connect 4

My friend David is teaching a class at church on contemplative spirituality, and kicked it off with a discussion of the four main ways to relate to God. (He discovered this model in “Gospel-Centered Spirituality” by Allan Sager; you can buy used copies at Amazon here.)

Here’s the chart:

Here’s what it means:

People tend to gravitate to either an emotional (heart) or rational (mind) understanding of God. That’s the vertical line. They also tend to believe God is either more mysterious or more knowable (the horizontal line). The combination determines the way a person prefers to connect with God.

Like any such quadrant-based chart, you can be closer to or farther away from the center based on the strength of your identification with the variables. For instance, you may have a strong preference for relating to God with your mind, but your take on whether God can actually be known is pretty neutral. Your preferred avenues to connecting with God will look different from someone who shares your affinity for the rational but believes strongly that God can, in fact, be known and understood.

The coolest thing, I think, is the connection to Mark 12:30, where we’re told to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. It’s easy to match each of those areas with one of these quadrants.

Here were some additional insights from our class:

—Because of the connection to this verse, we cannot choose to live in only one or two quadrants. Although we all have a natural affinity toward one, we are commanded to love God with all four parts of our being, and therefore should make an effort to connect with God in each way.

—It’s easy to think your preferred quadrant is the superior one. We can probably all give examples of people who promote social justice, prayer and meditation, a personal emotional experience or right doctrine as the highest expression of faith.

—Each of the four can be healthy, but taken to an extreme each one can also be toxic.

—Because these preferences are so ingrained, I think they can affect our theology. For example, I’d say my quadrant is the inner life. But if I spend all my time in centering prayer and silence and lectio divina I’ll miss the many attributes of God that legitimately find expression in service, worship and study. It’s that old “if you just have a hammer, everything looks like a nail” thing. Again, balance is the goal.

What do you think? Does this chart have merit? What is your preferred way to connect with God?