Spirituality is not Christianity
Colorado this weekend hosts a “Spirituality Conference” celebrating the oneness of all things and, it would seem, damning Christianity with faint praise. Notice how the Denver Post story from Jan. 12, given in full below, invokes science at the beginning and again at the end.
“The oneness of all” is pantheism pure and simple, and it also has a Christian Science ring to it. Mrs. Eddy’s published work includes a booklet called Christian Science versus Pantheism, yet the danger of confusing the two is great. Spirituality.com is the CS church’s primary web address today.
I wonder how the Boston leadership would respond to the mishmash of superstition and idolatry offered here by the spirituality purveyors? Would they join the Apostle John in urging us to “try the spirits” and warning that “every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God”? (I John 4: 1, 3) Would they dispute the notion that all roads lead to the top of the mountain by reminding us of Jesus’ own words, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me”? (John 14:6)
Technology and science, far from estranging modern Christians from God, can make them more aware of the essential unity of the Creator and all creation, poet and scholar John Philip Newell said.
Poet, scholar to lead Spirituality Conference
Denver Post 1/12/11
The new consciousness, however, receives greatest succor from ancient wisdom, according to Newell, known internationally as a leading teacher of Celtic Christianity.
Newell will lead the 2011 Spirituality Conference on Friday and Saturday at the Arvada Center for the Arts with his presentation, “A New Harmony: The Spirit, the Earth and the Human Soul.”
A Church of Scotland minister and former warden of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland, Newell serves as companion theologian for the American Spirituality Center of Casa del Sol in New Mexico.
Ancient Celtic faith and other native traditions, including those of American Indians and Buddhists, celebrate the oneness of all things and peoples, Newell said.
Many Christian doctrines and practices either seem irrelevant or flatly opposed to our deepest yearnings, Newell said in his 2008 book, “Christ of the Celts.”
“Native wisdom is wonderfully varied, but the deeper we move into any great tradition, the more we do find resonances. We’re all drawing from the same deep well — the human soul,” Newell said. “Yet it is a stream of spirituality often neglected in the Christian household today.”
Earth science, cosmology, quantum mechanics and the Internet all contribute to the tremendous surge in awareness that there is a collective consciousness, he said.
“It’s really coming at us now from almost every direction,” he said.
The author can be reached at andrewsjk@aol.com
