The tendency to interchange psychology and spirituality was firmly embedded in the Human Potential Movement as it developed towards the end of the s at the Esalen Institute in California. Transpersonal psychology, strongly influenced by Eastern religions and by Jung, offers a contemplative journey where science meets mysticism. To realise one's potential, one had to go beyond one's ego in order to become the god that one is, deep down. 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.
Central themes of the New Age. 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:. New Age involves a fundamental belief in the perfectibility of the human person by means of a wide variety of techniques and therapies as opposed to the Christian view of co-operation with divine grace.
There is a general accord with Nietzsche's idea that Christianity has prevented the full manifestation of genuine humanity. Perfection, in this context, means achieving self-fulfilment, according to an order of values which we ourselves create and which we achieve by our own strength: 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: 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. 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. 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. Yoga, zen, transcendental meditation and tantric exercises lead to an experience of self-fulfilment or 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. New Age has a marked preference for Eastern or pre-Christian religions, which are reckoned to be uncontaminated by Judaeo-Christian distorsions. Hence great respect is given to ancient agricultural rites and to fertility cults. There is talk of God, but it is not a personal God; the God of which New Age speaks is neither personal nor transcendent. This unity is monistic, pantheistic or, more precisely, panentheistic.
In a sense, everything is God. There is also talk of Christ, but this does not mean Jesus of Nazareth. Every historical realisation of the Christ shows clearly that all human beings are heavenly and divine, and leads them towards this realisation. The universe is an ocean of energy, which is a single whole or a network of links. There is no alterity between God and the world.
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. The global brain needs institutions with which to rule, in other words, a world government.
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. 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. We are learning to read tendencies, to recognise the early signs of another, more promising, paradigm. We create alternative scenarios of the future. 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: 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. Whereas traditionalised religiosity, with its hierarchical organization, is well-suited for the community, detraditionalized spirituality is well-suited for the individual.
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?
Some observers of New Age detect a sinister authoritarianism behind apparent indifference to politics. 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:. The Western universe is seen as a divided one based on monotheism, transcendence, alterity and separateness. This is portrayed as something tragic. The response from New Age is unity through fusion: There is, thus, no more alterity; what is left in human terms is transpersonality.
The New Age world is unproblematic: 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. 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? 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.
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: Christianity always seeks to measure human endeavours by their openness to the Creator and to all other creatures, a respect based firmly on love.
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.
Normality is presented as a morally loaded concept, linked necessarily with absolute norms. For a growing number of people, absolute beliefs or norms indicate nothing but an inability to tolerate other people's views and convictions. In this atmosphere alternative life-styles and theories have really taken off: It is essential to bear in mind that people are involved with New Age in very different ways and on many levels.
This fits perfectly into the patterns of consumption in societies where amusement and leisure play such an important part. 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. Like many other things in contemporary economics, New Age is a global phenomenon held together and fed with information by the mass media. 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. And that is precisely why it is important to discover and recognise the fundamental characteristics of New Age ideas. 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. New Age as spirituality. 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. 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. 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. 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. The psychological component of this kind of spirituality comes from the encounter between esoteric culture and psychology cf. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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:.
Before anything was created, he existed, and he holds all things in unity. Now the Church is his body, he is its head. 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. Eternity entered into time: What other 'fulfilment' would be possible?
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.
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 divine pattern of connectivity was made flesh and set up its tent among us John 1: The Cosmic Christ is local and historical, indeed intimate to human history.
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: 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. 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. Not everyone has access to these techniques, whose benefits are restricted to a privileged spiritual 'aristocracy'. There are spiritual techniques which it is useful to learn, but God is able to by-pass them or do without them.
That would contradict the spirit of childhood called for by the Gospel. The heart of genuine Christian mysticism is not technique: For Christians, conversion is turning back to the Father, through the Son, in docility to the power of the Holy Spirit. All meditation techniques need to be purged of presumption and pretentiousness.
Here is a key point of contrast between New Age and Christianity. 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. 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.
Christian Spirituality and Social Transformation - Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion
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. 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.
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. 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. Some of these questions applied to people and ideas not explicitly labelled New Age would reveal further unnamed or unacknowledged links with the whole New Age atmosphere. 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. God is no longer to be sought beyond the world, but deep within myself. 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.
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:. 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;. 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: Isolated individual personalities would be pathological in terms of New Age in particular transpersonal psychology.
New Age is thinking based on totalitarian unity and that is why it is a danger 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. 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.
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. 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: 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. 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.
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. 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: 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.
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: Go where your intelligence and intuition lead you.
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.
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. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity 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. 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: 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.
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. Where there is true love, there has to be a different other person. Union is seen in Christianity as communion, unity as community. 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. 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. 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. 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 The dialogue about the adoration of God begins: Jesus touched her heart and so prepared her to listen to what He had to say about Himself as the Messiah: They soon accepted the truth of his identity: 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. 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. 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. It is a matter of letting people react in their own way, at their own pace, and letting God do the rest.
Guidance and sound formation are needed. 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. 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: New Age traditions consciously and deliberately blur real differences: 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.
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. 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: 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: This is far from being a purely academic issue: 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. It is important constantly to focus on effective ways of speaking of transcendence. The fundamental difficulty of all New Age thought is that this transcendence is strictly a self-transcendeence to be achieved within a closed universe.
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. But he also calls the attention of the faithful to certain ambiguous elements which are incompatible with the Christian faith: 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. 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. These are precious resources, which ought to be shared generously in areas that are less well provided for. 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. 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.
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. Christian prayer and the God of Jesus Christ will easily be recognised.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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. The Mass is ended! He goes on to issue a challenge to Christians in this regard: 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.
Some brief formulations of New Age ideas. William Bloom's formulation of New Age quoted in Heelas, p. Some of these great beings are well- known and have inspired the world religions. Some are unknown and work invisibly. We, therefore, work with Spirit and these energies in co-creating our reality. 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.
The world, including the human race, constitutes an expression of a higher, more comprehensive divine nature. Hidden within each human being is a higher divine self, which is a manifestation of the higher, more comprehensive divine nature. This higher nature can be awakened and can become the center of the individual's everyday life.
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.
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. 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. It links beings as diverse as ascended masters, angels, gods, group entities, nature spirits and the Higher Self. 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.
Christian doctrine, scripture, and the Christian life were intimately interconnected. However, the motives behind seeking greater doctrinal precision grew from a sense that authentic living depended on maintaining right belief orthodoxy , and that misbelief or heresy led to spiritual inauthenticity. The doctrine of the Incarnation, affirming that in the person of Jesus of Nazareth there was a union of the divine and the human, not only governed all other Christian beliefs but was also the bedrock of Christian spirituality. This heresy had two main elements. The first was a focus on esoteric knowledge.
That is, true knowledge of God was reserved to a special group of initiates who inherited secret oral teachings. Second, this secret knowledge involved dualistic, anti-material beliefs. Human bodily existence is the result of sin. Humans have a fundamental spiritual nature that is trapped in the body, belongs to another world, and needs to return there. It also undermined the belief that God entered into the material world and into the human condition in the person of Jesus. This process of clarification about the nature of Jesus Christ, his relationship to God, and the implications for the Christian life, took several hundred years to be formally defined.
Two official gatherings, or Councils, of Church leaders stand out. First, the Council of Nicaea in ce condemned the heresy of Arianism named after an Egyptian priest called Arius. Arianism denied that the nature of God could be shared or communicated. Consequently, Jesus Christ was not an uncreated equal of the eternal God as Father.
Equally, there was no intimate relationship between God and humanity. This heresy was termed Monophysitism. Again, this undermined the value of the human condition. The Chalcedonian Creed affirmed that Jesus Christ had two natures and so was paradoxically both truly God and truly human. However, it did not manage to resolve precisely how this was to be understood. In the end, the focus of all this debate about doctrine was practical in relation to understanding and leading the Christian life and, indeed, to understanding the nature of human life more generally.
It is now possible to describe briefly the fundamental characteristics of Christian spirituality. However, it is too narrow to understand the call to proclaim the Kingdom simply as a verbal communication of information about God or of moral teachings. While later forms of Christian spirituality necessarily re-interpret these scriptural foundations, it is nevertheless possible to say that personal transformation and the mission to transform the world are key themes.
The history of Christian spirituality is a rich and varied commentary on how these two themes have been expressed in a wide variety of spiritual movements and literature.
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In the light of these values, all classic Christian spiritual traditions address certain questions, implicitly or explicitly. First, in reference to transformation, both personal and social, what needs to be transformed and why? Second, is transformation essentially individual, or does it also imply a commitment to transform society? Third, what factors stand in the way of transformation? These factors were described in religious terms, although nowadays commentators would also note the role of psychological or social and cultural factors.
Fourth, what is the context for transformation? Is it the processes of everyday life, or does it demand stepping aside into a special context for example, the desert, the monastery, or a retreat house? Fifth, how does transformation take place? This usually involves some theory about how spiritual growth takes place as well about lifestyles or spiritual practices that assist it. Finally, what is the purpose of transformation? In other words, classic Christian spiritual traditions offer some vision of spiritual enlightenment and human completeness.
In terms of the word mission, the concept is both rich and ambiguous. For some traditionalists, it implies proselytizing—that is, converting people to Christianity. However, for others, Christianity is mission-focused in a quite different, outward-looking way. This outward-looking approach seeks to respond to the lives and needs of others. The message of Jesus Christ demands that disciples attend to the needs of the poor and marginalized, and enable their voices to be heard. At this point it is worth summarizing the classic approaches to spiritual transformation.
One widespread image in Christian spirituality is that of a pilgrimage or journey. Thus, the theology of the early Church gradually developed a theory of successive stages on the spiritual journey. The theologian Origen c. In the following century, Gregory of Nyssa c. His metaphor was the story of Moses climbing Mount Sinai to enter deep clouds of darkness in his encounter with God.
While described as consecutive stages, in practice they are interrelated dimensions. The 6th-century Rule of St. While these classic Christian approaches to the spiritual journey may continue to offer wisdom for the present day, their purely individual approach would nowadays be balanced by a renewed biblical emphasis on collective, social understandings of spirituality.
Thus, the theme of transformation in Christian spirituality is nowadays more explicitly engaged with the question of transforming society rather than simply transforming individual lives. As has already been noted, Christianity embraces a great variety of spiritual traditions and writings. Any attempt to write an overview of Christian spirituality confronts the question of how to organize a large amount of material into an intelligible pattern.
Scholars have sometimes found it helpful to define what they see as major types of Christian spirituality. Types of spirituality are fundamentally distinctive styles of spiritual wisdom and spiritual practices with certain shared characteristics. These may be expressed in a body of literature, in meditative practices or other spiritual disciplines, in distinctive communities that practice a certain lifestyle, or in a combination of these. Having identified such types, it is then possible to develop a framework what is called a typology that enables us to compare and contrast them and thus to understand their distinctive qualities.
However, typologies need to be used with caution. They are useful tools to help people analyze the complexities of Christian spirituality. However, the notion of types is itself an act of interpretation rather than a straightforward description of reality. For the purposes of this article, I identify five types of Christian spirituality, which will now be briefly described. These types are ascetical, mystical, active, aesthetic, and finally, prophetic. These types sometimes overlap to some degree. Thus, for example, ascetical forms of spirituality may also have mystical elements.
The ascetical type of spirituality sometimes prescribes special places for the process of spiritual transformation, such as the wilderness or the monastery. Characteristically, it also describes certain disciplines or practices of self-denial, austerity, and abstention from worldly pleasures as the pathway to spiritual growth and moral perfection. The end in view is a condition of detachment from material existence as the pathway to eternal life.
In some respects, all the major Christian spiritual traditions contain an ascetical or disciplined element. However the most familiar expression of this type is associated with monasticism. The period from the 4th to the 12th centuries ce was one of major consolidation in the history of Christianity and complex changes in its surrounding political and cultural contexts. Inevitably, this led to readjustments in self-understanding and in spiritual values. One consequence was the expansion of counter-cultural ascetical movements that gave birth to monasticism.
For the next seven centuries, the history of Christian spirituality, both East and West, was in many ways dominated by the ascetical-monastic type of spirituality. Christianity has no monopoly on monasticism. It has existed in some form in other world religions. While single Christian ascetics first appeared in the region of Syria and Palestine, structured monasticism emerged in Egypt.
This took several forms, from small groups of hermits to larger, village-like settlements, and eventually to major communities, for example associated with Pachomius c. By about ce , monasticism numbered thousands of men and women. Basil, which is still the foundation for Eastern Orthodox monasticism. In the West, two major monastic Rules emerged, the Rule of St. Augustine in 5th-century North Africa and the Rule of St. Benedict in 6th-century Italy. Although other traditions eventually emerged, these two Rules continue to dominate Western monasticism. Notable medieval products of the Benedictine tradition, and its off-shoot the Cistercians, include a pope, Gregory the Great — ; the philosopher Anselm of Canterbury — ; the poet, musician, and artist Hildegard of Bingen — ; the mystical theologian Bernard of Clairvaux; and the English writer on human friendship, Aelred of Rievaulx.
In modern times, well-known monastic spiritual figures include the popular writer Thomas Merton — and the Eastern Orthodox nun and writer Maria Skobtsova — , who was executed by the Nazis for protecting Jews. In recent times, monasticism has re-emerged in Protestant Christianity as well as in the Anglican Communion. The mystical type of spirituality is associated with the desire for an immediacy of presence to God, frequently through contemplative practice. It does not demand withdrawal from everyday life, but suggests that the everyday world may be transfigured into something wondrous.
The mystical type is associated with intuitive knowledge of God beyond discursive reasoning and analysis. The ultimate purpose is spiritual illumination and being connected to the transcendent. A mystical dimension to Christianity existed from its beginnings. In the 6th century ce , the writings of an anonymous Syrian monk known as pseudo-Dionysius had a considerable influence in both the East and the West.
However, it is commonly suggested that in Western Christianity the period from — ce saw a particular flourishing of mysticism. This was partly because of a growing sense of the individual self after what became known as the 12th-century Renaissance, and partly as a reaction to a more philosophically driven theology. The 14th century is particularly rich in mystical writers. A number of key figures have achieved wide popularity, even outside Christianity. Two people may be taken as examples. She became an anchoress sometime after an almost fatal illness in when, over a twenty-four hour period, she had sixteen visions provoked by the sight of a crucifix in her sick room.
Her famous A Revelation of Love , in the version known as the Long Text she also wrote a Short Text , is a sophisticated vernacular work of mystical-pastoral theology, written after years of reflection for the benefit of all her fellow Christians. But you will never know different, without end. The active type of spirituality, in a variety of ways, promotes everyday life as the principle context for the spiritual path. In this type of spirituality, people do not need to retreat from everyday concerns in order to reach spiritual enlightenment. What is needed for spiritual growth is within our reach.
This type of spirituality seeks to find spiritual growth through the medium of ordinary experiences, commitments, and activity, including the service of our fellow humans. Among the best-known examples of this type is the spiritual wisdom associated with Ignatius Loyola — , a 16th-century Basque noble, soldier, and finally Catholic reformer and founder of the religious order known as the Society of Jesus Jesuits.
The main values of Ignatian spirituality are highlighted in his text, the Spiritual Exercises. The Spiritual Exercises is one of the most influential Christian spiritual texts, now used as a medium for retreats and spiritual guidance across an ecumenical spectrum of Christians. It is not an inspirational text but a collection of practical notes for a retreat guide. The aim is to flexibly assist a retreatant to grow in inner freedom, to be able to respond to the call of Christ in the midst of daily life. From the Exercises , it is possible to outline certain key features of Ignatian spirituality and of the active type of spirituality more generally.
First, God is encountered in the practices of everyday life. Second, the life and death of Jesus Christ are offered as the fundamental pattern for Christian life. Third, God, in and through Jesus Christ, offers the healing and liberation needed to respond to the divine call. Fourth, spirituality focuses on a deepening desire for God in the midst of ordinary existence. Ignatius effectively summarizes a long tradition of discernment in Christian spirituality that finds its roots in ancient philosophy, notably in Aristotle.
The Exercises and the wider Ignatian tradition promote a range of spiritual practices including meditation, contemplation, and other forms of prayer, including what is known as the Examen, a brief daily practice of prayerful reflection on the events of the day and how God has been present. The aesthetic type of spirituality covers a spectrum of ways by which the spiritual journey may be expressed in, and shaped by, the arts, music and poetry. Icons are understood to be a medium of divine power.
Through interaction with them, humans may become spiritually united with, and transformed by, what the icon represents—God, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, or other saints. In the world of music, there is a long tradition of explicitly spiritual-religious music, often associated with Christian worship, such as plainchant, the polyphonic Mass settings of composers like William Byrd or Giovanni Palestrina, and the Lutheran chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach. In more recent times, the French Catholic composer Olivier Messiaen believed that sound in itself was spiritual, because it connects the listener to the harmonies of the cosmos.
If we turn to literature, it is clear that the extraordinary poetry of someone like the 16th-century Spanish mystic John of the Cross was a direct expression of his own inner spiritual experience. The 19th-century English Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins is considered to be one of the leading and most innovative Victorian poets, full of spiritual vision.
In recent times, the lyric poetry of the late Elizabeth Jennings is deeply imbued with her inner struggles and her Christian faith. However, in the history of Christian spirituality, a cluster of important 17th-century English poets expresses the gradual emergence of a distinctive Church of England spiritual tradition. Deeply inspired by the Bible and the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, the sophisticated poetry of such priests as John Donne, George Herbert, and Thomas Traherne as well as the physician Henry Vaughan is both great literature and an important expression of Anglican spirituality.
George Herbert — , aristocrat, Cambridge University orator, Member of Parliament, then priest, wrote two great works—a prose treatise on the priestly life, The Country Parson , and an outstanding poetic collection, The Temple. However, the carefully ordered nature of the collection also indicates their wider purpose—to communicate to readers the sometimes-painful complexity of the Christian spiritual path.
Herbert was someone with deep aesthetic sensibilities—to the beauty of liturgy and of church architecture, for example. He also considered writing poetry as a form of prayer. Finally, the prophetic type of spirituality goes beyond the simple service of other people in the direction of an explicit commitment to social transformation as a spiritual task. It is possible to argue that historic religions have always had prophetic elements. Thus, the prophets of the Hebrew Bible such as Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah critiqued corrupt social and political systems.
Christian Spirituality and Social Transformation
In medieval Christian spirituality, the movement associated with Francis of Assisi emphasized spiritual poverty and worked with marginalized groups of people, partly in reaction against what Francis saw as the prevailing sins of his own wealthy merchant class. However, neither biblical prophecy nor Francis of Assisi explicitly promoted a spirituality of social justice or social transformation. The development of a prophetic style of spirituality really emerged during the 20th century in response to three factors.
First, the appalling slaughter of the two World Wars, mid-century totalitarianism Nazism, Fascism, and Stalinism , the Holocaust, and then the birth of the atomic-nuclear age provoked an overwhelming sense of the destructive power of war and of human oppression. Second, there was the gradual and often violent end to European colonialism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Third, there was a growing wave of social and cultural change in Europe and North America in relation to the status and role of women and to civil rights for ethnic minorities. In Christianity, there has been a range of examples of the prophetic type of spirituality.
This eventually took other forms in Africa and Asia. The interrelated feminist, political, and liberationist expressions of the prophetic type of spirituality promote two central and interdependent values. First, authentic spirituality necessarily demands that humanity should engage fearlessly with the structures of injustice and violence. That is, all aspects of human sexuality are shaped by social and cultural systems. The work of feminist scripture scholars such as Sandra Schneiders, who is sensitive to spirituality, has been an important tool.
For example, Jantzen wrote a major feminist academic study of Christian mysticism, Power, Gender, and Christian Mysticism. Turning to late 20th-century European political theology, in simple terms, it focuses on how to engage theology explicitly with political and social structures. It has sometimes been caricatured as Christian Marxism. Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology. This approach affirms that true spirituality is not disembodied interiority but should be marked by a struggle against the sexism, ethnic prejudice, and economic oppression that diminishes the life experience of Latina women.
He was born in a poor family in Lima, studied in Europe, and was ordained in His dual experience of university teaching and working in a poor parish led him to bring together theology and a commitment to justice. He used the Old Testament image of the Exodus, a desert journey in which God leads the oppressed peoples from a state of slavery to the possession of a land of their own. The underpinning of all Christian spirituality is discipleship, a radical following of Jesus intrinsically linked to social practice.
At the heart of spirituality is the experience of God speaking in and through the poor. In Part 3 of another book, On Job: True justice is resituated within the depths of God. In Africa and Asia, liberation spirituality has taken distinctive cultural forms while sharing the fundamental values of its Latin American inspiration. In Africa, there are a range of emphases. For example, Laurenti Magesa from Tanzania focuses strongly on the injustice of a continent that is not economically self-sufficient but is the victim of global inequality.
For example, the writings of Mercy Amba Oduyoye in Ghana focus critically on how traditional African culture impacts on the religious spiritual experiences of women. This seeks to awaken assertiveness in black workers so that they become self-realized persons rather than depersonalized objects in the labor market. He also focuses on theology and reconciliation, as do Charles Villa-Vicencio, in his call for a reconstructive theology of nation building, and John de Gruchy, in his work on reconciliation, solidarity, and social justice.
However, Asia has produced its own variety of liberation theology with an associated spirituality. Another Sri Lankan theologian and human rights activist, Tissa Balasuriya, portrayed the Virgin Mary, a traditional focus of Catholic devotion, as an image of revolutionary strength rather than docile passivity. The suffering of Jesus and his resurrection is an important image for the sources of liberation. It is now possible to summarize how the close relationship between Christian spirituality and social transformation is approached.
Critically, this depends on how the public world is valued.
Philip Sheldrake
From its scriptural origins, Christianity is clear that there is no exclusively private self. Human existence inherently embodies a social task. For example, the great North African theologian, Augustine of Hippo — ce was clear that our individual existence was intrinsically related to the common good. In contrast, for Augustine, the redeemed Heavenly City would be a community based on sharing and solidarity. The mystical dimension of Christian spirituality has profound social implications.
So, the spiritually elevated person never ceases to be a common person. And this is the supreme summit of the inner life. However, while Christian spirituality has an essentially social dimension, explicit attention to social transformation as a spiritual issue is, as we have seen, particularly characteristic of the last decades of the 20th century. A number of Christian writers argue that mysticism and contemplation are a necessary aspect of social engagement.
One Chilean theologian, Segundo Galilea, has written a great deal concerning the spiritual dimensions of political and social responses to injustice. Galilea suggests that people need to move beyond the notion that effective responses are purely structural.
Only social action that is nurtured by contemplative practice is capable of bringing about the change of heart necessary for lasting solidarity and social transformation. Social engagement must be accompanied by an interior process of liberation from self-seeking. If we are to draw an overall conclusion about the relationship between spirituality and the work of social transformation, it would be in terms of the purification of human motivation in relation to social justice.
In the early Christian era, the study of Christian spirituality began as part of an undifferentiated theological reflection on scripture, doctrine, worship, and pastoral practice. This new scientific approach slowly led to a separation of spiritual theory from theology by the end of the Middle Ages, reinforced by the Reformation. Then the 18th-century European Enlightenment promoted the dominance of analytical thought.
This encouraged theology to move in similar directions and deepened its separation from spirituality. By the early 20th century, spirituality and theology began to re-engage, especially in Roman Catholic circles. However, this re-engagement had serious limitations. It was mainly driven by religious dogma and moral theology, with little attention to other disciplines. Even historical studies, for example by Pierre Pourrat, were subordinated to doctrine. In recent decades, major shifts in the study of Christian spirituality have taken place.
First, it no longer refers simply to monastic or mystical traditions, but has broadened to reflect on Christian life in the everyday world. Equally, the study of spirituality nowadays embraces material beyond literary texts, such as art, poetry, music, and sacred architecture. Second, Christian spirituality now seeks to integrate all aspects of human experience and existence.
The study of Christian spirituality has also established itself as an interdisciplinary field. What is known as postmodern theory saw the breakdown of closed academic systems where each discipline needed to be autonomous and pure. Interdisciplinary study is not simply an enrichment of the ways in which Christian spirituality is approached. It also involves a discipline of learning to live with what is multi-faceted rather than relatively easy to control. Because the study of Christian spirituality relates to a specific religious tradition, certain disciplines are necessarily involved.
Sandra Schneiders, a key figure in the modern development of the field, describes these as constitutive disciplines and proposes Christian history and scripture. In addition, there are problematic disciplines that relate to the specific theme being studied. Depending on context, Schneiders proposes psychology, the social sciences, literature, and the sciences. In her view, theology is situated between the two categories. In other words, the study of spirituality is transformative as well as informative. People obviously seek information: However, beyond this lies a quest for the wisdom embodied in what is being studied.
The study of Christian spirituality is now at a crossroads. Over the last quarter century, scholars have been concerned with redefining the field and with questions of method. However, they are now less methodologically preoccupied. Consequently, people increasingly seek to bring the subject into conversation with contemporary realities. One issue is the impact of globalization on Christian spirituality. People are increasingly aware of the cultural plurality of human society.
In the past, Christian spirituality was often presented as if it had an entirely Western profile. Today, a critical question concerns how Christian spirituality transmits itself, and how it is received, across cultural boundaries. Any authentic appropriation is contextual. Therefore the study of Christian spirituality has to relate to the specific situations in a plurality of local cultures.
Equally, some argue that overcoming our physical limits in this way opens up a new quasi-mystical experience of transcendence. Finally, the field of Christian spirituality increasingly engages with important social and cultural issues. There is a growing list of priorities. For example, there is a new urgency regarding interreligious dialogue and the potential contribution of Christian spirituality. This arises from an acute awareness of the connection between religious divisions, violence, and armed conflict.
The volumes in the series, edited by recognized scholars, consist of translations or modern English versions of widely acknowledged spiritual teachers and traditions from all parts of Christianity. The series also includes material from Jewish, Muslim, and native North American spiritual sources. Currently, the series totals just over one hundred and fifty volumes, some organized in reference to spiritual traditions and others containing the writings of individual people.
New volumes are added to the series every year. While the volumes in the series are not critical editions in the strict sense, the material is critically selected with footnotes, extensive and substantial introductions, an additional bibliography, and comprehensive indexes. The volumes in the series that relate directly to material in this essay, in historical order, are:. Classics of Western Spirituality. The Life of Moses.