(The following article was published in the Spring
1995 issue of Towers Magazine, a
publication directed primarily to alumni/ae and friends of Otterbein College.
The editor said later that it generated more responses than any article ever
run in that periodical, many -- but by no means all -- of them negative.
Written for a general audience, it contains a gentle suggestion that there may
be something in New Age Religion worth looking at, even for conservative
Christians. Many conservative Christians, it seems, disagreed. To their
chagrin, Paul has tenure.)
New Age Religion:
Modern Cult or Ancient Spirituality?
by Paul A. Laughlin, Ph.D.
One of the fastest growing spiritual movements in the
It is difficult to measure the exact dimensions of the New Age movement in
contemporary American religion, because it is intentionally unorganized and
very diffuse, a mixture of diverse religious and spiritual beliefs and
practices. In fact, most New Agers prefer the term "spirituality" to
"religion," precisely because so far they have not shown much interest
in producing lasting institutional forms, like churches. Nor do they insist
jealously on exclusive allegiance and loyalty, or the rejection of alternative
spiritual paths. Instead, followers and advocates of New Age spirituality tend
to regard and promote it as more of a view or way of life that may be
compatible with and supplementary to other more traditional religious
practices.
Despite the difficulties of precisely identifying or counting followers or
practitioners of New Age religions, however, the strength of the movement can
be gauged indirectly by the popularity of the writings and audiotapes by the
likes of Shirley MacLain, M. Scott Peck, John Bradshaw, Marianne Williamson,
Louise Haye, Brian Weiss, Deepak Chopra, and Thich Nhat Hanh, or the many books
with "Tao" and "Zen" in their titles. All of these and
countless more can be found in the ever-expanding New Age (or "New
Alternative") sections of secular bookstores; and no wonder, with James Redfield's
Celestine Prophecy having been such a profitable runaway New Age bestseller in
the past year or so. New Age thought is also being purveyed in periodicals like
Millennium, Lotus, Tricycle, New Age Journal, and Body, Mind, Spirit, whose
circulations and sales are large and steadily growing.
More and more people also appear to be availing themselves of horoscopes,
psychics, Tarot and medicine cards, or expressing interest in auras, chakras,
pyramids, crystals, reincarnation, spirit guides, and holistic healing, all of
which are staples of New Age spirituality. Others are exploring shamanism or
Native American religions; or practicing yoga, Zen meditation, Tai Chi, or
Akido; or undergoing massage therapies with names like reflexology, shiatsu,
Reiki, Trager, and Rolfing. Some folks are dabbling in more than one of these
alternative spiritual paths.
Most major cities, including
New Age spirituality is not only pervasive, but extremely eclectic as well. New
Agers draw on a wide variety of sources: American Indian shamanism, ancient
Mother Earth paganism, Christian and Islamic mysticism, Jewish Cabala,
non-Western religious philosophies, holistic healing, 12-Step recovery, metaphysical
and psychic and spiritualist practices, and even modern psychology and
theoretical physics -- to name but a few! With such diverse sources, often
mixed together in very unusual combinations, New Age spirituality is very
difficult to define, much less to comprehend!
Yet, with so many sources and so much diversity, there is a key idea that holds
the New Age montage of religious belief and practice together and gives it
definition as a single movement. For, at the heart of New Age spirituality is a
view of God that is not really new at all -- a very ancient theology, in fact.
Indeed, it has been called the "perennial philosophy," because it
seems always to have been around and never to have gone away, even when
condemned and suppressed by some of the so-called "higher" religions.
It dates back to the Stone Age, and has found expression again and again
throughout history. That theology or philosophy, in fact, lies at the heart of
the mystical spirituality that emerged in the ancient religions of Hinduism,
Buddhism and Taoism. In
New Age religion's view of God stands in striking contrast to the monotheism of
the mainstream of Jewish and Christian traditions, and the religious and
spiritual practices based upon it. Monotheism begins with an assertion of God's
transcendence, which is to say God's "otherness" with respect to the
universe. The theistically conceived God, therefore, may be properly described
as "supernatural," or above nature. God is also immanent in the
created order, but in the sense of being active in history, rather than present
in nature. New Age spirituality, by contrast, emphasizes the immanence (i.e.,
"within-ness") of God's very Being in the created order, both in
nature and in human nature. It is for this reason that New Agers are often
dismissed as "tree huggers."
This basic theological starting point leads New Age spirituality to emphasize
the goodness inherent in the world and in people, and to downplay or ignore
altogether both sin and Satan, and thus the need to be "saved" from
such things. New Agers look instead to spiritual masters and teachers, contemporary
and ancient (including Jesus of Nazareth), who might help them realize and
develop that inner goodness.
It should be clear that, with its alternative understanding of the nature of
God, New Age spirituality inherently poses a challenge to mainline
Christianity. But, at the same time, there is some common ground upon which
productive dialogue between the two belief systems might occur. One such point
of contact might be the key Christian doctrines of the Incarnation (God's
embodiment in the person Jesus), the Holy Spirit (the Divine Presence in the
world), the Church (as the Body of Christ), and the Sacraments (wherein such
natural elements as bread, wine, and water become the vehicles of God's grace,
if not actual presence). For it is with these doctrines that traditional
Christianity comes closest to the New Age understanding of Divinity as an
"incarnate" presence in all of nature.
A close look at Christian history also reveals a long, persistent, though often
suppressed tradition of something akin to New Age thinking. Many of the
earliest Christians, for example, were Gnostics, and as such believed in the
immanent spark of divinity within each person. Christian mystics have sought
and found God within themselves (St. Bernard of Clairvaux) or in nature (St.
Francis of
None of this suggests that New Age spirituality is the key to true Christianity
or the right path, of course. But neither does it follow that it is
automatically "Satan's work" or a dangerous "cult." What
seems clear is that the religion now called "New Age" and the ideas
and beliefs associated with it have been persistently compelling for much of
the world's population throughout human history, and have emerged in a variety
of manifestations even within the Christian tradition. For thoughtful and
faithful believers and practitioners in the religious mainstream, therefore,
this ancient spirituality would appear to merit serious -- and, yes, prayerful
-- attention, investigation, and consideration.
(Copyright 1995 by Paul A.
Laughlin, all rights reserved.)
____________________________________________
Dr. Paul A. Laughlin is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion and
Philosophy at