About the Book

Luke's Gospel was written to transform. Exploring Luke's portrait of the spirituality of Jesus, Catherine Wright focuses on the themes of simplicity, humility, and prayer in Jesus' life and teaching, considering how readers have understood and employed key Lukan passages for spiritual formation from the first century and the ancient church to today.

Book Synopsis

Luke's Gospel was written to transform. In its original context, readers would have seen a portrait of Jesus as an ideal teacher and king, able to shape his people through exemplary leadership. They would have come to the Gospel expecting to be changed for God's purposes through the imitation of Jesus' lifestyle and adoption of his teaching. When today's readers approach the text in the same way, they can be transformed too.

Spiritual Practices of Jesus explores Luke's portrait of the spirituality of Jesus, focusing on the themes of simplicity, humility, and prayer in his life and teaching. After establishing the likely thought patterns of Luke's first readers, Catherine Wright considers how Jesus models these three values and then explores how different readers have understood and employed key Lukan passages for spiritual formation, beginning with a first-century audience and tracing the reception of these texts in the ancient church.

Demonstrating a theological interpretation of Jesus' spirituality grounded in church tradition, this accessible book combines New Testament studies and spiritual formation to provide fresh insight into the biblical text. Wright invites readers to join with Luke's earliest readers in adopting ancient spiritual practices that still hold the potential to revolutionize our relationships with money, ourselves, others, and God. Luke's Gospel reveals that as we individually and corporately imitate Jesus, we live lives of greater authenticity, are oriented toward his kingdom, and are transformed by his manner of life.

Review Quotes

"Spiritual Practices of Jesus situates simplicity, humility, and prayer squarely within Jesus' life, the literary world of the early church, and the writings of early Christian leaders. Rather than abandoning readers to guess the meaning of or how to implement spiritual practices, Wright guides us through the many literary sources unpacking concrete dimensions of each practice for the world we live in today. Wright's conversation with Luke and other writers fully describes the ancient context for what many dismiss as a modern addition to Christianity."

--Stan Harstine, professor in religion at Friends University

"In Spiritual Practices of Jesus, Catherine Wright invites readers into a delightful place where biblical studies and spiritual formation meet, a rare space that allows for Luke's Gospel and his literary world to embrace. I enthusiastically recommend this book. Wright's work not only expanded my understanding of how Luke's audience would have first heard his Gospel, but it also inspired me to double down in my own pursuit to imitate his Christ in simplicity, humility, and prayer."

--Joseph R. Dodson, Denver Seminary

"With Spiritual Practices of Jesus, Catherine J. Wright has given a gift both to church and academy. Looking at Jesus' teaching and deeds of simplicity, humility, and prayer, she follows a similar pattern: she traces the theme in the Gospel narrative; then she contextualizes its practice within the views expressed in the larger Jewish and Greco-Roman environment of antiquity; finally, she explores the ways in which the teachings of the Lukan Jesus on simplicity, humility, and prayer were received in the early church. Wright is fully conversant with the pertinent primary and secondary literature, and along the way, she sprinkles examples from popular culture to present in bold relief the countercultural claims of Jesus. Pastors and lay Bible teachers will find here a kind of evangelical version of Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises, a treasure trove intended to encourage modern believers to adopt a simpler, humbler, and more prayerful way of life."

--Mikeal C. Parsons, professor and Macon Chair in Religion at Baylor University

About the Author

Catherine J. Wright (PhD, Baylor) is associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Bethel University. She specializes in New Testament studies and is particularly interested in the Gospel of Luke and spiritual formation.