In his mid-20s, Eckhart Tolle went through a period of severe anxiety interspersed with suicidal depression. But then he experienced a life-changing transformation, in which he realized that his true identity was “the One Life, the One Consciousness that is prior to egoic identity.”1 In other words, he believed himself to be one with God. Armed with that conviction, he dropped out of school, quit his job, and sat on a London park bench for two years. Though many assumed he was homeless, some approached him with spiritual questions and he began life anew as a postmodern sage of sorts, advocating a spirituality that disparaged all forms of rational thought. Astonishingly, millions embraced him. Largely through the support of media mogul Oprah Winfrey, his books have become bestsellers and he was named “spiritual hero of the year” in 2009 by Science of Mind magazine.2

Of course, Tolle’s ideas are not entirely new. Some nineteenth-century theologians waged a campaign to separate religious experience from specific doctrinal convictions. Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), for one, argued that direct awareness of God was more important than doctrine.3 Later, William James (1842-1910) advocated evaluating religious ideas based on their helpfulness rather than their truthfulness.4 And indeed, many liberal theologians between Schleiermacher and James stressed religious experience while downplaying doctrinal convictions.5

Still, recent spiritual trends have celebrated irrationality to an extent previously unknown. Increasingly the Western world wants spiritual practice devoid of any rational content. For example, sociologist Wade Clark Roof found that Baby Boomers have a great affinity for connecting with a higher power.6 But nearly half of them (48%) believe that “all religions of the world are equally true and good” and practice a personal hodgepodge of contradictory sacred rituals.7

A woman pseudonymously named Mollie Stone epitomized this trend for Roof. A former 1960s radical, she has explored a variety of religious options, including holistic health, Zen Buddhism, Native American ceremonies, reincarnation, 12-step programs, and living in a commune.8 As Stone remarked, “It’s very important to have some spiritual connection … whether it’s meditation, walks in the woods, Alcoholics Anonymous, the Quaker meetings, the Native American sweats, something.”9 Yet Roof wisely noted that “much of her frustration lies in her inability to arrive at a sustained and coherent worldview.”10

Because the West is populated by countless Mollie Stones, a market has developed for eclectic catalysts of spirituality. Canadian scholar Edith Humphrey noted the large number of spirituality websites that bear little relation to traditional Christianity. They include “Native American Spirituality; Transgender Spirituality; Spirit Tools for a New Age … Spirituality and Health; Spirituality and Living Longer; The Inner Self Magazine: Spirituality as Opposed to Religion; Spirituality in the Workplace; Sex and Spirituality: Frequently Asked Questions; Apply Spiritual Ideas in Practical Ways; Spirituality Book—the Invisible Path to Success; Psychotherapy and Spirituality; The Spiritual Walk of the Labyrinth; and, last but not least, Male Spirituality.”11

Another of Roof’s research subjects illustrated the development of irrational and unorthodox spiritual practice. A 40-year-old Jewish agnostic neurologist married to a Seventh Day Adventist, he remarked, “I’m certainly not religious, in the sense that I don’t believe in God and I don’t subscribe to standard religious doctrine; but I think I’m spiritual, in the sense that I have a very deep sense of world realities.”12

Such a nebulous quest for spiritual experience, however, should be utterly foreign to Christians. In contrast, Christ calls them to evaluate all experiences by the Word of God, discarding practices that fail to honor Jesus as Lord and recognizing that biblical spirituality is a response to the rational and truthful Holy Spirit.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Quoted in Michael A.G. Haykin, Rediscovering the Sacred: The Shaping of Postmodern Spirituality and the Developing of True Spirituality (Louisville: Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, 2010), 6. This work is part of a forthcoming book by Haykin entitled The Empire of the Spirit.
 
2  Ibid., 6.
 
3  See Keith W. Clements, ed., Friedrich Schleiermacher: Pioneer of Modern Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991).
 
4  William James, Pragmatism and Other Writings (New York: Penguin, 2000).
 
5  See Alasdair Heron, A Century of Protestant Thought (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980), chapter 2.
 
6  Wade Clark Roof, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation (New York: HarperCollins, 1993), 26.
 
7  Wade Clark Roof, Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 84.
 
8  Roof, A Generation of Seekers, 21-22.
 
9  Ibid., 23.
 
10  Ibid., 87.
 
11  Edith M. Humphrey, “It’s Not About Us: Modern Spirituality Begins and Ends with the Self; Christian Spirituality, with the Alpha and Omega,” Christianity Today Website, April 2, 2001, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/april2/5.66.html?start=2 (accessed May 14, 2010).
 
12  Roof, A Generation of Seekers, 77.
 
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