Meditation and yoga are major parts of the mainstream culture in the West today. While only a few decades ago, they were only in the counter-culture revolution of the 60s and 70s. These practices do not originate in the Western mind but are the products of Eastern religions that were imported to the West. Yoga, meditation, and other Eastern mystic assumptions were imported and rebranded as health disciplines. Nevertheless, these practices still come with worldview implications that Christians must discern.
Dr. Douglas Groothuis joins us on this episode of Filter to talk about the dangers of New Age practices and how to discern them. He shares with us the history of how these worldviews were imported and assimilated into mainstream American culture. Dr. Groothuis also shares where to spot some of these ideas which have seeped into the church.
Douglas Groothuis is an expert in Eastern religions and New Age spirituality. He has been researching and writing on these topics since the 1970s. He’s the author of three books on these issues—Unmasking the New Age (1986), Confronting the New Age (1988), and Jesus In An Age of Controversy (2002). He has also contributed numerous other articles and essays on these topics to both scholarly and academic publications. Dr. Groothuis is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary.
Show Highlights
Learn about the origins of the Eastern and New Age spirituality movements in the West.
The differences between the Christian worldview and the worldviews of Hinduism and Buddhism could not be overstated.
The goal of Eastern and mystic meditation is to empty the mind of thoughts and transcend consciousness. The goal of Christian meditation is to fill the mind with God’s truth and to be conscious of his presence.
Eastern and New Age practices have invaded the church in the forms of contemplative prayer and other bad spiritual formation practices.
Christians can gain many benefits from some spiritual formation writers, but we must be discerning on who we read and what we accept.
The way we test everything is by comparing it to Scripture.
Resources
Check out Dr. Groothuis’s books on the New Age:
Read the article by David Kortava in Harper’s Magazine, “Lost in Thought.”
Dr. Groothuis has blogged about this article on his website, “Spiritual Dangers of New Age Meditation and Yoga.”
Read Dr. Groothuis’s article on contemplative prayer from the journal Bibliotheca Sacra, “Examing Contemplative Prayer.”
Read Dr. Groothuis’s review of Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ at CRI (subscription required).
Check out my previous episode on biblical meditation.
Another great resource that explains the Eastern and New Age worldviews is James Sire’s The Universe Next Door.
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