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PONTIFICAL
COUNCIL FOR CULTURE
PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
JESUS CHRIST
THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE
A Christian reflection
on the “New Age”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
1. What
sort of reflection
1.1. Why now?
1.2. Communications
1.3. Cultural background
1.4. The New
Age and Catholic faith
1.5. A positive challenge
2. New
Age spirituality: an overview
2.1. What
is new about New Age?
2.2. What
does the New Age claim to offer?
2.2.1. Enchantment:
There Must be an Angel
2.2.2. Harmony
and Understanding: Good Vibrations
2.2.3. Health: Golden
Living
2.2.4. Wholeness:
A Magical Mystery Tour
2.3. The
fundamental principles of New Age thinking
2.3.1. A
global response in a time of crisis
2.3.2. The
essential matrix of New Age thinking
2.3.3. Central
themes of the New Age
2.3.4. What
does New Age say about...
2.3.4.1. ...the human
person?
2.3.4.2. ...God?
2.3.4.3. ...the world?
2.4. “Inhabitants
of myth rather than history”: New Age and culture
2.5. Why
has New Age grown so rapidly and spread so effectively?
3. New
Age and Christian faith
3.1. New
Age as
spirituality
3.2. Spiritual narcissism?
3.3. The Cosmic Christ
3.4. Christian
mysticism and New Age mysticism
3.5. The
God within and theosis
4. New
Age and Christian faith in contrast
5. Jesus
Christ offers us the water of life
6. Points to note
6.1. Guidance
and sound formation are needed
6.2. Practical steps
7. Appendix
7.1. Some
brief formulations of New Age ideas
7.2. A select glossary
7.3. Key New Age
places
8. Resources
8.1. Documents
of the Catholic Church's Magisterium
8.2. Christian studies
9. General
bibliography
9.1. Some New
Age books
9.2. Historical,
descriptive and analytical works
NOTES
FOREWORD
The present study is concerned with the complex
phenomenon of “New Age” which is influencing many aspects of
contemporary culture.
The study is a provisional report. It is
the fruit of the common reflection of the Working Group on New
Religious Movements, composed of staff members of different
dicasteries of the Holy See: the Pontifical Councils for Culture
and for Interreligious Dialogue (which are the principal redactors
for this project), the Congregation for the Evangelization of
Peoples and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
These reflections are offered primarily to those
engaged in pastoral work so that they might be able to explain how
the New Age movement differs from the Christian faith. This
study invites readers to take account of the way that New Age
religiosity addresses the spiritual hunger of contemporary men and
women. It should be recognized that the attraction that New Age
religiosity has for some Christians may be due in part to the
lack of serious attention in their own communities for themes
which are actually part of the Catholic synthesis such as the
importance of man' spiritual dimension and its integration with
the whole of life, the search for life's meaning, the link between
human beings and the rest of creation, the desire for personal and
social transformation, and the rejection of a rationalistic and
materialistic view of humanity.
The present publication calls attention to the
need to know and understand New Age as a cultural current,
as well as the need for Catholics to have an understanding of
authentic Catholic doctrine and spirituality in order to properly
assess New Age themes. The first two chapters present New
Age as a multifaceted cultural tendency, proposing an analysis
of the basic foundations of the thought conveyed in this context.
From Chapter Three onwards some indications are offered for an
investigation of New Age in comparison with the Christian
message. Some suggestions of a pastoral nature are also made.
Those who wish to go deeper into the study of New
Age will find useful references in the appendices. It is hoped
that this work will in fact provide a stimulus for further studies
adapted to different cultural contexts. Its purpose is also to
encourage discernment by those who are looking for sound reference
points for a life of greater fulness. It is indeed our conviction
that through many of our contemporaries who are searching, we can
discover a true thirst for God. As Pope John Paul II said to a
group of bishops from the United States: “Pastors must honestly
ask whether they have paid sufficient attention to the thirst of
the human heart for the true 'living water' which only Christ our
Redeemer can give (cf. Jn 4:7-13)”. Like him, we want to
rely “on the perennial freshness of the Gospel message and its
capacity to transform and renew those who accept it” (AAS
86/4, 330).
1. WHAT
SORT OF REFLECTION?
The following reflections are meant as a guide for
Catholics involved in preaching the Gospel and teaching the faith
at any level within the Church. This document does not aim at
providing a set of complete answers to the many questions raised
by the New Age or other contemporary signs of the perennial
human search for happiness, meaning and salvation. It is an
invitation to understand the New Age and to engage in a
genuine dialogue with those who are influenced by New Age thought.
The document guides those involved in pastoral work in their
understanding and response to New Age spirituality, both
illustrating the points where this spirituality contrasts with the
Catholic faith and refuting the positions espoused by New Age thinkers
in opposition to Christian faith. What is indeed required of
Christians is, first and foremost, a solid grounding in their
faith. On this sound base, they can build a life which responds
positively to the invitation in the first letter of Saint Peter:
“always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason
for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and
respect and a clear conscience” (1 P 3, 15 f.).
1.1. Why now?
The beginning of the Third Millennium comes not
only two thousand years after the birth of Christ, but also at a
time when astrologers believe that the Age of Pisces – known to
them as the Christian age – is drawing to a close. These
reflections are about the New Age, which takes its name
from the imminent astrological Age of Aquarius. The New Age
is one of many explanations of the significance of this moment in
history which are bombarding contemporary (particularly western)
culture, and it is hard to see clearly what is and what is not
consistent with the Christian message. So this seems to be the
right moment to offer a Christian assessment of New Age
thinking and the New Age movement as a whole.
It has been said, quite correctly, that many
people hover between certainty and uncertainty these days,
particularly in questions relating to their identity.(1)
Some say that the Christian religion is patriarchal and
authoritarian, that political institutions are unable to improve
the world, and that formal (allopathic) medicine simply fails to
heal people effectively. The fact that what were once central
elements in society are now perceived as untrustworthy or lacking
in genuine authority has created a climate where people look
inwards, into themselves, for meaning and strength. There is also
a search for alternative institutions, which people hope will
respond to their deepest needs. The unstructured or chaotic life
of alternative communities of the 1970s has given way to a search
for discipline and structures, which are clearly key elements in
the immensely popular “mystical” movements. New Age is
attractive mainly because so much of what it offers meets hungers
often left unsatisfied by the established institutions.
While much of New Age is a reaction to
contemporary culture, there are many ways in which it is that
culture's child. The Renaissance and the Reformation have shaped
the modern western individual, who is not weighed down by external
burdens like merely extrinsic authority and tradition; people feel
the need to “belong” to institutions less and less (and yet
loneliness is very much a scourge of modern life), and are not
inclined to rank “official” judgements above their own. With
this cult of humanity, religion is internalised in a way which
prepares the ground for a celebration of the sacredness of the
self. This is why New Age shares many of the values
espoused by enterprise culture and the “prosperity Gospel” (of
which more will be said later: section 2.4), and also by the
consumer culture, whose influence is clear from the
rapidly-growing numbers of people who claim that it is possible to
blend Christianity and New Age, by taking what strikes them
as the best of both.(2)
It is worth remembering that deviations within Christianity have
also gone beyond traditional theism in accepting a unilateral turn
to self, and this would encourage such a blending of approaches.
The important thing to note is that God is reduced in certain New
Age practices so as furthering the advancement of the
individual.
New Age appeals to people imbued with the
values of modern culture. Freedom, authenticity, self-reliance and
the like are all held to be sacred. It appeals to those who have
problems with patriarchy. It “does not demand any more faith or
belief than going to the cinema”,(3)
and yet it claims to satisfy people's spiritual appetites. But
here is a central question: just what is meant by spirituality in
a New Age context? The answer is the key to unlocking some
of the differences between the Christian tradition and much of
what can be called New Age. Some versions of New Age harness
the powers of nature and seek to communicate with another world to
discover the fate of individuals, to help individuals tune in to
the right frequency to make the most of themselves and their
circumstances. In most cases, it is completely fatalistic.
Christianity, on the other hand, is an invitation to look outwards
and beyond, to the “new Advent”
of the God who calls us to live the dialogue of love.(4)
1.2.
Communications
The technological revolution in communications
over the last few years has brought about a completely new
situation. The ease and speed with which people can now
communicate is one of the reasons why New Age has come to
the attention of people of all ages and backgrounds, and many who
follow Christ are not sure what it is all about. The Internet, in
particular, has become enormously influential, especially with
younger people, who find it a congenial and fascinating way of
acquiring information. But it is a volatile vehicle of
misinformation on so many aspects of religion: not all that is
labelled “Christian” or “Catholic” can be trusted to
reflect the teachings of the Catholic Church and, at the same
time, there is a remarkable expansion of New Age sources
ranging from the serious to the ridiculous. People need, and have
a right to, reliable information on the differences between
Christianity and New Age.
1.3.
Cultural background
When one examines many New Age traditions,
it soon becomes clear that there is, in fact, little in the New
Age that is new. The name seems to have gained currency
through Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, at the time of the French
and American Revolutions, but the reality it denotes is a
contemporary variant of Western esotericism. This dates back to
Gnostic groups which grew up in the early days of Christianity,
and gained momentum at the time of the Reformation in Europe. It
has grown in parallel with scientific world-views, and acquired a
rational justification through the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. It has involved a progressive rejection of a personal
God and a focus on other entities which would often figure as
intermediaries between God and humanity in traditional
Christianity, with more and more original adaptations of these or
additional ones. A powerful trend in modern Western culture which
has given space to New Age ideas is the general acceptance
of Darwinist evolutionary theory; this, alongside a focus on
hidden spiritual powers or forces in nature, has been the backbone
of much of what is now recognised as New Age theory.
Basically, New Age has found a remarkable
level of acceptance because the world-view on which it was based
was already widely accepted. The ground was well prepared by the
growth and spread of relativism, along with an antipathy or
indifference towards the Christian faith.
Furthermore, there has been a lively discussion
about whether and in what sense New Age can be described as
a postmodern phenomenon. The existence and fervor of New Age
thinking and practice bear witness to the unquenchable longing of
the human spirit for transcendence and religious meaning, which is
not only a contemporary cultural phenomenon, but was evident in
the ancient world, both Christian and pagan.
1.4.
The New Age and Catholic Faith
Even if it can be admitted that New Age
religiosity in some way responds to the legitimate spiritual
longing of human nature, it must be acknowledged that its attempts
to do so run counter to Christian revelation. In Western culture
in particular, the appeal of “alternative” approaches to
spirituality is very strong. On the one hand, new forms of
psychological affirmation of the individual have be
come very popular among Catholics, even in
retreat-houses, seminaries and institutes of formation for
religious. At the same time there is increasing nostalgia and
curiosity for the wisdom and ritual of long ago, which is one of
the reasons for the remarkable growth in the popularity of
esotericism and gnosticism. Many people are particularly attracted
to what is known – correctly or otherwise – as “Celtic”
spirituality,(5)
or to the religions of ancient peoples. Books and courses on
spirituality and ancient or Eastern religions are a booming
business, and they are frequently labelled “New Age”
for commercial purposes. But the links with those religions are
not always clear. In fact, they are often denied.
An adequate Christian discernment of New Age
thought and practice cannot fail to recognize that, like second
and third century gnosticism, it represents something of a
compendium of positions that the Church has identified as
heterodox. John Paul II warns with regard to the “return of
ancient gnostic ideas under the guise of the so-called New Age:
We cannot delude ourselves that this will lead toward a renewal of
religion. It is only a new way of practising gnosticism – that
attitude of the spirit that, in the name of a profound knowledge
of God, results in distorting His Word and replacing it with
purely human words. Gnosticism never completely abandoned the
realm of Christianity. Instead, it has always existed side by side
with Christianity, sometimes taking the shape of a philosophical
movement, but more often assuming the characteristics of a
religion or a para-religion in distinct, if not declared, conflict
with all that is essentially Christian”.(6)
An example of this can be seen in the enneagram, the nine-type
tool for character analysis, which when used as a means of
spiritual growth introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the
life of the Christian faith.
1.5. A
positive challenge
The appeal of New Age religiosity cannot be
underestimated. When the understanding of the content of Christian
faith is weak, some mistakenly hold that the Christian religion
does not inspire a profound spirituality and so they seek
elsewhere. As a matter of fact, some say the New Age is
already passing us by, and refer to the “next” age.(7)
They speak of a crisis that began to manifest itself in the United
States of America in the early 1990s, but admit that, especially
beyond the English-speaking world, such a “crisis” may come
later. But bookshops and radio stations, and the plethora of
self-help groups in so many Western towns and cities, all seem to
tell a different story. It seems that, at least for the moment,
the New Age is still very much alive and part of the
current cultural scene.
The success of New Age offers the Church a
challenge. People feel the Christian religion no longer offers
them – or perhaps never gave them – something they really
need. The search which often leads people to the New Age is
a genuine yearning: for a deeper spirituality, for something which
will touch their hearts, and for a way of making sense of a
confusing and often alienating world. There is a positive tone in
New Age criticisms of “the materialism of daily life, of
philosophy and even of medicine and psychiatry; reductionism,
which refuses to take into consideration religious and
supernatural experiences; the industrial culture of unrestrained
individualism, which teaches egoism and pays no attention to other
people, the future and the environment”.(8)
Any problems there are with New Age are to be found in what
it proposes as alternative answers to life's questions. If the
Church is not to be accused of being deaf to people's longings,
her members need to do two things: to root themselves ever more
firmly in the fundamentals of their faith, and to understand the
often-silent cry in people's hearts, which leads them elsewhere if
they are not satisfied by the Church. There is also a call in all
of this to come closer to Jesus Christ and to be ready to follow
Him, since He is the real way to happiness, the truth about God
and the fulness of life for every man and woman who is prepared to
respond to his love.
2.
NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY: AN OVERVIEW
Christians in many Western societies, and
increasingly also in other parts of the world, frequently come
into contact with different aspects of the phenomenon known as
New Age. Many of them feel the need to understand how they can
best approach something which is at once so alluring, complex,
elusive and, at times, disturbing. These reflections are an
attempt to help Christians do two things:
– to identify elements of the developing New
Age tradition;
– to indicate those elements which are inconsistent with the
Christian revelation.
This is a pastoral response to a current
challenge, which does not even attempt to provide an exhaustive
list of New Age phenomena, since that would result in a
very bulky tome, and such information is readily available
elsewhere. It is essential to try to understand New Age correctly,
in order to evaluate it fairly, and avoid creating a caricature.
It would be unwise and untrue to say that everything connected
with the New Age movement is good, or that everything about
it is bad. Nevertheless, given the underlying vision of New Age
religiosity, it is on the whole difficult to reconcile it with
Christian doctrine and spirituality.
New Age is not a movement in the sense
normally intended in the term “New Religious Movement”, and it
is not what is normally meant by the terms “cult” and
“sect”. Because it is spread across cultures, in phenomena as
varied as music, films, seminars, workshops, retreats, therapies,
and many more activities and events, it is much more diffuse and
informal, though some religious or para-religious groups
consciously incorporate New Age elements, and it has been
suggested that New Age has been a source of ideas for
various religious and para-religious sects.(9)
New Age is not a single, uniform movement, but rather a
loose network of practitioners whose approach is to think
globally but act locally. People who are part of the network
do not necessarily know each other and rarely, if ever, meet. In
an attempt to avoid the confusion which can arise from using the
term “movement”, some refer to New Age as a
“milieu”,(10)
or an “audience cult”.(11)
However, it has also been pointed out that “it is a very
coherent current of thought”,(12)
a deliberate challenge to modern culture. It is a syncretistic
structure incorporating many diverse elements, allowing people to
share interests or connections to very different degrees and on
varying levels of commitment. Many trends, practices and attitudes
which are in some way part of New Age are, indeed, part of
a broad and readily identifiable reaction to mainstream culture,
so the word “movement” is not entirely out of place. It can be
applied to New Age in the same sense as it is to other
broad social movements, like the Civil Rights movement or the
Peace Movement; like them, it includes a bewildering array of
people linked to the movement's main aims, but very diverse in the
way they are involved and in their understanding of particular
issues.
The expression “New Age religion” is
more controversial, so it seems best to avoid it, although New
Age is often a response to people's religious questions and
needs, and its appeal is to people who are trying to discover or
rediscover a spiritual dimension in their life. Avoidance of the
term “New Age religion” is not meant in any way to
question the genuine character of people's search for meaning and
sense in life; it respects the fact that many within the New
Age Movement themselves distinguish carefully between
“religion” and “spirituality”. Many have rejected
organised religion, because in their judgement it has failed to
answer their needs, and for precisely this reason they have looked
elsewhere to find “spirituality”. Furthermore, at the heart of
New Age is the belief that the time for particular
religions is over, so to refer to it as a religion would run
counter to its own self-understanding. However, it is quite
accurate to place New Age in the broader context of
esoteric religiousness, whose appeal continues to grow.(13)
There is a problem built into the current text. It
is an attempt to understand and evaluate something which is
basically an exaltation of the richness of human experience. It is
bound to draw the criticism that it can never do justice to a
cultural movement whose essence is precisely to break out of what
are seen as the constricting limits of rational discourse. But it
is meant as an invitation to Christians to take the New Age seriously,
and as such asks its readers to enter into a critical dialogue
with people approaching the same world from very different
perspectives.
The pastoral effectiveness of the Church in the
Third Millennium depends to a great extent on the preparation of
effective communicators of the Gospel message. What follows is a
response to the difficulties expressed by many in dealing with the
very complex and elusive phenomenon known as New Age. It is
an attempt to understand what New Age is and to recognise
the questions to which it claims to offer answers and solutions.
There are some excellent books and other resources which survey
the whole phenomenon or explain particular aspects in great
detail, and reference will be made to some of these in the
appendix. However they do not always undertake the necessary
discernment in the light of Christian faith. The purpose of this
contribution is to help Catholics find a key to understanding the
basic principles behind New Age thinking, so that they can
then make a Christian evaluation of the elements of New Age
they encounter. It is worth saying that many people dislike the
term New Age, and some suggest that “alternative
spirituality” may be more correct and less limiting. It is also
true that many of the phenomena mentioned in this document will
probably not bear any particular label, but it is presumed, for
the sake of brevity, that readers will recognise a phenomenon or
set of phenomena that can justifiably at least be linked with the
general cultural movement that is often known as New Age.
2.1.
What is new about New Age?
For many people, the term New Age clearly
refers to a momentous turning-point in history. According to
astrologers, we live in the Age of Pisces, which has been
dominated by Christianity. But the current age of Pisces is due to
be replaced by the New Age of Aquarius early in the third
Millennium.(14)
The Age of Aquarius has such a high profile in the New Age
movement largely because of the influence of theosophy,
spiritualism and anthroposophy, and their esoteric antecedents.
People who stress the imminent change in the world are often
expressing a wish for such a change, not so much in the
world itself as in our culture, in the way we relate to the world;
this is particularly clear in those who stress the idea of a New
Paradigm for living. It is an attractive approach since, in some
of its expressions, people do not watch passively, but have an
active role in changing culture and bringing about a new spiritual
awareness. In other expressions, more power is ascribed to the
inevitable progression of natural cycles. In any case, the Age of
Aquarius is a vision, not a theory. But New Age is a broad
tradition, which incorporates many ideas which have no explicit
link with the change from the Age of Pisces to the Age of
Aquarius. There are moderate, but quite generalised, visions of a
future where there will be a planetary spirituality alongside
separate religions, similar planetary political institutions to
complement more local ones, global economic entities which are
more participatory and democratic, greater emphasis on
communication and education, a mixed approach to health combining
professional medicine and self-healing, a more androgynous
self-understanding and ways of integrating science, mysticism,
technology and ecology. Again, this is evidence of a deep desire
for a fulfilling and healthy existence for the human race and for
the planet. Some of the traditions which flow into New Age
are: ancient Egyptian occult practices, Cabbalism, early Christian
gnosticism, Sufism, the lore of the Druids, Celtic Christianity,
mediaeval alchemy, Renaissance hermeticism, Zen Buddhism, Yoga and
so on.(15)
Here is what is “new” about New Age. It
is a “syncretism of esoteric and secular elements”.(16)
They link into a widely-held perception that the time is ripe for
a fundamental change in individuals, in society and in the world.
There are various expressions of the need for a shift:
– from Newtonian mechanistic physics to
quantum physics;
– from modernity's exaltation of reason to an appreciation of
feeling, emotion and experience (often described as a switch
from 'left brain' rational thinking to 'right brain'
intuitive thinking);
– from a dominance of masculinity and patriarchy to a
celebration of femininity, in individuals and in society.
In these contexts the term “paradigm shift” is
often used. In some cases it is clearly supposed that this shift
is not simply desirable, but inevitable. The rejection of
modernity underlying this desire for change is not new, but can be
described as “a modern revival of pagan religions with a mixture
of influences from both eastern religions and also from modern
psychology, philosophy, science, and the counterculture that
developed in the 1950s and 1960s”.(17)
New Age is a witness to nothing less than a cultural
revolution, a complex reaction to the dominant ideas and values in
western culture, and yet its idealistic criticism is itself
ironically typical of the culture it criticizes.
A word needs to be said on the notion of
paradigm shift. It was made popular by Thomas Kuhn, an
American historian of science, who saw a paradigm as “the entire
constellation of beliefs, values, techniques and so on shared by
the members of a given community”.(18)
When there is a shift from one paradigm to another, it is a
question of wholesale transformation of perspective rather than
one of gradual development. It really is a revolution, and Kuhn
emphasised that competing paradigms are incommensurable and cannot
co-exist. So the idea that a paradigm shift in the area of
religion and spirituality is simply a new way of stating
traditional beliefs misses the point. What is actually going on is
a radical change in world- view, which puts into question not only
the content but also the fundamental interpretation of the former
vision. Perhaps the clearest example of this, in terms of the
relationship between New Age and Christianity, is the total
recasting of the life and significance of Jesus Christ. It is
impossible to reconcile these two visions.(19)
Science and technology have clearly failed to
deliver all they once seemed to promise, so in their search for
meaning and liberation people have turned to the spiritual realm. New
Age as we now know it came from a search for something more
humane and beautiful than the oppressive, alienating experience of
life in Western society. Its early exponents were prepared to look
far afield in their search, so it has become a very eclectic
approach. It may well be one of the signs of a “return to
religion”, but it is most certainly not a return to orthodox
Christian doctrines and creeds. The first symbols of this
“movement” to penetrate Western culture were the remarkable
festival at Woodstock in New York State in 1969 and the musical Hair,
which set forth the main themes of New Age in the
emblematic song “Aquarius”.(20)
But these were merely the tip of an iceberg whose dimensions have
become clearer only relatively recently. The idealism of the 1960s
and 1970s still survives in some quarters; but now, it is no
longer predominantly adolescents who are involved. Links with
left-wing political ideology have faded, and psychedelic drugs are
by no means as prominent as they once were. So much has happened
since then that all this no longer seems revolutionary;
“spiritual” and “mystical” tendencies formerly restricted
to the counterculture are now an established part of mainstream
culture, affecting such diverse facets of life as medicine,
science, art and religion. Western culture is now imbued with a
more general political and ecological awareness, and this whole
cultural shift has had an enormous impact on people's life-styles.
It is suggested by some that the New Age “movement” is
precisely this major change to what is reckoned to be “a
significantly better way of life”.(21)
2.2.
What does the New Age claim to offer?
2.2.1.
Enchantment: There Must be an Angel
One of the most common elements in New Age “spirituality”
is a fascination with extraordinary manifestations, and in
particular with paranormal entities. People recognised as
“mediums” claim that their personality is taken over by
another entity during trances in a New Age phenomenon known
as “channeling”, during which the medium may lose control over
his or her body and faculties. Some people who have witnessed
these events would willingly acknowledge that the manifestations
are indeed spiritual, but are not from God, despite the language
of love and light which is almost always used.... It is probably
more correct to refer to this as a contemporary form of
spiritualism, rather than spirituality in a strict sense. Other
friends and counsellors from the spirit world are angels (which
have become the centre of a new industry of books and paintings).
Those who refer to angels in the New Age do so in an
unsystematic way; in fact, distinctions in this area are sometimes
described as unhelpful if they are too precise, since “there are
many levels of guides, entities, energies, and beings in every
octave of the universe... They are all there to pick and choose
from in relation to your own attraction/repulsion mechanisms”.(22)
These spiritual entities are often invoked 'non-religiously' to
help in relaxation aimed at better decision-making and control of
one's life and career. Fusion with some spirits who teach through
particular people is another New Age experience claimed by
people who refer to themselves as 'mystics'. Some nature spirits
are described as powerful energies existing in the natural world
and also on the “inner planes”: i.e. those which are
accessible by the use of rituals, drugs and other techniques for
reaching altered states of consciousness. It is clear that, in
theory at least, the New Age often recognizes no spiritual
authority higher than personal inner experience.
2.2.2.
Harmony and Understanding: Good Vibrations
Phenomena as diverse as the Findhorn garden and
Feng Shui (23)
represent a variety of ways which illustrate the importance of
being in tune with nature or the cosmos. In New Age there
is no distinction between good and evil. Human actions are the
fruit of either illumination or ignorance. Hence we cannot condemn
anyone, and nobody needs forgiveness. Believing in the existence
of evil can create only negativity and fear. The answer to
negativity is love. But it is not the sort which has to be
translated into deeds; it is more a question of attitudes of mind.
Love is energy, a high-frequency vibration, and the secret to
happiness and health and success is being able to tune in, to find
one's place in the great chain of being. New Age teachers
and therapies claim to offer the key to finding the
correspondences between all the elements of the universe, so that
people may modulate the tone of their lives and be in absolute
harmony with each other and with everything around them, although
there are different theoretical backgrounds.(24)
2.2.3. Health:
Golden living
Formal (allopathic) medicine today tends to limit
itself to curing particular, isolated ailments, and fails to look
at the broader picture of a person's health: this has given rise
to a fair amount of understandable dissatisfaction. Alternative
therapies have gained enormously in popularity because they claim
to look at the whole person and are about healing rather
than curing. Holistic health, as it is known, concentrates
on the important role that the mind plays in physical healing. The
connection between the spiritual and the physical aspects of the
person is said to be in the immune system or the Indian chakra
system. In a New Age perspective, illness and suffering
come from working against nature; when one is in tune with nature,
one can expect a much healthier life, and even material
prosperity; for some New Age healers, there should actually
be no need for us to die. Developing our human potential will put
us in touch with our inner divinity, and with those parts of our
selves which have been alienated and suppressed. This is revealed
above all in Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs), which are
induced either by drugs or by various mind-expanding techniques,
particularly in the context of “transpersonal psychology”. The
shaman is often seen as the specialist of altered states of
consciousness, one who is able to mediate between the
transpersonal realms of spirits and gods and the world of humans.
There is a remarkable variety of approaches for
promoting holistic health, some derived from ancient cultural
traditions, whether religious or esoteric, others connected with
the psychological theories developed in Esalen during the years
1960-1970. Advertising connected with New Age covers a wide
range of practices as acupuncture, biofeedback, chiropractic,
kinesiology, homeopathy, iridology, massage and various kinds of
“bodywork” (such as orgonomy, Feldenkrais, reflexology,
Rolfing, polarity massage, therapeutic touch etc.), meditation and
visualisation, nutritional therapies, psychic healing, various
kinds of herbal medicine, healing by crystals, metals, music or
colours, reincarnation therapies and, finally, twelve-step
programmes and self-help groups.(25)
The source of healing is said to be within ourselves, something we
reach when we are in touch with our inner energy or cosmic energy.
Inasmuch as health includes a prolongation of
life, New Age offers an Eastern formula in Western terms.
Originally, reincarnation was a part of Hindu cyclical thought,
based on the atman or divine kernel of personality (later
the concept of jiva), which moved from body to body in a
cycle of suffering (samsara), determined by the law of karma,
linked to behaviour in past lives. Hope lies in the possibility of
being born into a better state, or ultimately in liberation from
the need to be reborn. What is different in most Buddhist
traditions is that what wanders from body to body is not a soul,
but a continuum of consciousness. Present life is embedded in a
potentially endless cosmic process which includes even the gods.
In the West, since the time of Lessing, reincarnation has been
understood far more optimistically as a process of learning and
progressive individual fulfilment. Spiritualism, theosophy,
anthroposophy and New Age all see reincarnation as
participation in cosmic evolution. This post-Christian approach to
eschatology is said to answer the unresolved questions of theodicy
and dispenses with the notion of hell. When the soul is separated
from the body individuals can look back on their whole life up to
that point, and when the soul is united to its new body there is a
preview of its coming phase of life. People have access to their
former lives through dreams and meditation techniques.(26)
2.2.4.
Wholeness: A Magical Mystery Tour
One of the central concerns of the New Age movement
is the search for “wholeness”. There is encouragement to
overcome all forms of “dualism”, as such divisions are an
unhealthy product of a less enlightened past. Divisions which
New Age proponents claim need to be overcome include the real
difference between Creator and creation, the real distinction
between man and nature, or spirit and matter, which are all
considered wrongly as forms of dualism. These dualistic tendencies
are often assumed to be ultimately based on the Judaeo-Christian
roots of western civilisation, while it would be more accurate to
link them to gnosticism, in particular to Manichaeism. The
scientific revolution and the spirit of modern rationalism are
blamed particularly for the tendency to fragmentation, which
treats organic wholes as mechanisms that can be reduced to their
smallest components and then explained in terms of the latter, and
the tendency to reduce spirit to matter, so that spiritual reality
– including the soul – becomes merely a contingent
“epiphenomenon” of essentially material processes. In all of
these areas, the New Age alternatives are called
“holistic”. Holism pervades the New Age movement, from
its concern with holistic health to its quest for unitive
consciousness, and from ecological awareness to the idea of global
“networking”.
2.3.
The fundamental principles of New Age thinking
2.3.1.
A global response in a time of crisis
“Both the Christian tradition and the secular
faith in an unlimited process of science had to face a severe
break first manifested in the student revolutions around the year
1968”.(27)
The wisdom of older generations was suddenly robbed of
significance and respect, while the omnipotence of science
evaporated, so that the Church now “has to face a serious
breakdown in the transmission of her faith to the younger
generation”.(28)
A general loss of faith in these former pillars of consciousness
and social cohesion has been accompanied by the unexpected return
of cosmic religiosity, rituals and beliefs which many believed to
have been supplanted by Christianity; but this perennial esoteric
undercurrent never really went away. The surge in popularity of
Asian religion at this point was something new in the Western
context, established late in the nineteenth century in the
theosophical movement, and it “reflects the growing awareness of
a global spirituality, incorporating all existing religious
traditions”.(29)
The perennial philosophical question of the one
and the many has its modern and contemporary form in the
temptation to overcome not only undue division, but even real
difference and distinction, and the most common expression of this
is holism, an essential ingredient in New Age and one of
the principal signs of the times in the last quarter of the
twentieth century. An extraordinary amount of energy has gone into
the effort to overcome the division into compartments
characteristic of mechanistic ideology, but this has led to the
sense of obligation to submit to a global network which assumes
quasi-transcendental authority. Its clearest implications are a
process of conscious transformation and the development of
ecology.(30)
The new vision which is the goal of conscious transformation has
taken time to formulate, and its enactment is resisted by older
forms of thought judged to be entrenched in the status quo. What
has been successful is the generalisation of ecology as a
fascination with nature and resacralisation of the earth, Mother
Earth or Gaia, with the missionary zeal characteristic of
Green politics. The Earth's executive agent is the human race as a
whole, and the harmony and understanding required for
responsible governance is increasingly understood to be a global
government, with a global ethical framework. The warmth of Mother
Earth, whose divinity pervades the whole of creation, is held to
bridge the gap between creation and the transcendent Father-God of
Judaism and Christianity, and removes the prospect of being judged
by such a Being.
In such a vision of a closed universe that
contains “God” and other spiritual beings along with
ourselves, we recognize here an implicit pantheism. This is a
fundamental point which pervades all New Age thought and
practice, and conditions in advance any otherwise positive
assessment where we might be in favor of one or another aspect of
its spirituality. As Christians, we believe on the contrary that
“man is essentially a creature and remains so for all eternity,
so that an absorption of the human I in the divine I will never be
possible”.(31)
2.3.2.
The essential matrix of New Age thinking
The essential matrix of New Age thinking is
to be found in the esoteric-theosophical tradition which was
fairly widely accepted in European intellectual circles in the 18th
and 19th centuries. It was particularly strong in
freemasonry, spiritualism, occultism and theosophy, which shared a
kind of esoteric culture. In this world-view, the visible and
invisible universes are linked by a series of correspondences,
analogies and influences between microcosm and macrocosm, between
metals and planets, between planets and the various parts of the
human body, between the visible cosmos and the invisible realms of
reality. Nature is a living being, shot through with networks of
sympathy and antipathy, animated by a light and a secret fire
which human beings seek to control. People can contact the upper
or lower worlds by means of their imagination (an organ of the
soul or spirit), or by using mediators (angels, spirits, devils)
or rituals.
People can be initiated into the mysteries of the
cosmos, God and the self by means of a spiritual itinerary of
transformation. The eventual goal is gnosis, the highest
form of knowledge, the equivalent of salvation. It involves a
search for the oldest and highest tradition in philosophy (what is
inappropriately called philosophia perennis) and religion
(primordial theology), a secret (esoteric) doctrine which is the
key to all the “exoteric” traditions which are accessible to
everyone. Esoteric teachings are handed down from master to
disciple in a gradual program of initiation.
19th century esotericism is seen by
some as completely secularised. Alchemy, magic, astrology and
other elements of traditional esotericism had been thoroughly
integrated with aspects of modern culture, including the search
for causal laws, evolutionism, psychology and the study of
religions. It reached its clearest form in the ideas of Helena
Blavatsky, a Russian medium who founded the Theosophical
Society with Henry Olcott in New York in 1875. The Society
aimed to fuse elements of Eastern and Western traditions in an
evolutionary type of spiritualism. It had three main aims:
1. “To form a nucleus of the Universal
Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed,
caste or colour.
2. “To encourage the study of comparative religion,
philosophy and science.
3. “To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the
powers latent in man.
“The significance of these objectives... should
be clear. The first objective implicitly rejects the 'irrational
bigotry' and 'sectarianism' of traditional Christianity as
perceived by spiritualists and theosophists... It is not
immediately obvious from the objectives themselves that, for
theosophists, 'science' meant the occult sciences and philosophy
the occulta philosophia, that the laws of nature were of an
occult or psychic nature, and that comparative religion was
expected to unveil a 'primordial tradition' ultimately modelled on
a Hermeticist philosophia perennis”.(32)
A prominent component of Mrs. Blavatsky's writings
was the emancipation of women, which involved an attack on the
“male” God of Judaism, of Christianity and of Islam. She urged
people to return to the mother-goddess of Hinduism and to the
practice of feminine virtues. This continued under the guidance of
Annie Besant, who was in the vanguard of the feminist movement.
Wicca and “women's spirituality” carry on this struggle
against “patriarchal” Christianity today.
Marilyn Ferguson devoted a chapter of The
Aquarian Conspiracy to the precursors of the Age of Aquarius,
those who had woven the threads of a transforming vision based on
the expansion of consciousness and the experience of
self-transcendence. Two of those she mentioned were the American
psychologist William James and the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav
Jung. James defined religion as experience, not dogma, and he
taught that human beings can change their mental attitudes in such
a way that they are able to become architects of their own
destiny. Jung emphasized the transcendent character of
consciousness and introduced the idea of the collective
unconscious, a kind of store for symbols and memories shared with
people from various different ages and cultures. According to
Wouter Hanegraaff, both of these men contributed to a
“sacralisation of psychology”, something that has become an
important element of New Age thought and practice. Jung,
indeed, “not only psychologized esotericism but he also
sacralized psychology, by filling it with the contents of esoteric
speculation. The result was a body of theories which enabled
people to talk about God while really meaning their own psyche,
and about their own psyche while really meaning the divine. If the
psyche is 'mind', and God is 'mind' as well, then to discuss one
must mean to discuss the other”.(33)
His response to the accusation that he had “psychologised”
Christianity was that “psychology is the modern myth and only in
terms of the current myth can we understand the faith”.(34)
It is certainly true that Jung's psychology sheds light on many
aspects of the Christian faith, particularly on the need to face
the reality of evil, but his religious convictions are so
different at different stages of his life that one is left with a
confused image of God. A central element in his thought is the
cult of the sun, where God is the vital energy (libido) within a
person.(35)
As he himself said, “this comparison is no mere play of
words”.(36)
This is “the god within” to which Jung refers, the essential
divinity he believed to be in every human being. The path to the
inner universe is through the unconscious. The inner world's
correspondence to the outer one is in the collective
unconscious.
The tendency to interchange psychology and
spirituality was firmly embedded in the Human Potential Movement
as it developed towards the end of the 1960s at the Esalen
Institute in California. Transpersonal psychology, strongly
influenced by Eastern religions and by Jung, offers a
contemplative journey where science meets mysticism. The stress
laid on bodiliness, the search for ways of expanding consciousness
and the cultivation of the myths of the collective unconscious
were all encouragements to search for “the God within”
oneself. To realise one's potential, one had to go beyond one's ego
in order to become the god that one is, deep down. This could be
done by choosing the appropriate therapy – meditation,
parapsychological experiences, the use of hallucinogenic drugs.
These were all ways of achieving “peak experiences”,
“mystical” experiences of fusion with God and with the cosmos.
The symbol of Aquarius was borrowed from
astrological mythology, but later came to signify the desire for a
radically new world. The two centres which were the initial
power-houses of the New Age, and to a certain extent still
are, were the Garden community at Findhorn in North-East Scotland,
and the Centre for the development of human potential at Esalen in
Big Sur, California, in the United States of America. What feeds
New Age consistently is a growing global consciousness and
increasing awareness of a looming ecological crisis.
2.3.3.
Central themes of the New Age
New Age is not, properly speaking, a
religion, but it is interested in what is called “divine”. The
essence of New Age is the loose association of the various
activities, ideas and people who might validly attract the term.
So there is no single articulation of anything like the doctrines
of mainstream religions. Despite this, and despite the immense
variety within New Age, there are some common points:
– the cosmos is seen as an organic whole
– it is animated by an Energy, which is also identified as the
divine Soul or Spirit
– much credence is given to the mediation of various spiritual
entities
– humans are capable of ascending to invisible higher spheres,
and of controlling their own lives beyond death
– there is held to be a “perennial knowledge” which
pre-dates and is superior to all religions and cultures
– people follow enlightened masters...
2.3.4.
What does New Age say about...
2.3.4.1.
...the human person?
New Age involves a fundamental belief in
the perfectibility of the human person by means of a wide variety
of techniques and therapies (as opposed to the Christian view of
co-operation with divine grace). There is a general accord with
Nietzsche's idea that Christianity has prevented the full
manifestation of genuine humanity. Perfection, in this context,
means achieving self-fulfilment, according to an order of values
which we ourselves create and which we achieve by our own
strength: hence one can speak of a self- creating self. On this
view, there is more difference between humans as they now are and
as they will be when they have fully realised their potential,
than there is between humans and anthropoids.
It is useful to distinguish between esotericism,
a search for knowledge, and magic, or the occult: the
latter is a means of obtaining power. Some groups are both
esoteric and occult. At the centre of occultism is a will to power
based on the dream of becoming divine.
Mind-expanding techniques are meant to reveal to
people their divine power; by using this power, people prepare the
way for the Age of Enlightenment. This exaltation of humanity
overturns the correct relationship between Creator and creature,
and one of its extreme forms is Satanism. Satan becomes the symbol
of a rebellion against conventions and rules, a symbol that often
takes aggressive, selfish and violent forms. Some evangelical
groups have expressed concern at the subliminal presence of what
they claim is Satanic symbolism in some varieties of rock music,
which have a powerful influence on young people. This is all far
removed from the message of peace and harmony which is to be found
in the New Testament; it is often one of the consequences of the
exaltation of humanity when that involves the negation of a
transcendent God.
But it is not only something which affects young
people; the basic themes of esoteric culture are also present in
the realms of politics, education and legislation.(37)
It is especially the case with ecology. Deep ecology's
emphasis on bio-centrism denies the anthropological vision of the
Bible, in which human beings are at the centre of the world, since
they are considered to be qualitatively superior to other natural
forms. It is very prominent in legislation and education today,
despite the fact that it underrates humanity in this way.. The
same esoteric cultural matrix can be found in the ideological
theory underlying population control policies and experiments in
genetic engineering, which seem to express a dream human beings
have of creating themselves afresh. How do people hope to do this?
By deciphering the genetic code, altering the natural rules of
sexuality, defying the limits of death.
In what might be termed a classical New Age
account, people are born with a divine spark, in a sense which is
reminiscent of ancient gnosticism; this links them into the unity
of the Whole. So they are seen as essentially divine, although
they participate in this cosmic divinity at different levels of
consciousness. We are co- creators, and we create our own reality.
Many New Age authors maintain that we choose the
circumstances of our lives (even our own illness and health), in a
vision where every individual is considered the creative source of
the universe. But we need to make a journey in order fully to
understand where we fit into the unity of the cosmos. The journey
is psychotherapy, and the recognition of universal consciousness
is salvation. There is no sin; there is only imperfect knowledge.
The identity of every human being is diluted in the universal
being and in the process of successive incarnations. People are
subject to the determining influences of the stars, but can be
opened to the divinity which lives within them, in their continual
search (by means of appropriate techniques) for an ever greater
harmony between the self and divine cosmic energy. There is no
need for Revelation or Salvation which would come to people from
outside themselves, but simply a need to experience the salvation
hidden within themselves (self-salvation), by mastering psycho-
physical techniques which lead to definitive enlightenment.
Some stages on the way to self-redemption are preparatory
(meditation, body harmony, releasing self-healing energies). They
are the starting-point for processes of spiritualisation,
perfection and enlightenment which help people to acquire further
self-control and psychic concentration on “transformation” of
the individual self into “cosmic consciousness”. The destiny
of the human person is a series of successive reincarnations of
the soul in different bodies. This is understood not as the cycle
of samsara, in the sense of purification as punishment, but
as a gradual ascent towards the perfect development of one's
potential.
Psychology is used to explain mind expansion as
“mystical” experiences. Yoga, zen, transcendental meditation
and tantric exercises lead to an experience of self-fulfilment or
enlightenment. Peak-experiences (reliving one's birth, travelling
to the gates of death, biofeedback, dance and even drugs –
anything which can provoke an altered state of consciousness) are
believed to lead to unity and enlightenment. Since there is only
one Mind, some people can be channels for higher beings.
Every part of this single universal being has contact with every
other part. The classic approach in New Age is
transpersonal psychology, whose main concepts are the Universal
Mind, the Higher Self, the collective and personal unconscious and
the individual ego. The Higher Self is our real identity, a bridge
between God as divine Mind and humanity. Spiritual development is
contact with the Higher Self, which overcomes all forms of dualism
between subject and object, life and death, psyche and soma, the
self and the fragmentary aspects of the self. Our limited
personality is like a shadow or a dream created by the real self.
The Higher Self contains the memories of earlier
(re-)incarnations.
2.3.4.2. ...God?
New Age has a marked preference for Eastern
or pre-Christian religions, which are reckoned to be
uncontaminated by Judaeo-Christian distorsions. Hence great
respect is given to ancient agricultural rites and to fertility
cults. “Gaia”, Mother Earth, is offered as an alternative to
God the Father, whose image is seen to be linked to a patriarchal
conception of male domination of women. There is talk of God, but
it is not a personal God; the God of which New Age speaks
is neither personal nor transcendent. Nor is it the Creator and
sustainer of the universe, but an “impersonal energy” immanent
in the world, with which it forms a “cosmic unity”: “All is
one”. This unity is monistic, pantheistic or, more precisely,
panentheistic. God is the “life-principle”, the “spirit or
soul of the world”, the sum total of consciousness existing in
the world. In a sense, everything is God. God's presence is
clearest in the spiritual aspects of reality, so every mind/spirit
is, in some sense, God.
When it is consciously received by men and women,
“divine energy” is often described as “Christic energy”.
There is also talk of Christ, but this does not mean Jesus of
Nazareth. “Christ” is a title applied to someone who has
arrived at a state of consciousness where he or she perceives him-
or herself to be divine and can thus claim to be a “universal
Master”. Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ, but simply
one among many historical figures in whom this “Christic”
nature is revealed, as is the case with Buddha and others. Every
historical realisation of the Christ shows clearly that all
human beings are heavenly and divine, and leads them towards this
realisation.
The innermost and most personal (“psychic”)
level on which this “divine cosmic energy” is “heard” by
human beings is also called “Holy Spirit”.
2.3.4.3.
...the world?
The move from a mechanistic model of classical
physics to the “holistic” one of modern atomic and sub-atomic
physics, based on the concept of matter as waves or energy rather
than particles, is central to much New Age thinking. The
universe is an ocean of energy, which is a single whole or a
network of links. The energy animating the single organism which
is the universe is “spirit”. There is no alterity between God
and the world. The world itself is divine and it undergoes an
evolutionary process which leads from inert matter to “higher
and perfect consciousness”. The world is uncreated, eternal and
self-sufficient The future of the world is based on an inner
dynamism which is necessarily positive and leads to the reconciled
(divine) unity of all that exists. God and the world, soul and
body, intelligence and feeling, heaven and earth are one immense
vibration of energy.
James Lovelock's book on the Gaia Hypothesis
claims that “the entire range of living matter on earth, from
whales to viruses, and from oaks to algae, could be regarded as
constituting a single living entity, capable of manipulating the
Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with
faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts”.(38)
To some, the Gaia hypothesis is “a strange synthesis of
individualism and collectivism. It all happens as if New Age,
having plucked people out of fragmentary politics, cannot wait to
throw them into the great cauldron of the global mind”. The
global brain needs institutions with which to rule, in other
words, a world government. “To deal with today's problems New
Age dreams of a spiritual aristocracy in the style of Plato's
Republic, run by secret societies...”.(39)
This may be an exaggerated way of stating the case, but there is
much evidence that gnostic élitism and global governance coincide
on many issues in international politics.
Everything in the universe is interelated; in fact
every part is in itself an image of the totality; the whole is in
every thing and every thing is in the whole. In the “great chain
of being”, all beings are intimately linked and form one family
with different grades of evolution. Every human person is a
hologram, an image of the whole of creation, in which every
thing vibrates on its own frequency. Every human being is a
neurone in earth's central nervous system, and all individual
entities are in a relationship of complementarity with others. In
fact, there is an inner complementarity or androgyny in the whole
of creation.(40)
One of the recurring themes in New Age writings
and thought is the “new paradigm” which contemporary science
has opened up. “Science has given us insights into wholes and
systems, stress and transformation. We are learning to read
tendencies, to recognise the early signs of another, more
promising, paradigm. We create alternative scenarios of the
future. We communicate about the failures of old systems, forcing
new frameworks for problem-solving in every area”.(41)
Thus far, the “paradigm shift” is a radical change of
perspective, but nothing more. The question is whether thought and
real change are commensurate, and how effective in the external
world an inner transformation can be proved to be. One is forced
to ask, even without expressing a negative judgement, how
scientific a thought-process can be when it involves affirmations
like this: “War is unthinkable in a society of autonomous people
who have discovered the connectedness of all humanity, who are
unafraid of alien ideas and alien cultures, who know that all
revolutions begin within and that you cannot impose your brand of
enlightenment on anyone else”.(42)
It is illogical to conclude from the fact that something is
unthinkable that it cannot happen. Such reasoning is really
gnostic, in the sense of giving too much power to knowledge and
consciousness. This is not to deny the fundamental and crucial
role of developing consciousness in scientific discovery and
creative development, but simply to caution against imposing upon
external reality what is as yet still only in the mind.
2.4.
“Inhabitants of myth rather than history”(43)?:
New Age and culture
“Basically, the appeal of the New Age has
to do with the culturally stimulated interest in the self, its
value, capacities and problems. Whereas traditionalised
religiosity, with its hierarchical organization, is well-suited
for the community, detraditionalized spirituality is well-suited
for the individual. The New Age is 'of' the self in that it
facilitates celebration of what it is to be and to become; and
'for' the self in that by differing from much of the mainstream,
it is positioned to handle identity problems generated by
conventional forms of life”.(44)
The rejection of tradition in the form of
patriarchal, hierarchical social or ecclesial organisation implies
the search for an alternative form of society, one that is clearly
inspired by the modern notion of the self. Many New Age writings
argue that one can do nothing (directly) to change the world, but
everything to change oneself; changing individual consciousness is
understood to be the (indirect) way to change the world. The most
important instrument for social change is personal example.
Worldwide recognition of these personal examples will steadily
lead to the transformation of the collective mind and such a
transformation will be the major achievement of our time. This is
clearly part of the holistic paradigm, and a re-statement of the
classical philosophical question of the one and the many. It is
also linked to Jung's espousal of the theory of correspondence and
his rejection of causality. Individuals are fragmentary
representations of the planetary hologram; by looking within one
not only knows the universe, but also changes it.
But the more one looks within, the smaller the political arena
becomes. Does this really fit in with the rhetoric of democratic
participation in a new planetary order, or is it an unconscious
and subtle disempowerment of people, which could leave them open
to manipulation? Does the current preoccupation with planetary
problems (ecological issues, depletion of resources,
over-population, the economic gap between north and south, the
huge nuclear arsenal and political instability) enable or disable
engagement in other, equally real, political and social questions?
The old adage that “charity begins at home” can give a healthy
balance to one's approach to these issues. Some observers of
New Age detect a sinister authoritarianism behind apparent
indifference to politics. David Spangler himself points out that
one of the shadows of the New Age is “a subtle surrender
to powerlessness and irresponsibility in the name of waiting for
the New Age to come rather than being an active creator of
wholeness in one's own life”.(45)
Even though it would hardly be correct to suggest
that quietism is universal in New Age attitudes, one of the
chief criticisms of the New Age Movement is that its
privatistic quest for self-fulfilment may actually work against
the possibility of a sound religious culture. Three points bring
this into focus:
– it is questionable whether New Age demonstrates
the intellectual cogency to provide a complete picture of
the cosmos in a world view which claims to integrate nature and
spiritual reality. The Western universe is seen as a divided one
based on monotheism, transcendence, alterity and separateness. A
fundamental dualism is detected in such divisions as those between
real and ideal, relative and absolute, finite and infinite, human
and divine, sacred and profane, past and present, all redolent of
Hegel's “unhappy consciousness”. This is portrayed as
something tragic. The response from New Age is unity
through fusion: it claims to reconcile soul and body, female and
male, spirit and matter, human and divine, earth and cosmos,
transcendent and immanent, religion and science, differences
between religions, Yin and Yang. There is, thus, no more alterity;
what is left in human terms is transpersonality. The New Age
world is unproblematic: there is nothing left to achieve. But the
metaphysical question of the one and the many remains unanswered,
perhaps even unasked, in that there is a great deal of regret at
the effects of disunity and division, but the response is a
description of how things would appear in another vision.
– New Age imports Eastern religious
practices piecemeal and re- interprets them to suit Westerners;
this involves a rejection of the language of sin and salvation,
replacing it with the morally neutral language of addiction and
recovery. References to extra-European influences are sometimes
merely a “pseudo-Orientalisation” of Western culture.
Furthermore, it is hardly a genuine dialogue; in a context where
Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian influences are suspect, oriental
influences are used precisely because they are alternatives to
Western culture. Traditional science and medicine are felt to be
inferior to holistic approaches, as are patriarchal and particular
structures in politics and religion. All of these will be
obstacles to the coming of the Age of Aquarius; once again, it is
clear that what is implied when people opt for New Age
alternatives is a complete break with the tradition that formed
them. Is this as mature and liberated as it is often thought or
presumed to be?
– Authentic religious traditions encourage
discipline with the eventual goal of acquiring wisdom,
equanimity and compassion. New Age echoes society's deep,
ineradicable yearning for an integral religious culture, and for
something more generic and enlightened than what politicians
generally offer, but it is not clear whether the benefits of a
vision based on the ever-expanding self are for individuals or for
societies. New Age training courses (what used to be known
as “Erhard seminar trainings” [EST] etc.) marry
counter-cultural values with the mainstream need to succeed, inner
satisfaction with outer success; Findhorn's “Spirit of
Business” retreat transforms the experience of work while
increasing productivity; some New Age devotees are involved
not only to become more authentic and spontaneous, but also in
order to become more prosperous (through magic etc.). “What
makes things even more appealing to the enterprise-minded
businessperson is that New Age trainings also resonate with
somewhat more humanistic ideas abroad in the world of business.
The ideas have to do with the workplace as a 'learning
environment', 'bringing life back to work', 'humanizing work',
'fulfilling the manager', 'people come first' or 'unlocking
potential'. Presented by New Age trainers, they are likely to
appeal to those businesspeople who have already been involved with
more (secular) humanistic trainings and who want to take things
further: at one and the same time for the sake of personal growth,
happiness and enthusiasm, as well as for commercial
productivity”.(46)
So it is clear that people involved do seek wisdom and equanimity
for their own benefit, but how much do the activities in which
they are involved enable them to work for the common good? Apart
from the question of motivation, all of these phenomena need to be
judged by their fruits, and the question to ask is whether they
promote self or solidarity, not only with whales,
trees or like-minded people, but with the whole of creation –
including the whole of humanity. The most pernicious consequences
of any philosophy of egoism which is embraced by institutions or
by large numbers of people are identified by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger as a set of “strategies to reduce the number of those
who will eat at humanity's table”.(47)
This is a key standard by which to evaluate the impact of any
philosophy or theory. Christianity always seeks to measure human
endeavours by their openness to the Creator and to all other
creatures, a respect based firmly on love.
2.5.
Why has New Age grown so rapidly and spread so effectively?
Whatever questions and criticisms it may attract, New
Age is an attempt by people who experience the world as harsh
and heartless to bring warmth to that world. As a reaction to
modernity, it operates more often than not on the level of
feelings, instincts and emotions. Anxiety about an apocalyptic
future of economic instability, political uncertainty and climatic
change plays a large part in causing people to look for an
alternative, resolutely optimistic relationship to the cosmos.
There is a search for wholeness and happiness, often on an
explicitly spiritual level. But it is significant that New Age
has enjoyed enormous success in an era which can be characterised
by the almost universal exaltation of diversity. Western
culture has taken a step beyond tolerance – in the sense of
grudging acceptance or putting up with the idiosyncrasies of a
person or a minority group – to a conscious erosion of respect
for normality. Normality is presented as a morally loaded concept,
linked necessarily with absolute norms. For a growing number of
people, absolute beliefs or norms indicate nothing but an
inability to tolerate other people's views and convictions. In
this atmosphere alternative life-styles and theories have really
taken off: it is not only acceptable but positively good to be
diverse.(48)
It is essential to bear in mind that people are
involved with New Age in very different ways and on many
levels. In most cases it is not really a question of
“belonging” to a group or movement; nor is there much
conscious awareness of the principles on which New Age is
built. It seems that, for the most part, people are attracted to
particular therapies or practices, without going into their
background, and others are simply occasional consumers of products
which are labelled “New Age”. People who use
aromatherapy or listen to “New Age” music, for example,
are usually interested in the effect they have on their health or
well-being; it is only a minority who go further into the subject,
and try to understand its theoretical (or “mystical”)
significance. This fits perfectly into the patterns of consumption
in societies where amusement and leisure play such an important
part. The “movement” has adapted well to the laws of the
market, and it is partly because it is such an attractive economic
proposition that New Age has become so widespread. New
Age has been seen, in some cultures at least, as the label for
a product created by the application of marketing principles to a
religious phenomenon.(49)
There is always going to be a way of profiting from people's
perceived spiritual needs. Like many other things in contemporary
economics, New Age is a global phenomenon held together and
fed with information by the mass media. It is arguable that this
global community was created by means of the mass media, and it is
quite clear that popular literature and mass communications ensure
that the common notions held by “believers” and sympathisers
spread almost everywhere very rapidly. However, there is no way of
proving that such a rapid spread of ideas is either by chance or
by design, since this is a very loose form of “community”.
Like the cybercommunities created by the Internet, it is a domain
where relationships between people can be either very impersonal
or interpersonal in only a very selective sense.
New Age has become immensely popular as a
loose set of beliefs, therapies and practices, which are often
selected and combined at will, irrespective of the
incompatibilities and inconsistencies this may imply. But this is
obviously to be expected in a world- view self-consciously based
on “right-brain” intuitive thinking. And that is precisely why
it is important to discover and recognise the fundamental
characteristics of New Age ideas. What is offered is often
described as simply “spiritual”, rather than belonging to any
religion, but there are much closer links to particular Eastern
religions than many “consumers” realise. This is obviously
important in “prayer”-groups to which people choose to belong,
but it is also a real question for management in a growing number
of companies, whose employees are required to practise meditation
and adopt mind-expanding techniques as part of their life at work.(50)
It is worth saying a brief word about concerted
promotion of New Age as an ideology, but this is a very
complex issue. Some groups have reacted to New Age with
sweeping accusations about conspiracies, but the answer would
generally be that we are witnessing a spontaneous cultural change
whose course is fairly determined by influences beyond human
control. However, it is enough to point out that New Age
shares with a number of internationally influential groups the
goal of superseding or transcending particular religions in order
to create space for a universal religion which could unite
humanity. Closely related to this is a very concerted effort on
the part of many institutions to invent a Global Ethic, an
ethical framework which would reflect the global nature of
contemporary culture, economics and politics. Further, the
politicisation of ecological questions certainly colours the whole
question of the Gaia hypothesis or worship of mother earth.
3
NEW AGE AND CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
3.1. New
Age as spirituality
New Age is often referred to by those who
promote it as a “new spirituality”. It seems ironic to call it
“new” when so many of its ideas have been taken from ancient
religions and cultures. But what really is new is that New Age
is a conscious search for an alternative to Western culture and
its Judaeo-Christian religious roots. “Spirituality” in this
way refers to the inner experience of harmony and unity with the
whole of reality, which heals each human person's feelings of
imperfection and finiteness. People discover their profound
connectedness with the sacred universal force or energy which is
the nucleus of all life. When they have made this discovery, men
and women can set out on a path to perfection, which will enable
them to sort out their personal lives and their relationship to
the world, and to take their place in the universal process of
becoming and in the New Genesis of a world in constant evolution.
The result is a cosmic mysticism (51)
based on people's awareness of a universe burgeoning with dynamic
energies. Thus cosmic energy, vibration, light, God, love – even
the supreme Self – all refer to one and the same reality, the
primal source present in every being.
This spirituality consists of two distinct
elements, one metaphysical, the other psychological. The
metaphysical component comes from New Age's esoteric
and theosophical roots, and is basically a new form of gnosis.
Access to the divine is by knowledge of hidden mysteries, in each
individual's search for “the real behind what is only apparent,
the origin beyond time, the transcendent beyond what is merely
fleeting, the primordial tradition behind merely ephemeral
tradition, the other behind the self, the cosmic divinity beyond
the incarnate individual”. Esoteric spirituality “is an
investigation of Being beyond the separateness of beings, a sort
of nostalgia for lost unity”.(52)
“Here one can see the gnostic matrix of esoteric
spirituality. It is evident when the children of Aquarius search
for the Transcendent Unity of religions. They tend to pick out of
the historical religions only the esoteric nucleus, whose
guardians they claim to be. They somehow deny history and will not
accept that spirituality can be rooted in time or in any
institution. Jesus of Nazareth is not God, but one of the many
historical manifestations of the cosmic and universal Christ”.(53)
The psychological component of this kind of
spirituality comes from the encounter between esoteric culture and
psychology (cf. 2.32). New Age thus becomes an experience
of personal psycho- spiritual transformation, seen as analogous to
religious experience. For some people this transformation takes
the form of a deep mystical experience, after a personal crisis or
a lengthy spiritual search. For others it comes from the use of
meditation or some sort of therapy, or from paranormal experiences
which alter states of consciousness and provide insight into the
unity of reality.(54)
3.2.
Spiritual narcissism?
Several authors see New Age spirituality as
a kind of spiritual narcissism or pseudo-mysticism. It is
interesting to note that this criticism was put forward even by an
important exponent of New Age, David Spangler, who, in his
later works, distanced himself from the more esoteric aspects of
this current of thought.
He wrote that, in the more popular forms of New
Age, “individuals and groups are living out their own
fantasies of adventure and power, usually of an occult or
millenarian form.... The principal characteristic of this level is
attachment to a private world of ego-fulfilment and a consequent
(though not always apparent) withdrawal from the world. On this
level, the New Age has become populated with strange and
exotic beings, masters, adepts, extraterrestrials; it is a place
of psychic powers and occult mysteries, of conspiracies and hidden
teachings”.(55)
In a later work, David Spangler lists what he sees
as the negative elements or “shadows” of the New Age:
“alienation from the past in the name of the future; attachment
to novelty for its own sake...; indiscriminateness and lack of
discernment in the name of wholeness and communion, hence the
failure to understand or respect the role of boundaries...;
confusion of psychic phenomena with wisdom, of channeling with
spirituality, of the New Age perspective with ultimate
truth”.(56)
But, in the end, Spangler is convinced that selfish, irrational
narcissism is limited to just a few new-agers. The positive
aspects he stresses are the function of New Age as an image
of change and as an incarnation of the sacred, a movement in which
most people are “very serious seekers after truth”, working in
the interest of life and inner growth.
The commercial aspect of many products and
therapies which bear the New Age label is brought out by
David Toolan, an American Jesuit who spent several years in the
New Age milieu. He observes that new-agers have discovered the
inner life and are fascinated by the prospect of being responsible
for the world, but that they are also easily overcome by a
tendency to individualism and to viewing everything as an object
of consumption. In this sense, while it is not Christian, New
Age spirituality is not Buddhist either, inasmuch as it does
not involve self-denial. The dream of mystical union seems to
lead, in practice, to a merely virtual union, which, in the end,
leaves people more alone and unsatisfied.
3.3. The
Cosmic Christ
In the early days of Christianity, believers in
Jesus Christ were forced to face up to the gnostic religions. They
did not ignore them, but took the challenge positively and applied
the terms used of cosmic deities to Christ himself. The clearest
example of this is in the famous hymn to Christ in Saint Paul's
letter to the Christians at Colossae:
“He is the image of the unseen God and the
first-born of all creation,
for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers–
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed, and he holds all things
in unity.
Now the Church is his body, he is its head.
As he is the Beginning, he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace by his death on the cross” (Col 1:
15-20).
For these early Christians, there was no new
cosmic age to come; what they were celebrating with this hymn was
the Fulfilment of all things which had begun in Christ. “Time is
indeed fulfilled by the very fact that God, in the Incarnation,
came down into human history. Eternity entered into time: what 'fulfilment'
could be greater than this? What other 'fulfilment' would be
possible?” (57)
Gnostic belief in cosmic powers and some obscure kind of destiny
withdraws the possibility of a relationship to a personal God
revealed in Christ. For Christians, the real cosmic Christ is the
one who is present actively in the various members of his body,
which is the Church. They do not look to impersonal cosmic powers,
but to the loving care of a personal God; for them cosmic
bio-centrism has to be transposed into a set of social
relationships (in the Church); and they are not locked into a
cyclical pattern of cosmic events, but focus on the historical
Jesus, in particular on his crucifixion and resurrection. We find
in the Letter to the Colossians and in the New Testament a
doctrine of God different from that implicit in New Age
thought: the Christian conception of God is one of a Trinity of
Persons who has created the human race out of a desire to share
the communion of Trinitarian life with creaturely persons.
Properly understood, this means that authentic spirituality is not
so much our search for God but God's search for us.
Another, completely different, view of the cosmic
significance of Christ has become current in New Age circles.
“The Cosmic Christ is the divine pattern that connects in
the person of Jesus Christ (but by no means is limited to that
person). The divine pattern of connectivity was made flesh and
set up its tent among us (John 1:14).... The Cosmic Christ...
leads a new exodus from the bondage and pessimistic views of a
Newtonian, mechanistic universe so ripe with competition, winners
and losers, dualisms, anthropocentrism, and the boredom that comes
when our exciting universe is pictured as a machine bereft of
mystery and mysticism. The Cosmic Christ is local and historical,
indeed intimate to human history. The Cosmic Christ might be
living next door or even inside one's deepest and truest self”.(58)
Although this statement may not satisfy everyone involved in
New Age, it does catch the tone very well, and it shows with
absolute clarity where the differences between these two views of
Christ lie. For New Age the Cosmic Christ is seen as a
pattern which can be repeated in many people, places and times; it
is the bearer of an enormous paradigm shift; it is ultimately a
potential within us.
According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ is not
a pattern, but a divine person whose human-divine figure reveals
the mystery of the Father's love for every person throughout
history (Jn 3:16); he lives in us because he shares his
life with us, but it is neither imposed nor automatic. All men and
women are invited to share his life, to live “in Christ”.
3.4.
Christian mysticism and New Age mysticism
For Christians, the spiritual life is a
relationship with God which gradually through his grace becomes
deeper, and in the process also sheds light on our relationship
with our fellow men and women, and with the universe. Spirituality
in New Age terms means experiencing states of consciousness
dominated by a sense of harmony and fusion with the Whole. So
“mysticism” refers not to meeting the transcendent God in the
fullness of love, but to the experience engendered by turning in
on oneself, an exhilarating sense of being at one with the
universe, a sense of letting one's individuality sink into the
great ocean of Being.(59)
This fundamental distinction is evident at all
levels of comparison between Christian mysticism and New Age
mysticism. The New Age way of purification is based on
awareness of unease or alienation, which is to be overcome by
immersion into the Whole. In order to be converted, a person needs
to make use of techniques which lead to the experience of
illumination. This transforms a person's consciousness and opens
him or her to contact with the divinity, which is understood as
the deepest essence of reality.
The techniques and methods offered in this
immanentist religious system, which has no concept of God as
person, proceed 'from below'. Although they involve a descent into
the depths of one's own heart or soul, they constitute an
essentially human enterprise on the part of a person who seeks to
rise towards divinity by his or her own efforts. It is often an
“ascent” on the level of consciousness to what is understood
to be a liberating awareness of “the god within”. Not everyone
has access to these techniques, whose benefits are restricted to a
privileged spiritual 'aristocracy'.
The essential element in Christian faith, however,
is God's descent towards his creatures, particularly towards the
humblest, those who are weakest and least gifted according to the
values of the “world”. There are spiritual techniques which it
is useful to learn, but God is able to by-pass them or do without
them. A Christian's “method of getting closer to God is not
based on any technique in the strict sense of the word.
That would contradict the spirit of childhood called for by the
Gospel. The heart of genuine Christian mysticism is not technique:
it is always a gift of God; and the one who benefits from it knows
himself to be unworthy”.(60)
For Christians, conversion is turning back to the
Father, through the Son, in docility to the power of the Holy
Spirit. The more people progress in their relationship with God
– which is always and in every way a free gift – the more
acute is the need to be converted from sin, spiritual myopia and
self-infatuation, all of which obstruct a trusting
self-abandonment to God and openness to other men and women.
All meditation techniques need to be purged of
presumption and pretentiousness. Christian prayer is not an
exercise in self-contemplation, stillness and self-emptying, but a
dialogue of love, one which “implies an attitude of conversion,
a flight from 'self' to the 'You' of God”.(61)
It leads to an increasingly complete surrender to God's will,
whereby we are invited to a deep, genuine solidarity with our
brothers and sisters.(62)
3.5.
The “god within“ and “theosis”
Here is a key point of contrast between New Age
and Christianity. So much New Age literature is shot
through with the conviction that there is no divine being “out
there”, or in any real way distinct from the rest of reality.
From Jung's time onwards there has been a stream of people
professing belief in “the god within”. Our problem, in a New
Age perspective, is our inability to recognise our own
divinity, an inability which can be overcome with the help of
guidance and the use of a whole variety of techniques for
unlocking our hidden (divine) potential. The fundamental idea is
that 'God' is deep within ourselves. We are gods, and we discover
the unlimited power within us by peeling off layers of
inauthenticity.(63)
The more this potential is recognised, the more it is realised,
and in this sense the New Age has its own idea of
theosis, becoming divine or, more precisely, recognising and
accepting that we are divine. We are said by some to be living in
“an age in which our understanding of God has to be interiorised:
from the Almighty God out there to God the dynamic, creative power
within the very centre of all being: God as Spirit”.(64)
In the Preface to Book V of Adversus Haereses,
Saint Irenaeus refers to “Jesus Christ, who did, through His
transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to
be even what He is Himself”. Here theosis, the Christian
understanding of divinisation, comes about not through our own
efforts alone, but with the assistance of God's grace working in
and through us. It inevitably involves an initial awareness of
incompleteness and even sinfulness, in no way an exaltation of the
self. Furthermore, it unfolds as an introduction into the life of
the Trinity, a perfect case of distinction at the heart of unity;
it is synergy rather than fusion. This all comes about as the
result of a personal encounter, an offer of a new kind of life.
Life in Christ is not something so personal and private that it is
restricted to the realm of consciousness. Nor is it merely a new
level of awareness. It involves being transformed in our soul and
in our body by participation in the sacramental life of the
Church.
4
NEW AGE AND CHRISTIAN FAITH IN CONTRAST
It is difficult to separate the individual
elements of New Age religiosity – innocent though they
may appear – from the overarching framework which permeates the
whole thought-world on the New Age movement. The gnostic
nature of this movement calls us to judge it in its entirety. From
the point of view of Christian faith, it is not possible to
isolate some elements of New Age religiosity as acceptable
to Christians, while rejecting others. Since the New Age
movement makes much of a communication with nature, of cosmic
knowledge of a universal good – thereby negating the revealed
contents of Christian faith – it cannot be viewed as positive or
innocuous. In a cultural environment, marked by religious
relativism, it is necessary to signal a warning against the
attempt to place New Age religiosity on the same level as
Christian faith, making the difference between faith and belief
seem relative, thus creating greater confusion for the unwary. In
this regard, it is useful to remember the exhortation of St. Paul
“to instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to
concern themselves with myths and endless genealogies, which
promote speculations rather than the plan of God that is to be
received by faith” (1 Tim 1:3-4). Some practices are
incorrectly labeled as New Age simply as a marketing
strategy to make them sell better, but are not truly associated
with its worldview. This only adds to the confusion. It is
therefore necessary to accurately identify those elements which
belong to the New Age movement, and which cannot be
accepted by those who are faithful to Christ and his Church.
The following questions may be the easiest key to
evaluating some of the central elements of New Age thought
and practice from a Christian standpoint. “New Age”
refers to the ideas which circulate about God, the human being and
the world, the people with whom Christians may have conversations
on religious matters, the publicity material for meditation
groups, therapies and the like, explicit statements on religion
and so on. Some of these questions applied to people and ideas not
explicitly labelled New Age would reveal further unnamed or
unacknowledged links with the whole New Age atmosphere.
* Is God a being with whom we have a
relationship or something to be used or a force to be harnessed?
The New Age concept of God is rather
diffuse, whereas the Christian concept is a very clear one. The New
Age god is an impersonal energy, really a particular extension
or component of the cosmos; god in this sense is the life-force or
soul of the world. Divinity is to be found in every being, in a
gradation “from the lowest crystal of the mineral world up to
and beyond the Galactic God himself, about Whom we can say nothing
at all. This is not a man but a Great Consciousness”.(65)
In some “classic” New Age writings, it is clear that
human beings are meant to think of themselves as gods: this is
more fully developed in some people than in others. God is no
longer to be sought beyond the world, but deep within myself.(66)
Even when “God” is something outside myself, it is there to be
manipulated.
This is very different from the Christian
understanding of God as the maker of heaven and earth and the
source of all personal life. God is in himself personal, the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created the universe in order to
share the communion of his life with creaturely persons. “God,
who 'dwells in unapprochable light', wants to communicate his own
divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them
as his sons in his only-begotten Son. By revealing himself God
wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing
him, and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity”.(67)God
is not identified with the Life-principle understood as the
“Spirit” or “basic energy” of the cosmos, but is that love
which is absolutely different from the world, and yet creatively
present in everything, and leading human beings to salvation.
* Is there just one Jesus Christ,
or are there thousands of Christs?
Jesus Christ is often presented in New Age
literature as one among many wise men, or initiates, or avatars,
whereas in Christian tradition He is the Son of God. Here are some
common points in New Age approaches:
– the personal and individual historical Jesus
is distinct from the eternal, impersonal universal Christ;
– Jesus is not considered to be the only Christ;
– the death of Jesus on the cross is either
denied or re-interpreted to exclude the idea that He, as Christ,
could have suffered;
– extra-biblical documents (like the neo-gnostic
gospels) are considered authentic sources for the knowledge of
aspects of the life of Jesus which are not to be found in the
canon of Scripture. Other revelations about Jesus, made available
by entities, spirit guides and ascended masters, or even through
the Akasha Chronicles, are basic for New Age
christology;
– a kind of esoteric exegesis is applied to
biblical texts to purify Christianity of the formal religion which
inhibits access to its esoteric essence.(68)
In the Christian Tradition Jesus Christ is the
Jesus of Nazareth about which the gospels speak, the son of Mary
and the only Son of God, true man and true God, the full
revelation of divine truth, unique Saviour of the world: “for
our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died
and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of
the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right
hand of the Father”.(69)
* The human being: is there one
universal being or are there many individuals?
“The point of New Age techniques is to
reproduce mystical states at will, as if it were a matter of
laboratory material. Rebirth, biofeedback, sensory isolation,
holotropic breathing, hypnosis, mantras, fasting, sleep
deprivation and transcendental meditation are attempts to control
these states and to experience them continuously”.(70)
These practices all create an atmosphere of psychic weakness (and
vulnerability). When the object of the exercise is that we should
re-invent our selves, there is a real question of who “I” am.
“God within us” and holistic union with the whole cosmos
underline this question. Isolated individual personalities would
be pathological in terms of New Age (in particular
transpersonal psychology). But “the real danger is the holistic
paradigm. New Age is thinking based on totalitarian unity
and that is why it is a danger...”.(71)
More moderately: “We are authentic when we 'take charge of'
ourselves, when our choice and reactions flow spontaneously from
our deepest needs, when our behaviour and expressed feelings
reflect our personal wholeness”.(72)
The Human Potential Movement is the clearest example of the
conviction that humans are divine, or contain a divine spark
within themselves.
The Christian approach grows out of the
Scriptural teachings about human nature; men and women are created
in God's image and likeness (Gen 1.27) and God takes great
consideration of them, much to the relieved surprise of the
Psalmist (cf. Ps 8). The human person is a mystery fully revealed
only in Jesus Christ (cf. GS 22),and in fact becomes authentically
human properly in his relationship with Christ through the gift of
the Spirit.(73)This
is far from the caricature of anthropocentrism ascribed to
Christianity and rejected by many New Age authors and
practitioners.
* Do we save ourselves or is
salvation a free gift from God?
The key is to discover by what or by whom we
believe we are saved. Do we save ourselves by our own actions, as
is often the case in New Age explanations, or are we saved
by God's love? Key words are self-fulfilment and self-realisation,
self-redemption. New Age is essentially Pelagian in
its understanding of about human nature.(74)
For Christians, salvation depends on a
participation in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ,
and on a direct personal relationship with God rather than on any
technique. The human situation, affected as it is by original sin
and by personal sin, can only be rectified by God's action: sin is
an offense against God, and only God can reconcile us to himself.
In the divine plan of salvation, human beings have been saved by
Jesus Christ who, as God and man, is the one mediator of
redemption. In Christianity salvation is not an experience of
self, a meditative and intuitive dwelling within oneself, but much
more the forgiveness of sin, being lifted out of profound
ambivalences in oneself and the calming of nature by the gift of
communion with a loving God. The way to salvation is not found
simply in a self-induced transformation of consciousness, but in a
liberation from sin and its consequences which then leads us to
struggle against sin in ourselves and in the society around us. It
necessarily moves us toward loving solidarity with our neighbour
in need.
* Do we invent truth or do we
embrace it?
New Age truth is about good vibrations,
cosmic correspondences, harmony and ecstasy, in general pleasant
experiences. It is a matter of finding one's own truth in
accordance with the feel- good factor. Evaluating religion and
ethical questions is obviously relative to one's own feelings and
experiences.
Jesus Christ is presented in Christian teaching
as “The Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14.6). His
followers are asked to open their whole lives to him and to his
values, in other words to an objective set of requirements which
are part of an objective reality ultimately knowable by all.
* Prayer and meditation: are we
talking to ourselves or to God?
The tendency to confuse psychology and
spirituality makes it hard not to insist that many of the
meditation techniques now used are not prayer. They are
often a good preparation for prayer, but no more, even if they
lead to a more pleasant state of mind or bodily comfort. The
experiences involved are genuinely intense, but to remain at this
level is to remain alone, not yet in the presence of the other.
The achievement of silence can confront us with emptiness, rather
than the silence of contemplating the beloved. It is also true
that techniques for going deeper into one's own soul are
ultimately an appeal to one's own ability to reach the divine, or
even to become divine: if they forget God's search for the human
heart they are still not Christian prayer. Even when it is seen as
a link with the Universal Energy, “such an easy 'relationship'
with God, where God's function is seen as supplying all our needs,
shows the selfishness at the heart of this New Age”.(75)
New Age practices are not really prayer, in
that they are generally a question of introspection or fusion with
cosmic energy, as opposed to the double orientation of Christian
prayer, which involves introspection but is essentially also a
meeting with God. Far from being a merely human effort, Christian
mysticism is essentially a dialogue which “implies an attitude
of conversion, a flight from 'self' to the 'you' of God”.(76)“The
Christian, even when he is alone and prays in secret, he is
conscious that he always prays for the good of the Church in union
with Christ, in the Holy Spirit and together with all the
saints”.(77)
* Are we tempted to deny sin or do
we accept that there is such a thing?
In New Age there is no real concept of sin,
but rather one of imperfect knowledge; what is needed is
enlightenment, which can be reached through particular
psycho-physical techniques. Those who take part in New Age
activities will not be told what to believe, what to do or what
not to do, but: “There are a thousand ways of exploring inner
reality. Go where your intelligence and intuition lead you. Trust
yourself”.(78)
Authority has shifted from a theistic location to within the self.
The most serious problem perceived in New Age thinking is
alienation from the whole cosmos, rather than personal failure or
sin. The remedy is to become more and more immersed in the whole
of being. In some New Age writings and practices, it is
clear that one life is not enough, so there have to be
reincarnations to allow people to realise their full potential.
In the Christian perspective “only the light
of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly
of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge
Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are
tempted to explain it as merely a development flaw, a
psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of
an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of
God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of freedom
that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of
loving him and loving one another”.(79)Sin
is an offense against reason, truth and right conscience; it is a
failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse
attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and
injures human solidarity...(80)Sin
is an offense against God... sin sets itself against God's love
for us and turns our hearts away from it... Sin is thus 'love of
oneself even to contempt of God'”.(81)
* Are we encouraged to reject or
accept suffering and death?
Some New Age writers view suffering as
self-imposed, or as bad karma, or at least as a failure to harness
one's own resources. Others concentrate on methods of achieving
success and wealth (e.g. Deepak Chopra, José Silva et al.). In New
Age, reincarnation is often seen as a necessary element in
spiritual growth, a stage in progressive spiritual evolution which
began before we were born and will continue after we die. In our
present lives the experience of the death of other people provokes
a healthy crisis.
Both cosmic unity and reincarnation are
irreconcilable with the Christian belief that a human person is a
distinct being, who lives one life, for which he or she is fully
responsible: this understanding of the person puts into question
both responsibility and freedom. Christians know that “in the
cross of Christ not only is the redemption accomplished through
suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed.
Christ – without any fault of his own – took on himself 'the
total evil of sin'. The experience of this evil determined the
incomparable extent of Christ's suffering, which became the price
of the redemption... The Redeemer suffered in place of man and for
man. Every man has his own share in the redemption, Each one is
also called to share in that suffering through which the
redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that
suffering through which all human suffering has also been
redeemed. In bringing about the redemption through suffering,
Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the
redemption. Thus each man in his suffering can also become a
sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ”.(82)
* Is social commitment something
shirked or positively sought after?
Much in New Age is unashamedly
self-promotion, but some leading figures in the movement claim
that it is unfair to judge the whole movement by a minority of
selfish, irrational and narcissistic people, or to allow oneself
to be dazzled by some of their more bizarre practices, which are a
block to seeing in New Age a genuine spiritual search and
spirituality.(83)
The fusion of individuals into the cosmic self, the relativisation
or abolition of difference and opposition in a cosmic harmony, is
unacceptable to Christianity.
Where there is true love, there has to be a
different other (person). A genuine Christian searches for unity
in the capacity and freedom of the other to say “yes” or
“no” to the gift of love. Union is seen in Christianity as
communion, unity as community.
* Is our future in the stars or do
we help to construct it?
The New Age which is dawning will be
peopled by perfect, androgynous beings who are totally in command
of the cosmic laws of nature. In this scenario, Christianity has
to be eliminated and give way to a global religion and a new world
order.
Christians are in a constant state of
vigilance, ready for the last days when Christ will come again;
their New Age began 2000 years ago, with Christ, who is none other
than “Jesus of Nazareth; he is the Word of God made man for the
salvation of all”. His Holy Spirit is present and active in the
hearts of individuals, in “society and history, peoples,
cultures and religions”. In fact, “the Spirit of the Father,
bestowed abundantly by the Son, is the animator of all”.(84)We
live in the last times.
On the one hand, it is clear that many New Age
practices seem to those involved in them not to raise doctrinal
questions; but, at the same time, it is undeniable that these
practices themselves communicate, even if only indirectly, a
mentality which can influence thinking and inspire a very
particular vision of reality. Certainly New Age creates its
own atmosphere, and it can be hard to distinguish between things
which are innocuous and those which really need to be questioned.
However, it is well to be aware that the doctrine of the Christ
spread in New Age circles is inspired by the theosophical
teachings of Helena Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy and
Alice Bailey's “Arcane School”. Their contemporary followers
are not only promoting their ideas now, but also working with New
Agers to develop a completely new understanding of reality, a
doctrine known by some observers as “New Age truth”.(85)
5
JESUS CHRIST OFFERS US THE WATER OF LIFE
The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her
Lord. He is at the heart of every Christian action, and every
Christian message. So the Church constantly returns to meet her
Lord. The Gospels tell of many meetings with Jesus, from the
shepherds in Bethlehem to the two thieves crucified with him, from
the wise elders who listened to him in the Temple to the disciples
walking miserably towards Emmaus. But one episode that speaks
really clearly about what he offers us is the story of his
encounter with the Samaritan woman by Jacob's well in the fourth
chapter of John's Gospel; it has even been described as “a
paradigm for our engagement with truth”.(86)
The experience of meeting the stranger who offers us the water of
life is a key to the way Christians can and should engage in
dialogue with anyone who does not know Jesus.
One of the attractive elements of John's account
of this meeting is that it takes the woman a while even to glimpse
what Jesus means by the water 'of life', or 'living' water (verse
11). Even so, she is fascinated – not only by the stranger
himself, but also by his message – and this makes her listen.
After her initial shock at realising what Jesus knew about her
(“You are right in saying 'I have no husband': for you have had
five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this
you said truly”, verses 17- 18), she was quite open to his word:
“I see you are a prophet, Sir” (verse 19). The dialogue about
the adoration of God begins: “You worship what you do not know;
we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (verse
22). Jesus touched her heart and so prepared her to listen to what
He had to say about Himself as the Messiah: “I who am speaking
to you – I am he” (verse 26), prepared her to open her heart
to the true adoration in Spirit and the self-revelation of Jesus
as God's Anointed.
1Helen Bergin o.p., “Living One's
Truth”, in The Furrow, January 2000, p. 12.
The woman “put down her water jar and hurried
back to the town to tell the people” all about the man (verse
28). The remarkable effect on the woman of her encounter with the
stranger made them so curious that they, too, “started walking
towards him” (verse 30). They soon accepted the truth of his
identity: “Now we no longer believe because of what you told us;
we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the
saviour of the world” (verse 42). They move from hearing about
Jesus to knowing him personally, then understanding the universal
significance of his identity. This all happens because their
minds, their hearts and more are engaged.
The fact that the story takes place by a well is
significant. Jesus offers the woman “a spring... welling up to
eternal life” (verse 14). The gracious way in which Jesus deals
with the woman is a model for pastoral effectiveness, helping
others to be truthful without suffering in the challenging process
of self-recognition (“he told me every thing I have done“,
verse 39). This approach could yield a rich harvest in terms of
people who may have been attracted to the water-carrier (Aquarius)
but who are genuinely still seeking the truth. They should be
invited to listen to Jesus, who offers us not simply something
that will quench our thirst today, but the hidden spiritual depths
of “living water”. It is important to acknowledge the
sincerity of people searching for the truth; there is no question
of deceit or of self-deception. It is also important to be
patient, as any good educator knows. A person embraced by the
truth is suddenly energised by a completely new sense of freedom,
especially from past failures and fears, and “the one who
strives for self-knowledge, like the woman at the well, will
affect others with a desire to know the truth that can free them
too”.(87)
An invitation to meet Jesus Christ, the bearer of
the water of life, will carry more weight if it is made by someone
who has clearly been profoundly affected by his or her own
encounter with Jesus, because it is made not by someone who has
simply heard about him, but by someone who can be sure “that he
really is the saviour of the world” (verse 42). It is a matter
of letting people react in their own way, at their own pace, and
letting God do the rest.
6 POINTS TO NOTE
6.1.
Guidance and sound formation are needed
Christ or Aquarius? New Age is
almost always linked with “alternatives”, either an
alternative vision of reality or an alternative way of improving
one's current situation (magic).(88)
Alternatives offer people not two possibilities, but only the
possibility of choosing one thing in preference to another: in
terms of religion, New Age offers an alternative to the
Judaeo-Christian heritage. The Age of Aquarius is conceived as one
which will replace the predominantly Christian Age of Pisces.
New Age thinkers are acutely aware of this; some of them are
convinced that the coming change is inevitable, while others are
actively committed to assisting its arrival. People who wonder if
it is possible to believe in both Christ and Aquarius can only
benefit from knowing that this is very much an “either-or”
situation. “No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will
either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with
respect and the second with scorn” (Lk 16.13). Christians
have only to think of the difference between the wise men from the
East and King Herod to recognise the powerful effects of choice
for or against Christ. It must never be forgotten that many of the
movements which have fed the New Age are explicitly
anti-Christian. Their stance towards Christianity is not neutral,
but neutralising: despite what is often said about openness to all
religious standpoints, traditional Christianity is not sincerely
regarded as an acceptable alternative. In fact, it is occasionally
made abundantly clear that “there is no tolerable place for true
Christianity”, and there are even arguments justifying
anti-Christian behaviour.(89)
This opposition initially was confined to the rarefied realms of
those who go beyond a superficial attachment to New Age, but
has begun more recently to permeate all levels of the
“alternative” culture which has an extraordinarily powerful
appeal, above all in sophisticated Western societies.
Fusion or confusion? New Age traditions
consciously and deliberately blur real differences: between
creator and creation, between humanity and nature, between
religion and psychology, between subjective and objective reality.
The idealistic intention is always to overcome the scandal of
division, but in New Age theory it is a question of the
systematic fusion of elements which have generally been
clearly distinguished in Western culture. Is it, perhaps, fair to
call it “confusion”? It is not playing with words to
say that New Age thrives on confusion. The Christian
tradition has always valued the role of reason in justifying faith
and in understanding God, the world and the human person.(90)
New Age has caught the mood of many in rejecting cold,
calculating, inhuman reason. While this is a positive insight,
recalling the need for a balance involving all our faculties, it
does not justify sidelining a faculty which is essential for a
fully human life. Rationality has the advantage of universality:
it is freely available to everyone, quite unlike the mysterious
and fascinating character of esoteric or gnostic “mystical”
religion. Anything which promotes conceptual confusion or secrecy
needs to be very carefully scrutinised. It hides rather than
reveals the ultimate nature of reality. It corresponds to the
post-modern loss of confidence in the bold certainties of former
times, which often involves taking refuge in irrationality. The
challenge is to show how a healthy partnership between faith and
reason enhances human life and encourages respect for creation.
Create your own reality. The widespread New
Age conviction that one creates one's own reality is
appealing, but illusory. It is crystallised in Jung's theory that
the human being is a gateway from the outer world into an inner
world of infinite dimensions, where each person is Abraxas, who
gives birth to his own world or devours it. The star that shines
in this infinite inner world is man's God and goal. The most
poignant and problematic consequence of the acceptance of the idea
that people create their own reality is the question of suffering
and death: people with severe handicaps or incurable diseases feel
cheated and demeaned when confronted by the suggestion that they
have brought their misfortune upon themselves, or that their
inability to change things points to a weakness in their approach
to life. This is far from being a purely academic issue: it has
profound implications in the Church's pastoral approach to the
difficult existential questions everyone faces. Our limitations
are a fact of life, and part of being a creature. Death and
bereavement present a challenge and an opportunity, because the
temptation to take refuge in a westernised reworking of the notion
of reincarnation is clear proof of people's fear of death and
their desire to live forever. Do we make the most of our
opportunities to recall what is promised by God in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ? How real is the faith in the
resurrection of the body, which Christians proclaim every Sunday
in the creed? The New Age idea that we are in some sense
also gods is one which is very much in question here. The whole
question depends, of course, on one's definition of reality. A
sound approach to epistemology and psychology needs to be
reinforced – in the appropriate way – at every level of
Catholic education, formation and preaching. It is important
constantly to focus on effective ways of speaking of
transcendence. The fundamental difficulty of all New Age thought
is that this transcendence is strictly a self-transcendeence to be
achieved within a closed universe.
Pastoral resources. In Chapter 8 an
indication is given regarding the principal documents of the
Catholic Church in which can be found an evaluation of the ideas
of New Age. In the first place comes the address of Pope
John Paul II which was quoted in the Foreword. The Pope recognizes
in this cultural trend some positive aspects, such as “the
search for new meaning in life, a new ecological sensivity and the
desire to go beyond a cold, rationalistic religiosity”. But he
also calls the attention of the faithful to certain ambiguous
elements which are incompatible with the Christian faith: these
movements “pay little heed to Revelation”, “they tend to
relativize religious doctrine in favor of a vague worldview”,
“they often propose a pantheistic concept of God”, “they
replace personal responsibility to God for our actions with a
sense of duty to the cosmos, thus overturning the true concept of
sin and the need for redemption through Christ”.(91)
6.2. Practical
steps
First of all, it is worth saying once again that
not everyone or everything in the broad sweep of New Age is
linked to the theories of the movement in the same ways. Likewise,
the label itself is often misapplied or extended to phenomena
which can be categorised in other ways. The term New Age
has even been abused to demonise people and practices. It is
essential to see whether phenomena linked to this movement,
however loosely, reflect or conflict with a Christian vision of
God, the human person and the world. The mere use of the term New
Age in itself means little, if anything. The relationship of
the person, group, practice or commodity to the central tenets of
Christianity is what counts.
*The Catholic Church has its own very
effective networks, which could be better used. For
example, there is a large number of pastoral centres, cultural
centres and centres of spirituality. Ideally, these could also be
used to address the confusion about New Age religiosity in
a variety of creative ways, such as providing a forum for
discussion and study. It must unfortunately be admitted that there
are too many cases where Catholic centres of spirituality are
actively involved in diffusing New Age religiosity in the
Church. This would of course have to be corrected, not only to
stop the spread of confusion and error, but also so that they
might be effective in promoting true Christian spirituality.
Catholic cultural centres, in particular, are not only teaching
institutions but spaces for honest dialogue.(92)
Some excellent specialist institutions deal with all these
questions. These are precious resources, which ought to be shared
generously in areas that are less well provided for.
*Quite a few New Age groups
welcome every opportunity to explain their philosophy and
activities to others. Encounters with these groups should be
approached with care, and should always involve persons who are
capable of both explaining Catholic faith and spirituality, and of
reflecting critically on New Age thought and practice. It
is extremely important to check the credentials of people,
groups and institutions claiming to offer guidance and information
on New Age. In some cases what has started out as impartial
investigation has later become active promotion of, or advocacy on
behalf of, “alternative religions”. Some international
institutions are actively pursuing campaigns which promote respect
for “religious diversity”, and claim religious status for some
questionable organisations. This fits in with the New Age vision
of moving into an age where the limited character of particular
religions gives way to the universality of a new religion or
spirituality. Genuine dialogue, on the other hand, will always
respect diversity from the outset, and will never seek to blur
distinctions in a fusion of all religious traditions.
*Some local New Age groups refer
to their meetings as “prayer groups”. Those people who are
invited to such groups need to look for the marks of genuine
Christian spirituality, and to be wary if there is any sort of
initiation ceremony. Such groups take advantage of a person's lack
of theological or spiritual formation to lure them gradually into
what may in fact be a form of false worship. Christians must be
taught about the true object and content of prayer – in the Holy
Spirit, through Jesus Christ, to the Father – in order to judge
rightly the intention of a “prayer group”. Christian prayer
and the God of Jesus Christ will easily be recognised.(93)
Many people are convinced that there is no harm in 'borrowing'
from the wisdom of the East, but the example of Transcendental
Meditation (TM) should make Christians cautious about the prospect
of committing themselves unknowingly to another religion (in this
case, Hinduism), despite what TM's promoters claim about its
religious neutrality. There is no problem with learning how to
meditate, but the object or content of the exercise clearly
determines whether it relates to the God revealed by Jesus Christ,
to some other revelation, or simply to the hidden depths of the
self.
*Christian groups which promote care
for the earth as God's creation also need to be given due
recognition. The question of respect for creation is one which
could also be approached creatively in Catholic schools. A great
deal of what is proposed by the more radical elements of the
ecological movement is difficult to reconcile with Catholic faith.
Care for the environment in general terms is a timely sign of a
fresh concern for what God has given us, perhaps a necessary mark
of Christian stewardship of creation, but “deep ecology” is
often based on pantheistic and occasionally gnostic principles.(94)
*The beginning of the Third Millennium
offers a real kairos for evangelisation. People's minds and
hearts are already unusually open to reliable information on the
Christian understanding of time and salvation history. Emphasising
what is lacking in other approaches should not be the main
priority. It is more a question of constantly revisiting the
sources of our own faith, so that we can offer a good, sound
presentation of the Christian message. We can be proud of what
we have been given on trust, so we need to resist the pressures of
the dominant culture to bury these gifts (cf. Mt 25.24-30).
One of the most useful tools available is the Catechism
of the Catholic Church. There is also an immense heritage
of ways to holiness in the lives of Christian men and women past
and present. Where Christianity's rich symbolism, and its
artistic, aesthetical and musical traditions are unknown or have
been forgotten, there is much work to be done for Christians
themselves, and ultimately also for anyone searching for an
experience or a greater awareness of God's presence. Dialogue
between Christians and people attracted to the New Age will
be more successful if it takes into account the appeal of what
touches the emotions and symbolic language. If our task is to
know, love and serve Jesus Christ, it is of paramount importance
to start with a good knowledge of the Scriptures. But, most of
all, coming to meet the Lord Jesus in prayer and in the
sacraments, which are precisely the moments when our ordinary life
is hallowed, is the surest way of making sense of the whole
Christian message.
*Perhaps the simplest, the most obvious
and the most urgent measure to be taken, which might also be the
most effective, would be to make the most of the riches of the
Christian spiritual heritage. The great religious orders have
strong traditions of meditation and spirituality, which could be
made more available through courses or periods in which their
houses might welcome genuine seekers. This is already being done,
but more is needed. Helping people in their spiritual search by
offering them proven techniques and experiences of real prayer
could open a dialogue with them which would reveal the riches of
Christian tradition, and perhaps clarify a great deal about New
Age in the process.
In a vivid and useful image, one of the New Age
movement's own exponents has compared traditional religions to
cathedrals, and New Age to a worldwide fair. The New Age
Movement is seen as an invitation to Christians to bring the
message of the cathedrals to the fair which now covers the whole
world. This image offers Christians a positive challenge, since it
is always time to take the message of the cathedrals to the people
in the fair. Christians need not, indeed, must not wait for an
invitation to bring the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ
to those who are looking for the answers to their questions, for
spiritual food that satisfies, for living water. Following the
image proposed, Christians must issue forth from the cathedral,
nourished by word and sacrament, to bring the Gospel into every
aspect of everyday life – “Go! The Mass is ended!” In
Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunte the Holy Father remarks on the great
interest in spirituality found in the secular world of today, and
how other religions are responding to this demand in appealing
ways. He goes on to issue a challenge to Christians in this
regard: “But we who have received the grace of believing in
Christ, the revealer of the Father and the Savior of the world,
have a duty to show to what depths the relationship with Christ
can lead” (n. 33). To those shopping around in the world's fair
of religious proposals, the appeal of Christianity will be felt
first of all in the witness of the members of the Church, in their
trust, calm, patience and cheerfulness, and in their concrete love
of neighbour, all the fruit of their faith nourished in authentic
personal prayer.
7 APPENDIX
7.1.
Some brief formulations of New Age ideas
William Bloom's 1992 formulation of New Age
quoted in Heelas, p. 225f.:
*All life – all existence – is the
manifestation of Spirit, of the Unknowable, of that supreme
consciousness known by many different names in many different
cultures.
*The purpose and dynamic of all
existence is to bring Love, Wisdom, Enlightenment... into full
manifestation.
*All religions are the expression of
this same inner reality.
*All life, as we perceive it with the
five human senses or with scientific instruments, is only the
outer veil of an invisible, inner and causal reality.
*Similarly, human beings are twofold
creatures – with: (i) an outer temporary personality; and (ii) a
multi-dimensional inner being (soul or higher self).
*The outer personality is limited and
tends towards love.
*The purpose of the incarnation of the
inner being is to bring the vibrations of the outer personality
into a resonance of love.
*All souls in incarnation are free to
choose their own spiritual path.
*Our spiritual teachers are those whose
souls are liberated from the need to incarnate and who express
unconditional love, wisdom and enlightenment. Some of these great
beings are well- known and have inspired the world religions. Some
are unknown and work invisibly.
*All life, in its different forms and
states, is interconnected energy – and this includes our deeds,
feelings and thoughts. We, therefore, work with Spirit and these
energies in co-creating our reality.
*Although held in the dynamic of cosmic
love, we are jointly responsible for the state of our selves, of
our environment and of all life.
*During this period of time, the
evolution of the planet and of humanity has reached a point when
we are undergoing a fundamental spiritual change in our individual
and mass consciousness. This is why we talk of a New Age. This
new consciousness is the result of the increasingly successful
incarnation of what some people call the energies of cosmic love.
This new consciousness demonstrates itself in an instinctive
understanding of the sacredness and, in particular, the
interconnectedness of all existence.
*This new consciousness and this new
understanding of the dynamic interdependence of all life mean that
we are currently in the process of volving a completely new
planetary culture.
Heelas (p. 226) Jeremy Tarcher's “complementary
formulation”.
1. The world, including the human race,
constitutes an expression of a higher, more comprehensive divine
nature.
2. Hidden within each human being is a higher
divine self, which is a manifestation of the higher, more
comprehensive divine nature.
3. This higher nature can be awakened and can
become the center of the individual's everyday life.
4. This awakening is the reason for the existence
of each individual life.
David Spangler is quoted in Actualité des
religions nº 8, septembre 1999, p. 43, on the principal
characteristics of the New Age vision, which is:
*holistic (globalising, because there
is one single reality-energy);
*ecological (earth-Gaia is our mother;
each of us is a neurone of earth's central nervous system);
*androgynous (rainbow and Yin/Yang are
both NA symbols, to do with the complementarity of contraries,
esp. masculine and feminine);
*mystical (finding the sacred in every
thing, the most ordinary things);
*planetary (people must be at one and
the same time anchored in their own culture and open to a
universal dimension, capable of promoting love, compassion, peace
and even the establishment of world government).
7.2. A Select
Glossary
Age of Aquarius: each astrological age of about
2146 years is named according to one of the signs of the zodiac,
but the “great days” go in reverse order, so the current Age
of Pisces is about to end, and the Age of Aquarius will be ushered
in. Each Age has its own cosmic energies; the energy in Pisces has
made it an era of wars and conflicts. But Aquarius is set to be an
era of harmony, justice, peace, unity etc. In this aspect, New
Age accepts historical inevitability. Some reckon the age of
Aries was the time of the Jewish religion, the age of Pisces that
of Christianity, Aquarius the age of a universal religion.
Androgyny: is not hermaphroditism, i.e. existence
with the physical characteristics of both sexes, but an awareness
of the presence in every person of male and female elements; it is
said to be a state of balanced inner harmony of the animus
and anima. In New Age, it is a state resulting from
a new awareness of this double mode of being and existing that is
characteristic of every man and every woman. The more it spreads,
the more it will assist in the transformation of interpersonal
conduct.
Anthroposophy: a theosophical doctrine originally
popularised by the Croat Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who left the
Theosophical Society after being leader of its German branch from
1902 to 1913. It is an esoteric doctrine meant to initiate people
into “objective knowledge” in the spiritual-divine sphere.
Steiner believed it had helped him explore the laws of evolution
of the cosmos and of humanity. Every physical being has a
corresponding spiritual being, and earthly life is influenced by
astral energies and spiritual essences. The Akasha Chronicle is
said to be a “cosmic memory” available to initiates.(95)
Channeling: psychic mediums claim to act as
channels for information from other selves, usually disembodied
entities living on a higher plane. It links beings as diverse as
ascended masters, angels, gods, group entities, nature spirits and
the Higher Self.
Christ: in New Age the historical figure of
Jesus is but one incarnation of an idea or an energy or set of
vibrations. For Alice Bailey, a great day of supplication is
needed, when all believers will create such a concentration of
spiritual energy that there will be a further incarnation, which
will reveal how people can save themselves.... For many people,
Jesus is nothing more than a spiritual master who, like Buddha,
Moses and Mohammed, amongst others, has been penetrated by the
cosmic Christ. The cosmic Christ is also known as christic energy
at the basis of each being and the whole of being. Individuals
need to be initiated gradually into awareness of this christic
characteristic they are all said to have. Christ – in New Age
terms – represents the highest state of perfection of the self.(96)
Crystals: are reckoned to vibrate at significant
frequencies. Hence they are useful in self-transformation. They
are used in various therapies and in meditation, visualisation,
'astral travel' or as lucky charms. From the outside looking in,
they have no intrinsic power, but are simply beautiful.
Depth Psychology: the school of psychology founded
by C.G. Jung, a former disciple of Freud. Jung recognised that
religion and spiritual matters were important for wholeness and
health. The interpretation of dreams and the analysis of
archetypes were key elements in his method. Archetypes are forms
which belong to the inherited structure of the human psyche; they
appear in the recurrent motifs or images in dreams, fantasies,
myths and fairy tales.
Enneagram: (from the Greek ennéa = nine + gramma
= sign) the name refers to a diagram composed of a circle with
nine points on its circumference, connected within the circle by a
triangle and a hexangle. It was originally used for divination,
but has become known as the symbol for a system of personality
typology consisting of nine standard character types. It became
popular after the publication of Helen Palmer's book The
Enneagram,(97)
but she recognises her indebtedness to the Russian esoteric
thinker and practitioner G.I. Gurdjieff, the Chilean psychologist
Claudio Naranjo and author Oscar Ichazo, founder of Arica. The
origin of the enneagram remains shrouded in mystery, but some
maintain that it comes from Sufi mysticism.
Esotericism: (from the Greek esotéros =
that which is within) it generally refers to an ancient and hidden
body of knowledge available only to initiated groups, who portray
themselves as guardians of the truths hidden from the majority of
humankind. The initiation process takes people from a merely
external, superficial, knowledge of reality to the inner truth
and, in the process, awakens their consciousness at a deeper
level. People are invited to undertake this “inner journey” to
discover the “divine spark” within them. Salvation, in this
context, coincides with a discovery of the Self.
Evolution: in New Age it is much more than
a question of living beings evolving towards superior life forms;
the physical model is projected on to the spiritual realm, so that
an immanent power within human beings would propel them towards
superior spiritual life forms. Human beings are said not to have
full control over this power, but their good or bad actions can
accelerate or retard their progress. The whole of creation,
including humanity, is seen to be moving inexorably towards a
fusion with the divine. Reincarnation clearly has an important
place in this view of a progressive spiritual evolution which is
said to begin before birth and continue after death.(98)
Expansion of consciousness: if the cosmos is seen
as one continuous chain of being, all levels of existence –
mineral, vegetable, animal, human, cosmic and divine beings –
are interdependent. Human beings are said to become aware of their
place in this holistic vision of global reality by
expanding their consciousness well beyond its normal limits. The
New Age offers a huge variety of techniques to help people reach a
higher level of perceiving reality, a way of overcoming the
separation between subjects and between subjects and objects in
the knowing process, concluding in total fusion of what normal,
inferior, awareness sees as separate or distinct realities.
Feng-shui: a form of geomancy, in this case an
occult Chinese method of deciphering the hidden presence of
positive and negative currents in buildings and other places, on
the basis of a knowledge of earthly and atmospheric forces.
“Just like the human body or the cosmos, sites are places
criss-crossed by influxes whose correct balance is the source of
health and life”.(99)
Gnosis: in a generic sense, it is a form of
knowledge that is not intellectual, but visionary or mystical,
thought to be revealed and capable of joining the human being to
the divine mystery. In the first centuries of Christianity, the
Fathers of the Church struggled against gnosticism, inasmuch as it
was at odds with faith. Some see a reborth of gnostic ideas in
much New Age thinking, and some authors connected with New Age
actually quote early gnosticism. However, the greater emphasis in
New Age on monism and even pantheism or panentheism encourages
some to use the term neo-gnosticism to distinguish New Age
gnosis from ancient gnosticism.
Great White Brotherhood: Mrs. Blavatsky claimed to
have contact with the mahatmas, or masters, exalted
beings who together constitute the Great White Brotherhood. She
saw them as guiding the evolution of the human race and directing
the work of the Theosophical Society.
Hermeticism: philosophical and religious practices
and speculations linked to the writings in the Corpus
Hermeticum, and the Alexandrian texts attributed to the
mythical Hermes Trismegistos. When they first became known
during the Renaissance, they were thought to reveal pre-Christian
doctrines, but later studies showed they dated from the first
century of the christian era.(100)
Alexandrian hermeticism is a major resource for modern
esotericism, and the two have much in common: eclecticism, a
refutation of ontological dualism, an affirmation of the positive
and symbolic character of the universe, the idea of the fall and
later restoration of mankind. Hermetic speculation has
strengthened belief in an ancient fundamental tradition or a
so-called philosophia perennis falsely considered as common
to all religious traditions. The high and ceremonial forms of
magic developed from Renaissance Hermeticism.
Holism: a key concept in the “new paradigm”,
claiming to provide a theoretical frame integrating the entire
worldview of modern man. In contrast with an experience of
increasing fragmentation in science and everyday life,
“wholeness” is put forward as a central methodological and
ontological concept. Humanity fits into the universe as part of a
single living organism, a harmonious network of dynamic
relationships. The classic distinction between subject and object,
for which Descartes and Newton are typically blamed, is challenged
by various scientists who offer a bridge between science and
religion. Humanity is part of a universal network (eco-system,
family) of nature and world, and must seek harmony with every
element of this quasi-transcendent authority. When one understands
one's place in nature, in the cosmos which is also divine, one
also understands that “wholeness” and “holiness” are one
and the same thing. The clearest articulation of the concept of
holism is in the “Gaia” hypothesis.(101)
Human Potential Movement: since its beginnings
(Esalen, California, in the 1960s), this has grown into a network
of groups promoting the release of the innate human capacity for
creativity through self-realisation. Various techniques of
personal transformation are used more and more by companies in
management training programmes, ultimately for very normal
economic reasons. Transpersonal Technologies, the Movement for
Inner Spiritual Awareness, Organisational Development and
Organisational Transformation are all put forward as
non-religious, but in reality company employees can find
themselves being submitted to an alien 'spirituality' in a
situation which raises questions about personal freedom. There are
clear links between Eastern spirituality and psychotherapy, while
Jungian psychology and the Human Potential Movement have been very
influential on Shamanism and “reconstructed” forms of Paganism
like Druidry and Wicca. In a general sense, “personal growth”
can be understood as the shape “religious salvation” takes in
the New Age movement: it is affirmed that deliverance from
human suffering and weakness will be reached by developing our
human potential, which results in our increasingly getting in
touch with our inner divinity.(102)
Initiation: in religious ethnology it is the
cognitive and/or experiential journey whereby a person is
admitted, either alone or as part of a group, by means of
particular rituals to membership of a religious community, a
secret society (e.g. Freemasonry) or a mystery association
(magical, esoteric-occult, gnostic, theosophical etc.).
Karma: (from the Sanskrit root Kri =
action, deed) a key notion in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, but
one whose meaning has not always been the same. In the ancient
Vedic period it referred to the ritual action, especially
sacrifice, by means of which a person gained access to the
happiness or blessedness of the afterlife. When Jainism and
Buddhism appeared (about 6 centuries before Christ), Karma lost
its salvific meaning: the way to liberation was knowledge of the
Atman or “self”. In the doctrine of samsara, it was
understood as the incessant cycle of human birth and death
(Huinduism) or of rebirth (Buddhism).(103)
In New Age contexts, the “law of karma” is often seen
as the moral equivalent of cosmic evolution. It is no longer to do
with evil or suffering – illusions to be experienced as part of
a “cosmic game” – but is the universal law of cause and
effect, part of the tendency of the interconnected universe
towards moral balance.(104)
Monism: the metaphysical belief that differences
between beings are illusory. There is only one universal being, of
which every thing and every person is a part. Inasmuch as New
Age monism includes the idea that reality is fundamentally
spiritual, it is a contemporary form of pantheism (sometimes
explicitly a rejection of materialism, particularly Marxism). Its
claim to resolve all dualism leaves no room for a transcendent
God, so everything is God. A further problem arises for
Christianity when the question of the origin of evil is raised.
C.G. Jung saw evil as the “shadow side” of the God who, in
classical theism, is all goodness.
Mysticism: New Age mysticism is turning
inwards on oneself rather than communion with God who is
“totally other”. It is fusion with the universe, an ultimate
annihilation of the individual in the unity of the whole.
Experience of Self is taken to be experience of divinity, so one
looks within to discover authentic wisdom, creativity and power.
Neopaganism: a title often rejected by many to
whom it is applied, it refers to a current that runs parallel to New
Age and often interacts with it. In the great wave of reaction
against traditional religions, specifically the Judaeo-Christian
heritage of the West, many have revisited ancient indigenous,
traditional, pagan religions. Whatever preceded
Christianity is reckoned to be more genuine to the spirit of the
land or the nation, an uncontaminated form of natural religion, in
touch with the powers of nature, often matriarchal, magical or
Shamanic. Humanity will, it is said, be healthier if it returns to
the natural cycle of (agricultural) festivals and to a general
affirmation of life. Some “neo-pagan” religions are recent
reconstructions whose authentic relationship to original forms can
be questioned, particularly in cases where they are dominated by
modern ideological components like ecology, feminism or, in a few
cases, myths of racial purity.(105)
New Age Music: this is a booming industry.
The music concerned is very often packaged as a means of achieving
harmony with oneself or the world, and some of it is “Celtic”
or druidic. Some New Age composers claim their music is
meant to build bridges between the conscious and the unconscious,
but this is probably more so when, besides melodies, there is
meditative and rhythmic repetition of key phrases. As with many
elements of the New Age phenomenon, some music is meant to
bring people further into the New Age Movement, but most is
simply commercial or artistic.
New Thought: a 19th century religious
movement founded in the United States of America. Its origins were
in idealism, of which it was a popularised form. God was said to
be totally good, and evil merely an illusion; the basic reality
was the mind. Since one's mind is what causes the events in
one's life, one has to take ultimate responsibility for every
aspect of one's situation.
Occultism: occult (hidden) knowledge, and the
hidden forces of the mind and of nature, are at the basis of
beliefs and practices linked to a presumed secret “perennial
philosophy” derived from ancient Greek magic and alchemy, on the
one hand, and Jewish mysticism, on the other. They are kept hidden
by a code of secrecy imposed on those initiated into the groups
and societies that guard the knowledge and techniques involved. In
the 19th century, spiritualism and the Theosophical Society
introduced new forms of occultism which have, in turn, influenced
various currents in the New Age.
Pantheism: (Greek pan = everything and
theos = God) the belief that everything is God or, sometimes,
that everything is in God and God is in everything
(panentheism). Every element of the universe is divine, and the
divinity is equally present in everything. There is no space in
this view for God as a distinct being in the sense of classical
theism.
Parapsychology: treats of such things as
extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, telekinesis, psychic
healing and communication with spirits via mediums or channeling.
Despite fierce criticism from scientists, parapsychology has gone
from strength to strength, and fits neatly into the view popular
in some areas of the New Age that human beings have
extraordinary psychic abilities, but often only in an undeveloped
state.
Planetary Consciousness: this world-view developed
in the 1980s to foster loyalty to the community of humanity rather
than to nations, tribes or other established social groups. It can
be seen as the heir to movements in the early 20th century that
promoted a world government. The consciousness of the unity of
humanity sits well with the Gaia hypothesis.
Positive Thinking: the conviction that people can
change physical reality or external circumstances by altering
their mental attitude, by thinking positively and constructively.
Sometimes it is a matter of becoming consciously aware of
unconsciously held beliefs that determine our life-situation.
Positive thinkers are promised health and wholeness, often
prosperity and even immortality.
Rebirthing: In the early 1970s Leonard Orr
described rebirthing as a process by which a person can identify
and isolate aoreas in his or her consciousness that are unresolved
and at the source of present problems.
Reincarnation: in a New Age context,
reincarnation is linked to the concept of ascendant evolution
towards becoming divine. As opposed to Indian religions or those
derived from them, New Age views reincarnation as
progression of the individual soul towards a more perfect state.
What is reincarnated is essentially something immaterial or
spiritual; more precisely, it is consciousness, that spark of
energy in the person that shares in cosmic or “christic”
energy. Death is nothing but the passage of the soul from one body
to another.
Rosicrucians: these are Western occult groups
involved in alchemy, astrology, Theosophy and kabbalistic
interpretations of scripture. The Rosicrucian Fellowship
contributed to the revival of astrology in the 20th
century, and the Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis
(AMORC) linked success with a presumed ability to materialise
mental images of health, riches and happiness.
Shamanism: practices and beliefs linked to
communication with the spirits of nature and the spirits of dead
people through ritualised possession (by the spirits) of a shaman,
who serves as a medium. It has been attractive in New Age circles
because it stresses harmony with the forces of nature and healing.
There is also a romanticised image of indigenous religions and
their closeness to the earth and to nature.
Spiritualism: While there have always been
attempts to contact the spirits of the dead, 19th
century spiritualism is reckoned to be one of the currents that
flow into the New Age. It developed against the background
of the ideas of Swedenborg and Mesmer, and became a new kind of
religion. Madame Blavatsky was a medium, and so spiritualism had a
great influence on the Theosophical Society, although there the
emphasis was on contact with entities from the distant past rather
than people who had died only recently. Allan Kardec was
influential in the spread of spiritualism in Afro-Brasilian
religions. There are also spiritualist elements in some New
Religious Movements in Japan.
Theosophy: an ancient term, which originally
referred to a kind of mysticism. It has been linked to Greek
Gnostics and Neoplatonists, to Meister Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa
and Jakob Boehme. The name was given new emphasis by the
Theosophical Society, founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and
others in 1875. Theosophical mysticism tends to be monistic,
stressing the essential unity of the spiritual and material
components of the universe. It also looks for the hidden forces
that cause matter and spirit to interact, in such a way that human
and divine minds eventually meet. Here is where theosophy offers
mystical redemption or enlightenment.
Transcendentalism: This was a 19th
century movement of writers and thinkers in New England, who
shared an idealistic set of beliefs in the essential unity of
creation, the innate goodness of the human person, and the
superiority of insight over logic and experience for the
revelation of the deepest truths. The chief figure is Ralph Waldo
Emerson, who moved away from orthodox Christianity, through
Unitarianism to a new natural mysticism which integrated concepts
from Hinduism with popular American ones like individualism,
personal responsibility and the need to succeed.
Wicca: an old English term for witches that has
been given to a neo-pagan revival of some elements of ritual
magic. It was invented in England in 1939 by Gerald Gardner, who
based it on some scholarly texts, according to which medieval
European witchcraft was an ancient nature religion persecuted by
Christians. Called “the Craft”, it grew rapidly in the 1960s
in the United States, where it encountered “women's
spirituality”.
7.3. Key
New Age places
Esalen: a community founded in Big Sur,
California, in 1962 by Michael Murphy and Richard Price, whose
main aim was to arrive at a self-realisation of being through
nudism and visions, as well as “bland medicines”. It has
become one of the most important centres of the Human Potential
Movement, and has spread ideas about holistic medicine in the
worlds of education, politics and economics. This has been done
through courses in comparative religion, mythology, mysticism,
meditation, psychotherapy, expansion of consciousness and so on.
Along with Findhorn, it is seen as a key place in the growth of
Aquarian consciousness. The Esalen Soviet-American Institute
co-operated with Soviet officials on the Health Promotion Project.
Findhorn: this holistic farming community started
by Peter and Eileen Caddy achieved the growth of enormous plants
by unorthodox methods. The founding of the Findhorn community in
Scotland in 1965 was an important milestone in the movement which
bears the label of the 'New Age'. In fact, Findhorn 'was
seen as embodying its principal ideals of transformation'. The
quest for a universal consciousness, the goal of harmony with
nature, the vision of a transformed world, and the practice of
channeling, all of which have become hallmarks of the New Age Movement,
were present at Findhorn from its foundation. The success of this
community led to its becoming a model for, and/or an inspiration
to, other groups, such as Alternatives in London, Esalen in Big
Sur, California, and the Open Center and Omega Institute in New
York”.(106)
Monte Verità: a utopian community near Ascona in
Switzerland. Since the end of the 19th century it was a meeting
point for European and American exponents of the counter-culture
in the fields of politics, psychology, art and ecology. The
Eranos conferences have been held there every year since 1933,
gathering some of the great luminaries of the New Age. The
yearbooks make clear the intention to create an integrated world
religion.(107)
It is fascinating to see the list of those who have gathered over
the years at Monte Verità.
8 RESOURCES
Documents
of the Catholic Church's magisterium
John Paul II, Address to the United States
Bishops of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska on their “Ad
Limina” visit, 28 May 1993.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter
to Bishops on Certain Aspects of Christian Meditation (Orationis
Formas), Vatican City (Vatican Polyglot Press) 1989.
International Theological Commission, Some
Current Questions Concerning Eschatology, 1992, Nos. 9-10 (on
reincarnation).
International Theological Commission, Some
Questions on the Theology of Redemption, 1995, I/29 and
II/35-36.
Argentine Bishops' Conference Committee for
Culture, Frente a una Nueva Era. Desafio a la pastoral en el
horizonte de la Nueva Evangelización, 1993.
Irish Theological Commission, A New Age of the
Spirit? A Catholic Response to the New Age Phenomenon, Dublin
1994.
Godfried Danneels, Au-delà de la mort: réincarnation
et resurrection, Pastoral Letter, Easter 1991.
Godfried Danneels, Christ or Aquarius?
Pastoral Letter, Christmas 1990 (Veritas, Dublin).
Carlo Maccari, “La 'mistica cosmica' del New
Age”, in Religioni e Sette nel Mondo 1996/2.
Carlo Maccari, La New Age di fronte alla fede
cristiana, Turin (LDC) 1994.
Edward Anthony McCarthy, The New Age Movement,
Pastoral Instruction, 1992.
Paul Poupard, Felicità e fede cristiana, Casale
Monferrato (Ed. Piemme) 1992.
Joseph Ratzinger, La fede e la teologia ai
nostri giorni, Guadalajara, May 1996, in L'Osservatore
Romano 27 October 1996.
Norberto Rivera Carrera, Instrucción Pastoral
sobre el New Age, 7 January 1996.
Christoph von Schönborn, Risurrezione e
reincarnazione, (Italian translation) Casale Monferrato
(Piemme) 1990.
J. Francis Stafford, Il movimento “New
Age”, in L'Osservatore Romano, 30 October 1992.
Working Group on New Religious Movements (ed.),
Vatican City, Sects and New Religious Movements. An Anthology
of Texts From the Catholic Church, Washington (USCC) 1995.
Christian studies
Raúl Berzosa Martinez, Nueva Era y
Cristianismo. Entre el diálogo y la ruptura, Madrid (BAC)
1995.
André Fortin, Les Galeries du Nouvel Age: un
chrétien s'y promène, Ottawa (Novalis) 1993.
Claude Labrecque, Une religion américaine.
Pistes de discernement chrétien sur les courants populaires du
“Nouvel Age”, Montréal (Médiaspaul) 1994.
The Methodist Faith and Order Committee, The
New Age Movement Report to Conference 1994.
Aidan Nichols, “The New Age Movement”, in The
Month, March 1992, pp. 84-89.
Alessandro Olivieri Pennesi, Il Cristo del New
Age. Indagine critica, Vatican City (Libreria Editrice
Vaticana) 1999.
Ökumenische Arbeitsgruppe “Neue Religiöse
Bewegungen in der Schweiz”, New Age – aus christlicher
Sicht, Freiburg (Paulusverlag) 1987.
Mitch Pacwa s.j., Catholics and the New Age.
How Good People are being drawn into Jungian Psychology, the
Enneagram and the New Age of Aquarius, Ann Arbor MI (Servant)
1992.
John Saliba, Christian Responses to the New Age
Movement. A Critical Assessment, London (Chapman) 1999.
Josef Südbrack, SJ, Neue Religiosität -
Herausforderung für die Christen, Mainz (Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag)
1987 = La nuova religiosità: una sfida per i cristiani,
Brescia (Queriniana) 1988.
“Theologie für Laien” secretariat,
Faszination Esoterik, Zürich (Theologie für Laien) 1996.
David Toolan, Facing West from California's
Shores. A Jesuit's Journey into New Age Consciousness, New
York (Crossroad) 1987.
Juan Carlos Urrea Viera, “New Age”. Visión
Histórico-Doctrinal y Principales Desafíos, Santafé de
Bogotá (CELAM) 1996.
Jean Vernette, “L'avventura spirituale dei figli
dell'Acquario”, in Religioni e Sette nel Mondo 1996/2.
Jean Vernette, Jésus dans la nouvelle
religiosité, Paris (Desclée) 1987.
Jean Vernette, Le New Age, Paris (P.U.F.)
1992.
9 GENERAL
BIBLIOGRAPHY
9.1. Some
New Age books
William Bloom, The New Age. An Anthology of
Essential Writings, London (Rider) 1991.
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: An
Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern
Mysticism, Berkeley (Shambhala) 1975.
Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point: Science,
Society and the Rising Culture,
Toronto (Bantam) 1983.
Benjamin Creme, The Reappearance of Christ and
the Masters of Wisdom,
London (Tara Press) 1979.
Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy.
Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time, Los Angeles
(Tarcher) 1980.
Chris Griscom, Ecstasy is a New Frequency:
Teachings of the Light Institute, New York (Simon &
Schuster) 1987.
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, Chicago (University of Chicago Press) 1970.
David Spangler, The New Age Vision, Forres
(Findhorn Publications) 1980.
David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a New
Age, San Francisco (Rainbow Bridge) 1976.
David Spangler, Towards a Planetary Vision,
Forres (Findhorn Publications) 1977.
David Spangler, The New Age, Issaquah (The
Morningtown Press) 1988.
David Spangler, The Rebirth of the Sacred,
London (Gateway Books) 1988.
9.2.
Historical, descriptive and analytical works
Christoph Bochinger, “New Age” und moderne
Religion: Religionswissenschaftliche Untersuchungen, Gütersloh
(Kaiser) 1994.
Bernard Franck, Lexique du Nouvel-Age,
Limoges (Droguet-Ardant) 1993.
Hans Gasper, Joachim Müller and Friederike
Valentin, Lexikon der Sekten, Sondergruppen und
Weltanschauungen. Fakten, Hintergründe, Klärungen, updated
edition, Freiburg-Basel-Vienna (Herder) 2000. See, inter alia, the
article “New Age” by Christoph Schorsch, Karl R. Essmann and
Medard Kehl, and “Reinkarnation” by Reinhard Hümmel.
Manabu Haga and Robert J. Kisala (eds.), “The
New Age in Japan”, in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies,
Fall 1995, vol. 22, numbers 3 & 4.
Wouter Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western
Culture. Esotericism in the Mirror of Nature, Leiden-New
York-Köln (Brill) 1996. This book has an extensive bibliography.
Paul Heelas, The New Age Movement. The
Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity,
Oxford (Blackwell) 1996.
Massimo Introvigne, New Age & Next Age, Casale
Monferrato (Piemme) 2000.
Michel Lacroix, L'Ideologia della New Age,
Milano (Il Saggiatore) 1998.
J. Gordon Melton, New Age Encyclopedia,
Detroit (Gale Research Inc) 1990.
Elliot Miller, A Crash Course in the New Age,
Eastbourne (Monarch) 1989.
Georges Minois, Histoire de l'athéisme,
Paris (Fayard) 1998.
Arild Romarheim, The Aquarian Christ. Jesus
Christ as Portrayed by New Religious Movements, Hong Kong
(Good Tiding) 1992.
Hans-Jürgen Ruppert, Durchbruch zur Innenwelt.
Spirituelle Impulse aus New Age und Esoterik in kritischer
Beleuchtung, Stuttgart (Quell Verlag) 1988.
Edwin Schur, The Awareness Trap.
Self-Absorption instead of Social Change, New York (McGraw
Hill) 1977.
Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The
Future of Religion. Secularisation, Revival and Cult Formation, Berkeley
(University of California Press) 1985.
Steven Sutcliffe and Marion Bowman (eds.),
Beyond the New Age. Exploring Alternative Spirituality, Edinburgh
(Edinburgh University Press), 2000.
Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self. The Making
of the Modern Identity, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press)
1989.
Charles Taylor, The Ethics of Authenticity,
London (Harvard University Press) 1991
Edênio Valle s.v.d., “Psicologia e energias da
mente: teorias alternativas”, in A Igreja Católica diante do
pluralismo religioso do Brasil (III). Estudos da CNBB n. 71, São
Paulo (paulus) 1994.
World Commission on Culture and Development,
Our Creative Diversity. Report of the World Commission on Culture
and Development, Paris
(UNESCO) 1995.
M. York, “The New Age Movement in Great
Britain”, in Syzygy. Journal of Alternative Religion and
Culture, 1:2-3 (1992) Stanford CA.
NOTES
(1)Paul
Heelas, The New Age Movement. The Celebration of the Self and
the Sacralization of Modernity, Oxford (Blackwell) 1996, p.
137.
(2)Cf.
P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 164f.
(3)Cf.
P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 173.
(4)Cf.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dominum et vivificantem (18
May 1986), 53.
(5)Cf.
Gilbert Markus o.p., “Celtic Schmeltic”, (1) in
Spirituality, vol. 4, November-December 1998, No 21, pp.
379-383 and (2) in Spirituality, vol. 5, January-February
1999, No. 22, pp. 57-61.
(6)John
Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, (Knopf) 1994, 90.
(7)Cf.
particularly Massimo Introvigne, New Age & Next Age,
Casale Monferrato (Piemme) 2000.
(8)M.
Introvigne, op. cit., p. 267.
(9)Cf.
Michel Lacroix, L'Ideologia della New Age, Milano (il
Saggiatore) 1998, p. 86. The word “sect” is used here not in
any pejorative sense, but rather to denote a sociological
phenomenon.
(10)Cf.
Wouter J. Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture.
Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, Leiden-New
York-Köln (Brill) 1996, p. 377 and elsewhere.
(11)Cf.
Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of
Religion. Secularisation, Revival and Cult Formation, Berkeley
(University of California Press) 1985.
(12)Cf.
M. Lacroix, op. cit., p. 8.
(13)The
Swiss “Theologie für Laien” course entitled Faszination
Esoterik puts this clearly. Cf. “Kursmappe 1 – New Age und
Esoterik”, text to accompany slides, p. 9.
(14)The
term was already in use in the title of The New Age Magazine,
which was being published by the Ancient Accepted Scottish Masonic
Rite in the southern jurisdiction of the United States of America
as early as 1900 Cf. M. York, “The New Age Movement in
Great Britain”, in Syzygy. Journal of Alternative Religion
and Culture, 1: 2-3 (1992), Stanford CA, p. 156, note 6. The
exact timing and nature of the change to the New Age are
interpreted variously by different authors; estimates of timing
range from 1967 to 2376.
(15)In
late 1977, Marilyn Ferguson sent a questionnaire to 210 “persons
engaged in social transformation”, whom she also calls
“Aquarian Conspirators”. The following is interesting: “When
respondents were asked to name individuals whose ideas had
influenced them, either through personal contact or through their
writings, those most often named, in order of frequency, were
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, C.G. Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl
Rogers, Aldous Huxley, Robert Assagioli, and J. Krishnamurti.
“Others frequently mentioned: Paul Tillich, Hermann Hesse,
Alfred North Whitehead, Martin Buber, Ruth Benedict, Margaret
Mead, Gregory Bateson, Tarthang Tulku, Alan Watts, Sri Aurobindo,
Swami Muktananda, D.T. Suzuki, Thomas Merton, Willis Harman,
Kenneth Boulding, Elise Boulding, Erich Fromm, Marshall McLuhan,
Buckminster Fuller, Frederic Spiegelberg, Alfred Korzybski, Heinz
von Foerster, John Lilly, Werner Erhard, Oscar Ichazo, Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Karl Pribram, Gardner Murphy,
and Albert Einstein”: The Aquarian Conspiracy. Personal and
Social Transformation in Our Time, Los Angeles (Tarcher) 1980,
p. 50 (note 1) and p. 434.
(16)W.J.
Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 520.
(17)Irish
Theological Commission, A New Age of the Spirit? A Catholic
Response to the New Age Phenomenon, Dublin 1994, chapter 3.
(18)Cf.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago
(University of Chicago Press), 1970, p. 175.
(19)Cf.
Alessandro Olivieri Pennesi, Il Cristo del New Age. Indagine
critica, Vatican City (Libreria Editrice Vaticana) 1999,
passim, but especially pp. 11-34. See Also section 4 below.
(20)It
is worth recalling the lyrics of this song, which quickly
imprinted themselves on to the minds of a whole generation in
North America and Western Europe: “When the Moon is in the
Seventh House, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then Peace will guide
the Planets, and Love will steer the Stars. This is the dawning of
the Age of Aquarius... Harmony and understanding, ympathy and
trust abounding; no more falsehoods or derision - golden living,
dreams of visions, mystic crystal revelation, and the mind's true
liberation. Aquarius...”.
(21)P.
Heelas, op. cit., p. 1f. The August 1978 journal of the
Berkeley Christian Coalition puts it this way: “Just ten years
ago the funky drug-based spirituality of the hippies and the
mysticism of the Western yogi were restricted to the
counterculture. Today, both have found their way into the
mainstream of our cultural mentality. Science, the health
professions, and the arts, not to mention psychology and religion,
are all engaged in a fundamental reconstruction of their basic
premises”. Quoted in Marilyn Ferguson, op. cit., p. 370f.
(22)Cf.
Chris Griscom, Ecstasy is a New Frequency: Teachings of the
Light Institute, New York (Simon & Schuster) 1987, p. 82.
(23)See
the Glossary of New Age terms, §7.2 above.
(24)Cf.
W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., chapter 15 (“The Mirror of
Secular Thought”). The system of correspondences is clearly
inherited from traditional esotericism, but it has a new meaning
for those who (consciously or not) follow Swedenborg. While every
natural element in traditional esoteric doctrine had the divine
life within it, for Swedenborg nature is a dead reflection of the
living spiritual world. This idea is very much at the heart of the
post-modern vision of a disenchanted world and various attempts to
“re-enchant” it. Blavatsky rejected correspondences, and Jung
emphatically relativised causality in favour of the esoteric
world-view of correspondences.
(25)W.J.
Hanegraaff, op. cit., pp. 54-55.
(26)Cf.
Reinhard Hümmel, “Reinkarnation”, in Hans Gasper, Joachim Müller,
Friederike Valentin (eds.), Lexikon der Sekten, Sondergruppen
und Weltanschauungen. Fakten, Hintergründe, Klärungen,
Freiburg-Basel-Wien (Herder) 2000, 886-893.
(27)Michael
Fuss, “New Age and Europe – A Challenge for Theology”, in
Mission Studies Vol. VIII-2, 16, 1991, p. 192.
(28)Ibid.,
loc. cit.
(29)Ibid.,p.
193.
(30)Ibid.,p.
199.
(31)Congregation
for the Doctrine of Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the
Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation (Orationis
Formas), 1989, 14.
Cf. Gaudium et Spes, 19; Fides et Ratio, 22.
(32)W.J.
Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 448f. The objectives are quoted
from the final (1896) version, earlier versions of which stressed
the irrationality of “bigotry” and the urgency of promoting
non-sectarian education. Hanegraaff quotes J. Gordon Melton's
description of New Age religion as rooted in the
“occult-metaphysical” tradition (ibid., p. 455).
(33)W.J.
Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 513.
(34)Thomas
M. King s.j., “Jung and Catholic Spirituality”, in America,
3 April 1999, p. 14. The author points out that New Age
devotees “quote passages dealing with the I Ching, astrology and
Zen, while Catholics quote passages dealing with Christian
mystics, the liturgy and the psychological value of the sacrament
of reconciliation” (p. 12). He also lists Catholic personalities
and spiritual institutions clearly inspired and guided by Jung's
psychology.
(35)Cf.
W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 501f.
(36)Carl
Gustav Jung, Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido, quoted in
Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 503.
(37)On
this point cf. Michel Schooyans, L'Évangile face au désordre
mondial, with a preface by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Paris
(Fayard) 1997.
(38)Quoted
in the Maranatha Community's The True and the False New Age.
Introductory Ecumenical Notes, Manchester (Maranatha) 1993,
8.10 – the original page numbering is not specified.
(39)Michel
Lacroix, L'Ideologia della New Age, Milano (il Saggiatore)
1998, p. 84f.
(40)Cf.
the section on David Spangler's ideas in Actualité des
religions nº 8, septembre 1999, p. 43.
(41)M.
Ferguson, op. cit., p. 407.
(42)Ibid.,p.
411.
(43)“To
be an American... is precisely to imagine a destiny rather
than inherit one. We have always been inhabitants of myth rather
than history”: Leslie Fiedler, quoted in M. Ferguson, op.
cit., p. 142.
(44)Cf.
P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 173f.
(45)David
Spangler, The New Age, Issaquah (Mornington Press) 1988, p.
14.
(46)P.
Heelas, op. cit., p. 168.
(47)See
the Preface to Michel Schooyans, L'Évangile face au désordre
mondial,
op. cit. This quotation is translated from the Italian, Il
nuovo disordine mondiale, Cinisello Balsamo (San Paolo) 2000,
p. 6.
(48)Cf.
Our Creative Diversity. Report of the World Commission on Culture
and Development, Paris (UNESCO) 1995, which illustrates the
importance given to celebrating and promoting diversity.
(49)Cf.
Christoph Bochinger, “New Age” und moderne Religion:
Religionswissenschaftliche Untersuchungen, Gütersloh (Kaiser)
1994, especially chapter 3.
(50)The
shortcomings of techniques which are not yet prayer are discussed
below in § 3.4, “Christian mysticism and New Age
mysticism”.
(51)Cf.
Carlo Maccari, “La 'mistica cosmica' del New Age”, in Religioni
e Sette nel Mondo 1996/2.
(52)Jean
Vernette, “L'avventura spirituale dei figli dell'Acquario”, in
Religioni e Sette nel Mondo 1996/2, p. 42f.
(53)J.
Vernette, loc. cit.
(54)Cf.
J. Gordon Melton, New Age Encyclopedia, Detroit (Gale
Research) 1990, pp. xiii-xiv.
(55)David
Spangler, The Rebirth of the Sacred, London (Gateway Books)
1984, p. 78f.
(56)David
Spangler, The New Age, op. cit., p. 13f.
(57)John
Paul II, Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (10
November 1994), 9.
(58)Matthew
Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. The Healing of Mother
Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance, San Francisco
(Harper & Row) 1988, p. 135.
(59)Cf.
the document issued by the Argentine Bishops' Conference Committee
for Culture: Frente a una Nueva Era. Desafío a la pastoral en
el horizonte de la Nueva Evangelización, 1993.
(60)Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis Formas, 23.
(61)Ibid.,3.
See the sections on meditation and contemplative prayer in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§. 2705-2719.
(62)Cf.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis Formas,
13.
(63)Cf.
Brendan Pelphrey, “I said, You are Gods. Orthodox Christian
Theosis and Deification in the New Religious Movements” in Spirituality
East and West, Easter 2000 (No. 13).
(64)Adrian
Smith, God and the Aquarian Age. The new era of the Kingdom, Great
Wakering (McCrimmons) 1990, p. 49.
(65)Cf.
Benjamin Creme, The Reappearance of Christ and the Masters of
Wisdom, London (Tara Press) 1979, p. 116.
(66)Cf.
Jean Vernette, Le New Age, Paris (P.U.F.) 1992 (Collection
Encyclopédique Que sais-je?), p. 14.
(67)Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 52.
(68)Cf.
Alessandro Olivieri Pennesi, Il Cristo del New Age. Indagine
Critica, Vatican City (Libreria Editrice Vaticana) 1999,
especially pages 13-34. The list of common points is on p. 33.
(69)The
Nicene Creed.
(70)Michel
Lacroix, L'Ideologia della New Age, Milano (Il Saggiatore)
1998, p. 74.
(71)Ibid.,
p. 68.
(72)Edwin
Schur, The Awareness Trap. Self-Absorption instead of Social
Change, New York (McGraw Hill) 1977, p. 68.
(73)Cf.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 355-383.
(74)Cf.
Paul Heelas, The New Age Movement. The Celebration of the Self
and the Sacralization of Modernity, Oxford (Blackwell) 1996,
p. 161.
(75)A
Catholic Response to the New Age Phenomenon, Irish Theological
Commission 1994, chapter 3.
(76)Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis Formas, 3.
(77)Ibid.,7.
(78)William
Bloom, The New Age. An Anthology of Essential Writings,
London (Rider) 1991, p. xvi.
(79)Catechism
of the Catholic Church, § 387.
(80)Ibid.,
§ 1849.
(81)Ibid.,
§ 1850.
(82)John
Paul II, Apostolic Letter on human suffering “Salvifici
doloris” (11 February 1984), 19.
(83)Cf.
David Spangler, The New Age, op. cit., p. 28.
(84)Cf.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio (7
December 1990), 6, 28, and the Declaration Dominus Jesus (6
August 2000) by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
12.
(85)Cf.
R. Rhodes, The Counterfeit Christ of the New Age Movement, Grand
Rapids (Baker) 1990, p. 129.
(86)Helen
Bergin o.p., “Living One's Truth”, in The Furrow,
January 2000, p. 12.
(87)Ibid.,p.
15.
(88)Cf.
P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 138.
(89)Elliot
Miller, A Crash Course in the New Age, Eastbourne (Monarch)
1989, p. 122. For documentation on the vehemently anti-Christian
stance of spiritualism, cf. R. Laurence Moore, “Spiritualism”,
in Edwin S. Gaustad (ed.), The Rise of Adventism: Religion and
Society in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America, New York 1974, pp.
79-103, and also R. Laurence Moore, In Search of White Crows:
Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture, New York
(Oxford University Press) 1977.
(90)Cf.
John Paul II, Encyclical letter Fides et Ratio (14
September 1998), 36-48.
(91)Cf.
John Paul II, Address to the United States Bishops of Iowa,
Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska on their “Ad Limina” visit, 28
May 1993.
(92)Cf.
John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in
Africa (14 September 1995), 103. The Pontifical Council for
Culture has published a handbook listing these centres throughout
the world: Catholic Cultural Centres (3rd edition, Vatican
City, 2001).
(93)Cf.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis Formas,
and § 3 above.
(94)This
is one area where lack of information can allow those responsible
for education to be misled by groups whose real agenda is inimical
to the Gospel message. It is particularly the case in schools,
where a captive curious young audience is an ideal target for
ideological merchandising. Cf. the caveat in Massimo
Introvigne, New Age & Next Age, Casale Monferrato
(Piemme) 2000, p. 277f.
(95)Cf.
J. Badewien, Antroposofia, in H. Waldenfels (ed.) Nuovo
Dizionario delle Religioni, Cinisello Balsamo (San Paolo)
1993, 41.
(96)Cf.
Raúl Berzosa Martinez, Nueva Era y Cristianismo, Madrid
(BAC) 1995, 214.
(97)Helen
Palmer, The Enneagram, New York (Harper-Row) 1989.
(98)Cf.
document of the Argentine Episcopal Committee for Culture, op.
cit.
(99)J.
Gernet, in J.-P. Vernant et al., Divination et Rationalité, Paris
(Seuil) 1974, p. 55.
(100)Cf.
Susan Greenwood, “Gender and Power in Magical Practices”, in
Steven Sutcliffe and Marion Bowman (eds.), Beyond New Age.
Exploring Alternative Spirituality, Edinburgh (Edinburgh
University Press) 2000, p. 139.
(101)Cf.
M. Fuss, op. cit., 198-199.
(102)For
a brief but clear treatment of the Human Potential Movement, see
Elizabeth Puttick, “Personal Development: the Spiritualisation
and Secularisation of the Human Potential Movement”, in: Steven
Sutcliffe and Marion Bowman (eds.), Beyond New Age. Exploring
Alternative Spirituality, Edinburgh (Edinburgh University
Press) 2000, pp. 201-219.
(103)Cf.
C. Maccari, La “New Age” di fronte alla fede cristiana,
Leumann-Torino (LDC) 1994, 168.
(104)Cf.
W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., 283-290.
(105)On
this last, very delicate, point, see Eckhard Türk's article
“Neonazismus” in Hans Gasper, Joachim Müller, Friederike
Valentin (eds.), Lexikon der Sekten, Sondergruppen und
Weltanschauungen. Fakten, Hintergründe, Klärungen, Freiburg-
Basel-Wien (Herder) 2000, p. 726.
(106)Cf.
John Saliba, Christian Responses to the New Age Movement. A
Critical Assessment, London, (Geoffrey Chapman) 1999, p.1.
(107)Cf.
M. Fuss, op. cit., 195-196.
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