Time to Live: Christian Formation through the Christian Year

In 2018, I had the privilege of publishing an article in The Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, published by Biola University. That article, entitled “Time to Live: Christian Formation through the Christian Year,” explores ways in which the rhythms of the Christian, or liturgical, year can subtly form our spiritual lives as Christians.

This past week I was informed that this article was one of the most accessed articles for the journal in the last six months and that, while it’s usually behind a paywall, the article is now freely available to any who would like to read it. You can access the article here.

A more academic description of the article is found in the abstract, which says:

“This article examines the role of the Christian, or liturgical, year as one of the simplest yet most powerful ways of spiritually forming people, both individually and corporately, to become more like Jesus. Many Christians and churches are subtly shaped more by the time structures of the average work week or cultural holidays than the life of Christ or the church. The tendency to address individual spiritual formation focuses largely on cognitivist approaches to change or individual formative practices. However, the author explores several ways in which the Christian year offers a wholistic approach to life formation through the steady, time-bound patterns of the Christian year. Engaging both the conscious and unconscious self in cognitive practices and steady habits, both the individual Christian and local congregations are trained toward Christlikeness.”