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 clear, 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.
