According to a Christianity Today article, Biola University professor J.P. Moreland says evangelical Christians are too committed to the Bible. His talk at a recent Evangelical Theology Society meeting was titled “How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible and What Can Be Done About It.” Quoting Moreland, the article states:

“In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational, and harmful to the cause of Christ,” he [Moreland] said. “And it has produced a mean-spiritedness among the over-committed that is a grotesque and often ignorant distortion of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.” The problem, he said, is “the idea that the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of God, morality, and a host of related important items. Accordingly, the Bible is taken to be the sole authority for faith and practice.”

While Moreland gives examples such as non-charismatics who steer clear of any and all venues such as “impressions, dreams, visions, prophetic words, words of knowledge and wisdom,” there may be more behind his statements than meets the eye. This idea of “bibliolatry” (the idolizing of the Bible) did not originate with Moreland. Several years ago contemplative Brennan Manning (who gets many of his ideas from panentheist mystics like Thomas Merton and William Shannon (Silence on Fire) said this:

I am deeply distressed by what I only can call in our Christian culture the idolatry of the Scriptures. For many Christians, the Bible is not a pointer to God but God himself. In a word–bibliolatry. God cannot be confined within the covers of a leather-bound book. I develop a nasty rash around people who speak as if mere scrutiny of its pages will reveal precisely how God thinks and precisely what God wants.”–Brennan Manning, Signature of Jesus, pp. 188-189

Some may agree with Manning and Moreland by saying that we should not worship a leather bound book but rather the One who the book is about. But few “over-committed” Bible-believing Christians would argue with that. Christians who believe the Bible is the actual inspired word of God know that it is the Jesus Christ proclaimed in that Bible that is to be worshiped. But they also know that within the pages of the Bible are the holy words, ideas, and truths of God. So for Moreland and Manning to suggest that these types of Christians don’t really worship God but rather pages in a book is a complete misrepresentation of Bible-believing Christians.

There may be a logical reason why Moreland and Manning condemn those who adhere to the Bible too strongly. Both have something in common – their promotion of contemplative spirituality. And those who turn to contemplative mysticism, often shift their focus from the moral (doctrine) to the mystical (as Henri Nouwen suggested). J.P. Moreland is in the same camp as Manning. In Moreland’s 2006 book, The Lost Virtue of Happiness, he talks about rediscovering important spiritual principles that have been lost. Roger Oakland explains:

Two of the spiritual disciplines … are “Solitude and Silence” (p. 51). The book says that these two disciplines are “absolutely fundamental to the Christian life” (p. 51)…. Moreland and Issler [co-author] state:

In our experience, Catholic retreat centers [bastions of mysticism] are usually ideal for solitude retreats… We also recommend that you bring photos of your loved ones and a picture of Jesus… Or gaze at a statue of Jesus. Or let some pleasant thought, feeling, or memory run through your mind over and over again (pp. 54-55)….

Moreland and Issler provide tips for developing a prayer life. Here are some of the recommendations they make:

[W]e recommend that you begin by saying the Jesus Prayer about three hundred times a day (p. 90).

When you first awaken, say the Jesus Prayer twenty to thirty times. As you do, something will begin to happen to you. God will begin to slowly begin to occupy the center of your attention (p. 92).

Repetitive use of the Jesus Prayer while doing more focused things allows God to be on the boundaries of your mind and forms the habit of being gently in contact with him all day long (p. 93).

Moreland and Issler try to present what they consider a scriptural case that repetitive prayers are OK with God. But they never do it! They say the Jesus Prayer is derived from Luke 18:38 where the blind man cries out, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me,”(p.90) but nowhere in that section of the Bible (or any other section for that matter) does it instruct people to repeat a rendition of Luke 18:38 over and over. (from Faith Undone, pp. 117-119)

In a four-part article written by Moreland on Focus on the Family website, Moreland encourages the spiritual disciplines. In Part II of Moreland’s article he says, “A spiritual discipline is a repetitive practice.” Moreland favorably references contemplative-promoter Dallas Willard to describe the importance of silence and solitude. He adds: “People are coming to see that repeated bodily practice in the form of spiritual exercises/disciplines is at the heart of spiritual transformation.” 1Moreland’s recent release, Kingdom Triangle, is also quite telling. Dallas Willard wrote the foreword, and in an Amazon book review, the reviewer states:

On page 159, Dr. Moreland encourages the reader to participate in an unbiblical form of meditation which is more akin to the religious practices of Yoga and Eastern mysticism than orthodox Biblical Christianity where he details a 2-step process first alluded to in the Lost Virtue of Happiness book. In step one, he tells the reader to “[f]ocus the center of your attention on your physical heart muscle.”(2)

Moreland recommends Richard Foster and Henri Nouwen, which makes sense – he co-authored a book with Dallas Willard ten years ago; thus, he has been dancing in contemplative circles for sometime. That being the case, it makes sense that he would say some Christians are over-committed to the Bible. And that’s something to think about.

To understand more about the contemplative idea of moving from the moral (doctrine) to the mystial, read chapter 4, section 1 of Faith Undone, “Experience over doctrine” and chapter 3 pages 61-64 (about Nouwen) of A Time of Departing.

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