New Age is the new religion. But is there any grounding for the rejection of it by the major religions or is this prejudice of the highest religious order?
The idea of New Age religions is something which became popular towards the end of the twentieth century, but it’s unclear exactly what this New Age movement incorporates. However, what is fairly certain is the refusal of mainstream religions to accept this alternative belief system in place of their own
So, what is New Age? Surveys in America shed some light on what fits into this category:
- 8% believe in astrology as a method of foretelling the future
- 7% believe that crystals are a source of healing or energizing power
- 9% believe that Tarot Cards are a reliable base for life decisions
- About 1 in 4 believe in a non-traditional concept of the nature of God which are often associated with New Age thinking:
- 11% believe that God is "a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach"
- 8% define God as "the total realization of personal, human potential"
- 3% believe that each person is God Yet as a religion, they don’t generally have things like Holy Books and some don’t even have a God, let alone a place of worship or a set of traditions which is deeply embedded within their culture. There is often no central organisation to lead the religion or a formal clergy, prayers or festivals.
Formed out of some disaffection with traditional religion and secularisation, New Age beliefs have taken what they feel is important from both sides and created something which sits somewhere, uneasily for some, between the two.
The problem for them is when it comes to recognition. Without many formal boundaries, these religions contain many diverse teachings and practices, from believing in a single spiritual power to be tapped into through feeling that there is a God in everything.
With a general emphasis on reincarnation, they are a challenge for the Western religious “heaven and hell” view on life after death. They also typically construct their own spiritual journey and, with shamanism, rely on another spirit taking over the body, whether good or evil. This goes directly against traditional religions who look to the authority of a benevolent God (or Gods) from whom to seek help and guidance. The spiritual journey is therefore assured, in faith at least, towards a positive reuniting with God.
But looking at the Sunni-Shi’ah split in Islam, the Catholic-Protestant split in Christianity and the various disagreements in all major religions, don’t these traditional followers of God show some sort of intolerance towards their newer relatives? Some of the New Age ideas of religion, like the spirituality of some sort, is surely compatible with other religions, as is the idea that the environment and world we live in should be respected.
If religion is about expression the surely New Age fits this as well as any other form of religion. Yet if religion is about a personal relationship with God, the formal recognition of God’s power and interaction with the world, about miracles and a history of God’s love, then maybe New Age is still not quite there yet.
