Mere Vassula

Vassula Rydén is a controversial Christian author, who claims to be a seer or prophet. This is her latest book. Vassula is Greek Orthodox, but most of her followers seem to be Catholic. Her movement True Life in God (TLIG) has attempted to become recognized by the Catholic Church, which has failed so far. "True Life in God" is also the name of Vassula's message and of the books in which her divine revelations are published. TLIG promotes unity between the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches, this being one of the main messages entrusted to Vassula by Jesus. Other distinctive traits include a strong belief in an impending apocalypse, and a strong emphasis on the role of Vassula Rydén herself as a kind of end-time apostle with miraculous powers, commissioned by God to save whoever might listen. Contradicting the dark apocalyptic strains is an emphasis on God's unending mercy and love - on Youtube, Vassula sounds "Inclusivist" (even pagans can be saved). The author makes very far-reaching claims about her miraculous powers, even claiming that people see the face of Jesus superimposed on her during TLIG meetings!

Despite its title, "Heaven is Real but so is Hell" contains very little about Heaven and Hell per se, instead concentrating on autobiographical information, chapters on Ms Rydén's conflicts with the Catholic hierarchy and descriptions of her visions and miracles. The sections dealing with Vassula's personal background are quite interesting. The author is an Egyptian-born Greek married to a Swedish career diplomat (hence her Swedish last name). She has experienced both the Israeli-Egyptian war of 1956, civil war conditions in Lesotho, and the perennial chaos in Bangladesh. Yet, it was the Swedish winters which really tested her attitude! Vassula had paranormal experiences already as a child, so perhaps it's not entirely inappropriate that she eventually became a prophetess, having visions of both God, Jesus and Mary. She also has a Guardian angel appropriately named Daniel.

Vassula Rydén's campaigns have met with strong resistance, critics charging her with failed prophecies, of editing the revelations in later editions of her books, and of doctrinal errors. In "Heaven is Real", Vassula sees a vision of the Trinity in which the Father and the Holy Ghost emerge from Jesus! The fact that her revelations are communicated through a process similar to "automatic writing" has led to charges of New Age influences or even demonic deception. (A comic sidepoint is that Joe Nickell, the house sceptic featured on "MonsterQuest", has written an article in Sceptical Enquirer debunking some of Rydén's claims!)

Still, I can't escape the feeling that the real reasons for the conundrum, at least in Christian circles, is the usual conflict between a charismatic prophet with the "wrong" background and a non-charismatic Church hierarchy demanding deference. Vassula's background as an Orthodox-cum-secular female socialite with little or no formal grounding in theology obviously makes her controversial in Catholic circles, especially given her strong claims of being God's chosen prophetess. She is constantly accused of having little humility, which is probably true, but then, the OT prophets didn't exactly sound humble either...

I'm not sure how this will all end, although I suspect that Vassula Rydén's apocalyptic prophecies will come to naught, as most such speculations do. It will be interesting to see if TLIG can continue after Vassula is gone (hopefully to a better place!), or if the group will prove to be ephemeral.