“Spiritual formation in Christ is the process through which disciples or apprentices of Jesus take on the qualities or characteristics of Christ himself, in every essential dimension of human personality. The overall orientation of their will, the kinds of thoughts and feelings that occupy them, the “automatic” inclinations and “readinesses” of their body in action, the prevailing posture of their relations toward others, and the harmonious wholeness of their soul—these all, through the formative processes undergone by his disciples, increasingly come to resemble the personal dimensions of their master. ‘A pupil is not above his teacher,’ Jesus said, ‘but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher’ (Luke 6:40).”

From Renewing the Christian Mind: Essays, In