{"id":3744,"date":"2006-11-09T17:11:11","date_gmt":"2006-11-09T21:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=3744"},"modified":"2026-07-19T13:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:11:13","slug":"college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\/","title":{"rendered":"COLLEGE WATCH: Patrick Henry Bringing in Contemplative Through Spiritual Formation"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 2008 Update:<\/strong> Lighthouse Trails has been in contact with Patrick Henry, and the school no longer has spiritual formation groups. Their new president has stated that the school will not be going in that direction. In addition, they are not using contemplative and\/or emerging books in their classes. Thus we have removed them from our list of “Christian Colleges That Promote Contemplative.”<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Another Christian college<\/span><\/strong><\/a> is promoting contemplative spirituality. Patrick Henry in Virginia is introducing contemplative to students through their Spiritual Formation Groups.<\/span><\/strong><\/a> The two readings that stand out among the others are Richard Foster’s Devotional Classics<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a> and Robert Webber’s<\/span><\/strong><\/a> “Ancient-Future Time, Forming Spirituality.”<\/p>\n

Richard Foster is the author of the very popular book, Celebration of Discipline<\/em>. The book that Patrick Henry is using, Devotional Classics<\/em>, contains a who’s who of contemplative (i.e., mystical) spirituality. Of the book, Foster says: “These fifty-two selections have been organized to introduce readers through the course of one year to the great devotional writers.” Who are these “great devotional writers” that Foster admires and now Patrick Henry students will be introduced to? A few of these 52 writers are Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Evelyn Underhill, George Fox, and Madame Guyon. Many of these 52 writers are panentheistic, meaning they believe (or did believe when they were alive) that God was in all things. Listen to the words of one of authors, Thomas Kelly: “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center… And He is within us all” (from Testament of Devotion<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Interwoven in the writings of these 52 authors are numerous other recommendations, many of which are mystics. Patrick Henry students are going to get more than a mild dose of contemplative through their Spiritual Formation Groups, particularly through Richard Foster’s Devotional Classics<\/em>. Brother Lawrence is another one of the writers in Foster’s book. In Lawrence’s book, The Practice of the Presence of God <\/em>(1977 edition), it says he danced violently like a mad man when he went into this “presence.”<\/p>\n

In the section of Foster’s book written by Evelyn Underhill, under “Excerpts from the Essentials of Mysticism,” Underhill tells readers to prepare “the consciousness for the inflow of new life” (p. 114). And in the section by Madame Guyon (both women were mystics), Guyon tells readers the way to get rid of distractions (to prepare to enter the silence) is to “withdraw from your mind!” (p. 323) Thomas Merton (another one of the authors of the book) knew exactly what this withdrawing of the mind was all about. In fact, he said he felt sorry for the hippies in the 60s who dropped LSD because all they had to do was turn to contemplative to get the same results.(see interview with Matthew Fox<\/span><\/strong><\/a>) Foster, in this same section of the book (Guyon) gives instruction at the end of the chapter called “Suggested Exercises.” He tells readers to “pray the Scripture” and use that as a tool to “focus on God’s presence.” And of course, for those who have studied the contemplative prayer movement in depth know that this is exactly what contemplatives do – they use the Bible (or other books) as tools of divination, whereby they manipulate the words, go into meditative trances and believe the voice they hear in that presence is the voice of God.<\/p>\n

Patrick Henry’s Spiritual Formation Groups are also using Robert Webber’s materials. Webber, director of Ancient Future Worship, is a strong supporter of contemplative spirituality.<\/p>\n

Is Patrick Henry going to continue in this direction? Only time will tell. But based on our research of many, many Christian colleges, once contemplative gets a foot in the door, it is pretty tough to stop it from flooding in. In the Patrick Henry Catalog<\/span><\/strong>, it is a little worrisome to hear that part of the school’s vision is to “aid in the transformation of American society” (p. 11), especially when considering that if this “transformation of American society” is going to take place through the screen of contemplative spirituality, the end result will not look anything like Christian. On the contrary, it will rather resemble a unified world religion in which meditation is the glue that holds it all together.<\/p>\n

On page 12 of the catalog, it says: “Patrick Henry College has been, to use a popular phrase, ‘purpose-driven’ from its inception.” Those who have read A Time of Departing <\/em>know that Rick Warren is a strong promoter and endorser of contemplative and emerging spiritualities. To be “purpose-driven” today could be a detriment to any Christian college. If it is true that PHC hopes to “remain true to the Word of God (p. 13), then they will halt their Spiritual Formation program before it is too late.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 2008 Update: Lighthouse Trails…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemplative-colleges","wpcat-71-id"],"yoast_head":"\nCOLLEGE WATCH: Patrick Henry Bringing in Contemplative Through Spiritual Formation - From the Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COLLEGE WATCH: Patrick Henry Bringing in Contemplative Through Spiritual Formation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 2008 Update: Lighthouse Trails...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"From the Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LighthouseTrailsResearch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-09T21:11:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-19T20:11:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lighthouse Trails Editors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lighthouse Trails Editors\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lighthouse Trails Editors\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a36b703d7722ce85599858df8bacc0a5\"},\"headline\":\"COLLEGE WATCH: Patrick Henry Bringing in Contemplative Through Spiritual Formation\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-11-09T21:11:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-19T20:11:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":793,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Contemplative Colleges\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/college-watch-patrick-henry-bringing-in-contemplative-through-spiritual-formation\\\/\",\"name\":\"COLLEGE WATCH: Patrick Henry Bringing in Contemplative Through Spiritual Formation - 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