A Review of Robert J. Morgan’s “Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation”
Calm, but Not Collected
So I might as well as come out and say it: I occasionally meditate. Every so often, on a Monday evening if I’m free, I’ll head to my church and take part in what is called Christian Meditation. Its proponent was a guy named John Main (who died in 1982 in Montreal), and it’s based around a prayer-phase. In a group of people, for 25 minutes, I close my eyes and say the word “Maranatha” to myself over and over again. If my mind starts to drift, I’m to come back to that word. Mar-an-ath-a. This practice cleanses my soul, and, on one occasion, made me feel giddy and lightheaded.
Naturally, I would be all over a book titled Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation. Just one problem. The author, Robert J. Morgan, feels that the type of meditation I’m doing is New Age-y and not real meditation at all! Right up front, in the first words of his introduction, Morgan states, “God, not the gurus, devised it (meditation), and it’s based on the Bible, not on Buddha.” What a way to alienate part of your core following, eh? Does Morgan not know about Christian meditation and its use of a prayer-phrase? What’s more, doesn’t Morgan have any respect for people practicing other religions (of which Buddhism could be said to be)? I guess not.
And there’s my largest problem with this book. It’s hideously offensive. This is not what a true Christian should be saying. A true Christian is one who is inclusive and tolerant of other faith traditions. Slamming one religion to prop up yours is wrong. Just wrong. If I believed wholly in the concept, I’d go as far as saying that this is sinful. But you get the gist.
So you can probably assume that my opinion of this book is not very high. You’d be right. It does, however, serve a purpose. It offers handy how-tos and inspirational stories about going to the Bible and studying it a bit more carefully. Now, I’m not a big fan of using the Bible for meditation, as there’s a lot of icky stuff in the Bible, and it isn’t some divine source of inspiration. (At one point in the book, which is slim, Morgan claims that God Himself invented all 66 books of the Bible. Does this guy know anything about canonization?) That said, there’s truth and wisdom about going to the Bible and extracting stuff from it. And getting people to really think and reflect on what’s in the Bible is always a good thing.
There are good suggestions here, too. Morgan says that if you’re pressed for time, why not try meditating in the shower? Not a bad idea. He also suggests doing it in the car or at other times when some free time may present itself. Heck, this book can’t be all that horrible when Morgan even throws in a reference to the fact that even Stephen King does his share of meditation. (This is based on something in King’s book On Writing.) Now, I’m not sure why Stephen King gets mentioned at all here when Morgan hastily adds that he’s not a fan of his novels. Whatever. (How do you know that King meditates, if you haven’t read at least one of his books?)
I realize by this point I’m poking holes in a lot of this book’s teachings, which is not really intentional. I’m sure someone, somewhere, will glean something they never had before when cracking open this title. I suppose the book really speaks to a certain brand of evangelical Christian. But, man. Saying some of the stuff that Morgan gets away with in Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation makes you wonder if he had an editor. I mean, he comes across as a cranky old man — and I know he’s an old man because he talks about playing “Zip a Dee Doo Dah” on his record player as a child, which, if done today, would brand him as being a racist — who is really crabby about how life has gone, and he’s now yelling at the kids to stay the heck off his grass. I want to be charitable and fair, but, after reading this book, I can assure you that I don’t think I want to be in the same room as this guy. Not a good feeling to have when you’re trying to sell something.
Which reminds me. There’s something else that’s really annoying about this book. At the end of each chapter, there’s a note to check out his website for more information on the subject. At. The. End. Of. Each. Chapter. Yes, that’s right. It’s like the dude is screaming out, “Look at me, I’m hip! I’ve figured out this thing called the Interwebs!” Sigh. I wouldn’t have minded it if showed up once, but I really felt that Morgan was trying to sell something to me throughout the book. Less of that would have gone a long way to engender more trust.
In the end, Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation is doing the exact same thing those non-Christian New Age-y types sometimes do: try to get you to buy more stuff. There’s no difference between what Morgan is selling and what those gurus are selling overseas. And that’s the crux of my disappointment with this volume. It really feels like an extended sales pitch, nothing more or less. If that’s the case, and I believe it is, then I think I’ll stick with my mantras and repetition. It feels a whole lot holier than reading a book that puts me in a frame of mind to put other people down for what they believe in, and this book does that in spades. So, sorry, friends. I cannot recommend Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation because it simply just doesn’t ring true. Not a note. That’s really unfortunate because the message is such an important one: that we should all pay attention to the Bible a little more often. But it’s hard to take that in light of all of this tome’s flaws. Sigh.
Robert J. Morgan’s Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation: Find True Peace in Jesus was published by Thomas Nelson on April 4, 2017.
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