He spoke first of the superficial changes since 1945 but pointed out that below the surface real changes are afoot. He decided to focus on the growth of spirituality in the western world. His analysis was very interesting and helpful.
1. He spoke firstly of signposts that we are moving out of the moral dimension. He noted four shifts:
1 From virtue to values. Today competence trumps character. Character can get in the way of making money. Values is a 20th century creation of relativists. It simply means what is important to me. We treat values in a value free way.
2 From character to personality. It is how you come across that matters today. In a moral world it is who you are that matters but slowly but surely appearance has become the important thing.
3 From nature to self. There was a time when the fact we are all human beings was important. Increasingly however the idea of human nature is under attack and is thought to be obsolete. We do not want to think of ourselves in that way but as unique.
4 From guilt to shame. The vertical is forgotten and the horizontal is all important. The world is very anti-guilt. It is harmful. However, there are certain things that people want to hide. Hence shame is the thing not guilt.
2. He spoke secondly about spiritualities. In 1962 John Robinson's Honest to God argued for a religionless Christianity. A little while later Time magazine asked the question "Is God dead?" This came in the light of the increasing secularism. Ironically, the death of God theology died quicker than any other. In the seventies there was an earnest hope, on one hand, that rationality would triumph. There was concern, on the other, that this tidal wave might drive all before it. However, although secularism is rife in our world there is nevertheless at the same time an amazing emergent spirituality. Dr Wells suggested this would be a far greater challenge than secular humanism. The difficulty will be to distinguish true Christianity from these psychological spiritualities. While church going declines "spirituality" is on the rise. Very often people are "spiritual but not religious" (ie no doctrinal, communal or ethical norms). This spirituality is expressed in various forms, kaballah, druidism, Buddhism, etc. The success of Dan Brown is due to its anti-church and yet gnostic, spiritual dimension.
He then raised the question of why these spiritualities have become popular when they have, in these affluent and technologically advanced ages. The problem is that at the same time there is more depression, anxiety and alienation. It is like the beginning of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. Such emptiness makes people long for something else. However, the spiritual world that is now coming in leaves no place for the weak.
3. Presuppositions
1 The self has access to spiritual realities. Nature and grace are blurred, natural and supernatural revelation.
2 The all assume the innocence of self. Original sin is not accepted. Pelagius redivivus
3 The sacred is there for a convenience. There is no danger
4 Truth is private and intuitive
5 This is not a personal universe. Christianity is about hearing a God who is outside of us. The new spiritualities are all about speaking in an empty and unspeaking universe.
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