Recovering the Religion of the Heart

by

Practicing Faith

We must go backward in faith in order to go forward with faith. That is, we must discover what faith meant before Western Christianity turned it into mental assent to doctrines, i.e. "right belief" in a community's statement of faith--something we hardly question today, given that we live in post-Enlightenment Christianity, where the mind has eclipsed the heart as the mediator of revelation and the seat of faith.

John Wesley made this journey backward, finding what was called "primitive Christianity" (c. 100-500 a.d.)--"religion of the heart," which he made the core of his interpretation of the Gospel and proclamation of it, as evidenced by his addition of Experience to the existing tri-lateral of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. He did it without separating knowledge and vital piety into yet another artificial dualism, but rather uniting them in ways that created what we call "conjunctive theology"--both/and, not either/or--something akin to the Franciscan notion of unitive consciousness, expressed in the Bible by Paul as, "Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:11) and his grand hymn in Colossians 1:15-20.

By regaining this religion of the heart--essentially a theology of love rooted in the two great commandments--Wesley could affirm the classical Creeds without deteriorating them into dogmatism or taking their grand sweep and proliferating them into endless sub-points (including some things not even mentioned in the Creeds) which too often created a "who's right and who's wrong" theological tug of war rather than Christian community.

In his meditation today, Richard Rohr describes this religion of the heart in a way that is applicable to us here and now...

"God refuses to be known intellectually. God can only be loved and known in the act of love; God can only be experienced in communion. This is why Jesus “commands” us to move toward love and fully abide there. Love is like a living organism, an active force-field upon which we can rely, from which we can draw, and which we can allow to pass through us. I am afraid you can believe doctrines (e.g., virgin birth, biblical inerrancy, Real Presence in bread and wine, etc.) to be true and not enjoy such a radical confidence in love or God at all."

We find ourselves at another period in time when the future of Christianity will hinge on our ability to go backward in order to go forward--eschewing "dead orthodoxy" and recovering "living faith"-- regaining the religion of the heart and making it the point of reference for our life in Christ, individually and collectively.

The Rev. Steve Harper is a retired seminary professor, spiritual director, retreat leader and author of several books on Wesleyan spirituality. This post is republished with permission from his Facebook page.