Herrick

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The Revealed Word, or Eclipse of the New Religious Synthesis

James A. Herrick, The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western

Religious Tradition. Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Pp. 331. ISBN: 978-0-8308-3279-8

[1] Significant discoveries following the growth of Indo-European philology in the

eighteenth century, particularly awareness of the linguistic antiquity of Sanskrit, and the

secular origins of language (or ‘discovery of language’) have largely displaced ancient

beliefs concerning the primordial Hebrew revelations delivered by God in Eden. As a

result, the unilateral transmission of sacred language and revealed authority is now widely

rejected in the scientific study of religion as well as cultural contexts beyond the Western

Academy. To illustrate the undying evangelical spirit, or fundamentals, of the Christian

revelation, however, one would be hard pressed to find a better example than James A.

Herrick, professor of Communication at Hope College.

[2] Published by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship campus ministry, a home-grown

branch established in America prior to the Second World War as an active student

movement at hundreds of universities and colleges in America with a mission to equip

and encourage people to follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord in all of Life, with sister

movements in Great Britain and an affiliate of the International Fellowship of Evangelical

Students, Herrick’s The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western

Religious Tradition laments the modern ‘New Religious Synthesis,’ or the ‘Other

Spirituality.’ Standing in total opposition to a mystical movement he traces to spiritual

communities as far back as the Middle Ages is the ‘Revealed Word.’

[3] It is true that the various movements generating Herrick’s eclectic ‘New Religious

Synthesis’ share many differing characteristics, but all reject the letter of the law. The

‘Other Spirituality’ is not simply limited to scriptural transcendence, indeed, the

correlative element of this cultural pluralism is expressed in conjunction with mystical

experience; how else could this cult manifest in the presence of such doctrinally diverse

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movements as those analyzed by Herrick? In its programmatic refusal to be organized

with canonical dogmas or articulate itself through any fixed range of myths and symbols,

the New Religious Synthesis instead cultivates a network of communication for a cultic

milieu which exists as a threat on the peripheries of society. The pluralistic paradigm

regulating this New Religious Synthesis serves to place this cognitive domain in contrast

to other historical and culturally specific modes of understanding ones subjective

experiences and internalization of external authority, such as the ‘Revealed Word.’

[4] Related to the discrediting of scriptural revelation, modern preoccupation with ones

‘inner voice’ as a source of knowledge and the concomitant rejection of tradition occupies

a prominent position in the European adventure. Renaissance humanism and

Enlightenment rationalism both in their own way value ones individual autonomy, or

utilitarian individualism, and distinctly human role as freethinkers (les libertines).

Romantics, too, embody this notion through the artistic and creative merits of expressive

individualism. Indeed, a number of sociologists of religion since Durkheim have in

various ways summarized the religion of modernity as giving rise to the ‘cult of the

individual.’ For well over thirty years now scholars in a range of disciplines from

sociology to political theory have emphasized modern trends of secularization in terms of

their influence upon such notions as cultural values, norms, morals, human subjectivity,

and personhood. Terms and phrases such as “cultural narcissism,” “psychologization,”

“privatization,” “triumph of the therapeutic,” “ascent of psychological man,” etc. have all

been employed in various contexts to underline a basic problem in the institutional

segmentation of modern society. These expressions imply a concept of culture linked with

political economy, and politics linked with self.

[5] The logic of this cultural production is ironically connected to the pious and

individualistic trends discovered in the history of Christianity, specifically the

‘innerworldly’ attitude of Protestant theologians who sought liberation from the

sacramental control of the church. Following the de-institutionalization, or laicization, of

religion in the wake of the Protestant reformation and the erosion of external, ritualistic,

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and papal authority, evident everywhere from eighteenth century Europe to the

commonwealths of New England, the modern form of ‘invisible religion’ celebrated the

self-ethic of epistemological individualism, or individual mysticism. As the new

orthodoxy for our age, then, giving faith to the divine potential lying within—if only

waiting to be discovered—God is displaced for the deification of Human Nature.

[6] A variety of mystical beliefs, magical practices, occult phenomenon, commercialized

consciousness-expanding enterprises, networks of subjectivisms, etc., enter power-

relations with the Revealed Word and are taken up by participants of the New Religious

Synthesis who believe that external voices of authority have inevitably been internalized

as the ‘ego’ through a process of socialization and individualization. Their commitment

to the self as an autonomous locus of authority also implies the possibility of liberation

from social conditioning, but the realization of self-responsibility, that is, the underlying

belief that knowledge lies within, leads to an awareness that it is only ones own self who

is responsible for self-knowledge. It is precisely this narcissistic preoccupation with the

self which stands in contrast to the Christian doctrine of ‘original sin.’ To understand the

importance of this dogma one only needs to recall that between 1659 and 1661 no less

than four members of the Quaker movement were hanged on Boston Commons for their

heretical belief that Christ is found in some ‘Inner Light’ guiding believers.

[7] In the Anglican context of colonial New England and the once newly revealed gospel

of Jesus Christ, Christianity was less about systematic theology as it was the struggles of

Pilgrims to provide a literalist interpretation of the Holy Bible and distance themselves

from the Church of England. The sinfulness of the flesh, the dualism of spirit and matterand the separation between the individual and God, the innate sinfulness of human nature,

the doctrine of predestination and the belief that all souls were eternally condemned to

either heaven or hell, the belief that the grace of Jesus the only Son of the God of the

United Kingdom of Israel and Judah was the only way of salvation, and faith in the

infallible word of God as revealed in the Holy Bible, were all part of the ideological

consensus and Puritanical high culture of early America.

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[8] It would take less than 100 years before the emergence of American religion could be

defined with the same fervent emotionalism and mindless enthusiasm which had once led

orthodox Anglicans to dismiss as fanatics the entire gamut of Protestant sects, including

Presbyterians, Baptists, and Congregationalists, which lay outside the established Church

of England. With good reason, scholars of religion in America often characterize the

years 1720-1750 as a time of ‘Great Awakening.’ Starting with the Yale graduate and

charismatic Protestant theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), the decentralized and

individualistic trends of evangelical Christianity contributed to the rise of American

nationalism and the liberal sociopolitical ideology leading to the American Revolution.

[9] Fundamentalist interpretations of scripture and upholding authority of the Christian

revelation, however, have found new ways of institutionalizing hierarchical bureaucracy.

In the twenty years between 1965 and 1985 the movement of millions of Americans into

strict evangelical and ultraconservative Pentecostal sects occurred with the rapid growth

of local parish churches, extra-denominational organizations, and decentralized

denominations. The growth of megachurches in the twenty-first century demonstrates that

established traditions of the Revealed Word and regulated hierarchies of authority have

not entirely diminished from modern life. With well over 60 million Fundamentalist

Christians in the United States alone, moreover, the endurance of this phenomenon

distinguishes it from passing new religious movements in America.

[10] There is at least one additional element worth noting of the New Religious Synthesis.

Specifically, as a result of the self-help brand of authority on offer, no one person can

corner the market on truth. In fact, the pluralistic mysticism of the Other Spiritualitywould seem to not only imply that no one group can profess the truth, but also all insights

are said to be valid recognitions of some vaguely defined means of self-knowledge. So

why, Herrick asks, would any devout lamb of God follow the pluralistic path into the new

millennium as good faith partners in a quest for the transcendent unity of all spirituality

and, thus, reduce the Messiah as God in human form to one among many participants in

the mystic vision, a prophet among prophets? For Herrick, the choice is a stark one:

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“Jesus Christ as the single divine redeemer of a lost human race or Jesus as one among

many spirit people seeking to express the inexpressible” (277-279). Furthermore, the

grace of Christ is purported to save all people from every tongue, tribe, and nation.

[11] Herrick’s most important point, however, may be emphasized in terms of the fact

that if ones true nature is limited and finite then there is no amount of action which could

change this fact. Change implies limitation on both sides of the preceding and succeeding

conditions, and there is certainly no mystical experience that could accommodate this

realization. As Herrick explains, ‘mysticism’ and union with God is the inherent core of

the Other Spirituality. This view clashes with the Revealed Word’s account of the earliest

encounter between humans and the divine. In the Garden of Eden, says Herrick, humanity

indeed entered an intimate relationship with a sovereign God, but “that intimate

relationship was, however, ruined through a disastrous fall into sin, a possibility that

mystical experience cannot accommodate” (279). Christian believers, unlike followers of

the Other Spirituality, accept that they are limited and sinful beings, but are able to be

saved through God’s sacrifice of his son Jesus.

[12] God entered human history in the bodily flesh of Jesus Christ, an event incapable of

duplication and logically restrained from ever having an equivalent event, even if the

logic cannot presently be comprehended: “Why would God recognize another universal

and ultimately sufficient sacrifice for human sin having recognized this one?” (278-279).

Put differently from another equally valid perspective, why wouldn’t he? As a matter of

fact, how could the blood of any sacrifice absolve one from ‘sin’ and damnation?

Similarly, the logic of Herrick’s additional proposals may be called into question. In spiteof these logical inconsistencies, or articles of faith, as Herrick warns, one must make no

doubt about the fact that “Christianity requires a unique claim to truth” (278). As he

notes, a foundational claim of Christianity is that the first human temptation was to obtain

a ‘forbidden knowledge’ that would make them ‘like God.’ Left to our own devices along

the mystical path of the new way, Herrick says, we are again tempted to proclaim our own

divinity. Herrick finds the absurdity of this notion to be obvious and suggests the spiritual

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destruction of this path will be quickly learnt when one discovers the undeniable facts of

human limitations. We are valuable, but we are nevertheless ‘fallen creatures.’

[13] If there is any merit to Herrick’s study then it must be viewed in light of the

missionary goals of its publishers. Herrick has not really provided any useful

contributions to the history of ideas and his portrayal of European thought is too general

and his account of the ‘Other Spirituality’ too disconnected to even support his underlying

thesis. Nevertheless, The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western

Religious Tradition was acknowledged as one of Preaching magazine's 2004 "Top Ten

Books Every Preacher Should Read," as well as listed as a 2004 Evangelical Christian

Publishers Association (ECPA) Gold Medallion Finalist. Aside from the obvious

shortcomings of this study for use in the Western Academy, which is no doubt a result of

the ideological bias directed towards its target audience, Herrick may be commended for

the attempt to ground his work in support of the ‘Revealed Word.’

[14] Of course, Herrick’s theological study is far too methodologically naïve to warrant

any attention in the field of Religious Studies. Even while creating a homogenous

textualized body of data for their object of analysis, scholars of religion—many of whom

prefer to view themselves as naturalists instead of theologians—may perceive problems

with privileging the ‘revelatory’ dimension of human experience at the expense of

‘science.’ The overriding problem with Herrick’s analysis is that it lacks sufficient

theorization to support the claims offered on behalf of the Revealed Word, that is, there is

very little theoretical account or even discussion of scripture and Christian hermeneutics.

[15] Further analysis in this regard would seem inevitable following the hermeneutics of

suspicion towards the end of the nineteenth century and the ‘constructivist paradigm’

which gained further popularity in the work of post-structuralist and postmodernist critics.

Starting from a naïve assumption of one-to-one correspondence between sign and

referent, Saussurean linguistics refutes the existence of any extramental reality a given

word may reveal. Significantly, however, dispelling the mythic correspondence between

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signifiers and signifieds does not imply any anti-representational or constructivist stance

whereby literature or language refers to no reality outside itself. Due to the predominance

of post-structuralism in the field of postcolonial studies, for instance, ethno-critical

theorists are in fact beginning to find opportunities to challenge the Eurocentric nature of

this approach when applied to indigenous traditions reliant upon ancestor lineages and

revealed knowledge. On the other hand, I suspect the inherent lack of any scriptural

pedagogy provided by the Christian tradition and its overall dependence on faith and

belief are also accountable for Herrick’s failure to further theorize the Revealed Word.

[16] Aside from such rhetorical and pious ploys, however, Herrick does have a legitimate

argument: “Christ’s redemptive life and death must remain unique for Christianity to

substantiate its foundational claims” (278-279). Ones means of knowledge must be

appropriate to their object of knowledge. Satisfied with the limited nature of his existence

and his dualistic relationship with God, Herrick’s reluctance to join up with the pilgrims

searching together along a mystical path for something they cannot even express is also

perfectly understandable. Given the dualistic revelation of Christ, moreover, Herrick is

correct that it would be totally inappropriate to count the Messiah as one among many

‘gurus.’ Indeed, we are compelled to ask, why would anyone who upholds faith or belief

in the ontological distinction between spirit and matter or the epistemological limitations

of knowledge in relation to the individual and God, as revealed in the Holy Bible and the

infallible Word of God or interpreted by Christian theologians, and who understands

themselves as sinful creatures predestined for a heavenly afterlife graced by the blood of

Jesus or else damned to hell, possess the slightest interest in traditional authority, or even

New Religious Synthesis, derived from the revelation of non-duality, and vice versa?What’s at stake here is not simply a critique of particular religious movements or

idiosyncrasies of modern gurus, but rather a power struggle of cultural worldviews.

Travis Webster

Copyright © 2011 Travis Webster, Vedanta Shala-Center For Traditional Vedanta

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