scripture as symbols guiding the interior faith.
What is the theme of Luke? Joel B. Green, in his book on Luke, declares that, “among the New Testament writers, none is more concerned with conversion than Luke-Acts.”5 For the author of Luke, conversion is less about accepting a particular set of faith claims and more about participating in the unfolding of a particular story. “Conversion also involves an orientation toward God’s eschatological purpose.” It is “about God’s restoration of God’s people” and finally involves participation in the practices of God’s restored people. Throughout Green’s treatise on conversion, we’re made aware that, unlike modern evangelicalism, the principles of conversion are firmly rooted in the community of the faithful.6 Madame Guyon was deeply committed to the Church, a church that mistreated her, but where she nonetheless found herself grounded in faith.
We see in Guyon, as, indeed, in scripture, a dynamic tension between personal salvation— conversion of the individual—and God’s saving acts in the community. Luke Timothy Johnson emphasizes that Luke affirms the value of human culture, citing as an example Luke’s use of forms of Hellenistic literature, which he does with skill and creativity. The author of Luke implies the compatibility of Christianity and culture, as opposed to those who find culture evil and contrary to the Reign of God. Johnson agrees with Green that conversion means the acceptance of the prophetic critique and the “turning” of one’s life. Those who enter the “people that God forms around the prophet” must turn around, the most impressive example of which is the “turning” of Paul from persecutor to apostle.7
In Madame Guyon’s epistemology, great importance is given to the relationship of the believer to Jesus, grounded in the community of the Church. The presence of Jesus is so assured by the person of the Holy Spirit that she is led to say, “in losing his presence from their senses, they had the steady presence of his Spirit that filled them with great joy.”8 “This substantial stream of the Spirit of the Word causes a profound joy which will never be lost.9
Amen.
The Revd William Bradley Roberts, D.M.A.
Virginia Theological Seminary
Alexandria, Va.
May 24, 2018
1. Guyon, Commentary, 3.
2. Ibid., 105.
3. Ibid, 2.
4. Blount, Biblical Authority, 58.
5. Green, Conversion, 161.
6. Ibid., 162.
7. Johnson. “The Gospel of Luke,” 22–23.
8. Guyon, Commentary, 175.
9. Ibid., 176.
Preface
Jeanne Guyon understood the gospel of Luke as the revelation of the compassionate words and actions of Jesus Christ. In his Sermon on the Mount, he says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Jeanne Guyon experienced these words of spiritual consolation in the midst of profound spiritual poverty and lived his presence through an unhappy marriage, deaths of two children, unjust incarcerations, and physical abuse. She wrote this biblical commentary to help others understand that Jesus Christ’s words are true and to be trusted. I have translated this commentary to offer again the strengthening and consoling power of the interior Christian faith lived within the human heart, mind, and soul.
I offer this volume to all those who wish to live the profound Christian faith. Jeanne Guyon lived this and has helped many throughout the centuries find the path to hope and salvation.
These are the first English translation of Guyon’s French commentaries of Gospel of Luke. For the Bible translation, I chose the New Revised Standard Version.
I pray that this short volume be a place of spiritual refreshment for all who long for the living Word of Jesus Christ within our heart, the interior faith, as Jeanne Guyon called this.
Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed to this volume. I am grateful for the support of Dr. Carlos Eire during my dissertation work on Jeanne Guyon. I thank the Revd William Roberts for his understanding of Jeanne Guyon’s theology and his foreword which makes a substantial contribution to this book.
I want to thank the parishioners of St. John’s, Lafayette Square, Washington, DC for their dialogue about Jeanne Guyon and her rich theology.
Many thanks go to my family who shares my passion for the work of Jeanne Guyon. Roger, Hannah, and Melora have read, explored and researched Jeanne Guyon along with me. I am grateful that we share this love.
Above all, I think my readers who share a love for Jeanne Guyon and her ideas about interior faith. Guyon’s books have been kept alive by those who continue to seek a profound interior life where Jesus Christ lives and moves and has his being. I hope that Guyon’s Christian interior faith lives for centuries yet to come.
Introduction
In France in 1664, the parents of the fifteen-year-old Jeanne Guyon forced her into an arranged and unhappy marriage with an older man. In 1668 when pregnant with her second child, Jeanne, tempted by thoughts of despair and suicide, sought spiritual counsel from a wise monk. He told her that she could find God within her heart and immediately she felt Christ filling her with love. She wrote about this saying, “O my Lord, you were in my heart and you asked from me only a simple turning inward to make me feel your presence. O infinite Goodness, you were so near.”10
This began Guyon’s adventure into the interior life and her great passion to know Jesus Christ within. She wanted to know and love Jesus Christ as her intimate Lord and Master. She wrote about Jesus Christ with adoration. “I loved Him and I burnt with love, because I loved Him I loved Him in such a way that I could only love Him; but in loving Him I had no motive but himself.”11
While researching Guyon at the University of Virginia, I became fascinated by her ideas and have tried to live her ideas of abandonment to God which creates an interior life of encounter with God. I have found what she says is trustworthy and deserving of our attention. Her radical theology frees us from pedestrian and petty concerns and substitutes in their place the ultimate concern, to use a phrase from Paul Tillich. Instead of focusing on self, we focus on God. Instead of concern only about material reality, we ponder the mysteries of the spiritual
