Almost every book dealing with contemporary culture seems to start with something along the lines of, "we are going through a time of unprecedented change... paradigm shift... emerging culture" etc. It has become a bit of a cliché to begin conversations about 21st century life that way--it can get a little tiring, but on the other hand we are going through times of unprecedented change!! Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in the world of religion and spirituality.

It is not just Christianity that is attempting to reinvent, or being challenged to reinvent itself, it's Buddhism, Judaism and even Islam. But most interesting to me are the changes in that elusive and vague religious arena of all things called New Age. You know the neo-pagan, shamanistic, crystal waving, aura-reading, meditating, vegan, post-modern urban hippie religious catch-all where we are all into consciousness and chakras and ashtanga yoga etc.

I live in L.A., long a bastion of alternative spirituality but to be honest nothing much seemed to have been changing in that world since I arrived in California 20 years ago--the stereotype that worked when I first got here still carried the same weight. New Age didn't actually seem that new anymore, the age of Aquarius has come and gone, it all seemed a little tired, a little hokey. At least until now. Big changes are afoot in the world of New Age spirituality, just as they are in every other form of religious belief and practice - all of a sudden it's gone very high-tech and is shifting its focus away from its highly individuated form into the search for a more coherent and communal religious space.

There is a magazine available here called 'What is Enlightenment?' (could that sound any more New Age if it tried?!), and the latest edition has a huge red apple with a bite taken out of it on the front cover along with a banner headline declaring, MORALITY BITES! Searching for ethics in a post-modern age. Writer Ken Wilber says in the lead article, 'An experience of the absolute can reinforce your narcissistic inclinations if you don't have this [a] moral context in which to hold it.' Since much of new age spirituality has long been concerned with basically leaving people alone to work stuff out for themselves and celebrating individuality and a bricollage approach to religious belief and practice, a conversation about a broad ethical umbrella for us all to live under is an amazing shift. It is just one of many.

Wilber goes on to critique what he calls 'rampant pluralism' which is reinforced, in his opinion, 'for all the wrong reasons,' He goes on to address our 'evolutionary obligation', the need to live up to the blessings of our time, to my words into his mouth - pretty interesting stuff if you ask me.

The word 'emerging' gets bandied about an awful lot in some Christian circles and the Emergent movement is the vanguard of 'cool' Christianity here in the U.S. but they are not the only ones using the term. In fact it is a term being used all over the place as people from all walks of life attempt to rethink what it means to be human in the post-modern world.

The New Age movement is also embracing the term and the idea behind the word as well - seeking to shift out from under old ideas that have driven their particular brand of religion for the past few decades. Enlightenment is another word that New Agers use a lot--it's an all-encompassing term that refers to individual awareness--'the gift of having one's eyes opened to the cosmic truth behind the universe'--but that's shifting too.

New Age religion today is moving towards an active engagement with science and marrying eastern philosophy with western scientific advancement and reconfiguring the idea of enlightenment away from the narcissistic emphasis Wilber speaks of, to be more about spiritual maturity and growth which results in a care for all of humanity. It's a response to our rapidly changing global culture--an awareness that religion needs to be on the frontiers of the human situation as we move more fully into the 21^st century.

All of this to say that the future of religion, all religion, lies in it's ability to reinvent itself, to engage with the issues raised by the times in which we live and find new voice, new power, and a new incarnation in the world. New Age religion is taking its defining words and ideas (its theology) and forging new understandings and ways of being. There is a long list of Christian words that could use the same treatment.

The title of this article comes from a new book by Walter Truett Anderson that explores some of the ideas I've touched on in this article in much greater depth, if you are interested it's worth a read.