Wheaton College Promoting Contemplative Spirituality

Wheaton College —Promoting Spiritual Formation and Contemplative Prayer

Links to Show Their Involvement:

Over 300 pages on Spiritual Formation

24 listings on Contemplative

Over 150 pages on Emerging

Courses Using Contemplative Authors

Evangelism 542
Strategies for Contemporary Evangelism
Spring 2005
Professor Jerry Root

CE 323 Dynamics of Spiritual Growth
Spring 2006
James C. Wilhoit

Look who Wheaton College is Promoting:

Calvin Miller (Into the Depths of God)

Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, David Steindl-Rast in their Spiritual Formation course (Evangelism 516)

And Teaching:

Lectio Divina

The Labyrinth

Yoga
"Exercise such as aerobic conditioning, flexibility training/yoga, muscle strength/endurance conditioning helps the body and mind deal with stress and tension."

COLLEGE WATCH - Wheaton Continues Promoting Contemplative Prayer
In March 2006, we reported that Wheaton College was promoting contemplative spirituality. Many concerned Christians contacted Wheaton to discuss the matter. However, we are sad to report that the Spring 2006 issue of Wheaton's magazine, Wheaton (p.20+), has a feature article on contemplative prayer.

Wheaton professor James Wilhoit is quoted in the article as saying: "When you come to see that there is a divine transforming mystery calling you into relationship, it doesn't become a matter of practices, it becomes a matter of responding to that call." But that "divine transforming mystery" that contemplative prayer offers through the silence is not the mystery the Bible speaks of in Colossians 1 when it says the mystery of God is Christ in us (believers), the hope of glory.

The Wheaton article continues ... "Like his students, Dr.Wilhoit experienced his own 'contemplative conversion,' and says people interested in finding out more might turn to authors like Henri Nouwen, Richard J. Foster, and Wheaton alumnus, Dr. Bruce Demarest."

We predict that Christian colleges that plunge into contemplative will lead students to a widening of interspiritual and panentheistic viewpoints. We pray that the professors at Wheaton will realize this before too many more students are led astray.