On the reason, and on rationalist Christians.
The Seventy-first Letter.
On the reason, and on rationalist Christians.
In the grace of the Lord, beloved friend and brother!
Your kind letter of the 10th of September I duly received; but I was then so weak in the head that I had to have it read to me — which was also part of the reason I could not answer it sooner.
It has especially rejoiced me that some are still coming in there through the drawing of grace. Whoever knows God a little cannot but grant it to everyone, from the heart, that he too may become partaker of the blessedness of communion with God. May the Lord water and preserve what is planted!
What you write of the objection, of the contradictions, and of the aberration of the rationalist Christians does not surprise me at all. I have known a bad neighbor — I mean my own mocking, cunning reason — which comes from the same country as those people, and speaks the same language with them: so long as things went according to the world's form and fashion, we were good friends; I could build castles in the air as high as I liked. But when I became better acquainted with the poor, despised Jesus of Nazareth, and, after His counsel, honestly assailed nature and my own life, then it fell out altogether with the reason; it had a thousandfold plausibilities to object, but Jesus would not have me dispute with it; nay, I was not to listen to it at all, but only, like a simple child, to keep myself turned in to Him, without heeding it — whereupon it could indeed no longer do much, save perhaps make my head sick; but my mind stayed at rest, while the reason, meanwhile, almost went mad with vexation.
See, dear brother! so it goes within us, and so it goes without us too. Clever and great people, would-be philosophers and rationalists, do not suit themselves to the unsightly Jesus and His poor life, so long as they remain such: there must come a mighty wind that throws their edifice over the heap; then they will come creeping along after all. One must commend them to the mercy of God, not get too involved with them in their element, and above all not let oneself be so disturbed or unsettled over it as I notice is partly happening with you.
It seems to me, dear brother, that you look around too much at such things and speeches. Commend the persons and the whole matter to the dear God, and hold yourself to Him who has called you in your ground. The witness of grace in the heart and conscience is the best defense of the truth, and whoever abides by it will be led astray by no error. The grounds of all such people are a loose sand, and all tend to this: that nature may keep its life; against which the chastening, correcting grace in the heart witnesses mightily — and by this we hold. To that end, dear brother, I counsel a simple, withdrawn life, attention to the stirrings of grace in the heart, and frequent childlike recollection of the mind to God in solitude; I say childlike, because everything forced, stubborn, and self-active is harmful in it. Love and sincerity must steer the recollection; and so one can, without disturbance, endure all the thoughts and fancies that fall in against one's will — out of which suffering pure salvation is born.
That your outward assembly there pleases some not, I can easily imagine; yet I hope none the less it will be so much the more profitable to others. That the outward things and means are but images and not the essence itself, that we know well too. But who knows whether those who will have everything at once without images do not play with other images, which have perhaps less essence? God Himself became imaged, to make us spiritual; yea, He became a child, that He might draw us down from all our height; therefore let us, my dear brother, only hold out by the simple mind of Jesus, and, following the inner drawing of the eternal Love, strive to become ever more true children of the heart — for which your frail bodily constitution must give you, with me, so much the more occasion. I wish that God's power may be perfected in our weakness! ——
I commend myself to the intercession of you and the other friends, and remain, through grace,
Your
Mülheim, 1 October 1734.
weak fellow-pilgrim.
German
Der 71te Brief.
Von der Vernunft und denen Vernunfts-Christen.
In der Gnade des HErrn, geliebter Freund und Bruder!
Dein Angenehmes vom 10ten September habe richtig erhalten; ich war aber damals so schwach im Kopf, daß mir dasselbe mußte vorlesen lassen, welches dann auch mit Ursache gewesen, daß denselben nicht eher habe beantworten können.
— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.
German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).
Translator’s notes
What this letter is. A letter about the oldest enemy of childlike faith — the clever reason — written with rare autobiographical vividness. The occasion is a group of "rationalist Christians" (Vernunfts-Christen) whose contradictions have unsettled the brother. Tersteegen's response is not to out-argue them but to tell his own story. He personifies his reason as "a bad neighbor," his "own mocking, cunning reason," and traces the friendship's collapse: while he still lived "according to the world's form and fashion" they got on splendidly and he "could build castles in the air"; but when he closed with "the poor, despised Jesus of Nazareth" and let Him assail his self-life, "it fell out altogether with the reason." The decisive counsel is the one that recurs across these letters (56, 59, 67): do not argue — "I was not to listen to it at all, but only, like a simple child, to keep myself turned in to Him." Disregarded, the reason "almost went mad with vexation." From this he draws the pastoral point: don't be "disturbed" by clever objectors; "commend them to the mercy of God" and trust "the witness of grace in the heart," which is "the best defense of the truth." The letter's theological jewel is its defense of forms against the iconoclast spiritualizers: since "God Himself became imaged… became a child," those who would leap straight to a formless religion may only be "playing with other images, which have perhaps less essence."
A few words and echoes.
- "Rationalist Christians" (Vernunfts-Christen). Tersteegen's name for those who make the natural reason the judge of faith — the perennial "wisdom of this world" of 1 Corinthians 1:19–25, "the world by wisdom knew not God."
- "My own mocking, cunning reason… a bad neighbor." The reason as the "old man" within (cf. Brief 72's "Anti-Christ… the natural reason"); the personification is Tersteegen's, but the theology is Paul's — "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7).
- "Jesus would not have me dispute with it." The refusal to argue with reason or temptation — the settled Tersteegen counsel (Briefs 56, 59, 67); attention feeds the adversary, disregard starves it.
- "A mighty wind that throws their edifice over the heap… loose sand." Matthew 7:24–27, the house built on sand that falls when the winds beat on it — the fate of a religion grounded in reason rather than in the rock.
- "The witness of grace in the heart is the best defense of the truth." Romans 8:16 ("the Spirit itself beareth witness"); 1 John 5:10 ("hath the witness in himself") — inward assurance, not argument, as the ground of certainty.
- "God Himself became imaged… became a child, to draw us down from all our height." John 1:14 (the Word made flesh) and Philippians 2:7–8 (the self-emptying); Tersteegen's striking defense of outward "images" and forms as continuous with the Incarnation — God stoops to the sensible to raise us to the spiritual.
- "God's power perfected in our weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9, nearly verbatim — the frail body (Tersteegen's own and the brother's) as occasion for grace.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-071 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.