Spiritual Liberalism: The New Age’s Quiet Influence

The Changing Religious Landscape

In the past couple of years, we have seen a new interest in Christianity from the younger generations. This is an exciting turn of events for the Church which has lost the interest of many young people. However, though this may seem like a turn in the tides, the overall trend in the past 20 years has seen a steep decline in US adults who identify as Christians and those who attend church. This has been due to the extreme secularization of our culture and a rise in atheism. Yet, despite religion being practiced at an all-time low, there is still a spiritual hunger in America with most Americans believing in at least the soul, God, a universal spirit, a spiritual reality, or an afterlife. But where is this belief coming from in our secularized society?

In contrast to the decline of Christianity in America, there has been an increase in other religions, such as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. And of the other religions, there has specifically been an increase in popularity for Buddhism, Hinduism, and the New Age Movement (NAM).

At first glance, this may not be concerning. After all, only a small number of people profess following Buddhism, Hinduism, or the NAM. However, this research reveals not only that these Eastern religions have gained new followers, but that there is an overall larger interest in them and New Age spirituality in particular. This coincides with most Americans considering themselves to be ‘spiritual’.<1> But being ‘spiritual’ is very different from following a religion.

Whereas in religions like Christianity there are core doctrines that guide its followers, spiritualism in America is often plagued by an ever-growing attitude of spiritual liberalism. What I mean by spiritual liberalism is a freedom that people feel to pick and choose whatever god, doctrine, or practice suits them personally.<2> It is almost a pragmatic spiritualism, where if it ‘works’ then it must be good. Some may like the idea of a personal God, such as in Christianity, but dislike the idea of hell, so they combine that God with reincarnation from Hinduism and Buddhism. Some may be attracted to the pagan gods from various mythologies and adopt meditation practices from the East. This results in the NAM, which is a hodgepodge of beliefs and practices.

What is the New Age Movement?

This ‘hodgepodge’ contains various doctrines and practices adopted from the occult, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and several pagan mythologies from around the world.<3> The mixing of beliefs makes the NAM notoriously difficult to define<4>, especially because not all involved adhere to that term.

Roots of the New Age Movement

However, the NAM is tied together by general beliefs and a shared goal. For example, it is commonly held that all people are divine or have a ‘divine spark’. This belief stems from numerous concepts, pantheism being the prime example. Pantheism, a Hindu and Buddhist belief, is the view that everything is God and God is everything. Though we may perceive reality as having distinct parts, pantheism is the view that there is no true distinction between people, animals, grass, the earth, and the entire universe.<5>

Alan Watts, a Western Buddhist practitioner, defines pantheism as “the conception of God as the total energy-field of the universe, including both its positive and negative aspects.”<6> Because God is everything, every person, and for that matter every object in the universe, is divine.<7> In future articles we will discuss in depth some of the other popular beliefs in the NAM.

Goal of the New Age Movement

It is beliefs like pantheism that undergird the goal of New Age spirituality, connection with God, or ultimate reality. David Spangler, a mystic, defines the movement as “a metaphor for being in the world in a manner that opens us to the presence of God-the presence of love and possibility- in the midst of our ordinariness.”<8> On the surface this may seem fine, and even like Christianity. After all, who doesn’t want to be connected to the presence of God? But the NAM has seriously problematic teachings about God and how to ‘connect’ with God.

For instance, as we have already discussed, their conception of God is vastly different from Christianity. We understand God to be a personal being who is completely distinct from the universe—he is not a part of creation. The New Age view is often pulled from pantheism, where God is a “Cosmic Mind” or “the Universal Self”. To them, God is often no more than a type of force or energy that is the foundation of reality. God is typically not personal—he is not a separate being. Instead, all of reality, including ourselves, is a manifestation of this “Cosmic Mind”. <9>

Because of that, their conception of ‘connecting’ with God differs from Christianity. Whereas we understand that our ‘connection’ with God is through his Holy Spirit living within us, those in the NAM often see connection as becoming one with God. To achieve this, they have a variety of practices. Their first step is typically to discover their ‘true’ selves, ‘higher’ selves. The ‘true’ self is often divine and brings the revelation that they are one with the universe and/or God.<10> This is the spiritual ‘enlightenment’ that is often sought after. The final step is union with God or ultimate reality. To reach this stage, they must relinquish their individuality and allow themselves to be absorbed by the “Cosmic Mind”.<11>

New Age Practices

New Age spirituality boasts numerous practices. These practices include meditation, channeling, dream work, and visualization. As prementioned, the goal of these practices is to contact your ‘higher’ or ‘true’ self, a spirit, or God to gain personal insight and guidance for your life. Note, due to the variety of beliefs in the NAM, some believe they are contacting spirits, while others believe they are contacting their subconscious mind. If they are truly contacting spirits, it must be considered, at least some of the time, that they are potentially contacting demons and thus being demonically influenced.

Many of these practices require or put one into an altered state of consciousness (ASC), which is believed to be a different mental state than our regular state of waking consciousness. A popular New Age belief is that these ASCs open us up to the spiritual world, allowing us to interact and be influenced by spirits.<12> The main method of entering an ASC is through meditation.<13> Once in an ASC, practitioners will attempt channeling, visualization, or other such practices.

These are only a few of the practices found in New Age spirituality, and in upcoming articles we will discuss them in more detail. What is so dangerous about spiritual liberalism in the New Age and these practices is that there is no objective truth that is being consulted or measured against. The spiritual guidance people receive comes from subjective experiences. This idolization of subjective experiences over objective truth is infecting the West, and the Church is not safe from it.

Spiritual Liberalism Influencing the Church

Subjective experience and this attitude of spiritual liberalism is not only influencing secular America, but the Church as well. There is a shocking number of scholars, authors, and other church leaders who approach religion similarly to New Age spirituality. In attempting to ‘supplement’ what they see as a lack in Christianity, these leaders end up creating a perversion, mixing truth with lies. This is not only unwise from a commonsense perspective, but also unbiblical.

The clearest command comes from Deuteronomy 12:29-32. Before the Israelites enter the Promised Land, Moses warns them to resist the influence of the surrounding religions. Moses warns them not to worship or serve God using the same practices as the surrounding nations, telling them, “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods”. (Deut 12:31) The message is clear; God wants to be worshipped the way in which he commanded. He does not want to be worshipped by any other methods or practices.

One example of a Christian author influenced by the East is Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest, who wrote several books on Christian spirituality and contemplative practices. Yet even though he was a priest, he was heavily influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism. Several times in his book, Sadhana A Way to God: Christian Exercises in Eastern Form, Mello endorses breathing exercises from a Hindu guru and states that the practices in his book are, “very much in line with the approach of that Hindu guru.”<14> Mello also mentions several Buddhist retreats that he went to, again endorsing their practices.<15> This book is specifically written for Christians, teaching them a mixture of Christian and Eastern practices.

Another influential author and leader is Thomas Merton, a catholic monk. Thomas Merton wrote numerous books on contemplative practices for Christians, and the Thomas Merton Center states that Merton is “arguably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century.”<16> In an article on Merton, Anthony Clark writes, “He continues to assert that the Western Church is in need of such a Buddhist influence to be improved, to help the Church in its ‘long overdue' renewal.”<17> Also in the foreword to his book, Contemplative Prayer, it is noted that Merton was open to insights from Zen Buddhists, Hindus, and the Muslim Sufis on matters related to contemplation.<18>

Christian Contemplation

Even though you may not have known about these authors, they have heavily influenced Christian contemplative spirituality. Christian contemplation is an old tradition that is growing in popularity among the Church. Contemplation, in and of itself, is not bad or dangerous. If contemplation is understood as “the act of thinking about spiritual things” or “the act of looking or thinking about something steadily”<19>, then all Christians do contemplation when they think deeply about spiritual truths. But contemplative spirituality is more than thinking deeply about God.

There are eerily similar parallels between contemplative spirituality and New Age spirituality. Contemplative spirituality has a similar goal: to connect with God. Of course, all Christians want to connect with God, the key difference is that contemplative spirituality uses non-biblical and untrustworthy means. Though the Bible is used to try to support them, their trust is often placed in their experiences. These experiences often occur using similar practices found in the NAM, such as meditation, dream work, visualization, and guidance from ‘God’.

These parallels and the blatant Eastern influence on popular contemplative teachers seem to suggest that New Age spirituality is quietly influencing the Church. Some of these teachers include, as previously mentioned, Anthony de Mello and Thomas Merton. But other more popular teachers include Richard Foster, Ruth Haley Barton, Richard Rohr, and many others, whose writings we will examine in future articles. All of them teach contemplative spirituality and have been influenced by people such as Thomas Merton and Anthony de Mello.

The Church must proceed with caution; for though the influence may seem small, the contemplative movement is growing and has already infiltrated the Church. Every Christian must be “as wise as serpents and innocent as doves”. (Matt 10:16) But be encouraged, though these dangerous teachings are deceptive and can be hard to discern, we have God’s word and the Holy Spirit to protect us. Remember that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16–17) If we rely on God and his word we can overcome these false teachings.

Over the coming months, I will release several articles that support and provide evidence for the claims made here. We will dive further into what exactly the NAM is. We then will explore the influence the NAM has had on the Church and the Christian contemplative movement.

Bibliography

Ankerberg, John, and John Weldon.

Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs.

Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 1996. Clark, Anthony E. "Can You Trust Thomas Merton?"

Catholic Education Resource Center.

2012. https://catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/can-you-trust-thomas-merton.html (accessed August 22, 2025). Ferguson, Marilyn.

The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s.

London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1981. Greer, Michael John.

The New Encyclopedia of the Occult.

St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2003. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen.

Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience.

San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991. Halverson, Dean C., ed.

The Compact Guide To World Religions.

Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1996. Mello, Anthony de.

Sadhana A Way to God: Christian Exercises in Eastern Form.

New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc, 1984. Merton, Thomas.

Contemplative Prayer.

Garden City: Image Books, 1971. n.a. "Life & Works."

The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University.

n.d. https://merton.org/chrono.aspx (accessed August 22, 2025). Smith, Gregory, et al. "Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off."

Pew Research Center.

Februrary 26, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/#fnref-198882-11 (accessed August 22, 2025).

Notes

<1> Gregory Smith, et al. "Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off." Pew Research Center. Februrary 26, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/#fnref-198882-11.

<2> Rosemary Ellen Guiley. Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience. (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991), 405.

<3> Ibid, 404; John Ankerberg and John Weldon. Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs. (Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 1996), XIII.

<4>The New Encyclopedia of the Occult, s.v. “New Age Movement”.

<5> Ankerberg and Weldon, X.

<6> Guiley, 642-643.

<7> Ibid, 403; Ankerberg and Weldon, X-XI; Dean C. Halverson, ed. The Compact Guide To World Religions. (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1996), 164.

<8> Guiley, 403.

<9> Halverson, 163-164.

<10> Ankerberg, 379; Marilyn Ferguson. The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s.(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1981), 371-372; Guiley, 403.

<11> Ankerberg, 379; Halverson, 166.

<12> Ankerberg, 17;

<13> Ankerberg, 379-380; Guiley, 9.

<14> Anthony de Mello. Sadhana A Way to God: Christian Exercises in Eastern Form. (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc, 1984), 7-8.

<15> Mello, 20, 41-42, 59-60, 98.

<16> n.a. "Life & Works." The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. n.d. https://merton.org/chrono.aspx.

<17> Clark, Anthony E. "Can You Trust Thomas Merton?" Catholic Education Resource Center. 2012. https://catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/can-you-trust-thomas-merton.html.

<18> Thomas Merton. Contemplative Prayer. (Garden City: Image Books, 1971), 12.

<19>Merriam-Webster Dictionary, s.v. “contemplation,” accessed August 22, 2025, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contemplation.