Emerging Scholars Blog

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Christian Devotional Classics

Christian Devotional Classics: The Pursuit of God

A.W. Tozer (1897 – 1963)

A.W. Tozer (1897 – 1963). The Pursuit of God (1948). Source: www.cmalliance.org/about/history/tozer.

Although A.W. Tozer‘s (1897 – 1963) life-time has significant overlap with Thomas Raymond Kelly (1893 – 1941) and Thomas Merton’s (1915 – 1968), in some ways they couldn’t be more separate by tradition in 20th Century Christianity — to compare visit Receiving from the Christian Devotional Classics: Thomas Merton & the Desert Fathers and A Testament of Devotion. Furthermore, Tozer’s testimony is simple and focused, one which carried him in ministry throughout his life.

While on his way home from the Akron, Ohio tire company where he worked as a teen, young Aiden Wilson Tozer overheard a street preacher say,“If you don’t know how to be saved…just call on God.” Upon returning home, Tozer climbed into the attic and heeded the preacher’s advice. – “A.W. Tozer.” cmalliance.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Just a few years later, without even a high school education (what a contrast to Kelly and Merton!), Tozer began forty-four years of ministry in the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) — if you are unfamiliar with this Protestant denomination click here. Tozer pastored and preached in congregations in a number of places including Nutter Fort (WV), Chicago (IL), and Toronto (Canada). Amazingly self-taught, he authored more than forty books [with The Knowledge of the Holy (1961) and The Pursuit of God (1948) considered Christian classics], edited Alliance Weekly (C&MA denominational magazine), and received two honorary doctorate degrees (Houghton College and Wheaton College). According to an article on cmalliance.org, even with a family of seven children (six boys and one girl), Tozer had a prophetic and incarnated passion for simplicity not unlike Kelly and Merton: [Read more…] about Christian Devotional Classics: The Pursuit of God

Christian Devotional Classics: A Testament of Devotion

Thomas Raymond Kelly and A Testament of Devotion

Thomas Raymond Kelly (1893 – 1941) author of A Testament of Devotion (1941). Source: livres-mystiques.com/partieTEXTES/Kelly/bio.html

“To read or not to read?” Ever have a book which has caught your attention a number of times over a period of years, but you have made the intentional decision not to read only to find it assigned for class? Thomas Raymond Kelly’s (1893 – 1941) A Testament of Devotion (1941) fits this category for me.

Kelly was a cradle to grave Quaker, i.e., Religious Society of Friends. Although born in America, he had a passion for international education, service, pacifism, and spirituality. Although he studied chemistry as an undergraduate, he pursued further education with a mystical bend in religion and philosophy through a number of avenues including self study and a Ph.D. at Hartford. Kelly’s memory loss during his oral defense for a Ph.D. in philosophy at Harvard crushed him (1937). But with the publication of Explanation and Reality in the Philosophy of Emile Meyerson (1937) . . .

No one knows exactly what happened, but a strained period in his life was over. He moved toward adequacy. A fissure in him seemed to close, cliffs caved in and filled up a chasm, and what was divided grew together within him. Science, scholarship, method remained good, but in a new setting.  Now he could say with Isaac Pennington, ‘Reason is not sin, but a deviation from that from which reason came is a sin.

He went to to the Germantown Friends’ Meeting at Coulter Street to deliver three lectures in January 1938. He told me the lectures wrote themselves. At Germantown, people were deeply moved and said, “This is authentic.“ His writing writings and spoken messages began to be marked by a note of experimental authority.”  — Douglas V. Steere, “A Biographical Memoir.” In Thomas Raymond Kelly. A Testament of Devotion. Harper & Brothers, 1941, 118. [Read more…] about Christian Devotional Classics: A Testament of Devotion

Christian Devotional Classics: Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Men invent means and methods of coming at God’s love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God’s presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him? – Brother Lawrence in Maxims.

Introduction

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (c. 1614 – 1691) and The Practice of the Presence of God – The Best Rule of Holy Life. Source: ccel.org/ccel/lawrence from wikipedia.

This summer in Christian Devotional Classics (Evangelical Seminary), I presented on Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (c. 1614 – 1691) and The Practice of the Presence of God – The Best Rule of Holy Life. Considering the importance of this work to a number of people I have spoken with, future posts are already in concept — if this is a project of interest, please email me.

In the first part of this teaser post is a rough timeline of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection’s life. In the second part is a week of reflections on “What does The Practice of the Presence of God have to say to us today?”

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (c. 1614 – 1691)

Birth through Military Service

  • Born Nicolas Herman in Herimenil, Lorraine.
    • ~100 years after Martin Luther nails the Ninety-Five Theses to the Wittenberg Church as an invitation to debate (October 31, 1517).
    • Family without money for education, some “home-schooling”
      • His Uncle Jean Majeur was a member of the Discaled Carmelites
      • Some education by a parish priest (Lawrence)
  • 30 Years War (1618-48): A young soldier (1629)
    • Near fatal injury to his sciatic nerve (1635)
    • Crippled and in chronic pain remainder of life.

Seeking Direction

  • Gazing at a barren tree one winter while in the army, “saw for the first time the majesty of God’s grace and the constancy of God’s providence. He imagined himself like the tree, waiting for the life that God would inevitably bring in season” (1628).
  • Sought direction after returning home with war injury (1635)
    • A “footman who was clumsy and broke everything.”
    • Drawn to a Carmelite monastery in Paris (1640)

[Read more…] about Christian Devotional Classics: Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Christian Devotional Classics: Ignatius of Loyola

Introduction

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556) author of Spiritual Exercises (1522 to 1524). Source: Wikipedia.

This summer in Christian Devotional Classics (Evangelical Seminary), I presented on Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556) and the Spiritual Exercises (1522 to 1524). Considering the importance of the Society of Jesus in higher education, future posts are already in concept — if this is a project of interest, please email me.

In the first part of this post is a rough timeline of a Spanish knight who became a mystical “Soldier for Christ” pioneering an educational, missional, and spiritual Counter-Reformation. In the second part one finds a week of reflections on “What Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Spiritual Exercises have to say to us today.”

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556)

Biography: Before Christ

• Íñigo Oñaz López de Loyola was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family
• “Love of martial exercises and a vainglorious desire for fame.”
• Desired to be like El Cid, the knights of Camelot . . .
•BUT
• Faced financial & educational challenges
• Suffered a leg wound (& lamed) by a French cannonball in the Battle of Pampeluna (1521).
• Medical care was little more than convalescence (1521).
•BUT read the saints while recovering!
• Ludolf of Saxony’s Life of Christ
• James of Vorgine’s Golden Legend [Read more…] about Christian Devotional Classics: Ignatius of Loyola