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Post-secularism:
New Age Spirituality
2.
Post-secularism: New Age Spirituality
Just as in
Christianity, not everything in New Age spirituality is bad from an Islamic
point of view. A number of practices and bits of information fostered in the
New Age movement are consonant with not only Islam, but with just being a human
being. However, the central doctrines of the movement are inimical with Islam.
The effect of
religious relativism has been the proliferation of other types of spirituality
than the Christian ones. Of course, bankrupt Christianity has left a spiritual
void, and this has been filled by an interest in oriental religions, primitive
religions, and pseudo-spiritualities based on them. All of the Western
interests in these other spiritualities are based on secularism, that is, on
the idea that personal well-being is the core of any spirituality. There has
been a shift away from the traditional Christian concern with salvation or
future well-being toward spirituality or present well-being. Given the
morbidity of Christian soteriology or the doctrine of salvation, the trend was
predictable. It has already been noted that the proliferation of sects in
Christianity almost never questioned Christian soteriology. It remained for the
New Age spirituality to do so.
It should be
clearly understood that New Age spirituality, or the morbid concern for health
and well-being as a spiritual exercise and function, is the direct result of
this misplaced concern in Christianity, namely the focus on salvation. As a
reactionary trend in dialectical relationship with Christianity it is
susceptible to all of the criticism that might be directed towards the original
Christian doctrine. It is first of all morbid and self-centred. It is
furthermore selfish and raises the individual out of his or her proper place in
the family into a competitive position vis-a-vis society as a whole. New Age
spirituality is merely the old Christianity couched in a more immediate form
and more susceptible to marketing consumerism. All of the many sectarian
movements of New Age thought, whether based on traditional Oriental religions,
traditional primitive religions, or on something developed in the West, can be
reduced to this one bare reality. They speak of individual health and
well-being to a populace which, through secularism, has grown tired of thinking
about future salvation.
The second common
feature of New Age thought is the belief in reincarnation. It is clear that the
doctrine of emanations, so often presented by the great names in Islamic
philosophy, is susceptible to interpretations reminiscent of reincarnation, or
the rebirth of the same soul in a new body. The New Age concept of
reincarnation is rather developed on the basis of Hindu karma. The word karma
has come to have a somewhat fluid meaning, and the whole configuration of
belief differs greatly from that of India. First of all, karma is taken as the
law of cause and effect, which gives it a rational coating. Without any
rational justification, however, and without any proof, karma is taken to imply
reincarnation. New Age thought specifically uses karma and reincarnation for
several experiences. The first of these is in social relations. When people
meet who either like each other or desire further contact for some motive, they
use reincarnation as a justification, saying that they were associated in a
former life. The second most common use of reincarnation is the attempt to
explain behaviour and events in such a way as to relieve the individual of
immediate responsibility. The event or behaviour is seen as the result of an
action or a choice in a past life. The implication is that nothing can be done
to change matters. The third most common use of reincarnation is the
enhancement of a dull life with a colourful past. Those who believe in
reincarnation in the West have always and invariably been more interesting, or
at least more famous, people ages ago than they are now.
Reincarnation and
karma are also reactions to the Christian doctrine of salvation. There is a
reversal from future salvation to past salvation. The past salvation is
precisely what might be expected from the secular mentality: salvation by being
rich and famous, and thus happy, in the past. The configuration is again
susceptible to the same criticism as the original Christian doctrine, that is,
an attempt to escape the responsibility of obeying divine law in the present.
The West is curiously willing to believe that God has a desire to enslave them
by giving advice on how to behave. Rarely does a Westerner come to the
conclusion that God's law might have as its purpose the best possible way of
living together as families in society, that is, the greatest possible freedom
and happiness for everyone.
