scripture were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue, that they might see the process, order, and meaning of the text.” William Tyndale was born in 1494 in Gloucestershire, England. In 1506 he began studying at Magdalen Hall (later Hertford College), Oxford University. After gaining a B.A. and M.A., Tyndale was able to study the subject which most interested him – Theology. But, he was highly critical of the idea that one had to study for a long time before actually being allowed to study the Bible. During his time at Oxford, he sought to create Bible study groups with like-minded friends. William Tyndale was a gifted linguist and scholar, and known as a man of virtue and good character. However, influenced by ideas of the Reformation, he increasingly became known as a man of unorthodox and radical religious views. In particular, Tyndale was keen to translate the New Testament into English. He believed this would help ordinary people understand scripture directly and not through the filter of the church. In this, Tyndale was influenced by the reformation ideas of Martin Luther. Tyndale would claim that the Bible did not support the church’s view that they were the body of Christ on earth. After studying at Oxford, he also went to Cambridge where he added to his growing range of languages and became a leading professor of Greek. After leaving Cambridge in 1521, he became a chaplain in Little Sodbury, but he was soon criticised by fellow churchmen for his radical viewpoints. In 1523, he left for London hoping to translate the Bible into English. However, he struggled to receive any support or backing, and so he left for the continent. During his time on the continent, he visited Martin Luther and wrote extensively on scriptures and continued his translations of the Bible. “I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in earth, whether it be honor, pleasure, or riches, might be given me.” In 1525, a first English translation was published in Worms. By 1526, copies had been smuggled into England where they were soon denounced as heretical and even burnt in public. Cardinal Wolsey denounced Tyndale as a heretic in 1529. In 1530, he wrote a treatise critical of Henry VIII’s divorce. When the English King found out, he was furious and sought his extradition. After being in hiding for several years, in 1535, Tyndale was betrayed and handed over to the imperial authorities in Belgium. After being held in a castle in Brussels, he was tried and convicted of heresy. He was strangled and his body burnt at the stake. His last words were reported to be: “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes” Tyndale is best remembered for his hope that the Bible would be translated into English to allow the common people to be able to read the Holy Scriptures. His translations also proved to be quite popular, becoming the basis of key future Bible translations. It is estimated that around 80% of the King James Bible is Tyndale’s work. Four years after his death, King Henry VIII asked for English translations of the Bible to be published. These were heavily based on Tyndale’s original translations. Tyndale introduced new phrases and words into the English translations. When criticised for his translations, Tyndale replied that he sought to translate the essence and spirit of the original Greek versions and avoid the tendency to follow the dogma of the church. Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of William Tyndale”, Oxford, UK – www.biographyonline.net. Published 5 August 2014. Last updated 7 February 2018. Phrases from Tyndale’s Bible lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil knock and it shall be opened unto you fashion not yourselves to the world seek and you shall find ask and it shall be given you judge not that you not be judged the word of God which liveth and lasteth forever let there be light the powers that be my brother’s keeper the salt of the earth a law unto themselves filthy lucre it came to pass gave up the ghost the signs of the times the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak

He Called Death Sweet Names

To me Erwin Rudolph will always be Dr. Rudolph. He was my professor and, when I was in college, I revered professors. But with all the reverence, he was a gentle rock of stability for this nervous, insecure sophomore, who that year — 1965 — declared an English major at Wheaton College. One of the reasons I was nervous and insecure was that I read so slowly. I knew I could not read a lot of long books in one semester, so I never took a lit class on “The Novel.” Instead I took poetry classes. That meant three classes with Dr. Rudolph: Pre-Renaissance, English Renaissance, and Eighteenth Century. In these classes, I did not have to read huge books. Instead I had to read poems really carefully — even memorize some. Dr. Rudolph required that we memorize and recite 42 lines of Chaucer in the original Middle English. This was terrifying to me. I was too nervous to speak in front of a whole class. Mercifully and patiently, Dr. Rudolph took the time to let me recite the lines to him alone in his office. He became my faculty adviser in the fall of 1965 and shepherded me through to graduation in the spring of 1968. I loved his classes. One reason is that he cared about substance, not just form. He cared about meaning and truth, great truth. To this day, the poets I love most (George Herbert, John Donne, Alexander Pope) are the ones who care about beauty and truth. Form and substance. Craft and content. I met these masters first in Dr. Rudolph’s classes. He awakened me to a world of truth and beauty in poetry which I did not know existed. I sought his counsel even after I left Wheaton. Although I sensed a vocational call to Scripture and went on to seminary after college, I was not sure if I could be a preacher, and I pondered for a year or two the serious possibility of following in Dr. Rudolph’s steps by getting a Ph.D. in English, and becoming a theologically serious English teacher. That didn’t happen. I think Dr. Rudolph was okay with that choice. His counsel was always balanced. He probably saw that my slow reading ability did not suit me well for an academic career in literature! My dominant memory of Dr. Rudolph is the one most relevant to his own death. Zeke, Dr. Rudolph’s son, was in my wife’s class at Wheaton, a year behind me. Zeke died of Multiple Sclerosis in August of 1969, three months after his graduation. I remember the very room I was in at my parents’ house when I read Dr. Rudolph’s tribute to Zeke. There was one immortal line that I have returned to again and again — as I return to it again now at Dr. Rudolph’s own death: “Near the end Zeke called death sweet names.” It has been almost 50 years, and I have not forgotten these words, nor the man who spoke them. I didn’t know Zeke. But I knew his father. And what an impact his farewell to his son had on me. It was full of sober sorrow in the face of the horrors of death, but also full of confidence that Zeke had not lived in vain, or died without hope. The same is true now for my professor, Dr. Rudolph. He did not live in vain. And he did not die without hope. Perhaps I should let him have the last word of triumph. In his book, Good-by, My Son , he wrote, We do not pretend to understand why God’s time-table differs so markedly from our own. But it was ours which was out of adjustment, not his. . . . I strongly affirm that belief in Divine Providence affords the Christian an undergirding he can ill afford to lose. I also discover that God may personally allow suffering to come upon us for reasons which please him. When he does, we ought not to demur, for God knows what is best for us. With deep love and appreciation, I say, Amen.