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<\/a>Timothy Keller, the popular New York City Presbyterian pastor and author of several bestselling books, is out and about promoting his newest work, called Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God<\/em>. I haven\u2019t read the book, and normally I would applaud a new book by a prominent author encouraging people to pray. But after reading an interview with Keller on MSNBC this morning<\/a>, I\u2019m nervous\u00a0about this title. Based on the interview, at least, it seems that Keller has no idea what he\u2019s talking about when it comes to Christian contemplative prayer.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what he said, and a few thoughts in response.<\/p>\n The interviewer\u00a0asked, \u201cWhat do you make of the push made by some churches to embrace contemplative prayer, like lectio divina?\u201d<\/p>\n His reply:<\/p>\n The problem is that with the word \u201ccontemplative\u201d and even the term, lectio divina, if I ask five different people to define it, they\u2019re going to give me five different definitions, so I can\u2019t count on one definition in people\u2019s minds. I would say, here\u2019s all I know, I think you don\u2019t try to get beyond words in order to pray because I think God\u2019s personal. I don\u2019t believe He\u2019s the impersonal ground of all being, so that you get beyond all rational thought in order to have oneness with all of the world. That\u2019s a Buddhist<\/a> eastern concept. It\u2019s not the Christian concept because the Christian concept of God is that He\u2019s personal, and therefore, you don\u2019t get beyond rational thought. You fill your mind with rational thought. Lots of things. Words. Truth. And it should be grounded in the Scripture, if I\u2019m going to hear from God, I want to know where has God spoken to me? He speaks in the Word, so in that sense, don\u2019t get beyond the Bible. Contemplative, if that\u2019s what that means, then I wouldn\u2019t be for it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sigh.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a closer look at this,\u00a0sentence by sentence. Keller begins with this disclaimer:<\/p>\n The problem is that with the word \u201ccontemplative\u201d and even the term, lectio divina, if I ask five different people to define it, they\u2019re going to give me five different definitions, so I can\u2019t count on one definition in people\u2019s minds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And if you ask five different people to define God, you\u2019ll get five different definitions. Or if you ask five different people to define love, you\u2019ll get five different definitions. I think Keller is starting off with this cop-out as a way of saying, \u201cLook, I don\u2019t really know what contemplation is.\u201d I bet dollars to doughnuts he was not trained adequately in seminary on the subject of contemplative prayer. That\u2019s not his fault, that\u2019s an indictment of the entire sweep of post-Reformation theology and how Christianity lost its own contemplative heritage for centuries. But Keller should be courageous and humble enough to admit when he doesn\u2019t know something. It would have been so much more graceful if he had just said, \u201cYou know, you\u2019re asking a question about a type of prayer with roots in the fourth century that just wasn\u2019t closely examined\u00a0in a Protestant seminary in the 1970s, so I must confess I\u2019m really not that knowledgeable about it.\u201d But no, he goes on to put his foot in his mouth repeatedly.<\/p>\n I would say, here\u2019s all I know, I think you don\u2019t try to get beyond words in order to pray because I think God\u2019s personal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n By this logic, is Keller suggesting that you can\u2019t have a \u201cpersonal\u201d relationship with a baby until he or she learns to talk? Or with anyone who is mute? Or with someone lost in dementia? For that matter, my wife and I have a profoundly loving relationship and we often spend hours together in silence. Nonverbal communication really does exist, and it really exists between God and humanity, too. If we insist that the only way to relate to God is by talking to him, then frankly, it\u2019s a pretty one-sided relationship.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t believe He\u2019s the impersonal ground of all being, so that you get beyond all rational thought in order to have oneness with all of the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I have no idea where this idea came from, but it\u2019s not from Evagrius, or John Cassian, or Richard of St. Victor, or Guigo the Carthusian, or\u00a0The Cloud of\u00a0<\/em>Unknowing<\/i>, or John of the Cross, or any of the other great contemplative masters. Christian contemplation has never asserted God is the \u201cimpersonal ground of all being.\u201d Praying to God in silence is not an assertion about the nature of God, rather, it is a gesture of welcoming and rest in God\u2019s loving presence.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a Buddhist eastern concept.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don\u2019t want to put words in Keller\u2019s mouth, but now it seems that he is saying \u201cOh, I don\u2019t like contemplation because it reminds me of Buddhism<\/a>.\u201d Probably the single biggest fear among Christians who don\u2019t understand contemplation is that it\u2019s \u201cBuddhist\u201d or \u201ceastern\u201d or \u201cnew age.\u201d Meanwhile, every year more and more Christians abandon their faith and explore Buddhism or Vedanta because pastors like Keller are not equipped to introduce their congregation to the Christian practice of contemplation. Every pastor should be able to\u00a0explain the difference between Christian contemplation and Buddhist meditation<\/a>, without knocking or misrepresenting our own tradition. And, I should add, just as Christians are not afraid of the Passover seder or of vestigial pagan practices like Yule logs and holiday mistletoe, maybe Christians need to be a little less afraid of Buddhism anyway. But that\u2019s another conversation for another day.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the Christian concept because the Christian concept of God is that He\u2019s personal, and therefore, you don\u2019t get beyond rational thought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Once again: resting in contemplative silence is not a repudiation of the personal nature of God. For Christians, contemplation actually is\u00a0an affirmation of it, since silent prayer is a seeking of loving intimacy that does not require the limitations of human language. And yes, you can and do get beyond rational thought. There\u2019s a word for it in Greek:\u00a0metanoia<\/em>, which literally means \u201cbeyond the mind.\u201d\u00a0Jesus used it, it\u2019s in the Bible, it gets translated as \u201crepentance\u201d which most people misunderstand as just\u00a0making a cognitive decision for Christ, but the Greek word means something much richer and more existential than that.<\/p>\n You fill your mind with rational thought.\u00a0Lots of things. Words. Truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes, it is the mind\u2019s job to generate thought, just like it\u2019s the heart\u2019s job to beat and the lungs\u2019 job to breathe. But when we physically rest, we hope our heartbeat and breathing rate slows down; likewise, when we rest in God through contemplative prayer, we seek a slowing-down of the mind\u2019s incessant chatter. Furthermore, the mind doesn\u2019t just generate truth\u00a0\u2014\u00a0it also generates illusions, anxieties, fears, dreams, and even lies. And the Desert Fathers and Mothers, ancient Christian teachers like Evagrius, understood that the thoughts in the mind can be a source of affliction and a temptation to sin. Learning to rest in the silence that is always there, between and beneath our thoughts, is a way to relate to God beyond words. And pure silence, unlike afflictive thoughts, is never\u00a0a temptation to sin.<\/p>\n And it should be grounded in the Scripture, if I\u2019m going to hear from God, I want to know where has God spoken to me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, yes, Christian contemplation should be grounded in scripture, I agree. That\u2019s the purpose behind lectio divina, which begins with reading scripture. And throughout the tradition, scripture is commended as the source of \u201cprayer words\u201d \u2014 verses to use while entering into contemplative silence. Once again, Keller reveals he doesn\u2019t understand the very thing he is so quick to criticize. Christian contemplation is immersed in scripture and rests in silence.<\/p>\n He speaks in the Word, so in that sense, don\u2019t get beyond the Bible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The fallacy here is the idea that contemplative prayer \u2014 the prayer of silent resting and watchfulness \u2014 is somehow opposed to the Bible. But that\u2019s just not true. I\u2019ve discussed this elsewhere<\/a>. For now, just one verse: \u201cFor God alone my soul in silence waits.\u201d Psalm 62:1.<\/p>\n Contemplative, if that\u2019s what that means, then I wouldn\u2019t be for it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I believe anyone who really takes to time to examine the Christian tradition will recognize\u00a0that Keller\u2019s\u00a0overly-cerebral and xenophobic concept of contemplation is\u00a0nothing<\/em> like what authentic, historical Christian\u00a0contemplation is.<\/p>\n And I hope that Keller (and others like him) might in the future take the time to learn about Christian contemplation before simply knocking it out of hand. Don\u2019t quench the Spirit, as Saint Paul says.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re reading this blog for the first time and would like to learn more about authentic Christian contemplation, I would recommend either Martin Laird\u2019s wonderful Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation<\/a> or my book Answering the Contemplative Call<\/a>. These are works grounded in historical Christianity, not modernist misunderstandings.<\/p>\n Enjoy reading this blog?<\/a>
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