“The badly converted Huguenots are attached to their religion to the most horrible excesses of stubbornness; but as soon as the rigor of punishments appears, all their strength leaves them. … these are cowardly against force…” — François Fénelon, March 8, 1686
Last week we discussed the Evangelical and Reformed penchant for invoking Roman, Jesuitical, counter-reformational mystics as a way of instructing the flock, and we registered our objections to such under the title of Peddling Fénelon. Protestant infatuation with François Fénelon is just one example of this tendency, and it is quite common for Fénelon to be cited by Protestants as a giant of the faith, a great Christian philosopher and an even greater evangelist—the very model of restraint and deference. By way of example, we notice that this Presbyterian church includes a citation from Fénelon on the footer of its downloads page, and this Presbyterian church features a quote from Fénelon on its “my favorite quotes” page. Continue reading L’Intolérance de Fénelon→
Fénelon’s mission to the Huguenots is now being funded by their grandchildren.
There is a burgeoning movement within Protestant and Evangelical circles that emphasizes the ancient and mystical above the Word of God and seeks, by any means necessary, to cast off the “youthful naïveté” of the Protestant Reformation and bring the church to a superstitious, anti-intellectual “maturity.” Just to give examples from the last ten years or so, a 2008 article in Christianity Today wondered how the church might move beyond the cumbersome restrictions of a boring, propositional gospel. “Easy!,” comes the answer—”Just embrace the mysticism of the early Church!”: Continue reading Peddling Fénelon→
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