Westerhoff Book Critique Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Westerhoff Book Critique - Assignment Example (Westerhoff 1994, ix) The ideas presented in the book are logical, simple, and realistic where the professor uses a lot of examples and related life stories to explain his point. Rev. Dr. John Westerhoff, III taught at Harvard and Duke University Divinity School and was also part of the ministry first at the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA, and later became a priest in the Episcopal Church. (Bramer 2009) The professor is an author of a number of books already which are also about faith and spirituality. Spiritual Formation focuses on how living a spiritual life affects preaching and teaching in our time and the issues concerning them. In the same way that we cannot give what we do not have, the professor said in his book that the best teachers and preachers he has known were persons who taught and preached out of the depths of their own life experiences. (Westerhoff 1994, 32) Most educators I know do believe that experience is indeed the best teacher. I guess I can say they were also very good at their profession. Yet teaching and preaching in the light of spiritual formation is not achievable by the mentor alone. One word that links the sender (the preacher or the teacher) and the receiver (students and other recipients) is the word â€Å"learning†. Learning is a two way process. It involves not only the participation, but also first of all the interest, more so the willingness to learn of the student. As the professor out it in his book introduction, â€Å"Today, spiritua l formation is a major concern of faculty and students† (Westerhoff 1994, ix). He also quoted Nouwen that â€Å"someone must be willing to let his or her life be a resource for the other’s learning; and if there is any truth, it will break in from the outside and illuminate both the teacher and the learner.† (Westerhoff 1994, 41) In this process both teacher and student learn and in this sense, Westerhoff added that the learner needs to be