Yesterday, 3Feb2003, in the Holy See Press Office there was a conference to present the document "Jesus Christ, Bearer of Living Water. A Christian Reflection on the 'New Age'," prepared by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Jesus Christ The Bearer Of The Water Of Life - A Christian reflection on the New Age is a pastoral reflection offered primarily to those engaged in pastoral work. It can be viewed as an attempt to answer the question: How does the New Age movement differ from the Christian faith?

Contemporary men and women are no less spiritually hungry than their ancestors of old. To use a related metaphor: We thirst.

quote:

"The people have become hungry and tired and thirsty in the desert." 2 Samuel 17:29

The document acknowledges what it is that contemporary humankind hungers and thirsts after. We all thirst for life�s meaning. We thirst for personal and social transformation. We thirst after Whomever and whatever might affirm the importance of humankind�s spiritual dimension and the integration of this dimension with the whole of life. We thus thirst after any knowledge that might affirm the link between human beings and the rest of creation. Although the unquenchable longing of the human spirit for transcendence and religious meaning is not only a contemporary cultural phenomenon, still, modern humankind dwells in a philosophical desert that is becoming increasingly rationalistic, materialistic and nihilistic.

There are many philosophies, metaphysics and theologies, many religions and faiths, all which claim to slake the human thirst for human meaning and transformation. Certainly this or that religiosity, this or that philosophy, this or that metaphysic, will, in some way, respond to the legitimate spiritual longing of human nature. Which has the true living water?

quote:

�Always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect and a clear conscience� (1 Peter 3:15).

Jesus Christ The Bearer Of The Water Of Life - A Christian reflection on the New Age is a courteous and respectful response to many of the questions raised in this dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

pax,
jb

Thanks, JB, for calling our attention to this--a very important document, IMO.

A few key points, and some reflections:

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2.3.3. Central themes of the New Age

New Age is not, properly speaking, a religion, but it is interested in what is called �divine�. The essence of New Age is the loose association of the various activities, ideas and people who might validly attract the term. So there is no single articulation of anything like the doctrines of mainstream religions. Despite this, and despite the immense variety within New Age, there are some common points:

� the cosmos is seen as an organic whole
� it is animated by an Energy, which is also identified as the divine Soul or Spirit
� much credence is given to the mediation of various spiritual entities
� humans are capable of ascending to invisible higher spheres, and of controlling their own lives beyond death
� there is held to be a �perennial knowledge� which pre-dates and is superior to all religions and cultures
� people follow enlightened masters..

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In a nutshell!

But this is also pretty much Hinduism, is it not? And so condemning one while holding a certain esteem for other world religions has always seemed a tricky business.

Also, we might not, Christianity has no quarrel with some of these points.

Nevertheless . . .

From the point of view of Christian faith, it is not possible to isolate some elements of New Age religiosity as acceptable to Christians, while rejecting others. Since the New Age movement makes much of a communication with nature, of cosmic knowledge of a universal good � thereby negating the revealed contents of Christian faith � it cannot be viewed as positive or innocuous. In a cultural environment, marked by religious relativism, it is necessary to signal a warning against the attempt to place New Age religiosity on the same level as Christian faith, making the difference between faith and belief seem relative, thus creating greater confusion for the unwary.
- pt. 4 -

It is this difference in overall paradigmatic attitudes which changes completely how concepts like "Christ self" and "Cosmic Christ" are treated. It even influences the practice of meditation in such a manner that the same practices can be used in New Age and Christian contexts, but with two entirely different intents and consequences.

Anyway . . . a good treatment of the topic overall, and from the "horse's mouth."

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What I fear now is how Catholic Right wingers will use this info. I've experienced first-hand how mean-spirited and judgmental they can be in sniffing out what they think is New Age. Some of you may not know this, but I (yes, I, Mr. Conservative Catholic) have been branded New Age by some Catholic right-wing publications, and I think that even contributed to the loss of a job in the Church.

Phil wrote: What I fear now is how Catholic Right wingers will use this info. I've experienced first-hand how mean-spirited and judgmental they can be in sniffing out what they think is New Age.

Well, for starters, let us consider how just one of these issues might be subject to misconstruction: the enneagram.

In the Vatican publication , it reads:

quote:

An adequate Christian discernment of New Age thought and practice cannot fail to recognize that, like second and third century gnosticism, it represents something of a compendium of positions that the Church has identified as heterodox. John Paul II warns with regard to the �return of ancient gnostic ideas under the guise of the so-called New Age: We cannot delude ourselves that this will lead toward a renewal of religion. It is only a new way of practising gnosticism � that attitude of the spirit that, in the name of a profound knowledge of God, results in distorting His Word and replacing it with purely human words. Gnosticism never completely abandoned the realm of Christianity. Instead, it has always existed side by side with Christianity, sometimes taking the shape of a philosophical movement, but more often assuming the characteristics of a religion or a para-religion in distinct, if not declared, conflict with all that is essentially Christian�.6 An example of this can be seen in the enneagram, the nine-type tool for character analysis, which when used as a means of spiritual growth introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the life of the Christian faith.

Now, I am not quite sure, myself, exactly what the Vatican is saying here; perhaps this is a wholesale and unequivocal indictment of the enneagram? But I suspect not. A nuanced reading would pay attention to the phrase: which when used as a means of spiritual growth.

Paraphrasing Maritain, we draw distinctions in order to unite, in order to properly integrate. Those involved in spiritual direction are already aware of the difference between such direction and psychological counseling. There is a difference between psychological counseling and psychiatric medication. There is a difference between all of these things and small group support systems. There is a difference between all of these psychospiritual dynamisms and holistic approaches to a healthful regimen of diet, exercise, rest and emotional & social engagements, and intellectual enrichment. My point has to do, therefore, with ordinacy: everything has a proper place and should be in that place (nothing our mothers didn't teach us by the age of reason or before, though we struggle to learn it and apply it).

From my perspective, because the enneagram has strong correlations with insights gleaned from Jungian psychology and the Myers-Briggs typology, and because Jungian lead and auxiliary functions and preference orders are strongly correlated with neurocognitive structures and brain glucose metabolism, just for instance, the enneagram has a legitimate place in gifting us with psychological insights into ourselves and others. Jeff Dahms wasn't speaking exclusively of the enneagram, below, and I know it is of dubious origin, even if attributed to some Sufi influences, but he makes an additional point about phenomenological observations which clearly applies to the enneagram:

quote:

The major religions have all had monastic traditions variously devoted to the concrete issue of the working state of the human psyche - Zen in Buddhism, Sufism in Islam and so on. The universal premise of these minor monastic sub traditions is that the human mind for whatever historical/evolutionary reasons is very deficient compared to how it is possible for it to function.

Such a thesis is an easy sell to anyone with a few minutes acquaintance with life on this planet. Interestingly, for completely technical reasons, it is also an easy sell to a neuroscientist. These monastic traditions have been humanity's phenomenological research centers devoted to the mapping of mind and the technology of mind repair and mental evolution. Sufism has long been a major source of systematic phenomenological knowledge - how minds work what they do all day long, their peculiar deficits, what change is possible, how one might achieve an 'ordinary' level of functioning, what special skills might further be developed. In general they are concretely concerned with how individuals can 'get from here to there' and convince the god of one's choice that it was worth taking out the dinosaurs and making room for us.

from Boxing Islam: Jeff W. Dahms

I think it is good counsel not to turn to the enneagram, strictly as a means for spiritual growth. We shouldn't look to any psychological system, however empirical or phenomenological, whether the humanistic movement, the behavioristic movement, Jungian psychology, psychoanalysis, etc etc etc as a means of spiritual growth. Even secular applications for personality typologies are fraught with the the pitfalls of popularization and perils of misapplication. We needn't and mustn't turn away from the insights they provide, however. And we positively should not fail to include psychological growth and individuation processes as integral components in our strivings for personal growth. Spiritual transformation and formative spirituality involve all that we are and all that we can be and we draw distinctions, such as between body and soul, between the physical, emotional, mental, sexual, spiritual and other aspects of our humanity (and theosis), only for the purpose of proper integration, only toward unitive goals.

But just you wait and see. The enneagram will be under more vehement attack, now, than ever before. And, I suspect, wrongly so, even from the Vatican's perspective. Yes, everything has a proper place, but, assuredly, some will claim the enneagram has no place in Catholicism.

Pax,
jb

Good example, JB, and precisely the kind of thing I had in mind.