I ran across this post: Beware of TR Feelings, and I felt the comment I wrote would be good as a post here (modified slightly to fit a post rather than a comment).
I should note the author responded to my comment and said we were mostly in agreement. You can see the post and comments at the link above.
Biblical ‘realness’ is defined by faith in God’s revelation. Faith is the substance. But to the Emergent, real is what I feel. But feelings are deceptive, feelings are addictive, and feelings are temporal. So the Emergents strive for new and ancient ways to stimulate ‘spiritual feelings.’
So is faith just intellectual assent? What is the ‘substance’ of faith if it cannot be felt and known (outside of just making a proclamation that it is so)?
I agree with what’s said about feelings, but I see them as dangers to be aware of and not reason to exclude feelings from the entire package.
One could just as easily say that the intellect is deceptive, intellectual pursuit can certainly be addictive, and our current knowledge in its present form is also temporal.
The emerging church has showed a tendency to swing the pendulum too far the other way, but it is a reaction to the other extreme end where the intellect is solely relied upon.
God does not change, the Scriptures do not change, but we experience God with both our temporal thoughts and feelings. Excluding one in favor of the other just causes differing sets of problems.
The Bible also claims that the practices taught in it are sufficient for spiritual life. Any benefit that someone finds from a non-biblical practice at best is not necessary.
Jesus practiced fasting, solitude, and silence. The first especially has “feeling” components, for lack of a better term. The emerging church is reacting to an overemphasis on reason, and the reaction sometimes pushes them too far the other way. The answer, however, is not to just point out their fault in going too far the other way, but to recognize the fault which caused the reaction and respond to that as well.
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Adding to the additional comment and going beyond the scope of the original post I responded to, critics of the emerging church tend to believe they are unaffected by their feelings in regards to what they believe. The recent discussion about subjectivity in my now controversial (who’d a thunk) post, The Idolatry of Truth, displays this well.
We must be careful not to go too far the other way, and because we realize the truth that all persons are subjective when they interpret anything move to the excess of saying that nothing can be understood competently. While there’s room for disagreement in many areas of thought, we can believe similar things, and those things can be accurate descriptions of reality. Recognizing the subjective nature of humanity does not mean we cannot make authoritative statements about what we believe to be true. We must just learn how to make those statements without being obnoxious, rude, and generally nasty to other people, something few of our critics have yet to learn either.
At Apprising Ministries the latest articles are showing how dangerous these “spiritual disciplines” are. Particularly in this article http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/02/emergent_evange_2.html
And you won’t find any evidence that Jesus of Nazareth meditated, and that is clearly what “silence” is.
Cennan
February 19th, 2006
I think he meditated, because the Psalms tell us to.
Psalm 4:4 Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.
And how about a little silence:
Psalm 62:1 My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation.
Jesus was alone in solitude and silence… for 40 days at one point. And in the garden of Gethsemane? Yep, there, too. Especially since he’d go away and the disciples would fall asleep.
Spiritual disciplines are vital to the Christian’s life, as by practicing them we follow after the practices of our Lord.
Alan
February 19th, 2006
Alan, I am grateful for you questions. They are extremely important and go to the very heart of our Christian lives. I have answered your questions at Fide-O. Please keep in touch.
Jason Robertson
February 19th, 2006
Alan, “Meditate” as on God’s Word requires one to use their reasoning skills. Zen is counter to this, and counter to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.”
The kind of meditation advocated in Eastern relgions leads to a psychological shift in brain chemistry, and not to mention a 2 Thessalonians 2:11 “delusion” sent by God. It would seem to be a very dubious place to place oneself in. I would quess Jason would agree with that.
Cennan
February 19th, 2006
I never advocated zen meditation.
Alan
February 19th, 2006
Alan contemplative prayer/silence is the same thing without the Buddhist world view..at least yet. The above article shows an alrming drift in the Emergent guys who have been doing it.
Cennan
February 19th, 2006
“Often time people will stand against you and say that it doesn’t make any sense.
Answer – “That’s because you are dealing out of your head and not your heart. If you were listening with your heart you would get it.â€
It is vitally important that each one of us learns to live from our heart not just our head. . .
The antidote to my head is my heart so I have to practice bringing my heart before the Father.
Think of meditation as a room with a door at either end.
Whatever door I enter into meditation by (head or heart) I will exit by the other door.
If I enter through my head, I’ll exit through my heart (and visa versa).”
Words from Graham Cooke at a conference. Seemed applicable to what you were saying, both with meditation/contemplation, and with balance.
Aj
February 19th, 2006
Wow. That’s a very dangerous thing to be doing spiritually.
Cennan
February 19th, 2006
I started to write a comment but it became a blog post. I titled it “Preaching the Bad News” and you can read and comment on it at http://faithcommons.org/node/522
Alan,
We must listen and learn but stay the course. You’re an inspiration. Keep up the good work.
Cennan,
Keep up the questioning. You make us think and keep us on our toes. But remember that God is in control.
All who seek will find.
bill
February 19th, 2006