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The
Sources of Secularism and New Age Spirituality
3. The Sources
of Secularism and New Age Spirituality
An understanding
of the underlying development of secularism and new age spirituality can be
helpful in meeting these phenomena. The historical development of Western
mentality shows a clear progression with elements of stability and change. Once
these elements have been identified, strategies for triggering change on the
foundation of the stable aspects of Western mentality can be envisioned.
Western mentality
has a basis of heathen polytheism. All of the European religious systems before
the conquest by Christianity were founded on the concept of a pantheon of
various gods and goddesses with different functions. These were seen to control
the fate of humankind, but demanded worship and various types of sacrifice for
propitiation and in order to induce them to act favourably towards human
beings. The Nordic gods are still reflected in the names of the days of the
week in all of the Nordic languages. The Romance languages preserve the names
of the planets, also perceived as gods and goddesses, in the names of the days
of the week in the Romance languages. In Western languages people refer daily
to the ancient European gods. This is more than a mere linguistic remnant. It
is a single piece of evidence for a whole configuration of pagan thought that
forms the underlying layer of European mentality.
Christianity was a
small sect among many cults competing with each other in the Roman empire in
the first centuries of the Christian era. But for a particular historical
event, Christianity would have disappeared with hardly a trace. Christianity
became the vehicle for the emperor Constantine's attempts to consolidate his
power. He made Christianity the State religion, the purpose of which was to
enhance imperial power. In so doing he changed the face and character of
Christianity beyond recognition, so that today it has practically nothing to do
with the actual teaching of Jesus (AS) and his original followers. There were
two matters that needed to be reconciled: these were the stubborn religious
traditions of the pagan population and the agenda of the imperial court. These
two factors are the seedbeds of modern secularism and new age spirituality.
In the fourth and
fifth centuries Christianity laid aside its original teachings and incorporated
enough pagan tradition to satisfy the populace and enough imperial aspects to
make it useful to the emperor. Polytheism entered Christianity in the form of
the Trinity and in the form of saints, who were camouflaged lower deities. The
popular Roman cults of personal salvation contributed the idea of a blood
sacrifice for sin. The monarchical concept of the church was a stroke of
genius, as this above all provided a power hierarchy for imperial use. Thus the
primitive Christian doctrines of the unique "fatherhood" of the one true God,
forgiveness of sins by free divine grace to all who forgave those who sinned
against them, and the total disestablishment of religion, were replaced by
teachings serving a completely different agenda.
The doctrine of
the Trinity and salvation by a human, blood sacrifice provided a means for the
affirming of Church power and thus of imperial power. The Trinity satisfied the
polytheistic demands of the populace. But its theological formulation was
ingenious from the imperial point of view. Quite simply, anyone who can be led
to believe that three and one are essentially the same thing, can be led to
believe anything. Anyone who can be led to believe anything, can be controlled.
As for the matter of salvation by blood sacrifice, the church became the sole
vehicle of personal salvation, without which the soul was eternally damned in
hell. The "bloodless" sacrifice of the Eucharist was doled out by the priests
to those who submitted to church and thus imperial authority. To the minds of
the people, this bloodless sacrifice actually became the blood and body of the
crucified Christ, through the magical machinations of the priestly liturgy.
Upon taking part in this "cannibalistic" feast, the individual received the
grace of salvation. This essentially remains the Christian doctrine and
practice today. Upon a foundation of pagan polytheism we find a layer of
superstitious magic and imperial control.
Western
civilization is replete with many other aspects with a similar origin and
development. Baptism is a good example. It has multiple pagan origins. Being
"washed in the blood of the lamb" refers to the Roman cult into which one was
initiated by being placed under a grating over which an animal was slaughtered,
allowing the blood to flow over the body of the person below. Similarly, the
practice of sprinkling water on the heads of babies comes from the pagan
practice of placing the child under a bull and having the bull's sperm fall on
the head, supposedly giving the child the strength of the bull. In order for
the populace to accept Christianity as the State religion, it was necessary to
incorporate functional equivalents of such practices. Mothers insisted on them,
and had the church not provided them, they would have been carried on outside
the church. By accepting them, the church consolidated its power over the
populace. Western Christianity contains the seeds of secularism and pagan-based
spirituality. They are inevitable.
