Who's
Promoting the Spiritual Disciplines and Contemplative Prayer?
Dallas
Willard
"In recent
years there has been an attempt to recover the disciplines because,
in fact, they were lost, by and large. That is true in places
you wouldn't expect it. I have found many Roman Catholics to whom
the spiritual disciplines were almost unknown, lost. There's
a wonderful priest in Pittsburgh who has a telephone program.
He's called me occasionally when my books have come out, and one
time we were on the air discussing The Spirit of the Disciplines,
when someone called in and asked angrily, "Why don't you people
teach these things any more? When I was young, Sister So-and-So
taught us to fast, and taught us to contemplate and be silent,
and now it's not taught any more." It's true. In many quarters
of the Catholic church it isn't taught, or at least not effectively.
In Protestant churches, with very little exception, it was totally
lost, until back in the '70s, some writings began to appear."Dallas
Willard, Spiritual Disciplines in a Postmodern World
"As
a movement, those who practice contemplative prayer,
on the whole, tend to develop spiritual kinship to other religions,
especially Buddhism." Ray Yungen
This
expanded 2nd edition shows how Purpose Driven paradigm and the emerging
church movement are promoting contemplative spirituality.
Spiritual
Formation -
How Widespread Has It Become?
Richard
Foster's new Renovare Spiritual Formation
Study Bible has now been released. Editors for the "Bible" include
contemplative supporter Walter Brueggemann (who endorses
a book, Reimagining Christianity that says the doctrine of
the Cross is a vile doctrine),Eugene
Peterson, and other contemplatives.
The
Berean Call Examines the Renovare Spiritual Formation Study Bible
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.
"Nor
is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name [Jesus
Christ] under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4: 12
