Episode 21 Dr Elaine Heath: Contemplative Spirituality, Sanctification, and the Healing of Trauma

In this week’s episode, Dr. Elaine Heath takes us deep into contemplative spirituality, entire sanctification, and the healing of trauma. Dr. Heath draws on her expertise in Scripture, spiritual formation (rooted in contemplative spirituality), mission and the theology of Phoebe Palmer. We have a rich conversation about inner healing and holiness. 

Books by Dr. Elaine Heath:

The Healing Practice of Celebration, (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020). https://amzn.to/3iWxSuB   

Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse: Reading the Bible with Survivors (A revised and retitled new edition of We Were the Least of These: Reading the Bible with Survivors of Sexual Abuse) (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2019). https://amzn.to/3hdOSvY 

The Mystic Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision for Christian Outreach, Revised and Updated 2nd Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017). https://amzn.to/3aD90oC  

Five Means of Grace: Experiencing God’s Love the Wesleyan Way. Nashville: Abingdon, 2017. https://amzn.to/3j0jstv 

God Unbound: Wisdom from Galatians for the Anxious Church. Nashville: Upper Room, May 2016. https://amzn.to/3kZXRDf  

Missional.Monastic.Mainline. A Guide to Starting Missional Micro-Communities in Historically Mainline Traditions. Eugene: Cascade, 2014. https://amzn.to/3kWBjTQ  

The Gospel According to Twilight: Women, Sex and God. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011. https://amzn.to/3iOi90C 

We Were the Least of These: Reading the Bible with Survivors of Sexual Abuse. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2011. https://amzn.to/3hdOSvY 

Longing for Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community, co-authored with Scott Kisker. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2010. https://amzn.to/3iWylNn 

Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer, Princeton Theological Monograph Series. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2010. https://amzn.to/34dMJwq

The Mystic Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision for Christian Outreach. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. https://amzn.to/3aD90oC 

More Light on the Path: Daily Scripture Readings in Hebrew and Greek, co-authored with David Baker, with a Foreword by Eugene Peterson. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1999; electronic version published by Logos Bible Software, 2006.

Books Recommended by Dr. Elaine Heath:

Besser van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma https://amzn.to/3gdqB7G  

Morton Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine, and Christian Healing

Andrew Sung Park, The Wounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept of Han and the Christian Doctrine of Sin https://amzn.to/2EdhNS9  

Julian of Norwich, Showings https://amzn.to/328qy8d   

Ann Taves, Fits, Trances, and Visions: experiencing religion and explaining experience from Wesley to James https://amzn.to/34e5q3h 

Full Bio:

Elaine Heath is an author, retreat leader, speaker and consultant. Her work is interdisciplinary, weaving together the study of Scripture, theology, and Christian spirituality with the practices of ministry in ways that help the church to reach beyond its walls and into the community. She is the former Dean of Duke Divinity School as well as the former McCreless Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She is co-founder of Missional Wisdom Foundation, President of Neighborhood Seminary, and an Elder in the United Methodist Church. She currently lives in intentional community at Spring Forest, a farm in North Carolina, where she serve as Abbess.

Connect with Dr. Heath:

Her website is www.elaineaheath.org 

The website for Spring Forest, the intentional community, farm, and decentralized mission church that I help to lead is www.springforest.org. 

The website for Neighborhood Seminary is www.neighborhoodseminary.org. 

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. Deep Dive Spirituality Conversations gets a small fee if you purchases products through the links. This does not affect the price you pay. Thank you for supporting my podcast by ordering some of the suggested resources.

Ep 18: The Wesleyan Means of Grace, Transformation, & Christian Perfecti...

Andrew Thompson: Wesley’s Means of Grace, Transformation, and Christian Perfection

Listen in this week as Brian interviews noted Wesley scholar and pastor Dr. Andrew Thompson. Dr. Thompson takes us deep into a Wesleyan understanding and practice of the means of grace. Brian and Andrew end the episode with a powerful conversation about entire sanctification. Andrew offers a compelling modern testimony of what true holiness looks like today.

Books by Andrew Thompson

The Means of Grace: Traditioned Practice in Today’s World (Seedbed, 2015): https://amzn.to/3gzTBHF

Watching from the Walls: Waiting for Jesus with Hope and Expectation (Advent Study) https://amzn.to/2COW7vq 

Sign up for Newsletter from Matthew Johnson on Entire Sancitification:

 http://www.scripturalholiness.com/the-guide-to-holiness/

Books recommended by Andrew Thompson

Kevin Watson and Scott Kisker, The Band Meeting: Rediscovering Relational Discipleship in Transformational Community (Seedbed)  https://amzn.to/2Wd4aZW 

Richard Foster Celebration of Discipline https://amzn.to/33kkY5d

John Wesley. The Sermons of John Wesley: A Collection for the Christian Journey (eds. Collins and Vickers)  https://amzn.to/2L6u4b5  

Thomas a Kempis Imitation of Christ https://amzn.to/30WZo3G 

Jeremy Taylor Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying https://amzn.to/3f8gwbX

www.seedbed.com 

Bio: 

Dr. Andrew C. Thompson is a pastor, teacher, and scholar in the United Methodist Church. He is an award-winning author and frequent speaker, focusing on the thought of John Wesley, the history of Methodism, and contemporary Wesleyan theology. Andrew is an ordained minister and has served pastoral appointments in Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. He currently serves as the senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Springdale, Arkansas. Previously he taught for four years on the faculty of Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee.

Twitter @TheRealAndrew

The links to Amazon are affiliate links. Amazon pays a small royalty to Brian Russell for any materials purchased through these links (your purchase price is not affected). Thank you for supporting the Deep Dive Spirituality Conversations podcast!

Episode 11 The Wesleyan Renewal, Holiness, and Transformation with Dr Ryan Danker

In this week’s episode, Dr. Ryan Danker helps us to understand the context of the Wesleyan renewal in 18th century England in ways that will help us think about Gospel ministry in the 21st century. We take a deep dive into true power and optimism of Wesleyan theology by discussing its proclamation of holiness of heart and life. 

Bio:

An active United Methodist, Ryan Danker is a church historian with a passion for evangelical studies, and in particular the early Wesleyan/Methodist movement under John and Charles Wesley. Born in Portland, Oregon, Danker served United Methodist churches in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference. He currently serves as a member of the United Methodist/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Dialogue. He is active in the American Academy of Religion, the Wesleyan Theological Society, and the Charles Wesley Society. Before his appointment at Wesley, Danker served on the faculty at Greensboro College in North Carolina where he was also Special Assistant to the President and a member of the Advisory Board of the Royce and Jane Reynolds Center for Church Leadership. 

Education

• B.A., Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, ID
• M.Div., The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC
• Th.D., The School of Theology, Boston University, Boston, MA

Twitter: @RyanNDanker

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5F9C_humHnVSZyz4tMy0yw

Books by Dr. Danker

Exploring a Wesleyan Political Theology (editor and contributor; Wesley’s Foundry books, 2019) https://amzn.to/2U5cXvo 

Wesley and the Anglicans: Political Division in Early Evangelicalism (IVP, 2016) https://amzn.to/2MtVUPb 

Books Recommend by Dr. Danker

Geoffrey Wainwright Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine, and life: A Systematic Theology https://amzn.to/2z7DLDT 

Robert Louis Wilken The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God https://amzn.to/2MuiqaW

The Book of Common Prayer 

Letter to my Daughters on Elections and Love (Dear Kittens #34)

(I write my daughters aka "kittens" a short letter each week under the pseudonym "TOC"="The Old Cat". We've always had cats so this rubric works for us. My daughters are both in high school. I try to distill the wisdom gained through my 47 years that I wish I'd have learned when I was a teen. I wrote this one in the aftermath of the election this week and after observing the reactions of both sides to Donald Trump's upset victory over Hillary Clinton)

Dear Kittens,

The Presidential election of 2016 was a difficult one. TOC has voted in every election since 1988 and this one threw me for a loop. Since this is your first election that you’ve been old enough to observe and given its divisiveness during the campaign and in the days following, I wanted to share some reflections on how we should think and act about it.

The great Methodist leader John Wesley lived during challenging times too. Revolutions were stirring in the colonies that became the United States as well as in France. Moreover, the inequalities and divisions within England itself were stark and easily inflamed. Wesley sought to promote the Gospel of Jesus as the true hope of the world and to transform the world through the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Yet Wesley encouraged the early Methodists to participate in civic life and this included voting. Here is his advice. This is an actual entry from his journal on Oct 6, 1774:

"I met those of our [methodist groups] who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them
1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy
2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against, and
3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side."

This is good and simple wisdom. I don’t think that there are too many bribes involved in voting these days (Wesley’s #1), but his #2 and #3 are critical for modeling a good witness in the world.

In essence, they invite us to de-personalize politics. Too often our leaders on both sides resort to emotional appeals and personal attacks to win. Unfortunately, this type of persuasion works. This does not make it admirable or virtuousness. It is always easy to use labels: “leftie” “racist” “communist” “right wing nut job” “radical” “homophobe” etc. Labels attempt to dehumanize others and cast shame. Our country right now has elements on both sides who cannot sympathize with or even relate to persons on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Wesley emphasized the need to refuse to participate in the demonization or even speaking ill of those who disagree with us politically.

So how do we live well kittens and work for good especially during bitter seasons of divisive political debates and elections?

(1) Remember that absolute security comes only from God. No political party or ideology (even if its your personal favorite) can ever guarantee the future. Our hope is in God.

(2) There is not one god of the blue states and a separate god of the red states. God loves Clinton and all her supporters. God loves Trump and all his supporters. God is one and God is Lord of all peoples and nations. God loves everyone regardless of their vote or ideology, and God desires each persons best.

(3) We need to become better listeners of one another. The Gospel can unite us, but only if we reach out and build relationships with persons who think differently than us. Build a diverse group of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. If you don’t know anyone who voted for the opposite candidate, you need to expand your social circles. TOC has friends on both sides of the political spectrum. I have my own opinions, but these will never come between my friendships or my mission to reach others with the love of God.

(4) Be a bridge builder and uniter. No one ever gets what they want 100% of the time. We must learn to win and lose with grace and dignity. Seasons of change come and go. Always be ready to extend your hand in peace and compromise over common ground.

The future is better than you think, Kittens. I’m looking forward to it. As Ghandi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

Live by faith, be known by love, serve as voices of hope:
TOC


If you'd like to read other "Dear Kittens" notes as they are published, send me an email to brian.russell9113 @ gmail .com

Interview with William Guerrant Author of Organic Wesley (Seedbed, 2015)

I am happy to welcome William Guerrant to my blog. He agreed to answer some questions about his new book Organic Wesley: A Christian Perspective on Food, Farming, and Faith. I read it and am excited to get the word out to my readers. John Wesley was committed to holistic health and was ahead of his 18th century context in terms of understanding the importance of eating properly as a means of maximizing one's missional impact. Bill Guerrant's work based on his thesis research at Asbury Seminary enlarges our knowledge of the topic and informs us on how to live more consciously as God's people.

Bill, what were your goals in writing Organic Wesley?

I hope the book helps introduce a Wesleyan food ethic into the vibrant and ongoing cultural conversation we are having about food these days. I am convinced that there is a food ethic within our Christian tradition, and specifically within our Wesleyan heritage, that speaks powerfully into the broken food culture of our time. My modest goal is to contribute to making the world a better place.


Who is the audience that you hope to reach?

Whatever its shortcomings, I am reasonably confident that those who are interested in both Wesleyan teaching and food ethics will find the book interesting. My hope is that it will be interesting to people who have an interest in either of those subjects.

How did you become interested in organic food?

I became aware of the phenomenon I call the "food movement" first through the influence of my wife. She began studying our industrial food system after contracting a food-borne illness and she passed along to me what she was discovering. I soon joined her in the journey that led ultimately to our relocating from Florida to our farm in Virginia, where we are now full-time farmers, devoted to being a part of improving our food system.

What do you wish that every person knew about the intersection of Wesleyan theology and food/health?

The principal themes that motivate those in today's food movement--a preference for nutritious whole foods, ethically-produced and eaten in moderation--were once central to Wesleyan thought and teaching. You might say that for Wesleyans, today's "food movement" is part of our ecclesiological DNA. When we make our food choices consistently with the Wesleyan ethic, we are contributing to God's restoration and redemption of all of creation.

How do you hope to contribute to the ongoing mission of God through your work?

I would love to see Wesleyans at the forefront of today's food movement, advocating for a just, humane and benevolent food system. I believe, with Wesley, that good food is one of God's greatest gifts to humanity and that every time we make a choice of what to eat we have the opportunity to further God's Kingdom or to impede it.

Maybe the best answer I can give to this question is just to quote the last few paragraphs of the book:

"For most of us it will be easy to imagine the benefits that will come from eating better. We may imagine losing weight and feeling better, we may imagine becoming healthy enough to no longer need as many medications, and we may imagine longer, more fulfilling lives for ourselves and our families.  Of course these are all excellent reasons for choosing to eat a healthier diet. But the Wesleyan vision is grander than that.

Imagine a world in which all of humanity eats only ethically-produced nutritious food, in moderation. In such a world there would be less sickness, less disease, no gluttony, and a population living long, healthy lives. Farm animals would be raised naturally and compassionately, being afforded the respect they deserve as beloved creatures of God. There would be no exploitation of farm workers and farmers. The land would be treated gently and respectfully, with farming practices that ensure a sustainable, resilient, regenerative future. There would be robust and vibrant community-based food economies.

In such a world, the food system would be a part of God’s renewal and restoration of creation, rather than an impediment to it.

May it be so.

Let our next meal, and all those that follow it, be a part of bringing that vision to reality."

Tell us about study that accompanies Organic Wesley? What does the DVD content add to the book?

We filmed one video lesson for each of the ten chapters in the book. The videos summarize the content in each chapter and I hope folks will find them engaging. They will be great for group studies, preferably in conjunction with the book, but capable of standing alone without it. Most of the videos were filmed on our farm and the Seedbed team has done an excellent job of production.

What is the best way for people to get in touch with you or learn more about Organic Wesley?

Seedbed has a webpage devoted to the book and that's the best place to start. There is a good synopsis of the book there, as well as some of the endorsements the book has received. Seedbed offers a free download of Chapter One as well as a free viewing of the first video lesson, and they can be accessed on that page as well. Check it out! 

Invitation to Hearing the Scriptural Story

William Shakespeare, in “As You Like It” composed these famous lines:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

These words remind us that our lives are part of a larger story that being written each day. What does this story look like? Our internet connected world flashes a multitude of competing stories and images at us at a break net speed. All seek to draw us into to their narrative web. What story or stories shape us? What images and visions propel forward in our lives.

I often begin seminars and classes on the Bible by asking this question: What novel, short story, film, or movie best represents your life as you currently see yourself? When I’ve done this in small groups, I received some interesting answers over the years. Many of us resonate with underdog stories of courage and overcoming odds, romantic tales of love, or the deeds and adventures of super heroes. Yet there is One Story above all others that  beckons for our lives. It is the Bible. As we seek to advance God’s kingdom in the early decades of the 21^st century, we must re-engage the Story so that we can live as the missional people that God created us to be.

In the Preface to his sermons, John Wesley wrote these words:

 
I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: Just hovering over the great gulf; till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, -- the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: For this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri [a person of one book]. [1]

In other words, the Bible is the one story to which each of us needs to listen. Scripture desires to transform us. God uses his Word through the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and shape us.

The Bible is the story of God’s relentless love for all creation. It’s narrative traces God’s desire to redeem a lost humanity and heal a broken creation.  When we read Scripture, we encounter the Creator God who invites us to participate with him as He advances his mission to bring restoration, forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, peace, hope, and love through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In the Bible, God reveals his character, his purposes, and his plans so that we may live as the people whom God created for us to be.

As we seek to advance God’s kingdom in our day, let us realign with God by immersing ourselves anew in the Scriptural story.

© 2015 Brian D. Russell

Brian's recent group study resource Invitation with companion DVD offers a 10 week overview of the Scriptural story with a goal of forming readers in the core biblical truths of mission, community, and holiness and unleashing them into the world to live as a missional community that embodies and reflects God's character for the world.

---

[1]Preface to Sermons

Quotations about the Book of Psalms by Significant Christian Interpreters

One of my great joys as a reader of the Bible and professor of Biblical studies is to ponder and enjoy the Psalms. I’m in the process of preparing a study of Psalms 1-41 for an upcoming volume in Seedbed’s OneBook series. As I begin writing, I pulled out some of my notes. Here are a collection of quotations from significant Christian interpreters of the Psalms about the richness of these biblical prayers.

Diodore of Tarsus:
He opens the prologue to his commentary on the psalms by quoting 2 Tim 3:16 and writing: One would not be mistaken in applying this whole encominium of Holy Scripture to the book of the holy Psalms. For it teaches righteousness gently and reasonably to those who wish to learn, it reproves the rash carefully and without roughness, and it corrects whatever unfortunate mistakes are made, either by accident or by our own choices.  

Martin Luther:
Where does one find finer words of joy than in the Psalms of praise and thanksgiving? There you look into the hearts of all saints, as into fair and pleasant gardens, yes, as into heaven itself. There you see what at fine and pleasant flowers of the heart spring up from all sorts of fair and happy thoughts toward God, because of all his blessings. On the other hand, where do you find deeper, more sorrowful, more pitiful words of sadness than in the psalms of lamentation? There again you look into the hearts of all the saints, as into death, yes, as into hell itself. How gloomy and dark it is there, with all kinds of troubled forebodings about the wrath of God! So, too, when they speak of fear and hope, they use such words that no painter could so depict for your fear or hope, and no Cicero or other orator so portray them. 

Athanasius (Letter to Marcellinius)
…these words become like a mirror to the person singing them, so that he might perceive himself and the emotions of his soul, and thus affected, he might recite them. 

Thomas Merton:
…the Psalms bring our hearts and minds into the presence of the living God.” (Bread in the Wilderness, 13)

The Church indeed likes what is old, not because it is old but rather because it is ‘young.’ In the Psalms, we drink divine praise at its pure and stainless source, in all its primitive sincerity and perfection…for the Psalms are the songs of men who knew who God was…. For God has willed to make Himself known to us in the mystery of the Psalms. (Praying the Psalms, 7-8)

John Calvin:
I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, 'An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;' for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which [our] minds are wont to be agitated. (Commentary on the Psalms) 

John Wesley
 "We have now before us one of the choicest parts of the Old Testament, wherein there is so much of Christ and his gospel, as well as of God and his law, that it has been called the summary of both Testaments. The history of Israel, which we were long upon, instructed us in the knowledge of God. The book of Job gave us profitable disputations, concerning God and his providence. But this book brings us into the sanctuary, draws us off from converse with men, with the philosophers or disputers of this world, and directs us into communion with God. It is called, the Psalms, in Hebrew Tehillim, which properly signifies Psalms of praise, because many of them are such; but Psalms is a more general word, meaning all poetical compositions, fitted to be sung. St. Peter styles it, The book of Psalms. It is a collection of Psalms, of all the Psalms that were divinely inspired, composed at several times, on several occasions, and here put together, without any dependence on each other. Thus they were preserved from being scattered and lost, and kept in readiness for the service of the church. One of these is expressly said to be the prayer of Moses. That some of them were penned by Asaph is intimated in 2 Chronicles 29.30, where they are said to praise the Lord, in the words of David and Asaph, who is there called a seer or prophet. And some of the Psalms seem to have been penned long after, at the time of the captivity in Babylon. But the far greater part were wrote by David, who was raised up for establishing the ordinance of singing Psalms in the church of God, as Moses and Aaron were for setting the ordinance of sacrifice. Theirs indeed is superseded, but this [book of Psalms] will remain, 'till it be swallowed up in the songs of eternity. There is little in the book of Psalms of the ceremonial law. But the moral law is all along magnified, and made honourable. And Christ the foundation, corner, and top - stone of all religion, is here clearly spoken of; both his sufferings, with the glory that should follow, and the kingdom he would set up in the world." (preface to the book of Psalms in Explanatory Notes on the Old Testament)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
When read only occasionally, these prayers are too overwhelming in design and power and tend to turn us back to more palatable fare. But whoever has begun to pray the Psalter seriously and regularly and say: ‘Ah, there is not the juice, the strength, the passion, and fire which I find in the Psalter. Anything else tastes too cold and too hard. (Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, 11)

Walter Brueggemann:
The Psalms not only propose and constitute a world; they intend also to unmake, deconstruct, and unmask other worlds which seduce and endanger…. In fact, they articulate a counter-world, offered as a subversive alternative to the dominant, easily available worlds that are ever present in and tempting for Israel. The dominant, easily available world endlessly seducing Israel is one-generational, devoid of covenanting, morally indifferent, monologically closed, and politically indifferent. These Psalms voice a counter-world that practices exactly what the dominant world resists and denies. In its liturgic recital over a long period of time, Israel regularly enacted and embraced this counter-world as its true home. (Abiding Astonishment: Psalms, Modernity, and the Making of History (Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation); 26 and 28)