New Spirituality and Christianity: A Catholic Response!

“New Age” is one of the most widespread new spiritual movements in the west andeven in the world today. This movement experienced an outstanding growth in۱۹۷۰s, but based on many authors views, it lost its momentum by the end of ۱۹۸۰s.However, according to Gordon Melton, “its presence is still evident in the numberof New Age bookstores, periodicals, and organizations that continued to be foundin nearly every urban centre”. What matters in this paper is the Catholic Churchresponse to this movement regarding the fact that its beliefs including its worldviewabout God authority, Jesus Christ, sin, salvation, human destiny, good and evil aretotally against Christian dogmas. It is noteworthy that beside the existingtheological controversy, its vast spread among the Christians especially the younggeneration made the Catholic Church to stop ignoring this movement after yearsand to take an action by declaring its official position through issuing variousdocuments. Among them, the document “Jesus Christ, the Bearer of Water of Life”is of great significance, because it directly addresses the “New Age” movement,expresses the sharing and differentiation points between the Church and themovement and finally gives solutions to overcome the problem. In this paper theauthors try to analyze the document as a catholic response to New Age to seewhether the Church has undergone a paradigm shift in its confrontation or not. Theissuing of such a document shows that there have been changes in CatholicChurch’s view towards New Age i.e. this movement is no longer considered as asatanic phenomenon but, based on the document, as a cultural current and a positivechallenge to the Church. In other words, the Church found out that denying it ormere apologetic approach is no more responding and the church had no choice buttaking a more practical position than theoretical. By analyzing the document, threemain strategies to confront “New Age” were drawn out: focusing on pastoraltheology, improving the dialogue and practicing the cultural approach. It should bementioned that practical and political theologies are also offered as the influentialsolutions for the Catholic Church to get out of this situation.

کلیدواژه ها:

Christian Theology ، Catholic Church ، New Spirituality ، “New Age”movement ، document “Jesus Christ ، the Bearer of Water of Life”.