Another Writer for Our Daily Bread quotes Mystics

Speaking of Our Daily Bread, Monday's reading was written by one of their regular writers, David Roper.

Coincidentally, I just happen to have a book on my desk called Growing Slowly Wise by David Roper (Discovery House Publishers, affiliated with RBC Ministries, 2000). It is similar to, but not exactly the same as, this on-line version where it is called by another title:

THE BOOK JAMES WROTE
by David H. Roper
http://ldolphin.org/roper/dcroper/james.html

Growing Slowly Wise is about the book of James and focuses on living a life of holiness. Sounds good. Just like all of David Roper's writings in The Daily Bread.

However, there are a few odd little things about my copy of this book that are quite puzzling. Namely, some names and quotes that are in it...

• Meditations of a Hermit (Charles de Foucauld Catholic priest) p. 15
• Brennan Manning's Blessing
• an ancient Dominican prayer
• Dom Guigo -12th century Carthusian monk
• Jacob Needleman's book Money and the Meaning of Life
• St. John of the Cross
• Bernard of Clairveaux (Cistercian monk)
• Gandalf the Grey
• Snoopy

Most people will just skim over those as the book is filled with nice quotes from all sorts of nice people, even a Snoopy quote which may seem rather cute, until you get to the most unlikely out of place quote of them all, which is this one:

"An older generation of spiritual mentors referred to the practice of "spiritual reading," which is more than mere Bible study. It is reading with a desire to be thoroughly transformed by God's Word. It is "reading with a heart ready to repent." (Sister Macrina Wiederkehr)
-pg. 96 Growing Slowly Wise, David Roper

Spiritual reading, of course, refers to Lectio Divina. Sister Macrina Wiederkehr is a Roman Catholic nun who belongs to a Benedictine monastic community of women in Arkansas that follows the rule of St. Benedict. She also...

...travels throughout the U. S. and Canada as a retreat director. In her retreats seekers are guided through experiences of silence and contemplation, Lectio Divina and faith sharing...

-http://www.macrinawiederkehr.com/

Her bio says that she enjoys creating rituals, and has written some books, including one with Joyce Rupp called The Circle of Life, which shows readers a way to connect with life’s sacred center. [By the way, Catholic author, retreat and conference speaker Joyce Rupp has also written a book called Prayers to Sophia - as in 'goddess' Sophia - and says the Sufis Dance of Universal Peace (a circular dance of movements and chanted prayers from different traditions) is an important and compelling part of her spiritual life.] Sister Macrina believes that the "book of the earth is as holy as the book of scripture." All her retreats last year centered around her latest book, Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours, and were held at various Catholic and Jesuit spirituality retreat centers (one was at Bethlehem Retreat Centre in Nanaimo, BC). Incidentally, one of her top five favorite book picks of the year was The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (for study and expanding her consciousness about various matters). Her other favorite books include Christian Meditation by James Finley, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and The Cup of Our Life by Joyce Rupp. [Speaking of Rupp, did I mention she has a 'relationship' with Sophia (the feminine wisdom in the Hebrew Scriptures)? She says on her website that she took a Native American spirituality course from a man named Eagle Crux, who says you can use Native American spirituality in a positive way and still be faithful to your own spiritual tradition. She also says that Buddhism has helped her value the practice of mindfulness, and that she resonates with Sufism (Islamic mysticism) because of its connection with Roman Catholic mysticism which is why she leans toward the contemplative heritage and the monastic tradition.]

Anyways, back to David Roper. He seems to be a nice sort of Christian author, one that many evangelicals look up to, like Philip Yancey. I wonder why he chose to throw in random quotes from so many Roman Catholics, and especially Joyce Rupp's colleague, Sister Macrina. If he quotes her, he must have read what she wrote, and agreed with her. That should apply to anyone an author quotes favourably. And apparently these kind of things are not just in this one book either. In A Man to Match the Mountain: Overcoming the Obstacles of Life, David Roper also quotes in Yancey fashion from folks like Sören Kierkegaard, St. John of the Cross (see here), Thomas a Kempis, and Blaise Pascal. On page 97 (see here) he quotes from Thomas Merton, saying that "he has written with great wisdom." Go figure!

These things are puzzling, to be sure. Especially when David Roper's books are so full of Bible teaching, and he even says that his good friend and mentor was Ray Stedman, who I've always considered to be a good Bible teacher.

Can we just chalk these quotes up to a lack of knowledge when an author seems to be very well read and educated and biblically solid? Should it concern us that these names that are so often quoted are becoming common household names in the minds of Protestant Evangelicals? Or do we just yawn and say who cares? And what if one of these Our Daily Bread authors throws some of these quotes and things from their books into Our Daily Bread? Perhaps that is something to keep an eye out for in the future.

It's certainly food for thought. But for now, in the light of all I've just seen, I think it's safe to say that no book written by any man is 'safe.' It doesn't matter how trusted your traditional daily 20 second North American devotional book is. Only God's Word is 100% trustworthy and safe. Too bad more Christian authors can't seem to stick to quoting from God's Word and solid Christian examples instead of tossing all these very questionable names and things into their books.

Related:

Yancey, Influenced by Mystics
http://morebooksandthings.blogspot.com/2010/02/yancey-influenced-by-mystics.html