More on Contemplative Prayer (from Lighthouse Trails)

From www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com

On January 7th, Lighthouse Trails received the following email from a professor, J. Budziszewski (Boo-je-shef-skee), who was discussed in one of our 2009 articles. Professor Budziszewski has given us permission to post his email. Below his email is our response to him.

A summation of this situation is this: On April 1st, 2009, Lighthouse Trails released an article titled, "Concerned Family Asks Legitimate Questions of Church Leaders." The article gave the story of a family, whose son attended a Calvary Chapel high school. For a last semester assignment for graduating seniors, students were being asked to read and study a book called How to Stay Christian in College, written by Budziszewski. The parents became concerned when they learned that Budziszewski was a Protestant turned Catholic and one who promoted contemplative prayer practices. In our article, we showed that Professor Budziszewski was promoting the contemplative practice of lectio divina in a Focus on the Family column he writes for young people (see also note at bottom of this post).

The bottom line of Professor Budziszewski's concern about our article is that we are equating contemplative spirituality with New Age, eastern-style meditation (i.e., Hinduism/Buddhism), and he is saying that the two are not the same at all. It is for this reason that we are posting his email to us (with his permission) and also our response to him. It is our hope to help readers see that the contemplative spirituality that is being heavily promoted in the evangelical church and within Catholicism as well produces the same spiritual perception as that in New Age or Hindu/Buddhist spirituality.

Because we believe this to be true, we also believe it is completely inappropriate for a Christian high school to instruct their students using an author (in an approving manner) who not only has turned away from Protestant Christianity and gone into Catholicism but also points his readers toward contemplative prayer practices.

While it may be possible that Professor Budziszewski is not aware of the nature of contemplative spirituality, he nevertheless is promoting it. And it is important to understand that lectio divina is an entry point into stronger forms of contemplative mystical prayer, and warning about it is completely in line with biblical injunctions about dangerous practices. Lectio divina is a practice, which involves mantric-like repetition and focus of words and phrases (usually from the Bible) and is directly related to the contemplative spirituality of which Lighthouse Trails is opposed. As one definition describes the practice of lectio divina, "lectio divina begin[s] with deep, cleansing breaths and reciting a chosen phrase or word over and over to help free the mind."

In Tony Jones' book, Divine Intervention: Encountering God Through Lectio Divina, Jones instructs: "[R]epeat the word or phrase over and over in your mind, almost like a mantra (p. 72).Please note that Professor Budziszewski refers to the article, "Calvary Chapel Termination Has Profound Implications," but the actual article where we address him and his book is "Concerned Family Asks Legitimate Questions of Church Leaders." Please click here to continue reading this article.