Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews (Volume 2)

by Jeff Myers

The theology of New Spirituality differs drastically from the other worldviews. As we mentioned above, New Spirituality rejects theism and atheism and embraces pantheism, which says everything is God.

While Secularists, Marxists, and Postmodernists agree that the physical universe is fundamentally energy, so New Spirituality is unique in ascribing divine characteristics to the energy at the source of all things. “Everything has divine power in it,” says Matthew Fox, who refers to himself oxymoronically as a Roman Catholic New Ager. This divine force is what gives the planet its “sacredness.” 47 One of the best explanations of pantheism, and one of the most poetic, comes from a children’s book titled What Is God? There are many ways to talk about God. Does that mean that everything that everybody ever says about God is right? Does that mean that God is everything? Yes! God is everything great and small! God is everything far away and near! God is everything bright and dark! And God is everything in between! If everything is God, God is the last leaf on a tree, if everything is God, God is an elephant crashing through the jungle. 48 There you have it. Stars are God, water is God, plants are God, trees are God, the earth is God, whales and dolphins are God, everything is God. New Spiritualists worship the creation and the creator at the same time. For them, there is no difference in essence.

Many New Spiritualists believe that upon death a person’s spirit rejoins the energy of the universe and will be re-embodied through reincarnation. It’s an important New Spiritual belief: in subsequent lifetimes people can come to a fuller understanding of the nature of consciousness and how to be unified with it. New Spiritual theology, like fairy tales, guarantees a happy ending.