EHS Part 1

I recently picked up my copy of the newest book by Peter Scazzero from the Christian book store. As I suspected, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is a very contemplative book…

Throughout the book are quotes from the following:

Dallas Willard

Meister Eckhart

St. Teresa of Avila

Kieran Kavanaugh, editor of John of the Cross

Thomas Merton (Trappist monk and interspiritualist)

Parker Palmer(who is listed on the inter-spiritual Living Spiritual Teachers Project)

Daniel Goleman (scientist who studies Buddhist meditation)

Richard Foster

Daniel Wolpert

Brennan Manning

Ignatius’s teachings

Thomas H. Green

M. Scott Peck

Bowen family systems theories

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Benedict Ward

Karl Barth

Basil Pennington

Dan Allender (AAAC) and
Larry Crab (Papa Prayer)

Tony Jones, Sacred Way

Phyllis Tickle

Henri Nouwen

Brother Lawrence

Catherine Doherty

Carlo Carretto

Eugene Peterson

Tilden Edwards

This book also contains teaching on Lectio Divina, the Daily Office, silence and centering down (pg 160-163), using James Finley’s guidelines. (James Finley was a Trappist monk who joined the Gethsemene Abbey in Kentucky where one of his novice masters was Brother Louis, better known outside the monastery as Thomas Merton.)

Here is Finley’s outline of practicing the Daily Office:

-Be attentive and open
-Sit still
-Sit straight
-Breath slowly, deeply
-Close your eyes or lower them to the ground



Scazzero then says to repeat a prayer or let your breathing bring you back if you find your mind wandering during this exercise. He also says this is a call to mindfulness (by the way, daily practice and mindfulness are terms used in Buddhism, see here).


A quick read of this book reveals much of the same information as in the first book(Emotionally Healthy Church), combining psychology and emotional health. The difference in this one is that the ancient practices of contemplative monks and mystics are strongly introduced by the author who says (on page 46) that the missing piece in Christianity today is the combination of emotional health and contemplative spirituality.

Besides being packed with contemplative practices, I find a powerless gospel in this book. Real problems with the wrong solution. More do’s…Rules of Life, Advent, Lent, prayers, stopping and centering at certain intervals each day… without the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s so sad that a nice pastor like this can go through so much, be so sincere, and still not find truth in the treasure of God’s Word.

As in the first book, there is once again more about ‘knowing yourself’, and ‘becoming your authentic self’. On page 81-82 the author states that Judas betrayed Jesus for “being true to himself”, and that “Jesus was not selfless. He did not live as if only other people counted. He knew his value and worth….Jesus was 100 percent true to himself”…

Now wait a minute...the Bible says that although Jesus existed in the form of God, He “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himslef by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:7,8) Now that sounds pretty selfless to me.

Okay, in a nutshell…this book heavily promotes enough contemplative practices and interspiritual teachers and mystics to ring a Buddhist monastery bell. There are far too many things in this book that do not bring glory to Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6

We are not brought near to the Father by Zen, mindfulness meditation or breathing methods, “but now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13

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Next…so what? It’s just a book…right? Stay tuned to find out how wide spread the influence of this book’s author is.

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***A NOT SO SURPRISING DEVELOPMENT AND UPDATE (FALL 2010):

“Protestant” pastor Pete has just sent his flock over to “The Online Resource For John Paul II’s ‘Theology Of The Body.’” This is more result of the mush-headedness of mysticism

Read about it here:

PETER SCAZZERO ENJOYS PRAYING THROUGH APOSTASY
http://apprising.org/2010/09/22/peter-scazzero-enjoys-praying-through-apostasy/