Madame Guyon

I was prompted to add my comments by reading an anti-Guyon tract on a website dedicated to exposing heretical belief systems. In our day, as in hers, a certain pseudo-orthodox sensibility finds the life and writings of this remarkable French mystic from the 1600's to be strangely disturbing. I find them to be challenging and refreshing. Guyon's Autobiography is not the most polished example of its genre. It was written in haste to provide explanations to her religious superiors. It suffers from sentimentality and what we might call today a "martyr complex." Oddly, these excesses endear her work to me. Madame Guyon was human. Her passions are accessible to me; I recognize them in myself. And whatever faults she may have had, they did not prevent her from fulfilling a genuine divine mission. For make no mistake, Madame Guyon was the real thing. In addition to achieving a profound intimacy with God, her life fulfilled an apostolic vocation that provoked a showdown between the French King (Louis XIV) and the Papacy, between Catholic orthodoxy and its own mystical traditions, between the Church and the protestant mystical movements that were born in that era. She did all this quite accidentally, in profound subjection to her sense of the will of God in her. By her accidental bumbling (think Chauncey Gardner in "Being There"), she exposed the banality and hypocrisy of religion in her time and the hollowness of the French Court, while at the same time demonstrating what it might mean to live one's life in total accord with God, in a state of what she called "l'amour pur" -- a love of God untainted by any hope or expectation of what we may want God to do for us. The historical scope and significance of Madame Guyon's life is not apparent in her Autobiography. The reader will need to wade into the formidable and acerbic body of scholarly commentary to go further. But the publishers (hats off to Kessinger and Moody's) correctly sense that the freshness and sincerity of Madame Guyon's story and worldview, told in her own words, needs little in the way of historical context. This book will challenge you to surrender to the divine inside of you, will make you want to do so even (or especially) at great personal risk, in a way that will either horrify you (as it did her detractors, past and present) or refire your first commitments. Consider yourself warned.

Excellent message about God's workings in the life of Madam Guyon. This follower of God allowed nothing to stop her pursuit of intimacy with her Savior.

Good book about a Godly women who endured all kinds of trials and tribulation. She spent some time in prison and wrote of her love for the Lord. She loved God so much and was devoted to her Catholic church.

One amazing women of God. So inspiring and poignant. You will find answer to many of the struggles within. Highly recommend for those who seek deeper intimacy with God.

I bumped into the name Madame Guyon last year during my studies on the spiritual life. Apparently, The Autobiography of Madame Guuon is the best selling Christian book in China. This book has been very influential in China, as the Church in China went through severe persecution in the 20th century, this book on the interior life, of 'dying to self' to attain union with God is indispensible. I have gone through three-quarters of this book, but it has had such an effect on me that I will quickly recommend it to anyone with a thirst for the deeper aspects of the Christian life. Madame Guyon leaves no stone unturned as she chronicles her spiritual journey from a vain beauty to become a disciple of God, crucified with Christ, purified through suffering and glorified in her union with God. Every page will tremble in your hand as you wonder at the complete love she had for God.