Carla from More Books and things has written a most excellent post on the practice of ‘Contemplative Prayer’. Her post has a lot of links and quotes about those who endorse this un-biblical practice…
The funny thing is that both Christians and New Agers, are telling us that we must practice this thing. This is not just about finding a nice quiet place to think, but quite the opposite. It’s referring to a stillness of the mind called THE SILENCE.
When I was a babe in Christ, I as well as others in our little home-group were warned about such practices, we understood that this form of worship/meditation was actually ‘transcendental meditaion’. We understood that it was something that would creep into the Church via the New Age, and now unfortunately we are witnessing that happen.
I have written a few posts on the occult movement within the Church which you can find HERE.
Contemplative prayer is not what you think it is…
It is important to first clearly define what “contemplative prayer” is. For the purposes of this article, contemplative prayer is not just “contemplating while you pray.” The Bible instructs us to “pray with our minds” (1 Corinthians 14:15), so, clearly, prayer does involve contemplation. However, praying with your mind is not what “contemplative prayer” has come to mean.
Contemplative prayer has slowly increased in practice and popularity each year since the mid-1990s, along with the rise of the Emerging Church Movement—a movement which embraces many unscriptural ideas and practices. Contemplative prayer is one such practice.
Contemplative prayer, also known as “centering prayer,” is a meditative practice where the practitioner focuses on a word and repeats that word over and over for the duration of the exercise. According to Catholic priest Thomas Keating, this is how it is done: “Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within. When you become aware of thoughts, return ever so gently to the sacred word. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.” [source]
For a more in depth article that is worth a read see – “Contemplating Contemplative Prayer: is it really prayer?”. This site called CANA is dedicated to answering many New Age questions that Christians are concerned about.
Carla sums it all up by pointing to the real truth…
The truth is, there is only one safe place for our minds to find true peace…not in the thin place, not in the empty place of higher consciousness, not in your core of inner silence, but in the Lord. Rather than emptying our minds, we need to consciously fill them with truth from the Word of God.
Thanks Carla for your post!
This is a blog about my living a journey within the context of being a bible believing Christian woman. I blog about many topics from issues that affect the Church today to current political and cultural trends, and even poetry. I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I enjoy blogging.
I appreciate your passion and concern for the church. Pascal spoke of the church being a fixed point in society but if we lose our moorings we cease to be that fixed point. I, like you, sense the church has lost its way in many regards.
As to Centering Prayer (contemplative prayer), I suspect a bit more research is in order-for all involved (those who embrace it unquestioning and those who dismiss it ignorantly). Not all forms of centering prayer reflect Thomas Keating’s definition. Unfortunately, he is correct that this is the most common means of experiencing contemplative prayer-fortunately it is not the only one in church history.
Ignatius, for example, led his initiates through a rigorous program of scripture meditation and reflection that first began with silence (Lord, set me apart) and then moved into prayerful reading of scripture (lectio: Lord, what are you saying?). As a ‘word’ or phrase seemed to emerge from the text the next stage was called meditato (Lord, what are you saying to me?). Following meditation came what he called, oratio or, prayer (Lord, here am I), which was followed by contemplatio (Lord, open the eyes of my heart) and finally, Incarnatio (Lord, use me).
Another fantastic (and a bit more simple) approach to the idea of listening to God through scripture and prayer is Larry Crabb’s book, Papa Prayer. I highly recommend it as a solid answer to questions regarding contemplative prayer.
Regarding David Shepherd’s comment on Ignatius, etc….I was just reading this…
New Evangelization Evangelists
The Roman Catholic Church has a name for those who have departed from the “One True Church.” They’re called the “separated brethren.” Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, had one main goal in mind when he established his organization. He and his band of faithful ruthless men would do everything possible to bring these separated brethren back to the Mother of All Churches. Several centuries have passed. Now that we are in the twenty-first century, his plan is becoming a reality.
http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c60.shtml
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Another interesting thing I was reading was regarding Tony Campolo, who says he was ‘born again’ by centering prayer and also mentions Ignatius:
“I learned about this way of having a born-again experience from reading Catholic mystics, especially The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Ignatius, a founder of the Jesuit order, was once a soldier and it was only when he spent a long time in a hospital bed recovering from a battle wound that his heart and mind focused on God. Like most Catholic mystics he developed an intense desire to experience a “oneness” with God. Gradually, he came to feel an intense yearning for the kind of spiritual purity that he believed would enable him to experience the fullness of God’s presence within.” [11]
Campolo’s belief that you can be born again by experiencing a “oneness with God” while embracing the teachings of Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits, is preposterous. As can be documented, the very reason the Jesuits were founded by Loyola was for the purpose of bringing the Separated Brethren (those who departed from Catholicism) back to the Roman Catholic Church, by whatever devious means it would take. How could Campolo, who claims he is an evangelical Christian, make such a statement?
http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c58.shtml
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Larry Crabb in another one who has taken up the ancient spiritual disciplines and spiritual direction, while blending this mysticism with psychology.
Thanks Carla for stopping by. I agree totally with you in that the path to Rome is being reintroduced via the teachings of the desert fathers, that is very clear!
There is a heap of information on Larry Crabb which I have read from…
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/crabb/crabb.htm
(a) “Spoiling the Egyptians” Approach: Crabb believes that the best counseling model is one in which “truth” from both the Bible and the “spoils” from secular psychology are “integrated” into a combined counseling model.
(b) The Need for “Security” and “Significance”: The main building block of Crabb’s model is the presupposition that man has these two basic “needs” at the core of his being that motivate all of his behavior. (These two needs were originally referred to by Crabb as merely “inputs” that were required to satisfy man’s basic primary need: “a sense of personal worth, an acceptance of oneself as a whole, real person.” — Effective Biblical Counseling, p. 61.) He maintains that men are driven ruthlessly to meet these needs, and that these “driving forces” underlie all problems in counseling, and that the counselor’s task is that of changing the person’s basic assumption about how to meet these two deepest needs. Thus, rather than viewing the “needs” themselves as the evil that they really are (the sins of pride/selfism), instead, only the “improper” strategies utilized in satisfying these so-called “legitimate needs” are condemned as sin. (In fact, Crabb teaches that a Christian can become truly productive in his relationships with others only when he realizes that his own needs are paramount!) Crabb has, thereby, developed a “need theology” where Christians are no longer to ask what is right or wrong, but only what meets their so-called needs and what contributes to their self-concept, thus cutting themselves adrift from objective truth and diminishing the “consciousness” of sin.
(c) The “Unconscious”: This idea is closely related to Crabb’s “need” theology, as he views the needs for security and significance as being “hidden” in the “unconscious,” causing problems when an individual chooses an improper means of satisfying these needs. Thus, the counselor simply needs to help the counselee know how these needs should be met. In Crabb’s system, counselees are to confront and confess the sins of others committed against them so that they can re-experience their own pain and disappointments to find the so-called source of their erroneous thinking, which in Crabb’s system is the real sin that lies hidden in the unconscious. The concept of the “unconscious” is found nowhere in Scripture; where it is found is in the teachings of Freudian psychology. (Freud saw the unconscious as a reservoir of drives and impulses that govern an individual beyond his conscious awareness.) As a matter of fact, the idea of the “unconscious” is not only not supported by the Bible, it has no scientific support either! (The Freudian unconscious is entirely different from the ordinary use of the word as defined in a regular dictionary, which gives as one of the definitions of the word unconscious: “not aware of.” The Freudian unconscious, as presented in Crabb’s writings and as embraced by the field of psychotherapy, is the driving force behind behavior.)
He also recites insights from an eclectic group of thinkers he drew on to come up with his model of direction: Thomas Merton, Eugene Peterson, Francis Schaeffer, [New Age mystic] Henri Nouwen, Brennan Manning, John of the Cross, G. K. Chesterton, Michael Card, Peter Kreeft, Augustine, Copernicus, and James Houston.
Various other unbiblical aspects of Crabb’s model are as follows:
(a) Claims man was “created for relationship,” whereby the Scriptures state that man was created to glorify and to praise God (Isa. 43:7,21; Jer. 13:11). Crabb’s view is understandable in light of his failure to distinguish between believers and unbelievers in his model, apparently seeing no real difference in basic desires based upon regeneration.
(b) Has no higher regard for Biblical truth than any other “truth”; e.g., “To speak of biblical truth as somehow more authoritative than scientific truth is really absurd. Truth has authority over error, not over another truth. One truth may enjoy greater relevance to a scientific question than another truth, but no truth is more authoritative than another truth. The authority of truth lies in its truthfulness, not in the place where it is found” (Understanding People, p. 40)
In summary, Crabb’s model effectively denies the Biblical teachings of: the denial of self (a man-centered model rather than a Christ-centered one); the distinction between the regenerate and the unregenerate; the means of grace as having practical efficacy in the life of the believer; the sufficiency of Scripture; Scriptural foundation (versus a psychological foundation); and the Holy Spirit’s essential role for empowering and grace in the life of the believer. It is primarily a psychological system of unconscious needs that supposedly motivate human behavior, which system is derived from Freudian and humanistic/Maslowian psychology with its hierarchy of needs, with greatest emphasis on so-called emotional needs, the fulfillment of which result in a sense of personal worth and psychological healthiness. When needs are not met, according to Crabb, they produce intense pain and sorrow — sometimes without the person even knowing it. Counseling under Crabb’s model takes the form of delving into the unconscious by peeling away the “self-protective layers” (i.e., “defense mechanisms”) and getting at the real pain and sorrow of unmet needs (many of which began in childhood), then giving counsel on how to meet those needs in a more spiritually healthy way. This inward and rearward focus is far from Biblical (cf. Phil. 3:13-14). Instead of trying to “meet” our natural human “needs,” we are to set our hearts on things above and put to death whatever belongs to our sinful nature (Col. 3:1-5).
Dr. Larry Crabb does endorse teachers like Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and Richard Foster!
Ray Yungen, author of “A Time of Departing” states “…contemplative prayer also stands on the threshold of exploding worldwide. Dr. Larry Crabb, spiritual director for the 50,000 member American Association of Christian Counselors, has written the foreword to a recent book that expounds on the future of spiritual direction in the evangelical church. The authors the book promotes are… Nouwen, Merton, Foster, Keating, Pennington, etc. …With that in mind, Dr. Crabb predicted: ‘The spiritual climate is ripe. Jesus seekers across the world are being prepared to abandon the old way of the written code for the new way of the Spirit.’”
When Clinical Psychologist, Larry Crabb advocates not walking in “old way of the written code”, he means abandoning a careful, obedient walk of faith according to all of God’s word. The “new way of the Spirit” means utilizing Contemplative Practices to experience God. The Bible says, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein].”
http://www.earnestlycontend.com/cp.html
Everything that I have read about these contemplative teachers is about emptying ones mind to a complete nothingness a thinness or such thing, saying that God’s first language is nothing. Yet, the scripture says that the Word was with God and the Word was God.
When we come to God’s Word I really like what Charles Spurgeon said…
Now, if we are thus to understand what we read or otherwise we read in vain, this shows us that when we come to the study of Holy Scripture we should try to have our mind well awake to it. We are not always fit, it seems to me, to read the Bible. At times it were well for us to stop before we open the volume. [...]
You have just come in from careful thought and anxiety about your worldly business, and you cannot immediately take that book and enter into its heavenly mysteries. As you ask a blessing over your meat before you fall to, so it would be a good rule for you to ask a blessing on the word before you partake of its heavenly food. Pray the Lord to strengthen your eyes before you dare to look into the eternal light of Scripture. As the priests washed their feet at the laver before they went to their holy work, so it were well to wash the soul’s eyes with which you look upon God’s word, to wash even the fingers, if I may so speak—the mental fingers with which you will turn from page to page—that with a holy book you may deal after a holy fashion. Say to your soul—”Come, soul, wake up: thou art not now about to read the newspaper; thou art not now perusing the pages of a human poet to be dazzled by his flashing poetry; thou art coming very near to God, who sits in the Word like a crowned monarch in his halls. Wake up, my glory; wake up, all that is within me.
Yet Keating says…
Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. (cf. Open Mind, Open Heart, chap. 5)
The sacred word expresses our intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
The sacred word is chosen during a brief period of prayer asking the Holy Spirit to inspire us with one that is especially suitable for us.
Examples: God, Jesus, Abba, Father, Mother, Mary, Amen. Other possibilities: Love, Peace, Mercy, Listen, Let Go, Silence, Stillness, Faith, Trust, Yes.
Instead of a sacred word a simple inward glance toward the Divine Presence or noticing one’s breath may be more suitable for some persons. The same guidelines apply to these symbols as to the sacred word.
Having chosen a sacred word, we do not change it during the prayer period because that would be to start thinking again.
If that was not bad enough, Keating forwards a book about Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality…
http://shalomplace.com/view/kundalini.html#foreword
You can read exactly what Keating thinks about Contemplative Prayer from the above link…
Reading the Christian mystics from the perspective of his own experience of kundalini energy, the author sees many examples of its working in the lives of Christian saints and mystics. Since this energy is also at work today in numerous persons who are devoting themselves to contemplative prayer, this book is an important contribution to the renewal of the Christian contemplative tradition. It will be a great consolation to those who have experienced physical symptoms arising from the awakening of kundalini in the course of their spiritual journey, even if they have not experienced it to the full extent described by the author. His compelling testimony is a powerful affirmation of the potential of every human being for higher states of consciousness.
When I was into the occult before I became a born again Christian I practised TM and I am well aware of how it is used to gain spiritual enlightenment.
I picked up a book from a Christian books store some time ago called “Habits of the Mind” by James W. Sire, I came across quotes that were very much like what I had learnt from the mysticism that I was into. As it turned out, the further I read into this book I realised that the book was introducing me to Lectio Divina! As I read a bit further, it didn’t sit well with my spirit because of my previous experience with the occult, TM and other mystic practices. I recognised straight away where this book could take me, and what this practice could lead me too.
At the risk of sounding contentious… Larry is a good friend. He is not as described in the quotes above. For example, the following quote is a terrible misrepresentation of the truth:
“When Clinical Psychologist, Larry Crabb advocates not walking in “old way of the written code”, he means abandoning a careful, obedient walk of faith according to all of God’s word. The “new way of the Spirit” means utilizing Contemplative Practices to experience God. The Bible says, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein].”
Read Romans 7:6. Was Paul in conflict with the call to walk in the old paths? Paul is actually pointing to (among other passages) Ezek. 36:26ff where god is explaining the New Covenant – the New way of the Spirit…removing their heart of stone (the old covenant, old way, law) and replacing it with a heart of flesh (new covenant, new way, the Spirit). Obviously more can and should be said here… I do not wish to defend my friend or fight. I do think there is much misunderstanding floating around out there and I find it deeply grieving good people wreck one another’s reputation in the name of ‘right’.
I know for a fact that the author of some of the material mentioned above called Larry prior to publishing just to tell him they planned to misquote him and take him out of context because they believe their cause is ‘just’ (they think he is out to lunch). No one hold a corner on the truth. No one. Scripture is unfortunately open to interpretation (and misinterpretation), which is why there are so many denominations defending their corner of understanding said truth.
Well, my apologies for stirring up a hornet’s nest. I do think centering prayer is poorly understood and misused. But nor do I think it should be thrown out any more than I think open dialogue should be thrown out because it can be used to slander, shame and marginalize honest seekers of our Lord.
The above quote listed by Mr. Shepherd is from my paper “Contemplative Prayer: Seducing Spirits and Doctrine of Devils”.
In “asking for the old paths”, it still all boils down to abiding by the Word of God. The believers in the Old Testament were by faith to obey the word of God. The believers in the New Testament and now are still by faith to obey the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Practising Contemplative Prayer proves one is ignoring the very words of God either deliberately or ignorantly. It appears Mr. Shepherd endorses Contemplative Prayer at his website http://daves.meintl.org/.
Regarding my contacting Mr. Crabb before publishing my report, “just to tell him they (I) planned to misquote him and take him out of context”… either Mr. Crabb lied to Mr. Shepherd or Mr. Shepherd is lying. This is simply not true.
Mr. Shepherd states “No one hold a corner on the truth. No one. Scripture is unfortunately open to interpretation (and misinterpretation)”. This statement proves the same point I made with Mr. Crabb’s statement.
Contrary to what Mr. Shepherd just said, Jesus said in John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus says we can know the truth. Amen!
Contrary to what Mr. Shepherd also said, 2 Peter 1:20 states “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. ”
We are not to privately have our own interpretation of scripture. There is only one interpretation… God’s interpretation. Since God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one, they have one interpretation. Since God the Holy Spirit dwells within born again believers and gives them the ability to understand the Word of God (remember Jesus is word and the truth), we can know the truth. For that, I’m very thankful otherwise, how then can we be saved and know God’s will for our lives? How then will we know how we will fair at the judgement seat of Christ?
John 12:48 states: He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
In Christ,
Christine
Thanks for popping in and replying Christine. A closer look at Mr Sherherd’s website shows that he is a firm supporter of ‘Contemplative Prayer’. In fact, I have found quite a few interesting things from his side bar. This generated a further post called ‘Contemplating the all inclusive’.
In that post I have linked to an mp3 that explains exactly what ‘Contemplative Prayer’ is all about. Also I have linked to a site that has a youtube on it that speaks about how the dying can teach us how to live, this is by Rose Mary Dougherty you can access that HERE. This is from ‘The Shalem Institute’.
Thanks again for commenting
I have talked to a few pastors who support Contemplative Prayer. Invariably they have said that Contemplative Prayer (the “Discipline of Silence”) they are studying is a form of Christian prayer as opposed to eastern meditation. So, I finally pulled together the list of quotes and some video clips defining the term “Contemplative Prayer” from some of the leaders who support the practice. It is interesting to see how many different ways that term is used. Unfortunately, one method of infiltration is to use one meaning of a term at first only to introduce a “deeper” concept for the same term later, which is what appears to be happening in practice in the Contemplative Prayer movement. See http://www.chooseyourbeliefs.com/2009/03/many-definitions-of-contemplative.html
I went over to see your post. It was quite interesting. I agree that the terminology that is used is multi faceted. To contemplate on God’s Word is something that sounds harmless enough. But then when you look at the mystical/gnositc/eastern method it is not harmless at all. But rather seducing the person away from biblical knowledge of God to the more subjective experience of something else.
This happened to the Jews. The OT history of the Jews is a history lesson for the Church and the Jews were filled with influence from the east…
Isa 2:6 For Thou hast left Thy people, the house of Jacob. For they have been filled from the east, And are sorcerers like the Philistines, And with the children of strangers strike hands.
Interesting that in this verse the word ‘east’ also translates to antiquity, ancient times, old and past times. They had been filled with an ancient practice of sorcery from the east. Oriental Gnosticism is ancient and it comes from Babylon originally.
The patristic era Alexandria became the centre of eastern religion invading the Churches. From there the crusades who wanted to capture the trade routes, brought back the influences of Hinduism and Islam back into Medieval Europe. The counting of beads during prayer, the Vishnu and flagellation rituals that took place in monasteries and convent were copied from Shia Islam and Hinduism.
Vee