Obviously, the disciplines of solitude and of silence are interconnected. This is how he connects the two:
"Silence is the way to make solitude a reality... Silence is an indispensable discipline in the spiritual life. Ever since James described the tongue as a 'whole wicked world in itself' (James
3:6) Christians have tried to practice silence as the way of self-control. Clearly silence is a discipline needed in many different
situations: in teaching and learning, in preaching and worship, in visiting and counseling. Silence is a very concrete, practical, and useful discipline in all our ministerial tasks. It can be seen as a portable cell taken with us from the solitary place into the midst of our ministry. Silence is solitude practiced in action" (Way of the Heart, 35-36).
Essentially, he is saying that (at least in part) the discipline of silence is our way of practicing solitude without having to literally leave the world behind us. We see Jesus putting this sort of thing into practice quite frequently: Matt 14:23, Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16, 6:12...
Nouwen insists that in our "wordy" culture these times of silence are more and more important:
"Wherever we go we are surrounded by words: words softly whispered, loudly proclaimed, or angrily screamed; words spoken, recited, or sung; words on records, in books, on walls, or in the sky; words in many sounds, many colours, or many forms; words to be heard, read, seen, or glanced at; words which flicker off and on, move slowly, dance, jump, or wiggle. Words, words, words! ... The result of this is that the main function of the word, which is communication, is no longer realized. The word no longer communicates, no longer fosters communion, no longer creates community, and therefore no longer gives life. The word no longer offers trustworthy ground on which people can meet each other and build society" (38-39).
I think he is right about this, particularly when encountering post-modern philosophy where language is viewed as a power tool; a tool to manipulate others toward a personal/corporate agenda.
But, as always, there are similar pitfalls for those of us within the church as well:
"Often it seems that we who study or teach theology find ourselves entangled in such a complex network of discussions, debates, and arguments about God and 'God-issues' that a simple conversation with God or a simple presence to God has become practically impossible. Our heightened verbal ability, which enables us to make many distinctions, has sometimes become a poor substitute for a single-minded commitment to the WORD who is life" (39).
Whether this applies to each one of us is a matter of individual introspection... But, as he always does, Nouwen does not allow this spiritual discipline to foster individualism. Instead, it is a way for God to refuel us to accomplish His ministry:
"Silence is primarily a quality of the heart that leads to ever-growing charity... Charity, not silence, is the purpose of the spiritual life and of ministry" (57).
So, what do you make of all this?
What other scriptures can you think of that address words, language, and silence?
8 comments:
I would be very concerned to reflect too much (actually, at all) on the writings and perspective of a clinically depressed, homosexual catholic priest. It would be impossible to suppose that the author, Henri Nouwen, was in any way committed to the WORD, and infact was living a life in stark rebellion to it. Therefore he is not in any way a reliable source of insight on spiritual discipline.
Feel free to comment on the content of his writings. Having read 4 of his books I would disagree with your comment. Have you read anything of his?
Whether or not someone struggles with depression is not criteria for whether they are a Christian or not and whether they have love and commitment for Christ.
Whether or not someone struggles with sinful sexual thoughts is not criteria for whether they are a Christian or not (it is well known that Nouwen supposedly struggled with homosexual thoughts... with zero evidence that he ever acted on them... hence the difference between temptation and sin).
As for his being Catholic, obviously there will be some theological discrepancies. If you see any of those discrepancies here feel free to comment on those discrepancies rather than leaning toward "character assassination."
Tim, your statement at the bottom of your post asks "So what do you make of all of this". I see no need for you to direct my thoughts or my strategy for response. What I "make of it" is that based on my opinion of, and research on the author and his writings, he not a credible source for insight. If you are worried about me making myself look like a jerk, don't worry...I am cool with it. But thanks...
Fair enough.
Then, just for clarity's sake, what I'm asking for when I ask "what do you make of all this?" is what do you make of the topic at hand: the spiritual discipline of silence.
Please interact with the content/theolgy of the post. I understand that (and even why) you don't think Nouwen is "credible" but, you didn't actually interact with any of his thoughts. The fact that a person isn't perfect doesn't mean they have nothing of value to contribute to Christendom. Many of our Biblical heroes committed horrendous sins during their lifetimes.
All three of your criteria as to why he isn't "credible" are either irrelevant or inaccurate (depressed = irrelevant; homosexual = no evidence that he ever broke his celibacy and thus inaccurate; Catholic = I would say irrelevant because none of the quotes above reflect any particular Catholic theology). So, either don't do your research on google, read some of his books, or don't comment in ways that verge on slander.
I know that this comes across pretty strong, however I am weary of consistently negative, argumentative, and sometimes just random comments. This is a place for respectful discussion. If you can't do that, don't comment.
Tim, I am not here to argue with you. If I agreed with the author's perspective, I would happily say so and comment in what you would (hopefully) view as an acceptably positive level. But this is still public domain, and I am as free to respond as I wish as freely as I could respond to an add on kijiji. I am certainly not ashamed to do my research through google! In fact I was able to read the author's biography on google. As for slander, I suggest you pull up you online dictionary, so you will clearly see my comments do not fit the definition of slander at all. lol! Lets not get so defensive here....this is just a discussion forum....it's not personal. :-)
Don't worry, I'm not taking it personally. I just happen to find the majority of your comments counterproductive. They don't tend to foster open discussion, but rather seem to be intentionally inflammatory and sometimes judgmental. Whether that is intentional or not I have no idea, but THIS IS MY BLOG and these sorts of comments are not welcome.
That being said, at the very least we have provided an ironic and oddly appropriate counterpoint to the content of the post! :)
SOOO...
Any thoughts on the Spiritual Discipline of Silence?
You haven't been able yet to convince me that silence is in fact a spiritual discipline. All the scripture references above, as I read them, refer to prayer. Whick I would say, is infact a spiritual discipline, as we are commanded to pray without ceasing. I don't think it's a matter of being silent at all that James is referring to (James 3:6), but rather choosing the right things to say. Making sure that the things you are saying are in agreement with scripture, to be precise. What many christians tend to do is to boil things down to the elementary, and truly immature notion of "well if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"...which in my opinion, is also counterproductive, and also does not foster open discussion.
I think you're right in that the Bible doesn't explicitly say "You shall practice the discipline of silence." However, neither does the Bible use the terminology of "Spiritual Disciplines" even though we know that disciplines such as prayer, fasting, meditation, etc were commonly used all throughout the scriptures.
As far as silence goes, I found 90 usages of "silent/silence" in the ESV. Obviously not all of these refer to what could be called the "discipline of silence" but there's a lot of interesting stuff:
Zechariah 2:13 (ESV)
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
Exodus 14:14 (ESV)
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."
Psalms 62:5 (ESV)
5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.
It wouldn't be too hard to look through these 90 usages (not to mention other relevant passages like "Be still and know that I AM God" etc) and draw out a theology of what it means to stand in silence before God.
As far as Nouwen goes, as you read in my first post on Solitude, Nouwen asserts that in order to be effective ministers it we need to practice 3 interconnected disciplines: Solitude, Silence, Prayer.
This is based off of the texts in the Gospels like the ones I cited above. Here's a perfect example:
Matthew 14:23 (ESV)
23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain [SOLITUDE] by himself [SILENCE] to pray [PRAYER]. When evening came, he was there alone...
As you can see, Nouwen's approach is based on something that Jesus regularly practiced.
Another great example of this is in 1Kings19 where Elijah flees to Mt. Horeb (SOLITUDE) converses with God (PRAYER) and gets his answer from God, not in the wind, earthquake, or fire... but in the stillness (SILENCE).
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