The following is an excerpt from the preface to an excellent essay by Horatius Bonar which has been entitled Contemplative Theology by Dr. Rumburg.

The booklet deals with devotional literature and the danger posed by many faulty devotional books such as produced by Roman Catholic mysticism.

Do not confuse contemplative theology with the modern error of contemplative spirituality/mysticism so popular in the emergent church and now threatening many even within reformed circles. – JT

One of the reefs which dash many a saint upon the rocks of misspent devotion is mysticism. Mysticism believes that God may be known or approached without any mediation or intermediate help. One danger of mysticism is the bypassing of reconciliation through the Lord Christ. “Mysticism presses beyond the external forms of religion to an attempted direct knowledge of God, more especially in prayer and meditation, although sometimes too in trance-like conditions….But it finds the core of religion in an inward identity or communion which is ultimately indifferent to and negates the external (Bakers Dictionary of Theology, p.367). Extreme subjectivism is one of the marks of mysticism and this leads to the mystic becoming preoccupied with self even under the guise of self-denial. As one has said, there is a danger of sinking into “the bog of sickly mysticism.” (1) In this bog experience replaces the inspired truth, and doctrinal distinctions fade from the realm of the important. The mystic’s experience becomes the authority. However, the will of God can be found only in the Word of God.

Mysticism or the “mystical theology” of the Roman Catholics has in these modern times been adapted by the modern church growth movement and many evangelicals. The amazing aspect of this new push is that those who are seeking to model the modern church after the world are also endorsing medieval mysticism. One of them is Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose-Driven Life. Warren has used the man-centered world or secularism as a model for the church, having expunged the apostolic models for the Christian life (2).  He encourages the reading of Brother Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of God.

Lawrence (1605-1691) as a hermit entered the Carmelite monastery at Paris, and was placed in charge of the kitchen. The book he wrote was a mystical approach to God using the imagination or intellect rather than God’s revealed Word. Warren also endorsed other Romanists such as: St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) called the Mystical Doctor and joint founder of the Discalced Carmelites, and the modern Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996) who was a Catholic priest. Nouwen blended mysticism and psychology into a greater degree of deceptive, man-centered teaching.

[Horatius] Bonar warned,

“Among the purely Popish works, there will be found not a little of contemplative divinity. In this region, Popery has always expatiated at great length. It may be said, perhaps, that it is here her great strength lies. Her so-called devotional works are to a large class of minds very seductive. In them she can evade controversy; she can cover her uncomely parts with ornaments of no small attractiveness; she can bring out into prominence those parts of her system in which divine truths have been retained; she can present herself in a form most religious in outward aspect, and venerable from the antique garb she assumes.”

He continued,

“But solemn as many of her devotional works are, they lack the Alpha and Omega, ‘Christ our righteousness.’ The soul is not taught that ‘acceptance with God’ is the beginning of devotion; nay, rather, that privilege is assumed to be the end and object to be obtained. The sinner is taught earnestly to pray, and read, and meditate, and weep, and fast, and keep vigils, both in order that he may thereby secure divine favor, and obtain the inheritance at last. Free acceptance at the outset, through the knowledge of Him who is our peace; immediate and entire reconciliation to God, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, as the commencement of all devotion, – these are set aside, or treated as licentious fancies.”

The point made by Bonar is, there are devotional writings used that are actually dangerous to the unsuspecting child of God. (3) The mystics are defective biblically. Bonar rightly remarked,

“ ‘Jehovah our Righteousness’ is not the motto of such a book, nor the inscription on the gate of such a temple. The reader of the one, and the worshipper in the other, are kept in utter ignorance of that wondrous truth. The name of Christ may often be presented both to ear and eye; but Jehovah our righteousness is set aside. It is not Christ, the Mighty God, doing all for the sinner, in justifying and saving, that the soul may have peace in believing what he has done; but it is Christ, the suffering son of Mary, showing us how to suffer, and enabling us by these doings and sufferings to justify and save ourselves.”

His comments might seem shocking to many modern believers, but the children of God will profit if they follow the Scriptural instruction of Horatius Bonar regarding Contemplative Theology.

The aim of the child of God should be true worship of the Triune God on grounds set forth by God in Scripture. Good devotional literature can be a boon, but that tainted by Romanism, mysticism, etc. is a great danger!

- Pastor H. Rondel Rumburg, D. Min.

Footnotes:

1. …Wilhelmus A Brakel noted, “the difference between the mystics and the truly godly is as the difference between imagination and truth; between being natural and without the Spirit and being led by the Spirit; between being worldy and heavenly; between being engaged without, and contrary to, the Holy Scriptures (dabbling with invisible things), and living according to the written Word of God.” The Christian’s Reasonable Service, vol. 2, p. 642.

2. Purpose-Driven Life, pp. 40, 89, 108.

3. J. Gresham Machen in Christianity and Liberalism explained, “What we should have left would be simply mysticism, and mysticism is quite different from Christianity.” He noted that Christianity connected “the present experience of the believer with an actual historic appearance of Jesus in the world which prevents our religion from being mysticism and caused it to be Christianity.” p. 120.

If you would like to obtain a copy of the essay Contemplative Theology by Horatius Bonar, you may order one from the Society of Biblical and Southern Studies. 30 pages, also containing a biographical sketch of Horatius Bonar.