Richard Foster – Celebration of Deception

by Bob DeWaay
June 2009

In this article I will show that Foster's "journey inward" is unbiblical and dangerous. I will show that most of the spiritual disciplines that he calls "means of grace" are no means of grace at all—but a means of putting oneself under spiritual deception. Foster describes the idea of the disciplines that are the topic of his book: "The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm."  So Foster has conceptually repudiated sola scriptura on page one to replace it with a journey inward to explore the realm of spirits.