Christian Books

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.



Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation
M. Robert Mulholland Jr.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993
173 pages

Who might this book interest? Mulholland’s Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation is intended for a broad Christian audience, and apparently, it has met that goal.  While it has not been revised, it is still in print and has been integrated into InterVarsity’s “Formatio” series.  My copy is from 1993, and my daughter’s copy is a more recent printing with a different cover.  We use it as one of our freshman spiritual formation textbooks at the college level, but it is a very accessible book for most audiences.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

Summary: After teaching there for many years, Dr. M. Robert Mulholland Jr. became professor emeritus of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.  Asbury is usually described as an interdenominational evangelical seminary in the Wesleyan-Methodist tradition.  He earned his MDiv from Wesley Theological Seminary and his ThD from Harvard Divinity School.  In addition to having published New Testament commentaries, Mulholland has produced several of the “must-read” books on spiritual formation such as: Invitation, Shaped by the Word: The Power of Scripture in Spiritual Formation, and more recently, The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self.

Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation is developed in four parts: The Road Map, The Vehicle, The Journey, and Companions on the Inner Way.  He develops spiritual formation in a relational way, instead of the sometimes mechanistic way that some teachers use.