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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 labeled “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 become
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 labeled “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
practicing 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 coexist. 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 lifestyles. 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.
*Article:
Blaze Magazine
Online - Angels
& The Good News
by Catholic Evangelist, Eddie Russell FMI gives a Catholic
view of the realm of the Angelic from a Bible
perspective.
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 fulfillment. 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 modeled 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
cooperation 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-fulfillment, 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 distortions. 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, pantheistic. 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 lifestyles 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 labeled “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 practice 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 labeled
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”.67God 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.73This 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”.79Sin 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...80Sin 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-transcendence 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
[E.G
- The St Mary's Cathedral Praise Meeting Perth
Australia]
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.
[*See
Article: Blaze Magazine Online What's
in a Word? by
Catholic Evangelist, Eddie Russell FMI]
*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 rebirth 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
8.1.
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.
8.2.
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
1Paul Heelas,
The New Age Movement. The Celebration of the Self and the
Sacralization of Modernity, Oxford (Blackwell) 1996, p.
137.
2Cf. P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 164f.
3Cf. P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 173.
4Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dominum et vivificantem
(18 May 1986), 53.
5Cf. 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.
6John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, (Knopf) 1994,
90.
7Cf. particularly Massimo Introvigne, New Age & Next
Age, Casale Monferrato (Piemme) 2000.
8M. Introvigne, op. cit., p. 267.
9Cf. 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.
10Cf. 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.
11Cf. Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future
of Religion. Secularisation, Revival and Cult Formation,
Berkeley (University of California Press) 1985.
12Cf. M. Lacroix, op. cit., p. 8.
13The Swiss “Theologie für Laien” course
entitled Faszination Esoterik puts this clearly. Cf.
“Kursmappe 1 – New Age und Esoterik”, text to
accompany slides, p. 9.
14The 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.
15In 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.
16W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 520.
17Irish Theological Commission, A New Age of the Spirit? A
Catholic Response to the New Age Phenomenon, Dublin 1994,
chapter 3.
18Cf. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago
(University of Chicago Press), 1970, p. 175.
19Cf. 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.
20It 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, sympathy and trust abounding; no
more falsehoods or derision - golden living, dreams of
visions, mystic crystal revelation, and the mind's true
liberation. Aquarius...”.
21P. 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.
22Cf. Chris Griscom, Ecstasy is a New Frequency: Teachings
of the Light Institute, New York (Simon & Schuster)
1987, p. 82.
23See the Glossary of New Age terms, §7.2 above.
24Cf. 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.
25W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., pp. 54-55.
26Cf. 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.
27Michael Fuss, “New Age and Europe – A Challenge
for Theology”, in Mission Studies Vol. VIII-2, 16,
1991, p. 192.
28Ibid., loc. cit.
29Ibid.,p. 193.
30Ibid.,p. 199.
31Congregation 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.
32W.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).
33W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 513.
34Thomas 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.
35Cf. W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 501f.
36Carl Gustav Jung, Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido,
quoted in Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 503.
37On this point cf. Michel Schooyans, L'Évangile face
au désordre mondial, with a preface by Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, Paris (Fayard) 1997.
38Quoted 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.
39Michel Lacroix, L'Ideologia della New Age, Milano (il
Saggiatore) 1998, p. 84f.
40Cf. the section on David Spangler's ideas in
Actualité des religions nº 8, septembre 1999, p.
43.
41M. Ferguson, op. cit., p. 407.
42Ibid.,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.
44Cf. P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 173f.
45David Spangler, The New Age, Issaquah (Mornington Press)
1988, p. 14.
46P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 168.
47See 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.
48Cf. 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.
49Cf. Christoph Bochinger, “New Age” und moderne
Religion: Religionswissenschaftliche Untersuchungen,
Gütersloh (Kaiser) 1994, especially chapter 3.
50The shortcomings of techniques which are not yet prayer
are discussed below in § 3.4, “Christian mysticism
and New Age mysticism”.
51Cf. Carlo Maccari, “La 'mistica cosmica' del New
Age”, in Religioni e Sette nel Mondo 1996/2.
52Jean Vernette, “L'avventura spirituale dei figli
dell'Acquario”, in Religioni e Sette nel Mondo 1996/2,
p. 42f.
53J. Vernette, loc. cit.
54Cf. J. Gordon Melton, New Age Encyclopedia, Detroit (Gale
Research) 1990, pp. xiii-xiv.
55David Spangler, The Rebirth of the Sacred, London (Gateway
Books) 1984, p. 78f.
56David Spangler, The New Age, op. cit., p. 13f.
57John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente
(10 November 1994), 9.
58Matthew 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.
59Cf. 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.
60Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis
Formas, 23.
61Ibid.,3. See the sections on meditation and contemplative
prayer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
§§. 2705-2719.
62Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis
Formas, 13.
63Cf. 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).
64Adrian Smith, God and the Aquarian Age. The new era of the
Kingdom, Great Wakering (McCrimmons) 1990, p. 49.
65Cf. Benjamin Creme, The Reappearance of Christ and the
Masters of Wisdom, London (Tara Press) 1979, p. 116.
66Cf. Jean Vernette, Le New Age, Paris (P.U.F.) 1992
(Collection Encyclopédique Que sais-je?), p. 14.
67Catechism of the Catholic Church, 52.
68Cf. 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.
69The Nicene Creed.
70Michel Lacroix, L'Ideologia della New Age, Milano (Il
Saggiatore) 1998, p. 74.
71Ibid., p. 68.
72Edwin Schur, The Awareness Trap. Self-Absorption instead
of Social Change, New York (McGraw Hill) 1977, p. 68.
73Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§
355-383.
74Cf. Paul Heelas, The New Age Movement. The Celebration of
the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity, Oxford
(Blackwell) 1996, p. 161.
75A Catholic Response to the New Age Phenomenon, Irish
Theological Commission 1994, chapter 3.
76Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis
Formas, 3.
77Ibid.,7.
78William Bloom, The New Age. An Anthology of Essential
Writings, London (Rider) 1991, p. xvi.
79Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 387.
80Ibid., § 1849.
81Ibid., § 1850.
82John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on human suffering
“Salvifici doloris” (11 February 1984), 19.
83Cf. David Spangler, The New Age, op. cit., p. 28.
84Cf. 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.
85Cf. R. Rhodes, The Counterfeit Christ of the New Age
Movement, Grand Rapids (Baker) 1990, p. 129.
86Helen Bergin o.p., “Living One's Truth”, in The
Furrow, January 2000, p. 12.
87Ibid.,p. 15.
88Cf. P. Heelas, op. cit., p. 138.
89Elliot 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.
90Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical letter Fides et Ratio (14
September 1998), 36-48.
91Cf. John Paul II, Address to the United States Bishops of
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska on their “Ad
Limina” visit, 28 May 1993.
92Cf. 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).
93Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Orationis
Formas, and § 3 above.
94This 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.
95Cf. J. Badewien, Antroposofia, in H. Waldenfels (ed.)
Nuovo Dizionario delle Religioni, Cinisello Balsamo (San
Paolo) 1993, 41.
96Cf. Raúl Berzosa Martinez, Nueva Era y
Cristianismo, Madrid (BAC) 1995, 214.
97Helen Palmer, The Enneagram, New York (Harper-Row)
1989.
98Cf. document of the Argentine Episcopal Committee for
Culture, op. cit.
99J. Gernet, in J.-P. Vernant et al., Divination et
Rationalité, Paris (Seuil) 1974, p. 55.
100Cf. 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.
101Cf. M. Fuss, op. cit., 198-199.
102For 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.
103Cf. C. Maccari, La “New Age” di fronte alla
fede cristiana, Leumann-Torino (LDC) 1994, 168.
104Cf. W.J. Hanegraaff, op. cit., 283-290.
105On 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.
106Cf. John Saliba, Christian Responses to the New Age
Movement. A Critical Assessment, London, (Geoffrey Chapman)
1999, p.1.
107Cf. M. Fuss, op. cit., 195-196.
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