A good basic introduction to spirituality, more concerned with 'mapping the territory' than a guide on how to develop spiritually. For that I'd recommend either [b:Spiritual Theology|46223294|Spiritual Theology|Jordan Aumann|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565754951l/46223294._SX50_.jpg|1204013] or [b:The Three Ages Of The Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life|880507|The Three Ages Of The Interior Life Prelude of Eternal Life|Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387717338l/880507._SY75_.jpg|865801].

Wide ranging in its survey, this book looks at types of Christian spirituality, theological foundations, biblical images and spirituality, and visualisation and spatialisation in spirituality, before concluding with some practical exercises in textual interpretation.

If you are looking at Christian spirituality for the first time, I would highly recommend this book, with the disclaimer that it is very intellectual and structured in its approach and lacks the more practical and emotional aspects of spiritual development. In other words, it's all head stuff - no more than you'd expect from an Oxford academic!

But even for those well versed in Christian spirituality, the book has a new perspective to offer and helps to provide a framework within which spirituality can be better explored. ( )

Prof. Alister McGrath is a moderately conservative theologian and an ordained minister of the Church of England. This text fills the need for a clear, informative, helpful and well-written introduction to Christian spirituality. It introduces this area of Christian theology as a serious and exciting field of study to those encountering it for the first time. It builds on the huge success of earlier texts in the area of Christian thought and practice by the same author, and is based on seven years' experience of teaching its themes.

It's McGrath, what can one say? Level one text book and very good of its kind.

As many others have said - I expect students to use McGrath's books of this kind at level one and would be very worried if they were still using them at level three. (Level one: freshman in college, level three - senior). As a beginning, it's very good and clearly points to sources.