Has the NAM entered the Catholic Church?
Of course the answer to the question is yes and no depending on which priest or bishop you are subject to. As we have seen in the early 80’s there was an interest in the Enneagram. Today we see a fascination with Liturgical dance, Labyrinths (“meditation circles” of Druid origin) but the most difficult NAM infiltration into the church is not these obvious externals.
The most dangerous of the New Age infections is all dressed up to look like logical, plausible Theology. It comes adorned with degrees and “names in high places”. This dis-ease within the church has attacked Her very blood. One name I have found this illness under in Ascendant Christology. I have an acute remembrance of this thought process as I used to teach it under a different garb called Science of the Mind. Briefly, the teachings go something like this.
Jesus didn’t really know who He was until AFTER the Resurrection. Jesus didn’t REALLY fore tell the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. that information was “added to Scripture”. Jesus didn’t really say, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it”, those words were added to “complete” the story. In other words, the ONE phrase in Scripture, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature” is used to create an entire Theology of WHO Jesus is. The obsession with this type of thinking is that Jesus was a mere human with Divine Propensity who discovered His own divinity and was thus granted the “right” to that divinity.
This is a very truncated version of what the “AC’s” are all about but does this sound familiar to anyone? Does the name Arius ring a bell? He was the heretic at the First Ecumenical Council who denied the full Divinity of Jesus Christ. The heady term placed on this type of thinking, a linguistic term that pulls at the pride-strings of priests and bishops alike, the words used to give Ascendant Christology a plausible place in Theological history is- Higher Criticism. The Gnostics fought for this type of thinking in the early church. It was supressed.
The theologians who promoted this type of thinking are a “mixed bag” like the devil himself. For example you have early writings of Fr. Karl Rahnar, prior to VII on the Eucharist. These writings are totally in keeping with the deposit of faith and early church fathers. Then you begin to see his writings "shift" toward the 'Omega Point'- denying facts of Christs divinity, placeing "words in the mouths of the apostles" and questioning everything from Genesis to Revelalations!
Often Catholic truth is mixed with this infectious thought and sold to an unsuspecting priest or bishop as the “intelligent way” to teach Christ. I was personally told by a “highly degreed” DRE that my teaching of Jesus as God was never going to get the students attention because they needed to know WHO Jesus was as a human friend!. God was something they couldn’t attain! Then this poor man proceed to explain to me that truth evolved ( the AC’s deny the logical and empirical fact that truth is self evident or therefore cannot be so defined as to be called truth-that would be ‘ logic 101’)…etc, and you can see where the discussion went from there.
This dis-ease within Holy Mother Church is not new. It is part of the oldest lie on all of human history. If we can believe that Jesus was a mere human who attained Divinity than we too have a shot at becoming ‘divine’ like Jesus.
But the serpent said to the women,
“You certainly shall not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be LIKE GODS who know what is good and what is evil”…
There is so much more to this topic than space allows here but I hope it will be helpful to some.
Blessings,
MargueriteF
"Ye Shall Be Like Gods"
Moderators: Johnna, MarieT, Denise, Marguerite F
Thanks for keeping this section going Marguerite. The New Age proffers such seductive and malevolent fascination to many, and especially young people today. They are bombarded with messages of pagan, occult or pantheistic philosophy, overtly or covertly, whereas the true Christian message is ridiculed or trivialized in mainstream media (not to mention the school system). Many or most now have had their natural powers of discernment so clouded that even presenting them with a Christian alternative sometimes produces an angry reaction. It's important to keep the true message going out, though. 