A Sketch Of Christian Spirituality: From The Patristic Period To The Evangelical Era

By Brian G. Najapfour

• Christian Spirituality: An Introduction, by Alister E. McGrath (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999); 204 pp.
• The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God, by Robert Louis Wilken (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003); 368 pp.
• The Law of Love: English Spirituality in the Age of Wyclif, ed. and trans., David Lyle Jeffrey (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988); 404 pp.
• Puritan Reformed Spirituality, by Joel R. Beeke (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2004); 475 pp.
• What a Friend We Have in Jesus: The Evangelical Tradition, by Ian Randall (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2005); 230 pp.

In the course of the history of the church, from the patristic period to the present, various patterns of Christian spirituality developed mainly along four lines: patristic, medieval, Puritan Reformed, and Evangelical. Each of the books above, with the exception of McGrath’s Christian Spirituality: An Introduction, represents a certain type of spirituality. Before I survey these various forms of spirituality, it is important to define the word “spirituality,” especially as this term is understood in diverse ways. For this task, McGrath is very helpful—a reason why his text has been included in this review article.

Definition Of Spirituality

In the introductory chapter of his book, McGrath, head of the Center for Theology, Religion, and Culture at King’s College, London, has done a remarkable job in defining and clarifying the complex term “spirituality.” He first explains the term by stating that “spirituality is the outworking in the real life of a person’s religious faith—what a person does with what they believe.” [1] He then elucidates the more particular term “Christian spirituality,” writing that “Christian spirituality concerns the quest for a fulfilled and authentic Christian existence, involving the bringing together of the fundamental ideas of Christianity and the whole experience of living on the basis of and within the scope of the Christian faith.” [2]

While some writers use the terms “mysticism” and “spirituality” interchangeably, McGrath prefers to utilize the latter because the former “has so many unhelpful associations and misleading overtones that its continued use is problematic.” [3] Some Protestant writers, on the one hand, tend “to use terms such as ‘piety’ or ‘godliness’ to refer to what is now generally designated as ‘spirituality.’” [4] In this present essay, I will employ synonymously the terms “spirituality,” “piety,” and “godliness.”

As the title of his book indicates, McGrath deals with the types of spirituality that “ultimately flow from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” [5] Any form of spirituality not rooted in Christ is therefore excluded in this book. However, since McGrath’s approach is neutral and inclusive, he presents certain kinds of spirituality that are not necessarily biblical, such as that of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. This serves the purpose of his book as an introduction to Christian spirituality; the book does not claim to be an introduction to biblical spirituality. [6]

Chapter 2 discusses how the spirituality of a Christian can be affected by his personal character, geographical location, historical background, theological persuasion, and religious or denominational identity. For example, if one’s religion is Roman Catholic, his spirituality will be distinctly sacramental as the Roman Catholic Church places considerable emphasis on the sacraments. [7] This truth is evident in the definition of spirituality by a prominent Roman Catholic author, William Reiser. For Reiser, spirituality “refers to the unfolding, day by day, of that fundamental decision to become or remain a Christian which we make at baptism, repeat at confirmation, and renew each time we receive the eucharist.” [8]

Spirituality could be distinguished from theology in that the former focuses on the experiential or practical aspects of faith, the latter on the theoretical aspects of faith. Yet, in chapter 3, McGrath shows how these two are closely related: theology gives substance to spirituality; and spirituality gives life to theology. What a person believes (theology) affects the way he lives (spirituality). In chapter four, McGrath explores seven facets of Christian theology that he thinks have a great effect on spirituality. They are: creation, human nature and destiny, the Trinity, incarnation, redemption, resurrection, and consummation.

McGrath’s book is a helpful introduction to Christian spirituality. It is well organized and easy to read. While especially designed for undergraduate students, advanced readers will also find it helpful. It is filled with quotes and references from patristic to modern Christian writers, revealing the author’s familiarity of the subject. The book’s admirable aim is to be fair in presenting various types of Christian spirituality.

Nevertheless, the author’s desire to produce a neutral and inclusive introduction to Christian spirituality inevitably entails a problem. For instance, he is forced to use the biblical term “Christian” to apply to people who do not truly believe in the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. Moreover, by trying to be impartial and ecumenical in his approach, he does not refute some unorthodox forms of spirituality (e.g., asceticism and monasticism) or emphasize some key elements of biblical spirituality (e.g., the Bible, the cross, personal conversion, and evangelism).

Different Forms Of Spirituality

A discourse of Christian spirituality could be organized denominationally into four categories: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Evangelical spiritualities. However, this essay will take a historical approach and categorize them by patristic, medieval, Protestant, and Evangelical spiritualities.

Patristic Spirituality

William Harmless, a member of the Society of Jesus and Professor of Historical Theology and Patristic Studies at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, has noted: “The Church Fathers rarely discuss ‘spirituality’ separate from biblical interpretation or doctrinal debate or liturgical mystagogy. For them, Christian theology was all of a piece.” [9]

The Roman Catholic historian Robert Louis Wilken, an early Christianity expert, supports this statement. In his book The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, Wilken contends that the essence of early Christian thinking was “Seeking the Face of God,” derived from Psalm 105:4, which is the subtitle of his book. Wilken observes that the intellectual work of the church fathers “was at the service of a much loftier goal than giving conceptual form to Christian belief. Its mission was to win the hearts and minds of men and women and to change their lives.” [10] Thus the ultimate end of the pre-medieval thinkers in searching the Bible was not to produce a set of dogma, but to lead people “to holiness of life.” [11] Life and doctrine were integrally connected and the “goal of life came to be understood as likeness to Christ.” [12]

Wilken’s purpose in The Spirit of Early Christian Thought is to trace the spirituality of the church fathers through their apologetical writings. Wilken asserts that “whether the task at hand was the defense of Christian belief to an outsider, the refutation of the views of a heretic, or the exposition of a passage from the Bible, their [the church fathers] intellectual work was always in service of praise and adoration of one God.” [13] For instance, the Christian philosopher and apologist Justin Martyr demonstrates his spirituality in his polemical piece First Apology. Written to the government as a plea for justice on behalf of Christians who were mistreated because of their faith, Justin states that sound “reason directs those who are truly pious and philosophical [i.e., lovers of wisdom] to honour and love only what is true.” [14] Christians were charged with crimes based on traditional and superstitious opinions and senseless rumors. Justin maintains that the truly pious will not love such opinions and gossip, but the truth—and only the truth. For Justin, as well as for other church fathers, piety and truth are intertwined; piety is, in fact, rooted in the truth. In the last part of this treatise, Justin also stresses piety in worship, prayer, baptism, and the Eucharist.

In his book, Wilken refers mostly to four church fathers: Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and Maximus the Confessor, because according to Wilken “in the early church these four stand out as the most rewarding, the most profound, and the most enduring.” [15] Wilken also quotes from the writings of eighth-century Christian authors such as John of Damascus, who is commonly regarded as the last church father.

Some patristic scholars are only concerned with the mind of church fathers, neglecting the heart of their spiritual lives. As Wilken notices, “The study of early Christian thought has been too preoccupied with ideas.” [16] Consequently, the reading of early Christian thinkers becomes boring to many. In contrast to these scholars, Wilken, while dealing with doctrines and debates, engages with the spiritual life of the church fathers. Wilken’s book is scholarly and yet very devotional, doxological, and pastoral; it can be read for both scholarly enrichment and spiritual enjoyment and profit.

Moreover, since Wilken, especially in the last two chapters, gives special attention to patristic spirituality, the book is a useful resource for the study of the spirituality of the church fathers. In Wilken’s mind, one unique feature of patristic spirituality is thinking coupled with living. He singles out Gregory the Great, for whom “union of life and thought, of contemplation and action, gives him an honored place among church fathers.” “For Gregory,” adds Wilken, “as for all the figures who have made an appearance in the pages of this book, thinking about the things of God, like grammar, was not an end in itself; its aim was the love of God and holiness of life. He [Gregory] did not construct a world of ideas for others to admire but one to live in.” [17] Further, Wilken mentions that often the treatises of the fathers “ended with a doxology to God, as in Augustine’s On the Spirit and the Letter: ‘to whom be glory forever. Amen.’” These early thinkers “wished not only to understand and express the dazzling truth they had seen in Christ, [but] by thinking and writing they sought to know God more intimately and love him more ardently.” [18]

Despite the rich gleanings to be found in Wilken’s The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, it should be noted that Wilken is a former Lutheran converted to Roman Catholicism, and therefore his interpretation and presentation of pre-medieval spirituality are shaded by his Catholic worldview. This bias does not mean that Protestant and evangelical readers cannot benefit from this work; rather, Wilken’s piece should be read with careful discernment.

Medieval Spirituality

For the study of medieval spirituality, David Lyle Jeffrey’s The Law of Love: English Spirituality in the Age of Wyclif is a valuable tool. A noted medieval scholar, Jeffrey currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Literature and Humanities at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Jeffrey’s book is an anthology that “contains some of the best spiritual writings from an age of great devotional literature.” This age is that of Wyclif (fourteenth century), which for Jeffrey “is an astonishingly rich period in the history of English spirituality.” [19] Jeffrey also observes that love, or “the ‘law of love,’ is central to the whole of English spirituality in this period.” [20] Hence the book’s title: The Law of Love.

Jeffrey’s thesis partially emerges from his analysis of two notable fourteenth-century medieval figures: Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349), an English spiritual writer, translator, and hermit; and John Wyclif (c. 1324-1384), an English Christian philosopher, theologian, translator, and spiritual reformist. Jeffrey characterizes the spirituality of Rolle and Wyclif as follows: “For Rolle, love fixed upon Christ is the power which transforms all of life…. For Wyclif, the better we understand Scripture, ‘Goddes lawe’ (lex Cristi or lex Dei), the better we will be able to love God, and the more fully we will experience his love in our own hearts.” [21] This concept of love does not only operate vertically, but horizontally as well. The love flowing from God binds medieval Christians together as a community.

Perhaps the best part of the book is its fifty-three page introduction, written for popular readers. In this introduction, Jeffrey sets out “the three major streams of the medieval English spiritual tradition.” [22]

The Mystical Tradition: Richard Rolle And Spiritual Individualism

“In the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, monastic life had been the fountainhead of English spirituality,” writes Jeffrey. [23] In the course of time, however, especially by the dawn of the fourteenth century, monks became less spiritual and more secular. The spiritual warmth that was once there in monasteries disappeared. The news of this spiritual decline reached the attention of Rolle, who, unhappy with what was going on in monastic communities, began a solitary life “to adopt a more profound life of devotion than he observed in the religious houses he knew.” [24] This “independent streak in Rolle’s spirituality,” states Jeffrey, “is one of its most important features for his influence on the fourteenth century.” [25] During this period, such an individualistic stress on communion with God was characteristic of the spirituality of the mystics. Rolle himself was a mystic. Nevertheless, it is important to note Rolle’s shift from spiritual collectivism (monastic spirituality) to spiritual individualism (hermitic spirituality).

The Monastic Tradition: Walter Hilton And The Claims Of Community

Exactly opposite to Rolle’s case, Walter Hilton (c. 1340-1396) started his spiritual journey as a hermit and later chose a monastic life with the Augustinian canons at Thurgarton in Nottinghamshire. Through his writings, Hilton helped revive the fervor of the earlier traditional monastic spirituality, a spirituality marked by love and humility. Hilton’s works are popular and practically devotional, dealing with different areas of spiritual life. His most well-known work, The Ladder of Perfection, became a standard devotional book in the fifteenth century. In this ascetical work, “Hilton, as an Augustinian canon, can be viewed both as a voice for the continuity of monastic spirituality and as a reformer of Christian spirituality in general.” [26]

Relatively speaking, Hilton was less mystical in theology compared to other mystics of his day such as Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303-1373), Dame Julian (1342–c. 1420), and Margery Kempe (c. 1373–c. 1440). Also, as already hinted at, unlike Rolle, Hilton exercised a contemplative life among the people in his community. Thus, in emphasis, Hilton’s type of spirituality was different from Rolle’s. The former was characterized by communality (monastic spirituality), while the latter by individuality (hermitic spirituality).

The “Mixed” Tradition: John Wyclif And Reformed Spirituality

Wyclif is best remembered today for his English translation of the Bible. For Wyclif, this sacred Book, which was devalued by the majority of his contemporaries, was not only the source for doctrine but also for practice. Clearly Wyclif’s spirituality was anchored in the Holy Scriptures. During the medieval period, there were two basic attitudes concerning the Bible in relation to spirituality. Some believed that the Bible alone should be the fountainhead for spiritual living. Wyclif held this view, as seen in his De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae (On the Truth of Sacred Scripture). Others taught that the Holy Book is only as authoritative as ecclesiastical traditions, which primarily include papal orders as well as patristic writings. Some moved even further, claiming “that in cases of dispute, ecclesiastical tradition, expressing itself in the voice of papal decree, would have the final authority.” [27] The exaltation of ecclesiastical tradition was prevalent among schoolmen, and their departure from God’s Word explains why their spirituality was stamped broadly by unbiblical mysticism. Later, Wyclif would reform the kind of spirituality that sprung from the unbiblical emphasis on papal authority.

According to Jeffrey, Wyclif “undertook his academic prelature in much [of] the [same] spirit advocated by Walter Hilton, who, in his discussion of the ‘mixed life,’ gives full spiritual value to a consecration of active duties in the workaday world.” [28] And with Wyclif’s “argument that everyone, whether a cleric or a layperson, ought to examine the Bible for himself…, he opened a new focus for the emerging of individualism already so marked in the fourteenth-century English spirituality.” [29] By combining the two medieval spiritual emphases (one of Rolle and the other of Hilton), Wyclif produced a mixed breed of spirituality, one that taught that a Christian should be in the world, and yet not of the world.

The fifty-three page introduction in Jeffrey’s book is helpful in understanding medieval spirituality. Jeffrey also provides a historical background for the extracts found in the volume which represent various aspects of spirituality, from prayer, worship, hymns, and meditation, to preaching, pastoring, gospel, and culture. Jeffrey should be thanked for translating, editing, and introducing these passages, which can be used as primary sources by students of medieval spirituality. When read “slowly and meditatively,” says Jeffrey, these texts “can function in the manner of a medieval ‘book of hours’ or devotional anthology.” [30]

Puritan Reformed Spirituality

Because medieval Catholic spirituality did not stem purely and solely from God’s Word, it often produced unscriptural mysticism. In contrast, Puritan Reformed spirituality is essentially based on the Bible and in dependence on the Holy Spirit. The by-product is biblical piety.

Anyone who studies Puritan Reformed spirituality should not neglect Joel R. Beeke’s work titled Puritan Reformed Spirituality. Beeke, president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a scholar of Reformation and Post-Reformation theology. The book “promotes biblical spirituality through a study of the Reformed and Puritan heritage.” [31] All the chapters in this volume (except for chapter 13) have been previously published in a periodical or book. As a result, and what could be perceived as a disadvantage, each chapter “is an independent unit with the exception of chapters 11 and 12.” [32] Yet, these independent units do not affect the serviceability of the material to understanding Puritan Reformed spirituality, a type of spirituality which the author believes to be biblical.

Puritan Reformed Spirituality deals with different dimensions of spirituality (assurance of faith, evangelism, the Decalogue, meditation, preaching, justification by faith, and others) with a special focus on the writings of the following authors: French Reformer John Calvin; English Puritans William Ames and Anthony Burgess; Scottish divines John Brown of Haddington, Thomas Boston, and Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine; and Dutch Further Reformation divines, Willem Teellinck, Herman Witsius, and Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen. Noticeably, Beeke includes the spirituality of the Dutch Further Reformation, which resembles English Puritanism, especially in terms of the practice of piety.

Of all nineteen chapters of Beeke’s book, chapters 1, 4, 14, and 18 are most helpful for the understanding of Puritan Reformed spirituality. In chapter 1, “Calvin on Piety,” Beeke examines Calvin, whose “reputation as an intellectual…is often seen apart from the vital spiritual and pastoral context in which he wrote his theology.” [33] Beeke dispels this caricature, insisting that, for Calvin, “theological understanding and practical piety, truth and usefulness, are inseparable.” [34] In fact, Calvin’s purpose for writing his great theological work—the Institutes—was “solely to transmit certain rudiments by which those who are touched with any zeal for religion might be shaped to true godliness.” [35]

Ironically, Calvin’s concept of piety also has an element of mysticism—mystical union with Christ—which is cardinal to his system of theology. “For Calvin, piety is rooted in the believer’s mystical union (unio mystica) with Christ; thus this union must be our starting point.” [36] But such piety is different from medieval spirituality for the simple reason that Calvin’s piety is solidly grounded in the proper knowledge of God. Calvin believes that right doctrine of God prompts holy practice, and that the practice of holiness becomes only superficial when it does not emanate from the right knowledge of God. To further distinguish Calvin’s piety from medieval spirituality, Beeke gives the following explanation:

For Calvin, the Reformation includes the reform of piety (pietas), or spirituality, as much as a reform of theology. The spirituality that had been cloistered behind monastery walls for centuries had been broken down; medieval spirituality was reduced to a celibate, ascetic, and penitential devotion in the convent or monastery. But Calvin helped Christians understand piety in terms of living and acting every day according to God’s will (Rom. 12:1-2) in the midst of human society. Through Calvin’s influence, Protestant spirituality focused on how one lived the Christian life in the family, the fields, the workshop, and the marketplace. Calvin helped Protestants change the entire focus of the Christian life. [37]

In chapter 4, “The Puritan Practice of Meditation,” Beeke discusses one critical aspect of spirituality: meditation. For the Puritans, meditation is a spiritual exercise of both mind and heart. In the words of Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1689) meditation is “a holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and do seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves.” [38] Puritan meditation centers on the written truth (Scripture) as well as the living Truth (Christ). As such, Beeke says, “the Puritans distanced themselves from the kind of bogus spirituality or mysticism that stresses contemplation at the expense of action, and flights of the imagination at the expense of biblical content.” [39]

In chapter 14, “Willem Teellinck and The Path of True Godliness,” Beeke addresses one of the foremost representatives of the Dutch Further Reformation. Teellinck (1579-1629) is often considered the father of the Dutch Further Reformation and was profoundly influenced by the Puritans, particularly by their practice of piety. This Puritan influence is seen in his sermons and writings in which his concern is always to promote holy living. In Teellinck’s The Path of True Godliness, his magnum opus on sanctification, he castigates those who claim to have faith in God and yet do not show godliness in their lives. For Teellinck, “the true Christian faith is knowledge that leads to godliness.” [40] Commenting on the impact of Teellinck, Beeke states: “Teellinck’s positive emphasis in promoting biblical, Reformed spirituality serves as a corrective to much false spirituality…[and] to orthodox teaching that presents truth to the mind but does not apply it to the heart and daily life.” [41]

At the latter part of his life, however, Teellinck became somewhat mystical, emphasizing feelings more than faith. This mystical tendency can be detected from Teellinck’s The New Jerusalem, published posthumously. The Dutch Calvinist theologian Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1676) commented that, in this volume, Teellinck “could rightly be regarded as a second Thomas à Kempis.” [42] Beeke agrees with Voetius’s comment, but adds that, unlike Thomas à Kempis, Teellinck was “Reformed in his theology.” [43]

In Chapter 18, “Cultivating Holiness,” the book reaches its climax. This chapter is packed with quotes from the Reformers and the Puritans and their like-minded successors. Here Beeke demonstrates to his readers what Puritan Reformed spirituality really is. The chapter ends with a pastoral plea to pray for piety with Robert Murray M‘Cheyne (1813-1843): “Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.” [44]

Evangelical Spirituality

Ian Randall—currently Director of the Institute of Baptist and Anabaptist Studies of International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic—has written a book titled What a Friend We Have in Jesus: The Evangelical Tradition, a succinct study on evangelical spirituality. Randall’s book is part of the Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series, which seeks to publish first-rate volumes that introduce some of the main traditions of Christian spirituality. In this discourse, focusing mainly on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Randall explores the origins of evangelical spirituality and its key themes.

Randall asserts: “Although evangelicalism emerged in [the Evangelical Revival of] the eighteenth century [in Great Britain], it had strong links with the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and the English Puritan movement of the seventeenth century.” [45] The evangelicals adopted the basic tenets of the Reformation; like Calvin and the Puritans, they underscored the importance of holy living as the outworking of their faith. This is why evangelical spirituality is more akin to Protestant spirituality than to Roman Catholic spirituality.

David Bebbington, in his classic work, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, asserts that evangelicalism is “a new phenomenon of the eighteenth century” that emphasizes four distinctive features: “conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism.” [46] Bebbington’s assertion suggests that evangelical spirituality is characterized by personal conversion, outworking of the gospel, devotion to Scripture, and the cross of Christ. Bebbington’s concept of evangelicalism came to be known later as the Bebbington quadrilateral, a standard term among historians. [47] In What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Randall discusses more elements of evangelical spirituality: conversion, Bible, sacraments, prayer and praise, the Cross, the Holy Spirit and holiness, the fellowship of the believers, missions, and the last times. And for Randall, the “central theme of this strand of spirituality is a personal relationship with Christ.”

Against the backdrop of England between the First and Second World Wars, Randall pinpoints four major strands of evangelical spirituality: “Keswick holiness, the Wesleyan tradition, Reformed approaches and Pentecostal/charismatic spirituality.” [48] Keswick [49] holiness, also known as the Higher Life movement, teaches that Christians can experience “entire sanctification,” or “Christian perfection.” This teaching was also present in the Wesleyan tradition; however, the Keswick tradition was less radical. Reformed evangelical spirituality, while stressing the need for personal holiness, rejects the doctrine of perfectionism. Pentecostal/charismatic spirituality is to some extent a resurrected Quakerism. It gives too much emphasis on the work of the Spirit with less scriptural content; it is based more on emotions than on faith.

Although Randall gives special attention to British evangelicalism in which John Wesley and George Whitefield stand out as the main characters, he includes American evangelicalism. The primary American figure here is Jonathan Edwards, who, according to Randall, is the principal shaper of American evangelical spirituality.

Concluding Observation

The renaissance of interest in the subject of Christian spirituality is noteworthy. Just in the past decade, scores of books on Christian spirituality have been published. In fact, in 2009, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, became the first Protestant seminary to offer a PhD in Biblical Spirituality. This fact shows that a revived concern for spirituality exists even in the world of academics.

Notes

1. Alister E. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 2.
2. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction, 2.
3. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction, 6.
4. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction, 13.
5. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction, 13.
6. For an excellent introduction to biblical spirituality, see Michael A. G. Haykin, The God Who Draws Near: An Introduction to Biblical Spirituality (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2007).
7. The Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony; whereas the Protestants have only two: baptism and Lord’s Supper. For the Roman Catholics, these sacraments are a special means for experiencing God’s saving grace. This Roman Catholic teaching is rejected by the Protestants who believe that the only means of God’s saving grace is faith in Christ alone.
8. Cited in McGrath, Christian Spirituality, 15. The quote is taken from William Reiser, Looking for a God to Pray: Christian Spirituality in Transition (New York: Paulist Press, 1994), 2.
9. William Harmless, available from http://moses.creighton.edu/harmless/bibliographies_for_theology/Mysticism_2.htm; Internet; accessed 12 June 2012.
10. Robert Louis Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), xiv.
11. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, xxii.
12. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, xxii.
13. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, 25.
14. Justin Martyr, “First Apology,” in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, eds. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprint, 1989), 163.
15. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, xix.
16. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, xiv.
17. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, 313.
18. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, 25-26.
19. David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. and trans., The Law of Love: English Spirituality in the Age of Wyclif (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), ix.
20. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 2.
21. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 2.
22. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 13.
23. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 13.
24. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 14.
25. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 16.
26. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 25.
27. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 32.
28. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 33.
29. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, 37-38.
30. Jeffrey, The Law of Love, ix.
31. Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2004), viii.
32. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, ix.
33. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 1.
34. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 1.
35. Cited in Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 1-2. The quote is taken from John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill and trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 1:9.
36. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 4.
37. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 26-27.
38. Cited in Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 74. The quote is taken from Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm (Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria, 2000), 23.
39. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 74.
40. Willem Teellinck, The Path of True Godliness, ed. Joel R. Beeke, trans. Annemie Godbehere (repr. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 31.
41. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 329.
42. Cited in Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 315.
43. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 315.
44. Cited in Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality, 421.
45. Ian Randall, What a Friend We Have in Jesus: The Evangelical Tradition (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2005), 16.
46. David W. Bebbington, Evangelicals in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (1989; repr., London: Routledge, 1993), 2, 4.
47. Bebbington’s thesis is challenged in a collection of essays edited by Michael A. G. Haykin and Kenneth J. Stewart, The Advent of Evangelicalism: Exploring Historical Continuities (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2008).
48. Randall, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, 20.
49. Keswick is a name of a market town in Cumbria, England, where the movement was well known.