Brief Book Review: The Spirit Of Counsel

The Spirit Of Counsel: Spiritual Perspectives in the Counselling Process

Author: Martin Israel

Publisher: A.R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd., paperback, 192 pages

Reviewed by Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

The Author 

At the time of publication, the Rev. Dr. Martin Israel lectured in pathology in the University of London at the Royal College of Surgeons, he was also an Anglican priest, and author of several books.

Contents

The contents include a Forward, sixteen chapters with the following titles: 1 The Way of the Spirit; 2 Illuminated Self-Love; 3 Self-Discovery and Illumination; 4 The Path of Counsel; 5 Bearing One Another’s Burdens; 6 The Way of Unknowing; 7 Psychic Communion and Counselling; 8 The Discernment of Spirits; 9 Counselling Towards Liberation; 10 Discipline in the Service of Freedom; 11 The Counsel of Perfection; 12 The Need to be Wanted; 13 The Identity Crisis; 14 Matters of Life and Death; 15 Counselling for Death; 16 Intimations of Joy; and a short conclusion, titled: The End of Counsel. 

Brief Observations

This reviewer struggled with the Rev. Dr. Israel’s style and language of prose; finding it difficult, obscure, and in places too abstract and elitist. In short, it was not an easy read, and perhaps the author had in mind as his audience professional counsellors and physicians. Moreover, this volume would have been far more accessible, I believe, had the author shared more concrete examples from his own life experiences. Another irritating factor is the author’s sexist language. That said, I’d like to conclude with three quotations, which may awaken the curiosity of some readers to check out this volume. Two stars out of five.

“As I grow in love, so the full burden of human suffering becomes known to me. I become increasingly available to all the world’s pain, which has to be borne in love before it can be transfigured by the power of the Holy Spirit (p.49).” 

“Without forgiveness there is no love, without love no growth, without growth no continuing life (p. 168).”

“The more experience one has in the various disciplines of life, the less dogmatic does one become (p. 171).” 

Day of Pentecost

Worshipping on holidays

While worshipping on holidays, we attended a Day of Pentecost Holy Communion Service, which certainly surprised us. It surprised us because we were expecting a more traditional liturgy than the one on that particular Sunday. The title of the Service was “Fire Dance A Liturgy for Pentecost.” Although we arrived a bit late, we saw no official liturgical dancers though—so the title was a tad misleading. However, in the pews many—not all—parishioners were positively “happy-clappy,” and “sway as you sing” types. I found it quite amazing—surprised by the Spirit among us perhaps—that there were granddads and grannies grooving to the songs equally as much as the younger generations.

The liturgy was definitely rather unique. The traditional parts of the liturgy were replaced with—interspersed throughout—litanies, songs, Scripture readings from Acts 1 & 2, poems, sermon, prayers, and a mix of contemporary and traditional Holy Communion liturgy—Great Thanksgiving, Eucharistic Prayer, etc.

The music was primarily rock, blues, and folk-rock, with a four-piece band consisting of: lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and percussion. Both the songs and poems contained mostly implicit rather than explicit references to the Holy Spirit and/or Pentecost, with the exception of Peter Scholte’s “We are One in the Spirit.” The opening song was Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” and another familiar song was Bruce Cockburn’s “Waiting for a Miracle.”

As I reflect on the Service, what likely surprised us most was interspersing the poems along with the readings from Acts. Neither of us would have thought to do that in a Holy Communion Day of Pentecost Service—yet, it was another way to celebrate the Holy Spirit’s creativity at work through the word delivered in this form among the faith community. Reflecting further, it strikes me that many of our traditional hymns are also in fact poems. Indeed, several Scripture passages are poems in, for example, the Psalms, Isaiah, and the Prologue of John’s Gospel, and the Christ hymn-poem in Philippians—and were originally spoken and/or sung by the faith community during public worship. As clergy, it is always educational when the Holy Spirit teaches us when attending Worship Services in other parishes while on holidays.