Today on Listen Up – are we experiencing a spiritual awakening or being stifled by counterfeits?
They’re
monopolizing the bestseller lists and providing a continuous baptism of
content into the minds of North Americans – the writings of modern-day
spiritual gurus are in heavy demand. Eckart Tolle’s A New Earth, Rhonda
Byrne’s The Secret, Deepak Chopra’s The Third Jesus, and Elizabeth
Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, all promise a form of modern-day
enlightenment. Are the best sellers paving the way for our spiritual
journeys or will they fade into the ethereal past? Today we will
examine the draw to 'spiritual awakening'.
OUR GUESTS
Dr. Linda Christensen
Dr. Christensen is a full-time faculty member at Douglas College in the
Dept.of Philosophy and Humanities and is a part-time lecturer at UBC.
She teaches in the area of Comparative Religion, i.e., courses on the
world religions, West and East, and on New Religions. Her doctoral work
was on the New Age Movement.
Bruxy is the Teaching Pastor of The Meeting House—“a church
for people who aren’t into church.” This multi-site
community in the Greater Toronto Area shares the same teaching and
vision: to create safe places for spiritual seekers to ask questions
and develop thoughtful faith. Bruxy’s accessible style,
historical rigor, and refreshing candor make him a popular guest on
television and radio programs and at universities across Canada.
Jennifer owns a business as mission publicity firm, Unleash PR, and
glorifies God by sharing her spiritual gifts and talents with experts
so they make a major positive impact in the world. A prodigal daughter,
she ran away from her Christian faith at age 15, recommitting after a
tragic event and years of wrestling with life’s issues. She has
responded to her calling and is studying to become a missionary, with a
passion for entrepreneurship as a means to alleviate poverty. She
founded the Business with Purpose Network so Christian business owners
can connect and support one another in achieving their mission.
Les Galicinski
Les has served as an Elder in several churches and has taught adult
Bible classes and courses. In 1996, God called him to seminary at
Tyndale University, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree.
In 2004, Les joined the staff of Harvest Bible Chapel as Pastor of
Spiritual Formation, responsible for adult ministries. Currently,
Les is also working on a Th.M. research degree in theology at Tyndale
and is Teaching Director at Veritas Bible Institute in Barrie.
Generic Spirituality vs. Biblical Faith Excerpt from Chapter Two from The End of Religion: Religion, Spirituality, & Faith
I am one of the growing number of people whose lives have been touched
by the irreligious spirituality of the Rabbi from Nazareth. At the same
time, I am deeply saddened and sometimes angry at the variety of ways
his teaching and example have been codified, conceptualized, and
institutionalized by a religion that bears his name but all too often
misses his message.
I am convinced that, rightly understood and fully embraced, the message
of Jesus can transform our lives in a way no religion ever could. So,
when someone says to me, “I’m spiritual but not
religious,” I imagine Jesus sighing with relief.
At the same time, becoming a spiritual person, or person of faith,
should never be an end in itself. Our goal should not be to simply
“have faith” or “be spiritual” as though these
ideals are worth pursuing in and of themselves. Faith and spirituality
are connecting concepts—they describe the connection we can have
with something or someone beyond and within ourselves. Our world is
full of people who say “I’m a spiritual person” as
though spirituality is their goal, that thing they have been looking
for all their lives. They are like people who describe themselves as
“romantic” on Internet dating sites, but who never have
anyone in their lives to be romantic with. Their “romance”
is just a hollow ideal without a relationship within which to express
it. Just because we cry when watching movies or reading novels
doesn’t mean we are romantic; it means we’re sentimental.
And just because we don’t like religion, doesn’t mean we
are spiritual. The question is, Who are you spiritual with?
Faith, likewise, is about two people engaging in a trust-based
relationship. Faith functions in a human life like a window functions
in a home. A window is not something you hang on a wall to be looked at
like a picture, but a space to be looked through at the beauty outside.
A window is not beautiful in itself, and staring at one without looking
through it misses the point. Likewise, faith in and of itself is never
the end goal. I don’t think of myself as “a person of
faith” but as a follower of Christ—and that act takes
faith.
Abraham Joshua Heschel reflects this sentiment when he writes,
The issue of prayer is not prayer;
the issue of prayer is God.
Faith, like prayer, should be a way of connecting with God. I have
talked with many spiritually seeking people who are struggling to find
satisfaction because they are using the window of faith more like a
mirror. They have caught sight of their own reflection in the window
glass and have forgotten to adjust their depth of focus, to look beyond
themselves to see the beauty that surrounds them—the beauty that
is God. Today there are many books, seminars, and courses available
that will only encourage this tendency to use the window of
spirituality more like a mirror, and many of them are very popular.
After all, aren’t we our own favorite subjects? But faith is too
precious to be cheapened by narcissism.
So if you consider yourself a spiritual person, let me offer one word
of advice early in this book. Use the window of faith to look beyond
yourself. Adjust your depth of focus. Look through the window. Other
devices besides spirituality can function as better mirrors, if that is
what you are looking for. But if you are reading this book, I trust
that you are searching for something more than a mere reflection. Hey,
you look good. Your hair is fine, and there is nothing caught in your
teeth. Now let’s stop staring at ourselves and look through the
window to see what is out there.
Ethics of Eckhart Tolle vs. Jesus Excerpt from Chapter Seventeen from The End of Religion: Love Instead of Law
I
recently heard a lecture by the best-selling spiritual teacher Eckhart
Tolle in which he talked about how much he admired holy men in certain
religions who simply do nothing as their expression of piety. They
spend their days in meditation, learning to do nothing at all as their
gift to humankind. They are an example of the value of being still, he
said. They are to be admired for having achieved a state of true
stillness, true emptiness. If only we could become like them, said
Tolle. I understood what he was trying to get at, but there was no way
I could agree. Sure, if suffering is an illusion and we are all just
dreaming our own personhood, then stillness is as good an approach to
life as anything else. But in a world like ours, where real people hurt
in many real ways, we need to do more than be stone still. We need to
Rock On.
In Western culture, even those people who desire to grow
in their ability to love often get bogged down in egocentric issues.
For instance, Jesus said plainly, “love your neighbor as yourself”
(Matthew 22:39, nrsv), but many people today use this teaching as
further encouragement to focus on the implied prerequisite of loving
our neighbor: self-love. Their thinking runs like this: “I can’t love
others well unless I learn to love myself, so I’d better first focus on
loving myself better.” And so continues the cycle of narcissism. But
Jesus is not teaching that we need to learn to love ourselves
better—self-love is assumed. If we are thirsty, we get ourselves
something to drink. If we are hungry, we feed ourselves. If we are
uncomfortable, we change our position. We naturally think about
ourselves all the time. Jesus, assuming self-love as a foundational
reality, encourages us to go beyond self-centeredness to
other-centeredness.
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On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
