Shortly thereafter, the Catholic Church confiscated and burned the writings of Madam Guyon because she proposed "praying the Scriptures" and encouraged the common people to listen to the Lord. Her suggestion could have put the clergy out of business! A century later, and across the English Channel, John Wesley believed spiritual awakening sprung from Bible study, and he strongly urged folk to immerse themselves in the Word.

At the turn of the twentieth century (1906), Pentecostalism erupted from Azusa Street in Los Angeles. This movement framed the deeper Christian life in terms of ecstatic experience and sensitivity to the Spirit of God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred at Flossenburg Concentration Camp at the end of World War II, decried cheap grace and urged his readers to a radical commitment to Christ and the Christian community. We cannot be one with God and only half-hearted about Christ or the body of Christ.

Twenty years later Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, wrote prolifically, calling Christians to contemplative prayer and social engagement. And Henri Nouwen, who died in 1996, became a surrogate spiritual director for countless thousands of believers through his writings. In them, he insisted that intimacy with God emerges from belovedness and brokenness.

If we summarize these saints of the past, we develop quite a catalog of possible pathways. We draw nearer to God through:

• Seriousness, obedience, and humility
• Spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, fasting, study, and more
• Encountering the love of God
• Sharing the sufferings of Christ
• Crossing metaphorical bridges and entering metaphorical castles
• Enduring the purging work of God in our lives
• Praying the Scriptures
• Studying the Scriptures
• Spiritual gifts and revivalism
• Devotion to the body of Christ
• Meditative prayer and social engagement
• Belovedness and brokenness

Assessing the Options

This brief scan of history neglects a host of other great and influential thinkers like St. Augustine, Brother Lawrence, Søren Kierkegaard, Frank Laubach, Martin Luther, Thomas à Kempis, Francis of Assisi, John Chrysostom, and George Fox. But our brief survey shows that sincere believers have ventured down considerably different paths in pursuit of the same goal: closeness to the Father. Their suggestions and experiences range from spiritual disciplines to spiritual encounters. Each one offers earnest, sincere, and authentic insights, and while their reflections merit our prayerful attention, they raise several questions.

First, does their diversity have a common denominator? Second, are these suggestions explicitly Christian? Third, can we collate the tremendous insights of the ages in one place?

The vast array of insights inspire, but also confuse us. Every tidbit of wisdom sounds good and right, but without a fixed point of reference we become rudderless in a sea of generic spirituality. Our hearts resonate with those who have walked close to God, but we lack the experience or wisdom to accurately assess their advice.