Have you ever heard someone say that they want to preach an appealing, engaging Gospel? I can remember that type of language being used many years ago. What was meant at that time was that people were reacting against what they saw as the sterile orthodoxy of the 1950’s.
This type of thinking is actually not uncommon in various times in Church history. All the way from the Old Testament through the New through Church history there have always been times when it can be made to appear that the People of God have gone “dry” and the faith has been reduced to a set of written propositions followed in a sterile obedience.
I think that one of the first cases of a reaction against dry orthodoxy in the sub-Apostolic period was the heresy of Marcion of Sinope (Marcionism). But, not all who believed that the faith had gone sterile and dry were heretics. For instance, at least one of the reasons that there was a surge in monasticism beginning in the second century was the perception that Christianity had become dry. Certainly, medieval saints such as Francis of Assisi tried to call the Church back to warmth and compassion. Among the Protestants, John and Charles Wesley are the premier examples of the desire for a warm, living, and compassionate Christianity.
In more modern times, the Jesus People were a reaction against what was seen as the dry orthodoxy of the 1950’s. I was a child of that movement. Though I had been raised Roman Catholic, I had dropped out of that Church during my teenage years. Sometimes I say that I would have dropped out of any group in those years. I definitely was a snotty teenager! Nowadays, Emergent Christianity is the new buzzword for those who wish warmth and engagement.
However, the major problem with the desire for this type of warmth is that all too often it can lead to a continuing search and desire for an emotion rather than a search or desire for God. It can also lead to one clear and undeniable mistake. This type of desire can lead one to think that one has been deserted by God if one is not experiencing “positive feelings” of joy, peace, warmth, etc. It is therefore not surprising to me that several of the ascetic classics that have been written take time to point out to the novice or the seeker that the experience of loss or of a “missing” God may actually be a beneficial part of the process of growing into the likeness of God. More and more I am wondering whether American Christianity can grow up without going through such a phase of emptiness and loss. What do I mean?
Well, did you know that there are various Christian writers who wrote about this experience of loss in a positive way? Frankly, the Desert Fathers were certainly among the first to do so, but there are others you might have heard about. One such was Saint John of the Cross who wrote about the “dark night of the soul:”
Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish: La noche oscura del alma) is the title of a poem written by 16th century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross, as well as of a treatise he wrote later, commenting on the poem. Saint John of the Cross was a Carmelite priest. His poem narrates the journey of the soul from her bodily home to its union with God. The journey occurs during the night, which represents the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of the union with the Creator. There are several steps in this night, which are related in successive stanzas. The main idea of the poem can be seen as the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God. The poem is divided into two books that reflect the two phases of the dark night. The first is a purification of the senses. The second and more intense of the two stages is that of the purification of the spirit, which is the less common of the two. Dark Night of the Soul further describes the ten steps on the ladder of mystical love
But, there were also Protestant writers who wrote on the same vein. Have you ever read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress?
The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print. Bunyan began his work while in the Bedfordshire county gaol for violations of the Conventicle Act, which prohibited the holding of religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England.
C.S. Lewis, the beloved modern Anglican author wrote a book which very few in the USA have read called Pilgrim’s Regress. There is a similarity between the ascetical classics, such as John Climacus’ The Ladder of Divine Ascent, the medieval mystics, and modern writers such as C.S. Lewis. They all agree with Saint Paul:
. . .tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
All the truly great mystical writers, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox agree: to truly grow into the likeness of God, to truly, warmly, and personally come to know God, one will need to undertake the path of suffering. No, I am not talking about self-inflicted suffering, as in self-flagellation, etc. Rather, I am talking about the suffering that comes from the willingness to deny oneself, to “mortify” the flesh, as Saint Paul says in the King James version, in order to grow in the knowledge of God.
And in this all the great Christian writers agree, without self-denial you will not come to truly know God. This is a long way from our trite phrases that we come to know God by simply making a prayer of commitment.
But, what does this do to our appealing, engaging Gospel?
===MORE TO COME===
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