Theologica Germanica
A biography of John Wesley that I've just read noted some of the German Pietist influences of Wesley, which led me to Meister Eckhart and the Theologica Germanica (author unknown). Both of which I find very interesting, very modern, and hugely relevant to our times. There's a direct line in terms of theological flavour from Course in Miracles, through Mary Baker Eddy, back to Eckhart. (To list just one of the many lines of faith which criss-cross over this landscape, but the Course in Miracles one is particularly close to my heart at the moment.)
Wesley, famously impressed by the quiet mystical spirituality of Count Zinzendorf's Moravians, later broke with them because he could not accept their quietism. It seems he had similar issues with the Theologica Germanica.
Wesley accomplished many great things in setting the template for Evangelical Christianity as an active social justice force for the next three centuries -- and as a movement-builder I think he did many things right, particularly his eclecticism -- but I also think his suspicion and dismissal of contemplative Christianity was a great loss for the set of movements he started. Wesley's model led the 18th century sea-change that turned the church from an aristocracy to an enterprise, but the worst-case scenario of that model is the Wal-Mart-isation of the church. Industrial mega-churches, like suburbia, can be hubs of religious activity and yet death-traps for the soul (and for the earth). We cannot act for justice without peace in our soul; if we try we merely create more noise, and that's what a lot of church activity right now is doing. The art of contemplation is something we will need to recover in this century, and quickly.
The good news is that all this material exists - it hasn't been lost, just ignored. And now we can access it more easily than ever.
