QUICK LINKS

 
LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESOURCES
MORE INFORMATION

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT OUR BLOG, AND FOR HELPFUL RESOURCES, VISIT OUR STORE.

 
JAN JOHNSON: WHEN THE SOUL LISTENS
Jan Johnson: When the Soul Listens
Spiritual director Jan Johnson in her book, When the Soul Listens: Finding Rest and Direction in Contemplative Prayer, is a perfect example of an evangelical Christian who endorses and promotes this practice. She leaves no doubt about what this type of prayer entails:

"Contemplative prayer, in its simplest form, is a prayer in which you still your thoughts and emotions and focus on God Himself. This puts you in a better state to be aware of God's presence, and it makes you better able to hear God's voice, correcting, guiding, and directing you." (p. 16)

Johnson's explanation of the initial stages of contemplative prayer leaves no doubt that "stilling" your thoughts means only one thing; she explains:

In the beginning, it is usual to feel nothing but a cloud of unknowing.... If you're a person who has relied on yourself a great deal to know what's going on, this unknowing will be unnerving. (p. 120)

 

JAN JOHNSON'S BOOK: SOLITUDE AND SILENCE - Points readers to Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Madame Guyon, Richard Foster, and other mystics
EditRegion2

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Featured Resources

  
     

Contemplative Spirituality: A belief system that uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness (the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). Common terms used for this movement are "spiritual formation," "the silence," "the stillness," "ancient-wisdom," "spiritual disciplines," and many others.

Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.