Before the practitioners of New or Alternative Spiritualities are influencing the twenty-first century such as Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer,Dalai Lama, Charles Leadbeater, Shirley Maclaine, Rudolf Steiner and Neale Donald Walsch; the ideas of Hegel, Marx, Darwin and Freud dominated much of twentieth-century Western thought in very broad terms.
New Age spirituality arose from various sources including Hindu and Buddhist thought, Jungian analysis and alternative healing traditions.
The New Spiritualities (including New Age) cover a vast collection of ideas and starting points where the themes of personal transformation loom large. Within this context, the purpose of life is to simply grow, learn and spiritually evolve.
At a popular or consumer level, it involves a “mix and match” approach that draws
on a wide range of sources. Spiritual inspiration can be drawn from existing religions, however, it is often drawn from the mystical streams such as Medieval Christian mystics, tantric Buddhism or Sufism (Islamic mysticism).
The pace of life does not leave much time for deep philosophical reflection. What matters to people is finding a workable, practical spirituality that relates to their daily experiences. This does not mean that truth is irrelevant to them, but that seekers want to know, “Does it work?” before they will experiment to see if “it is true.” Not interacting with those whose worldview is shaped by “practical post-modernity” has been a weakness in the way the religious institutions generally function and this has created their missional failure (Johnson, 2006).
Belief systems should be both intensely spiritual and intensely intellectually vigorous. Religious institutions should be listening, journeying, creative and holistic. They should be calling for an engagement that truly meets, dialogues and challenges people living in a culture known as post-modernity. By acknowledging that the current witness and evangelistic methods are problematic they might be prepared to revise their own approaches and methods (Johnson, 2006).
