LOOK BEYOND THE CRYSTALS AND THE SEANCES; THIS IS NOT SOME
TOUCHY-FEELY NEWAGE FAD. IT CUTS WIDER AND DEEPER. IT IS THE ENGINE OF A
WHOLE PARADIGM SHIFT IN SOCIETY WITH THE POWER TO HEAL THE MIND-BODY
SPLIT THAT HAS DOMINATED WESTERN THINKING FOR CENTURIES. AND WHILE WE'RE
AT IT, THE NEW SPIRITUAL AWAKENING PROMISES TO REMAKE THE POLITICAL
LANDSCAPE AS WELL.
Norman Mailer, in a recent article in Esquire, says he sees it in
Madonna. The actor Richard Gere believes it is in helping resettle in the
United States Tibetan Buddhists whose own country was overrun by Chinese
Communists. Singer Don Henley has found it in his effort to preserve
Thoreau's Walden Pond as a protected wilderness and to keep it from
developers who look beyond the waters and see only condominiums and
office towers.
Mitch Kapor, cofounder of Lotus software company, sees it in
cyberspace, which he regards as a great new spiritual frontier.
The word "religion" traditionally brings to mind a church or a
synagogue, or scriptural texts, and the rituals surrounding birth,
marriage, death, or the high holidays. Or we may think simply of weekly
worship services led by a kindly older gentleman dressed in the vestments
of priestly office.
Yet an extraordinary amount of evidence suggests that our
conception of spirituality is undergoing enormous change. Personal
testimonies to belief in a higher power are now regularly proclaimed, not
from church pews, but in cancer support groups, meditation centers, and
wellness treks, not to mention Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step
groups. In books and magazine articles, at weekend retreats, and in hotel
seminar rooms, spiritual enlightenment, communication with angels, and
conversations with God before returning from the dead are the
vogue.
Talk about women's rights has given way to women's spirituality.
Meanwhile, interest in men's spirituality has been spawned by the works
of Robert Bly and others. Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles has recently
presented us with his research into the spiritual life of children.
Indeed, 25 percent of the titles on the New York Times best-seller list
are on spiritual subjects. One, The Road Less Travelled, a book on
spirituality by psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, has been there for 571
weeks!
Americans, it is dear, are now experiencing a spirituality that
expresses itself in the most innovative, unexpected comers of secular
culture. The Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos have a new album
of Gregorian chants that has soared past Gershwin and Pavarotti on the
popularity charts in the classical category. One of the top five
best-sellers of all time, the monk's album is outselling music's top
secular stars such as Bonnie Raitt, Nirvana, and Snoop Doggy Dog. In the
world of sports, Phil Jackson, a Buddhist practitioner for 20 years, has
revolutionized basketball coaching by leading the Chicago Bulls to three
consecutive NBA championships with Zen training. He emphasizes awareness,
selfless team work, and aggressiveness without anger. Tricycle, a
pop& journal on Buddhism in America featured him recently.
We are witnessing a spiritual awakening unprecedented in modern
times, according to scholars in American religious thought.
Pentacostalism has increased tremendously in recent decades, says Harvey
Cox, professor of pastoral theology at Harvard Divinity School, in his
new book, Fire in Heaven. Martin Marty, professor of religion at the
University of Chicago, has just published the second of several
forthcoming reports on the widespread renewal of fundamentalism. At the
same time, Timothy Miller, professor of religion at the University of
Kansas, has just released Alternative Religions in America, showing that
what was originally thought to be a passing fad of the 1960s has now
matured into altogether new and weB-secured communities of faith.
Something is definitely happening in modern culture when the topic
of religion penetrates scientific circles. At a recent meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, a symposium on
religion and science drew standing-room-only crowds. As well, the Boston
Theological Institute, a consortium of divinity schools in the Boston
area, has launched The Center for Faith and Science Exchange, which
invites distinguished scientists to speak on religious themes. It's part
of a much larger network of institutes sparking dialogue between science
and religion. Among them: the Center for Contemporary Science and
Christian Theology in Berkeleyand the Institute on Religion in an Age of
Science in New Hampshire, which for 41 years has kept the spark alive by
sponsoring the Star Island Conferences on science and religion. There's
also the John Templeton Foundation, which annually awards distinguished
scientists for contributions to religious subjects. One institute held
summer courses on the religious and ethical implications of brain
neuroscience.
Perhaps more than in any other field, current developments in the
neurosciences--so far-reaching they are collectively labeled "the
neuroscience revolution"--point clearly in religious directions.
Interdisciplinary communication is now taking place at an astronomical
rate between scientists in molecular genetics, immunology, endocrinology,
neurology, and psychiatry. The subject of their discussions is nothing
less than the biology of consciousness, which in turn is raising new
questions about the philosophy of mind. The upshot: increased debate
about the role of beliefs and values in generating knowledge--a subject
long banned from scientific circles.
