Post by Rakehel on May 10, 2021 9:48:56 GMT -5
Passive mysticism:
General Information
The term has several connotations and is often used in a broad sense to refer to the emphasis on human inactivity and passivity that has accompanied the mystic experience. In a more specific way it refers to a manifestation of Roman Catholic mysticism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This movement was inspired by the teachings of Miguel de Molinos, a Spanish priest who lived in Italy and published his views in a book entitled Spiritual Guide. According to Molinos the goal of Christian experience is the perfect rest of the soul in God. Such a condition is possible when a person abandons himself completely to God and the will is totally passive. Mental prayer rather than any external activity is the means to the state of absolute rest with God. Molinos was accused of despising Christian virtue and of moral aberration because he believed that in a state of contemplation the soul is unaffected by either good works or sin. The Jesuits led the attack on his doctrine, claiming that it was an exaggerated and unhealthy form of mysticism. Through their efforts he was arrested and imprisoned.
Despite the opposition quietism spread to France, where it found an outstanding proponent in Madame Guyon, a woman from an influential family. Forced to abandon her desire to follow a religious vocation and instead to marry, she was constantly seeking a deeper spiritual life. Following the death of her husband she came under the influence of Molinos's thought and by 1680 felt herself so close to God that she received visions and revelations. Traveling widely through France she won many converts, calling them "spiritual children." Her teaching, elaborated in A Short and Easy Method of Prayer, emphasized passive prayer as the major Christian activity. Eventually, she felt, the soul will lose all interest in its own fate, and even the truth of the gospel would be insignificant before "the torrent of the forces of God."
On a popular level her teaching led to a disregard for the spiritual activities and the sacraments of the church. The result was a belief in a vague pantheism which is closer to the South Asian religions than to Christianity. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, warned her to stop propagating these ideas, and others considered her mentally unbalanced, but she continued to win followers. She exchanged a series of letters with Fenelon, who admired and defended her ideas. In 1687 Pope Innocent XI condemned quietism, and Guyon along with many of her followers suffered imprisonment and persecution.
Bibliography:
R G Clouse Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)
P. Hazard, The European Mind; R. A. Knox, Enthusiasm.
wikipedia.org/quietism
General Information
The term has several connotations and is often used in a broad sense to refer to the emphasis on human inactivity and passivity that has accompanied the mystic experience. In a more specific way it refers to a manifestation of Roman Catholic mysticism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This movement was inspired by the teachings of Miguel de Molinos, a Spanish priest who lived in Italy and published his views in a book entitled Spiritual Guide. According to Molinos the goal of Christian experience is the perfect rest of the soul in God. Such a condition is possible when a person abandons himself completely to God and the will is totally passive. Mental prayer rather than any external activity is the means to the state of absolute rest with God. Molinos was accused of despising Christian virtue and of moral aberration because he believed that in a state of contemplation the soul is unaffected by either good works or sin. The Jesuits led the attack on his doctrine, claiming that it was an exaggerated and unhealthy form of mysticism. Through their efforts he was arrested and imprisoned.
Despite the opposition quietism spread to France, where it found an outstanding proponent in Madame Guyon, a woman from an influential family. Forced to abandon her desire to follow a religious vocation and instead to marry, she was constantly seeking a deeper spiritual life. Following the death of her husband she came under the influence of Molinos's thought and by 1680 felt herself so close to God that she received visions and revelations. Traveling widely through France she won many converts, calling them "spiritual children." Her teaching, elaborated in A Short and Easy Method of Prayer, emphasized passive prayer as the major Christian activity. Eventually, she felt, the soul will lose all interest in its own fate, and even the truth of the gospel would be insignificant before "the torrent of the forces of God."
On a popular level her teaching led to a disregard for the spiritual activities and the sacraments of the church. The result was a belief in a vague pantheism which is closer to the South Asian religions than to Christianity. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, warned her to stop propagating these ideas, and others considered her mentally unbalanced, but she continued to win followers. She exchanged a series of letters with Fenelon, who admired and defended her ideas. In 1687 Pope Innocent XI condemned quietism, and Guyon along with many of her followers suffered imprisonment and persecution.
Bibliography:
R G Clouse Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)
P. Hazard, The European Mind; R. A. Knox, Enthusiasm.
wikipedia.org/quietism