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The Wisdom of Stability – Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

"Maybe the single most important thing we can do if we want to grow spiritually is to stay in the place we are."

So writes Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove in his new book, The Wisdom of Stability – Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture. Speaking about family and the importance of place, this book is close to Wilson-Hartgrove's heart and not surprising considering he recently co edited a modern liturgical book of Common Prayer.

He quotes Benedictine Monks, Desert Fathers and modern voices such as Vanier, Merton and Wendel Berry among others. For those seeking a robust spirituality for today, Stability provides a rich tapestry of experience from long ago commending a path difficult to take, but worth the journey.

Wilson-Hartgrove's Stability is risky and dynamic and what I most enjoyed about the book. He describes radicals determined to follow and seek Jesus on difficult paths that ultimately lead to engagement with the world's pain.

"Stability is a commitment to trust God not in an ideal world, but in the battered and bruised world we know."

I'm reading Stability as my wife and I near the end of our first year of overseas mission in the slums of Asia with Servant's to Asia's Urban Poor. Servants has five principles that guide and inspire our work; Incarnation, Servanthood, Community, Simplicity and Holism. Stability is a valuable contribution that helps undergird and strengthen each of these principles. We've been encouraged to remember the spiritual rhythms of the past and the foundation they provide to offer love to a broken and chaotic world.

In Stability we're warned of the demons our age; ambition, boredom and idolatry. These, 'Midday Demons' tempt us from persevering on the radical paths God may lead us on. The antidote to these demons is a discipleship that confronts the demons and repels them through practicing lives of prayer, community and staying put.

The challenge for us will be to stay put in this new culture God has placed us.

Wilson-Hartgrove cites the The Rule of St Benedict, written over 1500 years ago, and its threefold commitment of stability, fidelity to monastic life, and obedience, he notes the significance of a tradition so influential clearly prioritizing the notion of stability.

"Benedictine wisdom says the first thing we need is a stable place to begin," and for Wilson-Hartgrove stability begins amongst others in community.

As much as Stability draws on Benedictine spiritual writers it's kind enough to provide, at the rear of the book, several pages of 'collected wisdom' quotes for readers wishing to investigate further.

It would be tempting for writers facing this topic to dwell as much on the failure of the world to embrace stability and the obvious consequences. However, Wilson-Hartgrove never falls into this trap, the critiques we find of neglecting stability, while infrequent, are not out of place.

If anything we'd probably like to hear more but Stability isn't an angry treatise against the dangers of the modern world. Rather, this critique serves to help us go beyond blame to asking ourselves what our responsibility is and if we're up to it? Stability is that kind of book. It's a reminder by someone keenly aware of the world's enticements, that God is here, He is with us and we need not move.

[reviewed by David Cross - a member of the Servants team in Manila.]