Does anyone know about Jeanne Guyon? There seems to be a real appeal in the evangelical church. Many mega-church pastors are quoting her and recommending books on her life.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12608c.htm Hi Gail, You used often to see Madam Guyan and Archbishop Fenelon mentioned as a warning in older books on contemplative prayer as a warning against the mystical heresy of Quietism. I am surprised to see Protestant Pastors mentioning her as I though she had kinda been forgotten about. THe heresy of Quietism reminds me of Eastern Meditative techniques and models. It pressuposes that the soul is like a spoonge and inert it soaks up God and achieves a perfection in this life eventually not having to pray or do anything much really, becomming one with the God Head. Such a 'Freed' and 'Perfect' soul no longer has to obey the rules or teachings of the Church since she is perfect and I suppose not even the Laws of Man since she is one with God. It reminds me so much of the , 'Age of Aquarius' , which New Agers are so prone to tell us we are in. I suppose the dangers are so obvious its not necessary to point them out. It encourages disobedience and Spiritual Pride, it undercuts the need for an Apostolic life. It encourages false Mystical Experiences in the unwary. It claims to do away with the real need often for Spiritual Direction. It encourages disobedience and and is a gateway to further heresy against Holy Mother Church. It falsely denies stages in prayer and insists one kind of leap frog things like meditation to reach the end point directly. I would imagine Archbishop Fenelon and Madam Guyon fell into this fault because they had entered the initial stages of contemplative prayer and imagined they were in the end stage, Mystical Marriage. Or to put it another way they fell visitims of pride. However the worst harm was not actually Madam Guyon or Queitiam itslef but the fearful, hysterical, paranoid reaction to it by many in the Church itself. It ended up that many, many very good souls called to contemplative prayer were discouraged from doing so because folks feared Quietism. A good example of this harm in the USA in the 19th and 20th centuries was Gathsemane Abbey in ( I think) Kentucky. This was a Cistersian Monastery. One of the great American Spiritual Writers, Thomas Merton who lived these as Father Loius described it as a , 'Cheese Factory'. He said this because the monks were encouraged to lead a very active life and just use vocal rather than mental prayer. Contemplative prayer was discouraged and lived active lives making for example sup-erb cheese. So that Ironically Monasteries that were meant to encourage growth in prayer..to be schools of prayer .....became actual obstacle to groth in prayer!!! :shock: And one of the main , possibly the main reason of this was fear of Quietism , of what Madam Guyon a very active writer had been promoting. I cannot imagine much spiritually worse these Pastors could be doing than encouraging the gross heresy of Quietism. It leads to Spiritual Death. But these days nothing surprises me anymore. I would say Madam Guyon is proably the most famous false mystic who ever lived.
