The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how contemplative spirituality undermines doctrinal clarity based on God’s word by examining current trends in Contemplative practices. Biblical responses are given as well.

Contemplative Spirituality is Mysticism

Contemplative Spirituality refers to a movement in the church based on mystical practices. Contemplative Spirituality does not derive from Scripture, but rather is rooted in practices from sixth century monasticism; alleged texts from the “Desert Fathers;” the writings of mystics such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, and others; the anonymous fourteenth century work, The Cloud of Unknowing; Eastern religious meditation methods; and recent teachings from those who have popularized these practices.

Contemplative Spirituality references Scripture and claims to be biblical; however, since it is rooted in mysticism, it is crucial to explain mysticism and why it is not compatible with Scripture.

How Mysticism Blurs Sound Doctrine

Mysticism has been defined as an unmediated contact with the Divine (or whatever the sacred source or being might be called). I Mysticism is experience oriented and does not recognize any spiritual authority, including God’s word. Its methods focus on going inward. Mysticism does not seek a doctrinal foundation, nor does it value reason, logic, or analysis. Instead, it is subjective, ineffable, and esoteric.

Subjective

Subjective knowledge is gained primarily through an inner experience. It does not arise through reasoning or via normal introspection, so it is not based on objective evidence or truth. Such knowledge is not verifiable; as a result, its assertions cannot be evaluated or tested by any truth standards. This protects Contemplative teachings from criticism, since the defense is that one must have the experiences to really understand it.

This mystical knowledge or experience is viewed as superior to principles based on facts, reasoning, or logic, including God’s word.

Ineffable

Ineffable refers to knowledge or experience that cannot be communicated in words. Words are deemed inadequate to express the mystical experience or knowledge; therefore, the mystical is valued over what can be articulated.

Using words to assess such experiences is viewed as inadequate or even hostile to the Contemplative inward journeys. The claim that one has grown closer to God through mystical practices appears unassailable for those in Contemplative Spirituality, due primarily to these inner experiences.

Esoteric

Another trait of mysticism is that it is esoteric. That is, it is secretive, unable to be communicated with the mind or words, and must be sought inwardly through certain practices. As this Christian article, which supports such ideas, states:

“Esotericism, by contrast, offers a more structured and selective path. It involves the study of mystical texts, sacred correspondences, ritual practice, and symbolic systems. The seeker often progresses through initiatory grades, each unveiling deeper layers of insight. Esotericism asks, ‘What is the hidden order behind the visible world? And how can I align with it?’”

What is perceived with the mind and senses is false, shallow, or insufficient. This includes knowledge about God from Scripture.

Biblical Response: In truth, God’s word is meant to be read in a normal fashion (not looking for codes or hidden messages), and it reflects God’s character. God does not hide behind enigmas, nor is he a cipher challenging us to unlock secrets that lead to knowing him.

Furthermore, God, who made man, certainly knows man’s limitations (1 Kings 8:39; 1 Chron. 28:9; Ps. 44:21; John 2:24-25; Heb. 4:12). Thus, He is more than able to know how to communicate to humans what he wants them to know and, therefore, his revelation can be trusted.

Contemplative Practices and the Doctrine of God

The mysticism of Contemplative Spirituality undermines the biblical teaching on the nature of God.

God Through Unknowing

One of the key texts used in Contemplative Spirituality is the anonymous fourteenth century work, The Cloud of Unknowing. It teaches there are three stages to knowing God: Purgation, Illumination, and Union with God. The first two involve a Cloud of Forgetfulness, which is to forget all “under the cloud” in order to pierce the “Cloud of Unknowing” and unite with God. One must not use reason but be in a mindless state of forgetfulness.

Man is facing an “unknown God” whom he must reach via mystical practices. Using the “cloud of forgetting,” one sets his mind and knowledge aside to “pierce” the cloud with his love to reach that god.

Some of the popular Contemplative practices, such as repeating a word to keep the mind from distraction during a state that is called prayer, are taught in this book.

Biblical Response: In contrast, God is the one to reach out to man by sending Jesus to pay the penalty for sins. God is the one who makes the way, not man. God provides the revelation of who he is and how to know him in understandable language. God is not hiding behind a cloud nor does knowing God require setting the mind aside.

There is no mystical union with God; one is adopted into God’s family through faith in Christ (Rom. 8:15-17; Gal. 4:5-7; Eph. 1:5).

A God By Other Names

The god of Contemplative teachings is vague and goes by impersonal terms such as the One, the Source, the Divine, the Sacred, or Living Wisdom. These words are found in other belief systems, especially Perennial Wisdom. Perennial Wisdom is a body of teachings asserting that everything is in God and God is in everything (panentheism), and that man has never been separated from God, even by sin. Perennial Wisdom teaches that there was an original pure religion, which gave birth to all major religions.

Many advocates of Contemplative practices are adherents of Perennial Wisdom, such as Richard Rohr, David G. Benner, Ian Cron, and the late Thomas Keating. Benner, published as a Christian author, although he runs a Perennial school in Canada https://www.cascadialivingwisdom.com/, wrote Living Wisdom, which is his term in the book for God. Other Contemplatives have expressed views compatible with Perennial Wisdom or have given evidence for such beliefs, such as Ruth Haley Barton, who had a Buddhist mentor at the Shalem Institute where she trained. Perennial Wisdom and Christianity are incompatible.

Knowing God Beyond the Mind

There is often a false dichotomy in Contemplative teachings between the mind and knowledge of God. Knowing God “deeply” or “more intimately” requires inner experiences viewed as superior to Scripture. The attributes of God, such as his righteousness and justice, are overlooked in favor of an emphasis on a false view of God’s love.

Biblical Response: Mysticism undermines or downgrades the mind, reason, and logic and puts a priority on “sensing,” “hearing,” or “experiencing” God through Contemplative practices. However, God’s character is shown as a source of reason and logic (Is. 1:18;) and Paul reasoned from Scripture with the Jews in the synagogues (Acts 17:2, 17, 18:4, 19; 19:8, 9).

First Corinthians 14:14-19 extolls the use of the mind and of language. In the same chapter, Paul speaks of God as not being a God of confusion (v.33), and that all things should be done in an orderly manner (v. 40).

Communication with words requires logic and reason because that is how language operates. The fact that God revealed his truths in words demonstrates that order and reason are rooted in God’s nature. There is no biblical principle suggesting the use of the mind should be set aside.

Contemplative Practices and Prayer

Contemplative teachings redefine prayer, promote “wordless prayer” as superior over verbal prayer, and teach that one should expect a response from God during prayer.

Imaginative Prayer

Imaginative prayer is gaining ground. Jared Boyd, a Vineyard pastor, has taught and written on Imaginative Prayer for children. The description of Boyd’s book on Amazon states:

“Jared Patrick Boyd discovered that children’s spiritual formation is rooted in the imagination. When we lead our children through guided times of imaginative prayer, they can experience a connection with God that transcends mere Bible knowledge or doctrinal content.”

Biblical Response: Notice the idea that children’s spiritual formation is “rooted in the imagination,” rather than in Scripture and the Holy Spirit. However, the Bible teaches that the process of sanctification comes through the work of the Holy Spirit, through God’s word, prayer, worship, and fellowship, not through imagination. There is no scriptural support for this idea, but in Contemplative views, the imagination is sanctified. This is an idea promoted by the late Dallas Willard as well as by Richard Foster, author of The Celebration of Discipline, both of whom urge using imagination in prayer as ways to connect with God.

The phrase from the book description, “a connection with God that transcends mere Bible knowledge or doctrinal content” is key to seeing the mystical mindset for what it is.

First of all, the word “mere” downgrades the Bible and doctrine, as though Biblical knowledge and doctrine are on a lower level. This statement is not accidental but reveals how mysticism undermines the authority of God’s word.

Secondly, a “connection with God” is viewed as possible outside of what Scripture teaches. Not only is it possible in this claim, but it is superior to knowing God through the Bible. This outlook is exactly on point when it comes to mysticism. Going back to the explanation of mysticism earlier in this article, one can see that what is said here is almost a definition of mysticism.

Mystical Meditation As Prayer

In a video, “Hearing the Holy Spirit In Our Thoughts,” Peter Greig (a United Kingdom pastor and founder of the global 24/7 Prayer movement) cites Psalm 19:14: “May the words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Greig then explains that “For Christians, meditation isn’t about emptying our minds, but filling them with biblical truth.” This sounds good, which is the catch. But it is yet another bait and switch where biblical truth is replaced by something else. This is illustrated when Greig asserts that the three keys to meditation are:

“1. Embrace interruption: slow down and be patient
2. Exercise intuition: explore the implications
3. Apply imagination: adopt a mental playfulness”

Furthermore, Greig closes this by giving a quote:

“Our mind, will, emotions and our body can also be ways of communicating with God and God communicates to us in those as well… Logic and emotions are not mutually exclusive, they live together.” (Mara Klemich is given as the source)

Biblical Response: Greig does not offer a scriptural reference for this teaching. While it is true that logic and emotions are not mutually exclusive, that has nothing to do with what the Bible means by meditation. In Scripture, meditation is a practice of reflecting on or pondering God’s words, or perhaps pondering the attributes of God. This has nothing to do with Greig’s description of using intuition and the imagination.

Contemplative Practices and the Holy Spirit

The word “deep” is used to draw people into Contemplative teachings. People are told they can have a “deeper” relationship with God, go “deeper” with God, and feel God’s presence or love “more deeply.”

The word “deep” and its variations are a red flag. Mysticism appears “deeper” but it is actually just smoke and mirrors to cover the darkness behind mysticism, which we see alluded to in the book of Revelation:

“But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not have this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you.” Rev. 2.24

A close relationship with God grows over time through transformation by the Holy Spirit in reading and studying Scripture, biblical prayer, fellowship, trusting God during trials, and worship. It is in these activities that the Holy Spirit is at work, shaping the believer into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3.18; Rom. 8.29; Col. 3.10), which is the process of sanctification.

The work of the Holy Spirit is undermined and subtly attacked by Contemplative mysticism which seeks to replace the Holy Spirit with so-called spiritual experiences that arise from Contemplative practices. Since these practices are not taught in Scripture and oppose biblical principles, they cannot bring a true experience with God.

Lectio Visio And Worship

Lectio Visio is the use of an image (religious or random) for reflection in order to hear from God. On his Lectio365 App, Greig gives instructions on this for a group. First, pictures are clipped from magazines and newspapers; people then choose an image; after that, they should “welcome the Holy Spirit” and ask God “to speak” to them “through this image.”

Biblical Response: Aside from the fact that this practice is not found in Scripture, it is presumptuous to expect God to speak through an image, and it is idolatrous to ponder an image in the belief that God will speak through it. Any experience or message that results will be based on subjective feelings that arise from the chosen picture, and not from God.

Biblical Response: Jesus said that one must “worship in spirit and truth” and he repeated this twice to the Samaritan woman (John 4:23, 24), giving it emphasis. This means that worship of God is not restricted to certain places, such as the temple or on a mountain, but can be worshiped in any place. To worship in truth refers to worshiping sincerely in faith. The outer trappings no longer apply. The Expositor’s Greek Testament states of this passage, “The Samaritans had not known the object of their worship: the Jews had employed symbolism in worship. Both these defects were now to be removed.”

Lectio Divina Undermines the Authority of Scripture

The Bible as sufficient and authoritative is downgraded by Contemplatives; the biblical text is used out of context; and Scripture is hijacked for mystical practices, such as Lectio Divina.

Lectio Divina, meaning “Sacred Reading,” is a practice implemented in sixth century monasteries by Benedict of Nursia. However, the practice is said to go back earlier to the “Desert Fathers” of the third and fourth centuries, a group who withdrew to the desert. Asceticism, visions of angels, and tales of bizarre supernatural experiences mark their stories.

There are usually four steps in Lectio Divina (methods can have slight variations): choosing a short passage of Scripture and reading it slowly several times; noting a word or phrase that stands out to the reader or “strikes a chord” with the reader; meditating on this word or phrase (which involves repeating it); then prayer, usually centered around the word or phrase.

Proponents of this method give lip service to Bible reading and study but emphasize that Lectio Divina will bring one into deeper intimacy with God, or allow the person to “experience” something one cannot via normal Bible reading.

Biblical Response: There is no model for this in Scripture. Moreover, the process is subjective; it ignores discovering the meaning of the passage; it uses an esoteric method of noticing a word or phrase; and it does not encourage reflection on the passage as a whole.

Context is ignored in Lectio Divina, and context is a basis for sound biblical interpretation. How can meaning be discovered without context? And if meaning is not reflected on, then what is the point of reflecting?

Lectio Divina is esoteric and mystical, seeking to draw an experience out of the text outside of seeking its meaning. In this way, it reveals the mystical outlook of Contemplative teachings: the false belief that an experience gained by setting the mind aside is “deeper” and more authentic than knowing God through normal study of the Bible.

Lectio Divina treats the Bible like an esoteric text rather than God’s revealed truth, which requires thought and reason. The Holy Spirit illuminates Scripture for the believer, but this is a supernatural act from God, not an esoteric matter. It is reasonable to assume that the Holy Spirit does not illumine Scripture if Scripture is misused or if the meaning of the text is being ignored or changed.

Summary: Doctrinal Clarity and Contemplative Spirituality

The mysticism of Contemplative Spirituality obscures and even ignores biblical doctrine because mysticism, by its very nature, does not seek objective truth but rather experiences and esoteric meanings. Therefore, Contemplative Spirituality undermines the clarity of doctrine on God’s nature; ignores the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification; misuses God’s word; and, as shown by several examples in this article, alters biblical doctrines of prayer, meditation, and worship. Doctrinal clarity is not only obscured but sabotaged.