"What
Martin Luther King was to the civil rights movement and what Henry
Ford was to the automobile, Thomas Merton is to contemplative prayer. Although this prayer movement existed
centuries before he came along, Merton took it out of its monastic
setting and made it available to and popular with the masses.
It is interesting to me that many people still think celebrity
star Shirley MacLaine was the greatest influence in the New Age.
But for me, hands down, Thomas Merton has influenced New Age thinking
more than any person of recent decades. Merton penned one of the
most classic descriptions of New Age spirituality I have ever
come across. He explained:
"It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race,
... now I realize what we all are .... If only they [people] could
all see themselves as they really are ...I suppose the big problem
would be that we would fall down and worship each other ... At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which
is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth ...
This little point ...is the pure glory of God in us. It is
in everybody.
FROM A TIME OF DEPARTING BY
RAY YUNGEN
EDWARDS, TILDEN: Founder of the
Shalem Prayer Institute in Washington, DC
F
RICHARD FOSTER: Founder of Renovare and author of Celebration
of Discipline.
MATTHEW FOX: Former Dominican priest and author of The Coming
of the Cosmic Christ; developed Creation Spirituality; believes
that God and Christ are in all things.
Contemplative Spirituality: A belief system that
uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness
(the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped
in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality
is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). Common
terms used for this movement are "spiritual formation," "the
silence," "the stillness," "ancient-wisdom,"
"spiritual disciplines," and many others.
Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.
