Christianity and the New Age Idea

The last entry was concerned with distinctions between Christian spirituality and esotericism and non-Christian spirituality and esotericism.

I confess this theme has been uppermost in my mind for years now. And a major reason for this is an overriding sense I am left with, after many years in the New Age movement …

That overriding sense is that the New Age movement is fundamentally based on a belief (whether implicit or explicit, conscious or unconscious, is not so important) in having found a **core** to all religions and spiritual philosophies.

That is to say, to have found one central, perennial philosophy - and to assume that any variation from that core, including for example, key aspects of Christianity, together with Christian esotericism, is of lesser importance – or just plain wrong.

Now not only is it now clear to me that this fundamental belief is so widely accepted as to be akin to dogma, but within a vast growing movement, at least, I have hardly ever seen it challenged.

Yet I grow ever firmer in the conviction that it is absolutely vital that this idea is challenged.

As I have been suggesting, it seems to me that the Christian concepts of the Fall and the Redemption lead to a spirituality of profound meaning for our times. To say the very, very least ...

And it also seems to me that the much-vaunted idea that this ‘holism’ is all-embracing, because it takes the true, central thrust of all religions and discards non-essentials (including the Christian Mystery!) is not at all holistic, inasmuch as it is subtly but *highly* dismissive.

And inasmuch as it is based on an agenda, which after many years, I am now unable to see as anything other than arbitrary - arbitrary in its selection of a central set of tenets, and also filled with (often unconscious) bias.

Yes, it seems to me that this arbitrary agenda is oft unconscious. But it is also so often filled with truly noble and humane aspirations. Many of the people working within the New Age movement are animated by profound love and idealism. Profound …

Thus, there is a terrible paradox here. A paradox at the core of my life – that something I spent years enthusiastically supporting alongside people I truly admire, now seems deeply flawed. And as I hope to eventually detail in this weblog, the flaws have very real consequences ...

Yes, in these weeks after Lovelock's message, I feel more than ever that a challenge - kind, loving and decisive - must be mounted to the vast and growing New Age phenomenon. But speaking very personally, I am not yet really sure what form that challenge needs to take. I am still wrestling ...

That being said, tomorrow I will resume quoting from my manuscript, which was one attempt – however inadequate - to wrestle with these very issues …