In September of 2010, Lighthouse Trails wrote an article “Richard Foster’s Renovare Turns to Panentheist Mystic Richard Rohr and Emerging Darling Phyllis Tickle For New Book Project” telling our readers about a new book that Richard Foster would soon be putting out. The name of his now released 400+ page book is titled 25 Books Every Christian Should Read. In our 2010 article, we pointed out that the editorial team for the new book included panentheistic mystic Richard Rohr, emerging church figure Phyllis Tickle, and contemplatives Dallas Willard. Below is a list of the 25 books included in Foster’s new book. See for yourself, by looking at this list, that Foster’s purpose is to bring contemplative spirituality to the evangelical Christian church.
Another note worth pointing out here on this list of books that Richard Foster says every Christian should read: A large number of these authors below were either Catholic, on the road to Catholicism, or those who wanted to reform the Catholic church but maintain the Eucharist (belief that the communion elements become the real body and blood of Jesus). As Lighthouse Trails has contended, contemplative prayer is a bridge to Catholicism (not to mention panentheism and universalism). In addition, more and more evangelical Protestants are turning to the Catholic Eucharist, claiming that the mystical experience it offers them leads them to God (but really it leads them to the false Eucharistic “Christ”).
Also, and equally as important and telling as the books of dead authors that Foster highlights in his book is a list of “alive” authors whom Foster recommends at the end of his book (Best Contemporary Authors) some of which include: Richard Foster (of course), Ann Lamott, Brian McLaren, Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, and N.T. Wright – all names that point to the “new” spirituality.
On the list below, aside from a few names that do not fall into the contemplative, mystic, and/or Catholic category, this combination of books is a recipe for a dangerous path to apostasy. What Foster’s book really should be titled is How to Become a Catholic Mystic.
25 Books Every Christian Should Read by Richard Foster
1. On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius ( promoter of Catholic Eucharist)
2. Confessions by St. Augustine
3. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
4. The Rule of St. Benedict by St. Benedict
5. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
6. The Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous (Catholic monk)
7. Revelations of Divine Love (Showings) by Julian of Norwich
8. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (Catholic monk)
9. The Philokalia
10. Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
11. The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila
12. Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross
13. Pensées by Blaise Pascal (Catholic)
14. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
15. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
16. A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law
17. The Way of a Pilgrim by Unknown Author
18. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
19. Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton (converted to Catholicism from Protestanism)
20. The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Jesuit, mystic)
21. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
22. A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly
23. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton (Catholic monk)
24. Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
25. The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J. M. Nouwen (Catholic)
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