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“Len Sweet was born of a mixed marriage: his mother
was a fiery Pilgrim Holiness-ordained preacher from
the mountains of West Virginia and his quiet father a
Free Methodist lay leader from the Adirondack
mountains of upstate New York. After a deconversion
at 17, when Len set about less sowing wild oats than
planting prairies, he became an atheist intellectual and
scholar dedicated to exposing the nincompoopery and
poppycockery, if not tomfoolery and skullduggery of
all religions. After this seven-year period of liminality,
Len came back to the faith of his ancestors, where he
has been ever since, exploring the ‘insterstices’ and
‘semiotics’ of religion, culture and history.”
(http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Spirituality-Postmodern-LeonardSweet/dp/1882122011 )
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“… Len’s three-ring mission: a historian of
American culture; a futurist/semiotician who
‘sees things the rest of us do not see, and
dreams possibilities that are beyond most of
our imagining;’ and a preacher and writer who
communicates the gospel powerfully to a
postmodem age by bridging the worlds of
academe and popular culture.”
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“In 2006 and 2007, Len was voted by his peers
‘One of the 50 Most Influential Christians in
America’ by Church Report Magazine. Currently the
E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew
University, Madison, NJ and a Visiting
Distinguished Professor at George Fox University,
Portland, Oregon, Len has been Vice President of
Academic Affairs and Dean of the Theological
School at Drew University for five years.”
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“Author of more than two hundred articles,
over twelve hundred published sermons, and
dozens of books, Len is the primary contributor
(along with his wife Karen Elizabeth Rennie) to
the web-based preaching resource, sermons.com.
For nine years he and his wife wrote Homiletics,
which became under their watch the premier
preaching resource in North America. In 2005
Len introduced the first open-source preaching
resource on the Web, wikiletics.com.”
(http://www.leonardsweet.com/about.php )
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“The author’s perennial plight when sitting down to
write a book was first announced in Hebrews 11:8: ‘and
he [Abraham] went out, not knowing whither he went.’
Even though I had no idea where I was headed when
setting out on my quest of the quantum, I did have
some notion of who to take with me. Certain
extraordinary people….”
“But some of those who led [me] into new light are: ...
Matthew Fox, … Richard J. Mouw, … Rowan
Williams.”
“Those who have taught me how to stump around
postmodern environs are psychologists James
Ashbrook, …” (Quantum Spirituality, pp. viii-ix)
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“Those who have taught me how to catch the tail
winds of energies whooshing from new spiritual
jet streams are entrepreneurs and business leaders
… missionary theologians and journalists ….”
Others that Leonard Sweet thanks include: Morton
Kelsey, M. Scott Peck, Walter Brueggemann, Ken
Wilber, Thomas Berry and other New Agers.
(Quantum Spirituality, pp. viii-ix)
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“No one has had a bigger role in my learning to dance
to a new rhythm than conservationist/gardener Marie
Aull. … Marie will not agree with everything in this
book. But her presence can be felt throughout its pages,
most of which were written hiding upstairs in her
‘prophet’s chamber.’ To her I dedicate this book.”
“Finally I trust that the Spirit that led the author of The
Cloud of Unknowing … is present in this book’s dancing,
everywhere and always.” (Quantum Spirituality, p. ix)
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“The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous work of
Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter
half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on
contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The
underlying message of this work proposes that the only way
to truly ‘know’ God is to abandon all preconceived notions
and beliefs or ‘knowledge’ about God and be courageous
enough to surrender your mind and ego to the realm of
‘unknowingness,’ at which point, you begin to glimpse the
true nature of God.”
“In a follow-up to The Cloud, called The Book of Privy
Counseling, the author characterizes the practice of
contemplative unknowing as worshiping God with one's
‘substance,’ coming to rest in a ‘naked blind feeling of
being,’ and ultimately finding thereby that God is one's
being.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing)
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“Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the
Christian tradition, is now situated in
postmodernist culture near the center. ... In the
words of one of the greatest theologians of the
twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of
religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, ‘The Christian of
tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has
experienced something, or he will be nothing.’”
(Quantum Spirituality, p. 11).
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“Energy-fire experiences take us into ourselves
only that we might reach outside of ourselves.
Metanoia is a de-centering experience of
connected-ness and community. It is not an
exercise in reciting what Jesus has done for me
lately. Energy-fire ecstasy, more a buzz than a
binge, takes us out of ourselves, literally. That is
the meaning of the word ‘ecstatic.’” (Quantum
Spirituality, p. 94)
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“New Light embodiment means to be ‘in connection’
and ‘information’ with all of creation. New Light
communities extend the sense of connectionalism to
creation and see themselves as members of an
ecological community encompassing the whole of
creation. … Theologian/feminist critic Sallie McFague
has argued persuasively for seeing Earth, in a very real
sense, as much as a part of the body of Christ as
humans. …65”
“The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart
from human benefit. But we constitute together a
cosmic body of Christ. 66” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 124)
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“Quantum spirituality bonds us to all creation as well as to
other members of the human family. New Light pastors are
what Arthur Peacocke calls ‘priests of creation’70--earth
ministers who can relate the realm of nature to God, who
can help nurture a brother-sister relationship with the living
organism called Planet Earth. This entails a radical doctrine
of embodiment of God in the very substance of creation.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (1974) identifies
the difference between pantheism and panentheism:
[defined in notes]… New Light spirituality does more than
settle for the created order, as many forms of New Age
pantheism do. But a spirituality that is not in some way
entheistic (whether pan- or trans-), that does not extend to
the spirit-matter of the cosmos, is not Christian.” (Quantum
Spirituality, p. 125)
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“New Light embodiment means to be ‘in connection’ and
‘information’ with other faiths. To be in-formation means to
know each other’s songs almost as well as one knows them
oneself, and to enlarge the community to include those
whose conceptions of God differ from ours in form. To be in
connection means to be able to sing, not only selected
stanzas, but all the verses. …”
“One can be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without
denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of Yahweh, or
Kali, or Krishna. A globalization of evangelism ‘in
connection’ with others, and a globally ‘in-formed’ gospel, is
capable of talking across the fence with Hindu, Buddhist,
Sikh, Muslim--people from other so called ‘new’ religious
traditions (‘new’ only to us)--without assumption of
superiority and power.” (Quantum Spirituality, pp. 130-131)
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“A surprisingly central feature of all the
world’s religions is the language of light in
communicating the divine and symbolizing the
union of the human with the divine:
Muhammed’s light-filled cave, Moses’ burning
bush, Paul’s blinding light, Fox’s ‘inner light,’
Krishna’s Lord of Light, Bohme’s light-filled
cobbler shop, Plotinus’ fire experiences, … and
so on” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 235).
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“7. Stand in front of a picture of a family
member who has died. Recall joyful memories
of them and laugh. With the breath you took
for that laugh, your loved one literally became
a part of you. In every breath there are more
than a million atoms breathed personally at
one time or another by every breathing
earthling that has ever lived.”
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“8. Hold your Bible and breathe meditatively.
The breathtaking, nay, breath-giving truth of
aliveness is more than Methuselean in its span:
Part of your body right now was once actually,
literally part of the body of Abraham, Sarah,
Noah, Esther, David, Abigail, Moses, Ruth,
Matthew, Mary, Luke, Martha, John, Priscilla,
Paul... and Jesus.”
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“9. Keep breathing quietly while holding your
Bible. You have within you not just the powers of
goodness resident in the great spiritual leaders like
Moses, Jesus, Muhammed, Lao Tzu. You also have
within you the forces of evil and destruction. …
Resident in each breath you take is the body of
angels like Joan of Arc and devils like Gilles de
Rais, Genghis Khan, Judas Iscariot, Herod, Hitler,
Stalin and all the other destructive spirits
throughout history.” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 300)
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“The new focus is on unity -- a world-wide
oneness reflected in the growing union between
the East and West. Leonard Sweet's book, Quantum
Spirituality, sheds some revealing light of the
envisioned global ‘church’ for the 21st century. In
his view, the offense of the cross has been replaced
with a passion for interfaith peace and possibilitythinking. To illustrate this point, Dr. Sweet points
to Thomas Merton, the popular Catholic author
who popularized mysticism and died in Asia
searching the depths of Tibetan Buddhism.”
(Berit Kjos, The Emerging Global Church) http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/leonardsweet.htm
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“The warnings of the word of God regarding the perils
surrounding the Christian church belong to us today. As in
the days of the apostles men tried by tradition and
philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures, so today, by
the pleasing sentiments of higher criticism, evolution,
spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy of
righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths.
To many the Bible is as a lamp without oil, because they
have turned their minds into channels of speculative belief
that bring misunderstanding and confusion. The work of
higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing,
is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. …”
“The follower of Christ will meet with the ‘enticing words’
against which the apostle warned the Colossian believers.
He will meet with spiritualistic interpretations of the
Scriptures, but he is not to accept them. His voice is to be
heard in clear affirmation of the eternal truths of the
Scriptures.” (Acts of the Apostles, pp. 474-475)
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“Pretenders will arise with theories that have no
foundation in the word of God. We are to hold aloft the
banner bearing the inscription, ‘The commandments of
God, and the faith of Jesus.’ We are to hold the
beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. Let no
one attempt to dilute truth with a mixture of sophistry.
Let no one attempt to tear down the foundation of our
faith, or to spoil the pattern by bringing into the web
threads of human devising. Not one thread of
pantheism is to be drawn into the web. Sensuality,
ruinous to soul and body, is always the result of
drawing these threads into the web.”
(Medical Ministry, p. 97-98)
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“The prince of darkness, who has so long bent the powers
of his master-mind to the work of deception, skillfully
adapts his temptations to men of all classes and conditions.
To persons of culture and refinement he presents
Spiritualism in its more refined and intellectual aspects, and
thus succeeds in drawing many into his snare. The wisdom
which Spiritualism imparts is that described by the apostle
James, which “descendeth not from above, but is earthly,
sensual, devilish.” [James 3:15.] … He appeals to the reason
by the presentation of elevating themes, he delights the
fancy with enrapturing scenes, and he enlists the affections
by his eloquent portrayals of love and charity. He excites the
imagination to lofty flights, leading men to take so great
pride in their own wisdom that in their hearts they despise
the Eternal One.” (Great Controversy, 1888 ed. pp. 553-554)
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“But Spiritualism, which numbers its converts by
hundreds of thousands, yea, by millions, which has
made its way into scientific circles, which has invaded
churches, and has found favor in legislative bodies,
and even in the courts of kings—this mammoth
deception is but a revival, in a new disguise, of the
witchcraft condemned and prohibited of old.”
“If there were no other evidence of the real character of
Spiritualism, it should be enough for the Christian that
the spirits make no difference between righteousness
and sin, between the noblest and purest of the apostles
of Christ and the most corrupt of the servants of
Satan.” (Great Controversy, 1888 ed. pp. 556-557)
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“It is true that Spiritualism is now changing its form, and,
veiling some of its more objectionable features, is assuming
a Christian guise. …”
“Even in its present form, so far from being more worthy of
toleration than formerly, it is really a more dangerous,
because a more subtle deception. While it formerly
denounced Christ and the Bible, it now professes to accept
both. But the Bible is interpreted in a manner that is pleasing
to the unrenewed heart, while its solemn and vital truths are
made of no effect. Love is dwelt upon as the chief attribute
of God, but it is degraded to a weak sentimentalism making
little distinction between good and evil. God's justice, his
denunciations of sin, the requirements of his holy law, are
all kept out of sight. … Christ is as verily denied as before;
but Satan has so blinded the eyes of the people that the
deception is not discerned.” (Great Controversy, 1888 ed. p. 558)
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“Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to
deceive the world. …Little by little he has prepared the
way for his master-piece of deception in the
development of Spiritualism. He has not yet reached
the full accomplishment of his designs [1888]; but it
will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the
prophet: ‘I saw three unclean spirits like frogs; . . . they
are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go
forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole
world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of
God Almighty.’ [Revelation 16:13, 14.] Except those
who are kept by the power of God, through faith in his
Word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of
this delusion.” (Great Controversy, 1888 ed. pp. 561-562)
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“Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul, and
Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his
deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of Spiritualism,
the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants
of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands
across the gulf to grasp the hand of Spiritualism; they will reach
over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under
the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the
steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.”
“As Spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of
the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself
is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in
the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of
Spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and
many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits
will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest respect for the
institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a
manifestation of divine power.” (Great Controversy, 1888 ed. p. 588)
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“The line of distinction between professed Christians
and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable.
Church-members love what the world loves, and are
ready to join with them; and Satan determines to unite
them in one body, and thus strengthen his cause by
sweeping all into the ranks of Spiritualism. Papists,
who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true
church, will be readily deceived by this wonderworking power; and Protestants, having cast away the
shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists,
Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form
of godliness without the power, and they will see in
this union a grand movement for the conversion of the
world, and the ushering in of the long-expected
millennium.”(Great Controversy, 1888 ed. p. 588)
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