The Church and New Spirituality
In this thoughtful book, Aberdeen theology lecturer John Drane adds his voice to the recent spate of books on grass-roots spirituality and the so-called spirituality revolution. He asks if it is now more trendy to be spiritual than secular and what is meant by spiritual in this sense. He sees the new spirituality as both a challenge and an opportunity to the Christian churches and asks why people are not drawn towards the communities to be found there. Perhaps by taking a more open and inclusive attitude, some of these spiritual seekers will find their way back to their Christian roots.

A number of definitions are offered of the new spirituality, including ‘a quest for the sacred involving a person’s identity, values and worldview.’ For some people this involves a privatisation of spirituality, recalling Whitehead’s definition that religion is what people do with their solitude. However, this neglects the social or community dimensions even if it provides them with some tools to address the problems of everyday living. It is something of a caricature to define religion as controlling, prescriptive, narrow-minded, and ultimately damaging while spirituality is life-giving, nurturing and personally empowering, but many people do make exactly this distinction. Drane explores three snapshots of spirituality using a useful distinction between lifestyle, discipline and enthusiasm modes. The first is characterised by a values, community and belonging, the second – found in traditional faiths – by commitment, structure and authority and the third by experimentation, freedom and experience. The distinctions are methodological not to be too rigidly defined. There is some enthusiasm in charismatic settings and discipline in lifestyle spirituality.

Drane is far from the condoning the attitude of denial towards new spirituality, and regards it as the biggest single challenge and most significant opportunity facing Christians in the West. He highlights some ‘ Christaquarian’ initiatives with which readers will be familiar and discusses at some length the contribution of Matthew Fox. The emphasis on rationality in theology has led the churches to stress analytical and propositional arguments. In some ways this has also contributed to the process of demythologisation. Both approaches are divorced from the personal and mystical aspects of religion which are highlighted in the new spirituality. And the prioritisation of the rational over the experiential has tended to set up a conflict between right and wrong, which may put spiritual seekers off. The answer is not so much arguing as listening and journeying with the seeker who has been alienated by the control mechanisms of the church.

Although the book covers a good deal of ground in terms of biology and psychology (e.g. Jung and James) I did find some important elements missing. There is no mention of the importance of the Society for Psychical Research in Victorian England nor of the impact of Aldous Huxley’s perennial philosophy and other wisdom and esoteric traditions. More modern writers such as Neale Donald Walsch, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle and Ken Wilber are not mentioned either. Nor is the resurgence of interest in healing. Christians will find, I suspect, more food for thought than spiritual seekers in the book as many have already developed their own philosophy using both intellectual and spiritual resources.