Christianity exists in many different varieties. So do Judaism, Islam, and other world religions. The same is true of secular ideologies, such as Marxism, progressivism, and conservatism.
This is true also of the “nones” who claim to be “spiritual but not religious.” There are, of course, agnostics and atheists–who also have their distinct denominations (libertarian atheists, Nietzschean atheists, Marxist atheists, existentialist atheists, etc.)–but I am interested here in the different kinds of “spirituality” that have become commonplace.
Derek Rishmawy of the Keller Institute for Cultural Apologetics has written a fascinating post for the Gospel Coalition entitled How the West Became Pagan–Again. In the course of addressing that bigger topic, which is worth your reading, he has a section in which he describes the different secular “spiritualities.”
He draws on Tara Isabella Burton’s book Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World. She cites three types, but we can add some more. Here are Rishmawy’s descriptions of her three color-coded categories:
Blue tribe. This group includes spiritualities centered around wellness cultures, from spiritual yogic practices, ayahuasca retreats, and microdosing mushrooms to the massive comeback of astrology on TikTok. It features the use of healing crystals and the return of New Thought through the metaphysics of manifestation.
There’s been a rise in Wicca (which apparently has more adherents in the United States than Presbyterianism does). We also see sexual religion, where kinks, chosen families, and sexual identities are elevated into spiritualities. Add an intense growth of interest in the occult and left-wing social justice cultures that can include political satanism or a postcolonial retrieval of allegedly more ancient traditions.
Red tribe. “Spiritual but not religious” isn’t just a left-wing phenomenon. For years, millions have tuned in to the Jungian spiritual meditations of Jordan Peterson, who recently penned another bestseller, We Who Wrestle with God, that consists mostly in reflections on Old Testament narratives. Going further right, we see postcolonial retrievals of Norse gods, often merged with a post-Nietzschean vitalism––a return to the glorification of strength and tribe.
Gray tribe. Interspersed between the blue and red tribes is the rise of spiritually infused techno-futurism, focused on AI and transhumanism. Rod Dreher’s Living in Wonder highlights the creepy way Silicon Valley is banking on creating a techno-utopia filled with immortals by using longevity technology or uploading our souls into the cloud. These dreams depend on summoning a benevolent AGI (artificial general intelligence) that functions as a deity.
It gets weirder: Some in Silicon Valley have dedicated their AIs to ancient gods, believing they’re spiritually communing with interdimensional alien beings who download technological insights. C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength wasn’t fiction; it was prophecy.
I didn’t realize Jordan Peterson was in such company. He also has fans who are religious but also spiritual. Rishmawy also lists:
The Surprising reborn. Alongside these groups, we’re seeing a public revival of openness toward traditional Christian belief.
Right, but “traditional Christian belief” is a religion. I think what he means is that lots of people today are trying to hold to a version of Christianity without the church. That is, without the institutions and traditions and theology that constitute a “religion.” They are trying to have Christian spirituality–prayer, religious experience, a personal relationship with Jesus–without the Christian religion. (Do you think that’s possible? I’d be interested in your thoughts on that.)
Another one that doesn’t quite fit into these other categories is Human Design, which has reportedly become big in the business world. Alexandra Jones describes it for Unherd in her post Why Human Design Is Perfect for our Age: It’s Religion for the Linked-In Class. Here is how she describes it:
Once consigned to the fringes of New Age spirituality, it has marched into the language of C-suite executives and start-up hustlers, fusing with more conventional life and career coaching. . . .
Synthesizing several ancient and modern elements into a way of analyzing the self, Human Design combines elements of mysticism, life coaching and the sort of quasi-culty, pseudo-scientific theorizing that any one of us might come up with after eight days in Ibiza with the help of some hallucinogens. [How the originator came up with it.]. . . .
But at its heart is the BodyGraph, a chart said to be as individual as a fingerprint, generated from the date, time and place of your birth. In this respect it is akin to astrology. Unlike astrology, however, Human Design is based not only on your birth moment — even a few minutes’ difference can alter the chart — but also on the precise timing of another moment, roughly 88 days earlier, which is said to capture your unconscious “design”. These two data points are then mapped onto a hybrid cosmology that fuses astrology with the I Ching, a few other belief systems and a dash of quantum physics.
Ultimately, Jones explains, it is a cult of the self. You get in touch with your absolute individuality and that’s your authority. The “higher power” you must tap into is your “true self. “There is no higher calling than the project of the self,” is the message. “Self-love, self-care, self-improvement. To understand and optimize the self was the ultimate goal.”
How might Christians evangelize the various adherents to these different “spiritual” denominations? Must we adjust our apologetics according to the mindset of our listeners? I suppose, at least to a certain extent. But I think we evangelize these contemporary pagans the same way the church evangelized the pagans of old: Law and Gospel.
Wait until the self crashes and burns, when the unchurched Christians need pastoral care, when the techno-utopians meet the Devil in the machine, when the Red tribe discovers its own weakness, when the Blue tribe drops its self-righteousness and faces up to its own guilt. Then give them Jesus and redemption in His cross and His presence in Word and Sacrament.
Illustration: Human Design Bodygraph by Fissionchips303 – Jonah Dempcy created this item using Maia Mechanics Imaging Software on Wednesday, May 13, 2020. The bodygraph is for Jonah Dempcy born September 25, 1983, in Malden, MA.Previously published: I have published this item on Facebook at the following link (publicly accessible): https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10157403383282983&set=pob.603627982, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90162196
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