Add us to your circles!
Print
Send
Respond
Discipleship
Living for Christ in the Daily Grind
298 pages
August 2011: New Expanded Edition! This new edition of Discipleship has two additional chapters on The Living Word and The Holy Spirit.
Sometimes sensitive, sometimes provocative, but always encouraging, Arnold guides readers toward leading Christlike lives amid the stress and strain of modern life. Perhaps the hardest thing about following Christ is translating our good intentions into deeds. Christ calls us, and we yearn to answer him, but time and again we lose resolve. Is discipleship really possible today? Many of the selections in this book offer answers to specific needs or problems. Others grapple with broader themes such as world suffering, salvation, and the coming of the kingdom of God. All of them pulsate with conviction and compassion, giving fresh hope to those who and themselves lonely or disheartened in the daily search to follow Christ.
Also available, a free Study Guide (English .pdf) for personal or group study, and a Leader's Guide to facilitate group discussion.
From Henri Nouwen's Foreword: Discipleship is a tough book. As I began reading it, Heinrich Arnold's words touched me as a double-edged sword, calling me to choose between truth and lies, salvation and sin, selflessness and selfishness, light and darkness, God and demon. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to be confronted in such a direct way, and I discovered some resistance in myself. I want the good news of the Gospel to be gentle, consoling, comforting, and to offer inner peace and harmony.
But Arnold reminds me that the peace of the Gospel is not the same as the peace of the world, that the consolation of the Gospel is not the same as the consolation of the world, and that the gentleness of the Gospel has little to do with the "free for all" attitude of the world. The Gospel asks for a choice, a radical choice, a choice that is not always praised, supported, and celebrated.
Still, Arnold's writing is not harsh, unbending, fanatical, or self-righteous. To the contrary, it is full of love. Tough love, but real love. It is this love that flows from the broken heart of Jesus. What makes Arnold's words so healing is that they are not based on an idea, an ideology, or a theory, but on an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Christ, is in the center of all the suggestions, advice, and care expressed in these reflections. This is truly a Christ-centered book.
Heinrich Arnold does not speak in his own name. He speaks in the name of Jesus. He has heard clearly the words of Paul to Timothy: "Before God, and before Christ Jesus, who is to be the judge of the living and the dead, I charge you, in the name of his appearing and his kingdom: proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, give encouragement - but do all with patience and with care to instruct" (2 Tim. 4:1-2).
It is Arnold's deep rootedness in Jesus Christ that makes him a very wise, a very safe, and a very challenging guide in our spiritual journey. But there is more: his rootedness is not simply a rootedness in the Christ who lived long ago it is a rootedness in the Christ who is present today in the life of the community of faith.
Arnold is not a pious, sentimental guide. Every word he speaks comes from his experience in community, where discipleship is lived. It is in community that we are tested and purified. It is in community that we learn what forgiveness and healing are all about. It is in community that we learn who our neighbor is. Community is the true school of love. Arnold lived community all of his life. He knew its demands and its rewards. Most of all, he knew that it is in community that we encounter the Christ of the Gospel.
I am very grateful for this book. It is a prophetic book in a time in which few people dare to speak unpopular but truly healing words.
I pray that those who read this book won't be afraid to be confronted, and I trust that the word of God that comes to them through it will bring true comfort, true consolation, true hope, and true courage.
Henri Nouwen
Your Turn. Tell us what you thought about this book:
Download Ebook
English .pdf files
Other languages (.pdfs)
Other Formats
Reviews
Helen Prejean, CSJ, author, Dead Man Walking
Discipleship is not simply a book. It is a cry from the heart of a man
passionately alive for God.
Tony Campolo, author, Red Letter Christians
Discipleship helps us to understand what spiritual goodness is all about…It provides a mystic nurturing of the soul that translates into action that makes for justice.
Jürgen Moltmann, author, Theology of Hope
I have not experienced a book like this except when reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Christoph Blumhardt. Arnold sees beyond the present into the wonderful future of God’s kingdom.
Cardinal Joseph O’Connor, Archdiocese of New York
…a clear call to greater conviction and faith. Readers who open their hearts to the witness of this book will be challenged and inspired.
Richard McSorley, SJ, Georgetown University
Along with The Imitation of Christ and the sacred Scriptures themselves, Arnold’s writings are a spring from which flows living water to nourish the soul.
J.I. Packer, author, Knowing God
What a wise man Heinrich Arnold was.