church and new age spirituality

7/28/2019 Church and New Age Spirituality

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THE CHURCH AND THE NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY

NEIL VIMALKUMAR

The New Age movement is a testimony to the enormous resurgence of spirituality in our times.

Global gurus, holistic healers, Reiki practitioners, and astrologers whom one might hope to find

tucked away in the Himalayas or performing austere penance in secluded settings are now

entering halls of learning and corporate offices. An article in The Hindunewspaper said, IIM

Calcutta, Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource Development, Pune and others

have designed their curriculum in line with Eastern thinking. Buzzwords such as TQM (total

quality management) in our business schools have been replaced with Aham Brahmasmi (I am

God) and Tat Tvam Asi (That thou art) to inspire confidence in oneself and in ones

organization (The New Management Mantra The Hindu, October 23, 2006). Follow this

comment from the newspaper; The new reality is that Vedanta has become the philosophy infashion for a bunch of unlikely patrons ranging from college kids and corporate tycoons to

expatriate wives (Look whos talking Vedanta The Hindu April 9, 2007). Read a clipping

from an article in theEconomic Times: The market for spirituality is huge. If we talk about only

spiritual channels, the market is around 18 to 20 crores but the spiritual gurus market is around

2,000 crores, which includes VCDs, CDs, books, medicines, periodicals, etc, says Sanjay

Pahwa, former Associate Vice President of a religious channel. It is not just about satsangs or

religious shows that are aired on such channels but also includes a mix of health shows, lifestyle

programming, religious tourism, art and culture to attract a wide cross-section of people.

(Spiritualism, a growing industry 2nd September 2007, The Economic Times). An article in

The Weekmagazine about 2 years back claimed that Astrology was a Rs.40,000 crore industry.These products cater to the increasingly anxiety ridden world.

How does a Christian respond to this? I think a Christian response to the New Age has to

be two-fold. One is to caution and instruct the public about the New Age claims, its offerings and

the dangers associated with it and secondly, to alert Christians to address these real life issues

like stress, physical exercise, environment etc.

A brief history

The New Age movement [or NAM] is a reference to a phenomenon in the West. What is

now hailed as New Age and its tenets have existed in the East from time immemorial. Swami

Vivekananda, after his famous speech at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, was invited


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to speak at various Universities & colleges in the US and suggested a bilateral agreement. He

observed that the West was good in the study of matter (science and technology) & the East in

the study of spirituality. Let us exchange our expertise, he said. In many ways, he seems to

have been a forerunner in putting Hinduism on the world map and today; our Indian gurus seem

to be prophetically fulfilling that vision.

A growing disillusionment with traditional religion and the wars and bloodshed the

Church was involved in, were among the seeds that paved the way for newer spiritualities. New

Age is also a strong indication that secular humanism failed to deliver the goods. World Wars I

& II brought down the optimism that coloured humanism & its confidence in science, while the

Bible had all along been pointing out that the heart of the problem was the problem of the heart.

In the words of Ravi Zacharias, The New Age movement is a valiant attempt at mitigating the

bankruptcy of secularism with the spurious glitter of Eastern mysticism.

What do they believe in?

New Age movement is represented by many loosely connected beliefs & practices and is

propagated by various individuals & organizations. However, there are some common

assumptions. Douglas Groothuis outlines six distinctives in his book, Unmasking the New Age.

They are: (i) All is one (ii) All is God (iii) Humanity is God (iv) A change in consciousness (v)

All religions are one (vi) Cosmic evolutionary optimism. Let me explain them briefly.

As one can see, New Age ideas are very pantheistic in nature. The idea that all reality is

one is monism. This idea of oneness is presented as a solution to our fragmented world. After

all when one takes a cosmic look at our planet earth, we realize we are part of this one world, and

so the distinctions between races, religion or nationalities must go (Deepak Chopra). But does

oneness as pantheism would hold, allow any differentiation whatsoever? Then a photograph

taken of earth from outside earth would not be a pantheistic effort! Also, interestingly in another

play of words, people like Fritjof Capra suggest that oneness that Eastern religions talk about is

what physicists refer to in their description of the subatomic world. Clearly this is a semantic

fallacy. The seeming oneness in the subatomic world is a (Copenhagen interpretation) model of

explaining some seeming oddities at that level. This does not include the macro-world in which

we live and move, where everything is real and distinct. Vinoth Ramachandra points out, No

true Hindu, Buddhist or Taoist will ever accept that the mystical insights which are accessible

only to sages, arahats and rishis (and that after a lifetime of rigorous discipline) should be


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identical to the results of rational and empirical investigation. To do so would be to subvert the

transcendent truth-claims of the major Indian and Chinese religious traditions.1 Words

sometimes have multiple meanings and they need to be understood in context.

To believe that the one reality is God is pantheism (paneverything & theosgod).

All of us, animal life, plant life & mineral life included, are part of the divine. Ideas like

vegetarianism (more a Jain idea), and ecological concerns that chide us for breaking the natural

harmony grow out of this pantheistic view.

Thirdly, they believe that humanity is God. Now this is a helpful release to a society that

yearns for independence and autonomy. If you are God and I am god, we dont need to submit to

a higher authority. We are free to do our own thing. No wonder New Age is reverberating in the

individualistic West.

They also advocate a change in consciousness. The problem with humanity is ignorance

(avidya) and the solution is the art of self-discovery. So, when a New Age guru says,

Transform yourself, this is not neutral talk. He / she is offering the only hope that people have.

To look within.

Another best-selling doctrine that is preached is the validity of all religious paths - quite apolite doctrine to espouse, but truth doesnt work that way! A closer observation will show that

proponents of religious plurality are making a call for the validity oftheirview that all views are

the same. The pluralist has his / her non-negotiables too!

The New Age promotes optimism on account of a cosmic evolutionary change, which

will lead us from this age to the Age of Aquarius. This is also seen as a movement to the yang

from the yin (the female & male dimensions of reality). We are living in aggressive, violent,

exploiting times and so seeds of hope are sown about the age to come, when there will be peaceand tranquillity. Many are swayed by this good news, for who is not unsettled by growing fears

& anxieties in our times?

Are these beliefs and practices dangerous? Any New Age practice undermines the basic

dignity that God has put into our lives. For example, what could be the repercussions in a society


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where everyone thinks he/she is God? - A clash of the gods and not a perfect society mainly

because we choose to ignore the problem of sin that we all have! A true ecological concern can

only come from a worldview - which sees human beings as transcendent or above all other

creation. A society that bows down or surrenders itself to nature is governed by the vagaries of

nature. Can an identity that we are gods save us, especially when we are not gods? If we are

gods, how do we understand ourselves? How do we explain our finiteness? Why is it that we

lock our homes and rooms when we go away? Why is there so much rage and jealousy, not just

in society, but also in our homes? The pantheistic view is in direct opposition to the Christian

understanding. One view says, we are divine and the other says we are sinners (since Genesis 3).

Now both cannot be true, and one wonders how religious pluralism as advocated by New Agers

can stand?

The Church and its role

Our body matters

It is one thing to say, do not practise yoga and quite another to encourage people to

come up with a Christian alternative. It is not surprising that yoga or any other forms of healing

may have some therapeutic value (a few deep breaths and a quiet place might give us

refreshment), but then ends do not justify the means and the means adopted by New Age is

clearly asking for trouble. Let us promote healthy exercises, aerobics, swimming, jogging & thelike. Encourage people to take physical fitness seriously. This is not to undermine the spiritual

needs of the congregation members.

Our mind matters

Another feature of New Age teaching is the call to empty our minds. This comes from

their low view of sensory perception & rationality. A popular guru has gone one record saying,Keep your hands busy, your hearts full and your heads empty. In the Christian understanding, it

is crucial that our hands are busy doing the right things, and our hearts are filled with goodness

& our minds are not removed, but renewed.

Our work matters


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Our Christian spirituality has to be all encompassing. It is not just what we are on a

Sunday morning in the pews of the Church that matter, but what we do the other six days is very

important too. The Christian walk is 24 X 7. Let me quote the valuable instruction from

Proverbs: In allyour ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. This would meanour relationship with our colleagues, spouse, children, the way we handle credit cards, our

watching TV et al.

Jesus and his spirituality

A great benchmark for all of us in our spirituality would be the life of our Lord Jesus

Christ. The very fact of His incarnation ennobles human existence, for matter is not evil like inpantheism, sin is. His invitation to his first disciples, Come and see is a call to a relationship,

not a technique. He sat with tax collectors and sinners and yet when he posed the question,

which one of you can convict me of sin? (John 8:46), there was a compelling silence. He would

reach out and touch people and play with the little children. He would touch and heal the leprosy

patient, an anti-social thing to do in those times. He broke social custom and spoke to a woman

at a well and that too a Samaritan woman, surprising the woman and shocking the disciples. It

also baffles me that he could stay at home for about 30 years of his life and then begin his public

ministry. And in those 3 1/2 years, he had time to attend at least one wedding at Cana, spend an

entire evening with Zacchaeus and company, visit his friends home at Bethany. His very life

was unique and personal. C. V. Mathew in a lecture on Hinduism made a passing comment,

which left a deep impression on me. He said, If we Christians do not relate to God as though He

was personal, we are practising Hindus.

In the Christian understanding, while we are not surprised at the solidarity that we see in

all of creation, we also see the distinctions. A careful look at the world, human beings, animal

world, plant kingdom, one cannot miss a unity in diversity and when we see a unity in diversity

in the effect, we need to posit a unity in diversity in the first cause. And the Christian doctrine of

Trinity stands uniquely qualified and profound and the basis and reference point for all of lifeand reality.

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