Henri Nouwen ‘The Way of the Heart’ An Evaluation and Comparison to Scripture
Where the Way of the Heart Leads
Where has ‘the way of the heart’ led Henri Nouwen?
Here are several quotes from other books he’s written, one of them in his final year, when the teachings he had embraced throughout his life had come into their fullness
The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is the same as the one who dwells in the inner sanctuary of each human being." (Henri Nouwen, Here and Now, 1994)
Prayer is "soul work" because our souls are those sacred centers where all is one... It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realization of the unity of all that is, created and uncreated. (Bread for the Journey, Jan 15 and Nov 16 daily readings)
“Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God” (Henri Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey, 1998)
The belief that ‘God dwells…in the inner sanctuary of each human being’, whether a believer or not, is a fundamental concept of ‘God’ in panentheism. It states that ‘God is in all’ that the God of everything, who is above creation, is also IN creation and unites everything, that ALL is one. It is a belief embraced by mystics of all religions.
The belief that there are many paths to the unity of ‘God’, that every person has ‘his or her own way to God’, or that every person is on a journey TO God, therefore it is not necessary to ‘know about Jesus or not’, is called pantheism. It is the belief that all IS God. It too is a belief embraced by mystics of all religions.
The belief that all human beings will be saved, that ‘God’ dwells ‘in the inner sanctuary of each human being’, and since God will not destroy Himself, therefore there is no hell, is part of a belief system called universalism.
Henri Nouwen's teachings show he held to all of these beliefs.
The second edition of Henri Nouwen’s book “With Open Hands” (2006) has a foreword written for him by Sue Monk Kidd. She was at one time a Baptist Sunday school teacher who became involved with contemplative prayer. Her spiritual journey ended in Goddess worship.
Here are two quotes from her autobiography, called ‘The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine’:
“Today I remember that event for the radiant mystery it was, how I felt myself embraced by the Goddess, how I felt myself in touch with the deepest thing I am. It was the moment when, as playwright and poet Ntozake Shange put it, ‘I found god in myself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely’” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 136). “Over the altar in my study I hung a lovely mirror sculpted in the shape of a crescent moon. It reminded me to honor the Divine Feminine presence in myself, the wisdom in my own soul” (p. 181).
Sue Monk Kidd’s autobiography was written a decade before Henri Nouwen asked her to write the foreword to his book! Henri Nouwen not only accepted Sue Monk Kidd's beliefs as valid, he openly endorsed them by allowing her to write the foreword to one of his books.
“Through the discipline of contemplative prayer, Christian leaders have to learn to listen to the voice of love. … For Christian leadership to be truly fruitful in the future, a movement from the moral to the mystical is required” (In the Name of Jesus, pp. 6, 31, 32).
These are just a few of many quotes that show the fruit of Henri Nouwen's beliefs took him. Yet this book can be found on the bookshelf of, and often enthusiastically endorsed by, almost every pastor. The teachings of this man have influenced modern Christianity enormously and detrimentally. Yet warnings usually fall on deaf ears.
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