For those who may doubt it Shane Claiborne, who is aligned with the neo-monastic movement, is definitely into the mystic mumbo jumbo of the Emergent Church. So-called “Christian” mysticism—which originally flowered in the monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism—was a core doctrine of the emerging church movement from its very inception.

To be fair, Apprising Ministries will point out that Claiborne is hardly alone in using this perverted and disgusting reference to experiencing God as one’s “lover”; and what follows from his book The Irresistible Revolution is classic language from those who practice Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism:

church history is filled with folks who followed God as singles–Jesus, for one; many of the disciples and martyrs, Francis and Claire of Assisi, the desert monastics, to name a few others…

At first it was a rational thing; I was attracted to the idea of God as lover. And then I began to experience God as lover, and I quickly became attracted to the Lover. I read Hosea and got the sense that life is a romance with the divine. I started meeting with a Catholic monk, who had taken a vow of poverty and celibacy. He told me, “We can live without sex, but we cannot live without love, and God is love.”

I had come to see God as lover and provider… (111)

See also:

SHANE CLAIBORNE AND THE GOSPEL OF GOODNESS

TONY CAMPOLO SALVATION

Reviving Roman Catholic Monasticism

SHANE CLAIBORNE LIED