Explanation separates us from astonishment. — Eugène Ionesco (1909 – 1994)
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The world fears a new experience more than it fears anything. Because a new experience displaces so many old experiences. — D.H. Lawrence (1885 – 1930)
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The importance of experience
The two wheels of Scripture and Tradition can be seen as sources of outer authority, while our personal experience leads to our inner authority. I am convinced we need and can have both. Only when inner and outer authority come together do we have true spiritual wisdom. Christianity in most of its history has largely relied upon outer authority. But we must now be honest about the value of inner experience, which of course was at work all the time but was not given credence.
Information from outer authority is not necessarily transformation, and we need genuinely transformed people today, not just people with answers. I do not want my words to separate anyone from their own astonishment or to provide them with a substitute for their own inner experience. Theology (and authority figures) have done that for too many. Rather, I hope my words—written or spoken—simply invite readers on their own inner journey rather than become a replacement for it.
I am increasingly convinced that the word “prayer,” which has become a functional and pious thing for believers to do, was meant to be a descriptor and an invitation to inner experience. When spiritual teachers invite us . . . READ MORE . . .