I apologize that the comments were turned off on this post this morning ... not sure how that happened, but it did.On the plane yesterday the man sitting with us told us he was "raised Jewish" but that he went to a college where he had to take some Christianity, so he's got some Christianity in him, and then he said it's all rolled up into an overriding Zen Buddhism. There you have it: New Agers make up their own religion. True or not?
In their new book, Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives
, Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford examine cultural scripts that work against the gospel work in the Church.
, Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford examine cultural scripts that work against the gospel work in the Church. Our theme today: new age.
Motto: "Are we gods or God's?"
I'll be honest, this theme doesn't interest me. I don't find New Age stuff even interesting ... but this chapter got me interested. Basically it argues humans need to find their inner divinity, God-consciousness or Higher Self. Knowledge of the inner dimension is salvation -- it has an undeniable gnostic strain. It is monistic -- unity of material an
So what do we learn:
1. An emphasis on the spiritual dimension of life.
2. Reveals some common problems with institutional religion.
3. Questions Enlightenment's rationality as the gatekeeper.
But they see fundamental problems in:
1. Flip flopping from materialism to spirit -- a bit like transcendentalism.
2. Self-salvation.
3. It can't justify its larger social agenda.
4. Tends to the irrational.
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I would say that it is better than nothing, for most people on this kind of path are at least somewhat interested in morality and ethics, and doing the right thing for their fellow human beings, but not nearly as good as the Real Thing...
The New Age seems to be a dysfunctional response to postmodernity:
1) In my view, the New Age movement has done violence to the wisdom of the Eastern traditions. It has engaged them at a very superficial level, especially where ontological monism is concerned. The East, for the most part, is not engaging in classical Western metaphysics. It’s practices are geared toward leading people into phenomenal experiences and not, rather, to metaphysical conclusions.
2) The New Age is a facile syncretism and seems a kindred spirit to the Prosperity Gospel movement in that it tries to do an end around the Cross.
3) What has often been called transrational, in the New Age movement, is actually an arational gnosticism, which tells us spiritual pedestrians of the metaphysical bourgeoisie: “You don’t see this truth because you are not at this stage, on our level.” And they are blind to and caught up in this silly tautology, which is like saying you don’t see any elephants around here because I carry an elephant gun and they wouldn’t dare come ’round here.
Finally, I still must agree with what Brent (#4) said.
It seems to me that the cry against "institutional religion" is essentially anti-human. It seeks a salvation that is anti-material, anti-body. It longs for that which can never satisfy the longings of the human heart. Any spiritual that does not embrace the body will be found wanting. The neatness of these bodiless (non-institutional) spiritualities may capture our glance for a moment, but their attractive power always fades. Embodied souls hunger for a full-bodied, robust religion. Institutional religion is demanded by our nature. This is the messy way to redemption. It is fraught with reality of human weakness and sin, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. But it holds in it's bossom the promise of a salvation that touches and transforms all that we are. It makes it possible for us to do that which only human persons can do, to bend the knee of our hearts in generous, total self-giving to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you want to know how pervasive monistic New Age ideology is, just perk up your ears for the word "energy". This word is everywhere today. People just can't seem to resist viewing things in terms of the activities of various sorts of "energy". I went to Massage Therapy school, and it was practically an ashram. New Age spirituality is really taking off in a hugely influential way via places like massage therapy schools. I've seen straight up occult activities like astral projection advertised alongside yoga courses, massage classes and beginner Spanish for adults at continuing learning centers in cities. What's so beguiling is the way they use psuedo-science to back things up (once again, using the ubiquitous term "energy"). I've met many, many Christians who buy this stuff hook, line and seeker. It's very disconcerting.
@ Karl, #3: Given your quote, I disagree with both Bloom and Harding (if Harding's analysis is correct and he concurs w/ Bloom). Historically, American religion is not gnostic, according to what I've studied. ISTM that Bloom and Harding are conflating the coincidence of early European immigrants to America who wanted to practice their Christian faith without government and state religion's interference and immigrants who came to America to make money, to gain property, and/or to get away from the ties that bound them to station (class), families or reputations in Europe. My heritage is both New England Puritan and Pennsylvania Friends. Both shared strong emphasis on community life, although the legal and practical outworking of that Christian belief differed markedly. The Society of Friends believes that "there is that of God in every man", quoting George Fox, if I remember correctly. That sounds gnostic to contemporary ears, but grounded within the community of plain-speaking, hard-working, peace-abiding, simple-living Friends, it was effectively a paraphrase of the understanding that all of us are made in the image of God. The Puritans emphasized community responsibility (to the hilt of legalism, it seems to many!), while also instructing their children and converts to seek personal experiences of God.
Take the Fox phrase, for instance, loose it from the moorings of solid, ethical, careful Quaker life which embodied it (enduring within many families until the mid-20th century), and blend it with the individualism and self-serving nature of the other stream in the immigration pool, and we get this New Age sloppy mishmash of "make your own religion up and figure out for yourselves who god is." There is no responsibility to the contemporary community or the historical tradition of Christianity. (I.e., the law of loving neighbor is cast off.)
New Age folks I've met seem to be highly individualistic, which frequently stems from some woundedness or corrupting experience(s), with a resulting distrust of others. Individualistic, self-serving focus combines with our human longing to reach out to God, and the results frequently exemplify some form of New Age, in my opinion.
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