A midsouthern Bible professor summarizes author-guru Deepak Chopra’s message as “Don’t trust the intellect; go to the heart,” then asks whether the same mindset infects much contemporary Christian thinking.
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Chopra is indeed one of today’s most prominent purveyors and popularizers of New Age, Hindu-oriented, “Eastern” mysticism. As such, he preaches distrust of the intellect, so that the “heart” swallows up everything else. You are surely correct that Christians in any age are always susceptible to the tossing waves and swirling winds of their own intellectual environment.
For that very reason, we need vigilantly to remain grounded in Jesus Christ, in whom God has disclosed himself incarnate, by whom he has redeemed us and received us to himself, and through whom he gives us every spiritual blessing (Eph. 4:14-16; Col. 2:8-10). Remember, however, that Christians may also be misled by the siren calls of Western logic and philosophy as well — whether via Aristotle, John Locke, Scottish “Common Sense” empiricists, or current advocates of sovereign logic — which preach distrust of the heart so that the mind swallows up everything else.
Far better to choose as guru (“a personal religious teacher and spiritual guide” — Webster), but as far more than guru — indeed, as Son of God, Savior of the world, resurrected Lord, baptizer in the Spirit, divine healer and coming King — that man born neither in the East nor the West but in ancient Mediterranean Palestine, who saw the total picture and charged, “You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart AND with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37).
