In Eat This Book (ETB), which is about the supposed critical importance of using Lectio Divina (LD), a Roman Catholic practice of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), Eugene Peterson calls Hans  Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) “the twentieth century’s premier theologian on Christian spirituality” and tells us that Balthasar “insisted that in matters of spirituality it is form that is formational.” Peterson then quotes Bathasar:

The content [Gehalt] does not lie behind the form [Gestalt] but within it. Whoever is not capable of seeing and “reading” the form will, by the same token, fail to perceive the content. Whoever is not illuminated by the form will see no light in the content either. (45)

What we’re being fed here in a reimagined type of Gnosticism, not unlike that of the messed-up magisterium of the apostate Roman Catholic Church, where the Scripture doesn’t necessarily say what the words themselves would seem to imply. Peterson is mixing together a couple ideas of existentialism. The first is a little Gestalt theory and its emphasis that sections of something taken alone, in this case the Bible, will change its over-all meaning.

This is why you’ll so often see those in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC)—shoveling skubalon onto sytematic theology. And then because he participates in highly subjective practices of CSM Peterson’s telling us that we must seek the alleged larger meaning within (i.e. behind) the words. Clearly consistent with the very wrong teachings of Karl Barth and neo-orthodoxy where the Bible is considered a kind of divine mailbox where God sends us personal letters.

However, the Bible itself is the Letter from Heaven; and that’s a huge difference. In ETB Peterson goes on to discourage reading the Bible apart from LD because it supposedly gets us “into a lot of trouble” if we do:

Lectio Divina is a way of reading the Scriptures that is congruent with the way the Scriptures serve the Christian community as a witness to God’s revelation of himself to us. It is the wise guidance developed through the centuries of devout Bible reading to discipline us, the readers of Scripture, into appropriate ways of understanding and receiving this text so that it is formative for the way we live our lives, not merely making an impression on our minds or feelings.

It intends the reading of Scripture to be a permeation of our lives by the revelation of God. Reading the Bible, if we do not do it rightly, can get us into a lot of trouble. The Christian community is as concerned with how we read the Bible as that we read it. It is not sufficient to place a Bible in a person’s hands with the command, “Read it.” (81)

Really; LD “is a way of reading the Scriptures that is congruent with the way the Scriptures serve the Christian community.” Well the fact is, LD developed in the Benedictine monasteries; and as it spread throughout the rest of them, it eventually would lead the Roman Catholic Church into such apostasy God Himself raised up His Reformers to call His children away from Satan’s best front for the Kingdom of God. Which now brings us back to Peterson’s initial comment.

Peterson mused that Hans Urs von Balthasar was supposedly “the twentieth century’s premier theologian on Christian spirituality.” Nope, sorry about that; as a very devout Roman Catholic Balthazar died a slave to that apostate system. So faithful to Rome that apparently:

John Paul II  asked him to be a cardinal in 1988. However he died in his home in Basel on the 26th June 1988,… Balthasar is one of the most important Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century;… Balthasar was a traditionalist…traditional in his doctrines and beliefs,…

As a Roman Catholic priest and member of a religious order, Balthasar was very concerned that his theology address spiritual and practical issues. He ordered that his theology never be divorced from the mystical experiences of his long-time friend and Roman Catholic convert, the physician Dr. Adrienne von Speyr. (Online source)

No, we don’t need Lectio Divina; and we sure don’t need the reimagined Gnosticism of dreamers like Eugene Peterson and apostate “Christian” teachers with their spurious spirituality.

See also:

EUGENE PETERSON: DEVIL’S FINEST WORK IS GETTING PEOPLE TO STUDY THE BIBLE

JOHN MACARTHUR: GREATEST THREAT TO AMERICAN CHURCH

DON’T BE FOOLED BY THOSE WHO ONLY SAY THEY LOVE SCRIPTURE

NEO-ORTHODOX APPROACH TO THE BIBLE PERFECT FIT FOR EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY

THE EMERGING CHURCH SOWING ITS NEO-ORTHODOX CONFUSION ON SCRIPTURE

NEO-ORTHODOXY: AN EMERGENT OVERVIEW

ROB BELL AND KARL BARTH

CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH AND SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY