to Editor re: Mystical Theology and Contemplative Prayer

Editor, Lighthouse Trails:
What is your basis for making the statement that such people as Larry Crabb and Brennan Manning have compromised the Scriptures with their "contemplative" prayer and "Mystical" theology? I suggest you attempt to interpret John’s Gospel and 1John through other lenses than those clouded by the historical/critical method and our evangelical obsession with having to intellectually defend the Divinity of Christ. Consider this- John's Theology in his writings was developed over a minimum of two generations more experience of living in a socially and politically hostile world than any of the other New Testament authors. Does this make John's writing more important than say Paul or Mark? No, but it complements the other authors and adds an element of "living” the Gospel that the other first generation authors did not experience. John and his community of followers had 40+ more years to develop the theological concepts of the believer's "unity" with God, "abiding" in God, and the Divine dwelling in the heart- in the “gut” of man. This is the “mystery” in John’s writings. One can intimately know God; one can know the unconditional love of God; one can know that he/she is the beloved.

I also suggest you research the lives of some of these men you are publicly criticizing. As John experienced many more years of living a Kingdom life than the other New Testament authors, I suggest that Crabb and Manning have done the same in comparison to yours. Their Theology is not just the product of seminary study in apologetics or systematics, but of living in Christ, abiding in Christ, and in the face of extreme trials and hardships knowing that they are the beloved of the Creator of the Universe.

My old business partner always used to say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Jesus said "he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Check the fruit of these men's lives- are they building the Kingdom? Have thousands of people's lives been radically changed through the writings, counseling, and sacrifice of these men and I am sure many more who you are bashing? For your sake and the sake of others reading your stuff, check the fruit of your work. Are you building the Kingdom of God, or dividing it? Miraslov Volf once appropriately wrote: “Christian communities that should be the ‘salt’ of the culture are often as insipid as everything around them…What we should turn away from seems clear; it is captivity to our own culture, coupled so often with blind self righteousness.”

The Gospel is not about being right; it’s not about being an authority; it’s not about being exclusive. The Gospel is about the heart; it’s about loving others “because (in spite of ourselves) He loved us first.”

Blessings,
Gary Parkinson