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.
September 17, 2009
Henri Nouwen and The Way of the Heart - Part Six
Henri Nouwen ‘The Way of the Heart’ An Evaluation and Comparison to Scripture
PART SIX – Epilogue
Silence prevents us from being suffocated by our wordy world and teaches us to speak the Word of God.
We do NOT learn to speak the Word of God through our initiation of and participation in mystical silences, which is silence as defined by this book. We learn to speak the Word of God by reading it, studying it to learn God’s meaning, and living it out in daily and joyful obedience.
…solitude, silence and prayer allow us to save ourselves and others from the shipwreck of our self destructive society.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
The epilogue does contain very accurate warnings to believers. We ARE in the end times, and have been since Christ returned to heaven, where he is now sitting at the right hand of the Father. He WILL return soon, and that is how we have to live; as people prepared for his imminent return. There is even a Biblical warning here to guard against deception and false prophets. Those warnings are good and right. It is in HOW we prepare that this book not only falls far short of the mark, but actually leads down an entirely different path.
Our faithfulness in relationships is severely tested, and our inner sense of belonging is questioned again and again. Our anger and greed show their strength with added vehemence, and our desire to indulge ourselves in the despairing hedonism of the moment proves to be stronger than ever.
If we struggle with a lack of assurance of our salvation, that is a sign not of the end times, but of our age old rebellion against knowing the Word, trusting in the one who spoke it, and believing with our whole lives that he is sufficient to make us right with God. The evidence of our being accepted is a changed (transformed) heart; an entirely new will that has been washed clean of sin by the Holy Spirit. Not a transforming heart, but a fully transformed heart; a heart that belongs to a new creature in Christ; a heart that delights in serving God and knows the full contentment that we are right with Him.
As evidence of our transformed heart, we have a new desire to serve God. This is demonstrated naturally by our life choices, and our willing co-operation with the Holy Spirit. The struggle against the old man's desires will continue, but we live with a new heart, as victors through Christ. We cannot remain in sin (anger and greed, worldly temptations) and really have a transformed heart. The Spirit will convict us constantly that our choices are not honouring to the Father, and that will grieve us. If it doesn’t, that is a sign we are rebelling against the Father.
By solitude, silence, and unceasing prayer the Desert Fathers show us the way. These disciplines will teach us to stand firm…When we have been remodeled into living witnesses of Christ through solitude, silence and prayer, we will no longer have to worry about whether we are saying the right thing or making the right gesture, because then Christ will make his presence known even when we are not aware of it.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:19-23)
The Way of the Heart attempts to show that if we are being tested by vehement desires, then the solution is to be led by human leaders to use human tools of self-sacrifice, and therefore to be. The emphasis is on our sacrifice. The emphasis in Hebrews 10 is on CHRIST.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)
As we continue to submit our lives to the Lord, and daily ‘take up our cross’ to put our self will to death and follow him in obedience, we mature in faith. As we resist the temptation to follow our own will, we grow stronger in trusting God, and our Adversary will flee from us (James 4). It is not what we DO, it is WHO we TRUST that matures our faith and prepares us for the end times. And as we trust and obey, we begin to DO the right things out of our changed heart. The doing is not our own interpretation of offerings, but it is a right response to the commands of God that HE has given.
PART SIX – Epilogue
Silence prevents us from being suffocated by our wordy world and teaches us to speak the Word of God.
We do NOT learn to speak the Word of God through our initiation of and participation in mystical silences, which is silence as defined by this book. We learn to speak the Word of God by reading it, studying it to learn God’s meaning, and living it out in daily and joyful obedience.
…solitude, silence and prayer allow us to save ourselves and others from the shipwreck of our self destructive society.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
The epilogue does contain very accurate warnings to believers. We ARE in the end times, and have been since Christ returned to heaven, where he is now sitting at the right hand of the Father. He WILL return soon, and that is how we have to live; as people prepared for his imminent return. There is even a Biblical warning here to guard against deception and false prophets. Those warnings are good and right. It is in HOW we prepare that this book not only falls far short of the mark, but actually leads down an entirely different path.
Our faithfulness in relationships is severely tested, and our inner sense of belonging is questioned again and again. Our anger and greed show their strength with added vehemence, and our desire to indulge ourselves in the despairing hedonism of the moment proves to be stronger than ever.
If we struggle with a lack of assurance of our salvation, that is a sign not of the end times, but of our age old rebellion against knowing the Word, trusting in the one who spoke it, and believing with our whole lives that he is sufficient to make us right with God. The evidence of our being accepted is a changed (transformed) heart; an entirely new will that has been washed clean of sin by the Holy Spirit. Not a transforming heart, but a fully transformed heart; a heart that belongs to a new creature in Christ; a heart that delights in serving God and knows the full contentment that we are right with Him.
As evidence of our transformed heart, we have a new desire to serve God. This is demonstrated naturally by our life choices, and our willing co-operation with the Holy Spirit. The struggle against the old man's desires will continue, but we live with a new heart, as victors through Christ. We cannot remain in sin (anger and greed, worldly temptations) and really have a transformed heart. The Spirit will convict us constantly that our choices are not honouring to the Father, and that will grieve us. If it doesn’t, that is a sign we are rebelling against the Father.
By solitude, silence, and unceasing prayer the Desert Fathers show us the way. These disciplines will teach us to stand firm…When we have been remodeled into living witnesses of Christ through solitude, silence and prayer, we will no longer have to worry about whether we are saying the right thing or making the right gesture, because then Christ will make his presence known even when we are not aware of it.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:19-23)
The Way of the Heart attempts to show that if we are being tested by vehement desires, then the solution is to be led by human leaders to use human tools of self-sacrifice, and therefore to be. The emphasis is on our sacrifice. The emphasis in Hebrews 10 is on CHRIST.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)
As we continue to submit our lives to the Lord, and daily ‘take up our cross’ to put our self will to death and follow him in obedience, we mature in faith. As we resist the temptation to follow our own will, we grow stronger in trusting God, and our Adversary will flee from us (James 4). It is not what we DO, it is WHO we TRUST that matures our faith and prepares us for the end times. And as we trust and obey, we begin to DO the right things out of our changed heart. The doing is not our own interpretation of offerings, but it is a right response to the commands of God that HE has given.
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