The following is from the Lighthouse Trails Research Project News Update
Jan 12, 2007
On January 9th, Focus on the Family's Adventures in Odyssey (their program for children) presented an episode called "Solitary Refinement." Much like the recent Fox Home Video production, Be Still, "Solitary Refinement" is an infomercial for Contemplative Spirituality. Talking about going to monasteries to practice the disciplines of silence and solitude, getting rid of distractions and turning off thoughts in order to hear God, the program makes references throughout that encourage children to practice the "spiritual disciplines," with a particular emphasis on the discipline of solitude.
Anyone who has been researching and studying the contemplative prayer movement will understand the message in this presentation. Even the setting of a monestrary is significant. If Christians would go to an actual monestary today they would certainly get Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen and in some cases even Reiki.
The original air date of this Adventures in Odyssey episode was 1996. This means that 11 years ago, long before contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation) had become mainstream in Christendom, as it has today, Focus on the Family was already heading in this direction. Now over a decade later, they are reintroducing the episode to a new generation of children. Interestingly though, it first aired several years after Rick Warren said that the Spiritual Formation movement was a vital and needed wake up call to the body of Christ (see Purpose Driven Church).
Click Lighthouse Trails Research Project News Update to read entire article.
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