Four pillars of the new spirituality
In the battle for the post-"something"-mind one writer has highlighted four pillars of thought that hold up the "Spiritual but Not Religious". In his book Bad Religion, Ross Douthat examines the core beliefs of a very America's wave of "spiritual but not religious" teachers. Men like Deepak Chopra, James Redfield, Eckhart Tolle, Paulo Coelho, Neale Donald Walsch, Oprah Winfrey, and Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of Eat, Pray, Love). Douthat claims that their teachings shares the following four beliefs:
1) All organized religions offer only partial glimpses of God (or Light or Being). Thus, we must seek to experience God through feeling rather than reason, experience rather than dogma, a direct encounter rather than a hand-me-down revelation. As Neal Donald Walsch writes in his book Conversations with God, "Listen to your feelings. Listen to your Highest Thought …. Whenever any of these differ from what you've been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words."
2) God is everywhere and within everything—especially within you. You can encounter God by getting in touch with the divinity that resides inside your very self and soul. At the climax of his book "The Alchemist" Paul Coelho writes: "The boy reached through the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul."
3) Sin and evil are largely illusions that will ultimately be reconciled rather than defeated. There is no hell save the one we make for ourselves on Earth, no final separation from the Being that all our beings rest within. Elizabeth Gilbert assures her readers, "There is no such thing in this universe as hell, except maybe in our own terrified minds."
4) Perfect happiness is available right now. Heaven is on earth. Eternity can be entered at any moment, by any person who understands how to let go, let God, and let themselves be washed away in love. James Redfield writes, "At some point everyone will vibrate highly enough so that we can walk into heaven, in our same form." And Coelho adds, "I do believe in life after death, but I also don't think that it's that important. What's important is to understand that we are also living this life after death now."(1)
Additional thoughts
The four core beliefs outline the major theological perspectives of many "spiritual but not religious" teachers. I would like to point out the two main sources of authority most often used by theses teachers. The first is easy enough, experience. They appeal to experience and the pragmatic verification for truth (if it works for you, it's truth for you) is highly elevated.
The second is overlooked but often is the more persuasive. The appeal to the scientific disciplines; psychology, sociology and a spurious use of quantum physics. Such information appears factual but all three are considered to be soft sciences. This is easy to see in psychology and sociology not so clear in quantum physics. Unlike its older brother quantum physics has some experimentation but mostly relies on the internal logic and overall consistency of a theory as evidence of validity. (for example: string theory)
From quantum entanglement to the observer effect, the universe as a quantum computer to the first law of thermo-dynamics, the misapplication of modern theoretical physics in to spiritual reality creates a worldview that gives a pseudo-credence to the doctrines of these "spiritual but not religious" teacher. Further, the misuses of such disciplines seems to give evidentiary support and also has developed into a way of speaking in spiritual almost ethereal terms without actually leaving the physical world.
End notes
(1) adapted from Ross Douthat, Bad Religion (Free Press, 2012), pp. 215-216
Some verses that came to mind.
Jeremiah 23:16-17:27
Matthew 7:15-10
Acts 20:29
Galatians 1:7-9
Colossians 2:8
In Him
J. Dawson Jarrell
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