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A Critical Defense of the

Contemplative Pastor

Matt Marino
IPTS
Dr. Allen
Final Paper
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This will be a critical defense. What that will mean for this essay is that the pastor will not
be seeking aloof or slothful or self-congratulatory refuge in his study. However this is a
neglected member of the body of Christ. As the case is set forth, a key word will be balance,
as we draw mainly from the works of Gregory the Great, Baxter, and Kapic. It seems to me
that the active and contemplative lives were not really meant to form two segregated
Christian ministries in any event. With that caveat, let us begin with some definition.

Defining the Contemplative Pastor

My own definition rejects the idea that the active and contemplative lives are two
separate entities, but will insist that the contemplative is ideally a subsection of the active: i.
e. that reason is not wholly passive.1 That is not to deny any distinction. Some of us are
more given to rigorous and extended contemplation than others. Furthermore, it will be
argued, how much attention those contemplative gifts are given will determine a certain
amount of the maturity of the active life. This is true in the individual so gifted, and it is
true of the whole church community. If we assume that the active life is what we call the
positive movement of the individual Christian (or church) in ministering to peoples real
needs, then let us conclude that:

The contemplative life is that action in which the soul is transformed by the
renewal of our minds for the glory of God and good of others.

Three important points about a life so defined: (1) it is not original (cf. Rom. 12:2); (2) it is
not anti-social; and, as already suggested, (3) it is not passive. We interpret Romans 12:2 in
light of 1 Corinthians 12. The mind exists within a body that is together, and a body that is
in motion. Gregory the Great spoke of the active and contemplative lives not as disjointed
skill sets, but as spheres of the Christian life which must achieve a harmony.

On the most basic level, the mind cannot focus well on one matter when when it is divided
by many concerns.2 Consequently, even if it was denied that a pastor is set aside exclusively
to preach and teach, there would still be a division of labor: i. e. to rightly divide the time in
each pastors schedule. And what is true of the whole body in 1 Corinthians 12 is true of all
pastors. They are all wired dierently by God. On the other hand, these gifts were all given
for the body and not for the private satisfaction of the thinker.3 There is unity and diversity

1 Swain, Trinity, Revelation, & Reading, 98

2 Gregory, 34
3 Gregory, 36
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here. Beyond the whole division of labor, Gregory and others thought of a pastors
contemplation as the care of ones soul (49, 69-73). To neglect it is to grow cold, since it is by
setting his mind on heavenly things that he resists sin.4

Baxter spoke of those in his day who took up the ministry because it was a cushy job (80).
Gregory opened o his classical work on Pastoral Rule with the admission that he himself
would prefer to flee the burdens of pastoral care (27), and John Calvin had famously
attempted the same before Geneva twice pulled him into the ecclesiastical flames. No doubt
this has been a motive for many; and if we are honest, there are moments when the
unruliness of the flock and a few special thorns in the flesh make us wish we were at a
Starbucks on the top of the Swiss Alps accompanied only by the venerable dead.

Defending the Contemplative Pastor

This essay assumes that the contemplative pastor is undervalued within Evangelicalism
today. The above definition answers three objections that are usually made about this
contemplative type.

He is not original. One of the strongest arguments for this contemplative pastor is that
this has been the norm throughout church history. Great pastors have been many things,
but they have rarely been a specimen of intellectual sloth. And besides, It is a fairly modern
notion to separate theology as a science from theology as a practical reflection on life.5

If the theologian is a pilgrim always reforming and if every pastor is a theologian, then
every pastor is always reforming. To deny him more books is to arm his genius complex! It
may be objected that he can bend these to his presuppositions. But that is where regular
peer review and subscription to a confession come into play. We do not solve his inward
bent by shielding him from the world of books, which, if Lewis was right,6 is arguably a
larger world than even the world right outside.

He is not anti-social. Now I have been assuming everything that our assigned authors
have said about theology being designed for community. But perhaps some more needs to be
said about those who struggle fitting into what one might call the extraverted ecclesiology
of our day. The gregarious game show host gatherer has become the very quintessence of

4 Gregory, 52; cf. Col. 3:2

5 Kapic, 42
6 cf. C. S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius, On the Incarnation
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pastoral winsomeness ever since the turn of the millennium. However this seems to have
more to do with our culture than with the demands of Scripture. But surely, someone will
say, the culture must be kept in view. After all, the more contemplative a pastor is, the
fewer people there will be to whom he may relate and minister. But I would like to suggest
that the shoe is on the other foot.

Gregory famously counsels us to dierentiate between many types: physical, economic,

moral, dispositional, experientialand a given person may be several of these things at the
same time, or in dierent seasons. Appreciating this very set of distinctions is the fruit of
contemplation. It is not the sort of insight to be expected of those who shun insight.
Conflict resolution and counseling are fraught with dangers (some being legal). It is true that
navigating the hard cases may take more than contemplation, but it never takes less.

He is not passive. Perhaps the most persistent objection to the contemplative pastor is the
suspicion of disconnect between head and heart (or hands). The problem is understandable.
Our lives often contradict our doctrine, especially considering that the subject matter of our
doctrine is lofty, and our attitudes and actions are shot through with sin. How much worse is
this for one who would shepherd the souls of others? If this were insurmountable, no one
but Jesus could be an overseer. Clearly God has not left things at that.

Appropriate aections are normally stirred in deep reflection. In my experience, the same
can be said for promoting justice. Coming to the aid of those who cannot defend
themselves, both inside and outside the church, is always a matter of deep reflection.
Injustice is only the rule under the triumph of abusive errors; and it is precisely in uniting
the biggest truths that one studies with the greatest community one has been given that any
worthwhile sermon is made, or any courageous stand against wrongdoing.

Correcting the Contemplative Pastor

Here is the critical part of the defense. Even though we speak of the ideal
contemplative, in reality, the pastor is a sinner. And like the tragic hero, his biggest sins will
be cultivated and defended with his greatest gifts. Here is where Baxter was divinely
merciless. First I will aim him at the shepherds speech.

The pastor ought not ascend to the heights in order to draw attention to himself or to
pound anyone who crosses him by his eloquence. We are to speak, Baxter says, as plain as
we can, that we may inform the ignorant.7 There is also a myopic ministry that never gets

7 Baxter, 137
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out of the polemical cage stage of making sure that all enemies, foreign and domestic,
have been properly eliminated. More often than not such an us versus them approach
characterizes the man and the ministry in a false way. However there are times when an
actual Trojan horse commands a pastors attention and legitimately defines a bit of his work.
We might think of entire phases in Augustines writing career divided between Manichean,
Donatist, and Pelagian. As a general rule, it seems that one must refresh and study how to
contemplate truth without contentiousness.

The problem here is not simply harshness, but obscure subject matter. A beating is not the
only harm to the sheep, but also malnourishment. There are untimely truths. What is
exploding our minds at the moment may have little to do with our peoples immediate
capacities and needs.

But there is also an opposite danger. We may attempt to teach to their minds what is not
aecting us down to our own hearts. There is a kind of deception involved in spiritual
matters when we serve up to others what we are not feasting upon ourselves. Baxter put this
in dierent terms, but the point is that the knowing and showing dimensions of our soul
cannot be compartmentalized. Our thinking goes rotten. That is also why the preparatory
and practicing stages of ministry cannot be separated. We must keep a close watch on our
life and doctrine, and persist in that (cf. 1 Tim. 4:16). The gulf between the purity and
power of the truth contemplated and the everyday lot of our brothers and sisters can make
us cynics instead of servants. We can objectify the whole truth out of everything, from God
to the world to others, to even ourselves, where what is left of ourselves is an Atlas in the
mirror, with the weight of the church world on our shoulders. But since Christ holds that
position, what does that make us when we are under such a spell?

Finally true theology is never in seclusion. God did not leave the world alone, and so if we
are studying well, both we and our people will mirror his heart8 incarnationally
contemplative. Here is a principle that can be gleaned from all of the authors: If it cannot
pass the tests of prayer, worship, mortification, charity and justice, then it is not
contemplation that happily exists in the body with Christ as its head. Somewhere there
lurks a desire for autonomy: intellectual or otherwise.

Counseling the Contemplative Pastor

Our last business calls for some vocational counseling. Spiritual preparation and academic
training are both necessary; and, as such, seminary and ministry should never be pit against

8 cf. Kapic, 87
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each other. The contemplative pastor should not allow the spirit of our age to shame him
for his gifts. Baxters words about the centrality of theology in both higher and lower
education (58-60), in my mind, justify the cultivation of more Christian schools, including
colleges and seminaries, in places that have slim to no Reformed education presence. At the
very least, there is as great a demand as ever for pastors who will not bury their heads in a
flurry of activity: which activity is often set in motion by the fear of man.

Throughout the Scriptures and church history so many of the saints do a great work in a
brief moment, a moment that was prepared by a long season of contemplating God through
suering. It may be that I am called to equip such pastors in their wilderness experiences,
wrestling with a calling that they were once sure of, but which the most influential voices
around them have debunked.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baxter, Richard, The Reformed Pastor, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2001

Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 2007

Kapic, Kelly M., A Little Book for New Theologians, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012