Naked Faith Quotes

“Living with naked faith in the naked word of God is neither fideistic sentimentality, nor an uncritical hermeneutic of scripture. It is the unfathomable spiritual depth of Palmer, a young woman who turns the grief over the death of her children into loving service to thousands. Naked faith is the commitment of Christians to say yes to God’s call to mission, even though it means sacrifice: pastoring bi-vocationally so that one can serve among the urban and rural poor, choosing to plant a new congregation in the inner city rather than a booming suburb. It means saying yes to God’s call even though one’s denomination has no systems to contain new monastic communities or to ordain those who are called to unpaid service in such communities. It means creating new paradigms of ministry to reach people the church has turned away. This kind of naked faith is at the heart of the new monasticism.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Paradoxically this life of kenotic prayer becomes a life of healing and integration as one includes in the gifts placed on the altar, one’s brokenness, grief, failures, sins, and mistakes. These too, are made holy by Jesus, to become a source of life and good news for others. As Richard Rohr explains so beautifully, in this life of consecration we come to understand that in the mystery of God’s redemption, everything about our lives “belongs.”9”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“What Palmer apparently wants to make clear is the contingency of emotional experience. She wants those who seek sanctification to know that sanctification is not a guarantee of a particular set of emotional experiences, nor should they base their testimony of God’s sanctifying grace on emotional experiences. She does not want people to think they have lost sanctification because they happen to feel blue one day, or do not feel much of anything. Nor does she want people to mistakenly think that just because they are on a “high” emotionally they must be sanctified.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Palmer has learned over the course of many years of “consolations and desolations” to accept either experience as part of the journey, while allowing neither to determine her level of commitment to God. If anything, the more desolate she feels emotionally, the more firmly she clings to the Word of God. Palmer’s journey included many seasons in the dark, many bouts of emotional desolation and absence of spiritual assurance. For Palmer these seasons were experienced as a kind of testing in the wilderness, not unlike the testing of Jesus in the wilderness, whose sustenance was the naked word of God.39 This kind of spiritual combat, as already described elsewhere, marked Palmer’s spiritual journey throughout her lifetime.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Palmer’s use of the term “shorter way” does not then imply absence of process or journey. Nor does the phrase necessarily imply instantaneousness over process. Rather, the word “shorter” underscores the potential for entering the way of holiness sooner rather than later, and gives a method for entering the way of holiness.4 For Palmer, sanctification is the beginning, not the end of the journey of holiness.5 The sooner one enters the way of holiness the sooner one will be empowered for lifelong service and purity of heart, with which to love God and neighbor.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Palmer describes her will being lost in the will of God, yet there is a distinct, even ennobled sense of self. She has lost neither her personality nor her freedom of choice. Palmer’s experience of God’s goodness and rest is not an end in itself, but becomes the means of spurring her on to share God’s love with others.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Both passivity and darkness are purgative of the soul’s fallen tendency toward self-absorption. The experience aptly named the “dark night of the soul” by St. John of the Cross, is one which usually leads souls into experiences of passivity, for the lesson that is learned in the night is that one’s efforts to be holy on one’s own strength are ultimately doomed. Holy simplicity, the prayer of quiet, the deep rest of cessation from feverish striving: these gifts are imparted by God to souls who meekly surrender to God and receive.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“At least three aspects of apophatic mysticism can be found in Palmer’s autobiographic records. These are: the struggle to accept internal “darkness” and “nothingness” in order to enter the way of holiness or oneness with God; the ongoing experience of “passive” surrender to God leading to progressively advanced spiritual development, and dark nights of the soul as a purgative initiation into deeper levels of union with God. As we shall see, Palmer’s apophatic mysticism was at the core of the pivotal events in her spiritual journey, becoming the fountainhead for her most significant contributions to Wesleyan theology.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Phoebe Palmer’s mysticism—her lived experience of the transforming presence of God—gave birth to her theology which had an incalculable impact on the world. Palmer’s achievements as a preacher, humanitarian, ecumenist, feminist, writer and theologian were all due to her grounding in “the mystical element of religion.” Palmer’s mystical experiences and their powerful impact on her ministry are clearly within the stream of a long tradition of Christian mysticism.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“It cannot be overstated that in Palmer’s experiential, Wesleyan mysticism, despite having had numerous dreams, visions, episodes of spiritual warfare and moments of mystical union, the plain words of the Bible were evidence enough for Palmer’s faith. Though mystical experiences carried much authority in her life, they did so inasmuch as they served to further her love for God and her obedience to God’s word, the Bible. She did not demand or even recommend mystical experiences as being necessary for growth in holiness. A holy Christian is a Bible Christian, declared Palmer again and again.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“While she was generally resistant to emotionalism and sentimental religious flatulence,101 Palmer both experienced and attempted to describe many unitive moments and visions of intense spiritual ecstasy. In doing so she used language that is the native tongue of many Catholic mystics. Images of mystical marriage to Christ, being lost in oceanic love, being filled with the fire of the Spirit, becoming one with the will of God—this is the language of John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Phoebe Palmer.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Christian mysticism is not essentially about private, inner, ecstatic experiences. Rather, Christian mysticism is about the revealing of deep spiritual truth to the worshipping community through the agency of the mystics, those who have been radically and incarnationally transformed by the Holy Spirit.38 Supernatural experiences such as visions and ecstasies are neither incontrovertible proof of mysticism nor the real substance of mysticism. Instead, the Christian mystic is one who has attained a radical degree of holy transformation at the deepest and most originary levels of being.39 The outcome of genuine Christian mysticism is missional action in the world. Mysticism, in other words, always results in greater love of God and neighbor.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“In assigning Palmer to the margins of official Methodist history and denying the mysticism that gave birth to her powerful ministry and theology, Methodist theologians and historians have missed one of the greatest gifts the Methodist tradition has to offer the church universal. To put it another way, dismissing Palmer from the “important” and “real” history and theology of Methodism, is something like dismissing Catherine of Siena or Hildegard von Bingen from the “real” story of Catholicism. It is time for Phoebe Palmer to be restored to her rightful place as one of the great saints and mystics in the history of the church.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“Although at the time of her death Palmer was probably the most influential Methodist woman of her century, the author of eighteen books and numerous articles, and had enjoyed a preaching career equal to that of Charles Finney, within a few decades her name virtually disappeared from Methodist memory. While her teaching continued to spread and be interpreted in new ways, Palmer’s name, life and experience became detached from her mystical theology.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“As will become clear in subsequent chapters, what Palmer is really describing with the limited conceptual framework available to her, is what the contemplative Catholic tradition identifies as a threefold process of negation, purgation, and illumination. The seeming ambiguity of Palmer’s shorter way is in fact a distinctly Wesleyan form of via negativa spirituality.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer

“While Palmer was a powerful revivalist in her own day, in many ways she could be the patron saint for contemporary Methodists who are drawn to the new monasticism, and who long for the renewal of the church. Saint Phoebe is precisely the one who can help Methodists envision new forms of Christian community, mission and witness in a postmodern world.”
― Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer