J Heinrich Arnold-Freedom from sinful thoughts.pdf

ForewordJohn Michael TalbotTHE CHRISTIAN tradition is filled with wisdom concerningthe handling of thoughts and emotions, andJ. Heinrich Arnold’s Freedom from Sinful Thoughts is awonderful example. In a manner not unlike St. Augustinein the West, and the monastic fathers of the East,Arnold confronts the realities of battling temptationand sin from his own communal tradition. His insightsare honest and realistic, yet they are infused with anuncompromising faith in the Spirit’s power to renewand transform.We are what we think. This is why we should neverunderestimate what we allow to enter our minds. It is bymeans of thoughts that the spirits of evil wage a secretwar on the soul. Thus the fifth-century bishop Maximuswarns us, “Just as it is easier to sin in the mind than inaction, so warfare through our impassioned conceptualimages of things is harder than warfare through thingsthemselves.”viii