Discipleship by Leslie D. Weatherhead - Revised Edition - 1958

Discipleship by Leslie D. Weatherhead

This book was first published in 1934. This is the Revised Edition from 1958.

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This book deals with the aspects of the Christian life which have been emphasized by the Oxford Group. Among the topics treated are Surrender, Sharing, The Quiet Time, Guidance, Restitution, Witness.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

THE following pages contain the substance of a series of addresses given to some three hundred young people gathered at the Missionary School at Swanwick during Whit-week, 1933. In yielding to the request that they should be printed, it is essential to ask the reader to bear in mind that they were spoken addresses, and when they were given, it was not contemplated that they would be printed. I am greatly indebted to Miss E. Spencer, of the Methodist Mission House staff, who was good enough to take them down in shorthand and then type them for me. This work of hers has been the basis on which I have worked in rewriting them, though here and there material has been added and ideas more fully worked out.

I want to acknowledge also with deep gratitude my debt to my beloved father-in-law, the Rev. Arthur Triggs, who once more with characteristic ability and thoroughness has read the proofs and made suggestions which I have adopted with avidity.

A further apology is essential in that some of the matter in the following pages appears in different form elsewhere in various writings of mine. Naturally, when speaking on certain subjects again and again, one can hardly avoid expressing a point of view in similar terms, and to cut out what may have appeared in other writings would make this little book an incorrect record of what was said. For instance, a list of things which often stand between the soul and God is incorporated in the first address from Chapter VII of my last book, How Can I Find God?

The words which form the chapter headings are words which are being very much emphasized at present by the Oxford Group Movement, to which I, personally, owe a great debt. Yet this book is not a book on the Oxford Group Movement. In the lectures given, no reference was made to it. I am sure that movement does not desire to patent, as it were, these special words which are the keynotes of any real revival of religion. Such a revival is now gloriously happening in many parts of the country through the medium of not only the Oxford Group, but the Cambridge Group Movement and the Methodist Fellowship Group, and in many other ways also. For myself, I believe that we are at the beginning of a revival which may become as important as that linked with the names of John and Charles Wesley, in which the Methodist Church was born. The following talks seek to relate these keywords to our lives without discussing the technique of any particular movement.

The questions which the members of the Whit-week School discussed each day are printed at the end of the book in the hope that groups all over the country may find them helpful in their discussions. Perhaps I may just add that it seems to me important that the work of the groups should not be a discussion of a subject of merely theological interest, but should be brought down to the practical issues of daily life. Group work does not realize its full possibility if purely intellectual problems are solved, or, what often happens, lifted up and put down in another place. The intellectual background of our religious experience is very important. But the ideal of Group Fellowship is that each member should find help in the difficult business of living, and in the back of everyone's mind there should be one fundamental question: "How can I find or deepen the experience of Christ which is offered in the New Testament, and how can I pass it on?"

LESLIE D. WEATHERHEAD.

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Leslie D. Weatherhead is a graduate of the University of London, Manchester University and Richmond College.

During the World War he had a varied experience, in spite of his youth, as lieutenant in the Indian Army; a political officer among the Arab tribes on the Persian border; and later as chaplain to British troops. With the coming of peace he assumed charge of the English Church at Madras, India, returning to England in 1922.

He is the minister of one of the largest Wesleyan churches in Great Britain, Brunswick Church, Leeds. He has published several books, one of which, Jesus and Our-selves, has received especially wide and warm commendation. This was followed by The Transforming Friendship, and His Life and Ours, and now he offers the American public his latest book, Discipleship, which is full of wise and sympathetic counsel as to what it means to be a Christian and how to surmount the difficulties of everyday living.

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This book is in excellent condition with minimal wear. There is some minor wear to the cover. There’s a small pencil marking on the first page and no other writing or markings in the book.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.