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Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism, and the New Apostolic Reformation

By Julie Ingersoll

…itten extensively about Reconstructionists and Sarah has written about the New Apostolic Reformation here and here. Moreover Sarah and Anthea Butler have just posted a terrific overview of the NAR, Pentecostalism, and dominionism in which they critique both the denialists who say that dominionism doesn’t exist, and alarmists who fail to properly contextualize dominionists’ activities. Christian Reconstructionism is the older of the two movements (…

Meditation is Very Relaxing, Says New York Times

By Jay Michaelson

…this is a kind of affectation, a tactical deployment of skepticism and I’m-new-to-this innocence. I hope so. The kosher Buddhism presented in “Buddhists’ Delight” is basically relaxation. Not so relaxed that we forget about our liberal political commitments, but relaxed enough that we don’t check our Blackberries when they buzz. Interestingly, right after I read Atlas’ essay, I went to a session at the Mind and Life conference on new clinical stud…

The Surprisingly Short History of Popular Yoga

By Andrea R. Jain and Michelle Goldberg

…drawing from Hugh Urban’s work here. He has suggested that tantra and the new age movement intersect where bodily, sexual, and material enjoyment are integrated into spiritual pursuits and that, simultaneously, this integration reflects an intersection between tantra and contemporary consumer culture. In other words, what the New Age movement shares with consumer culture can be found in tantra, the preeminent South Asian model of nondualism. In m…

Transgender, Scientologist, “Cult Hero”

By Jay Michaelson

…ous or dogmatic reason. His words were valued in the same way as, say, the New Age ‘Law of Attraction’ (formerly known as New Thought): based on their supposedly demonstrable truth, not their religious authority. The devotion of Scientologists to Hubbard may have been weird, slavish, and naïve—but it wasn’t really religious. Or was it? Scientology was intentionally designed to comfort the afflicted, just like religion does. And, just like religion…

In the Story of the New Testament We Are the Romans—No Matter Who Wins the Election

By Stephen Hinerman

…ce, but it’s only done for the good of those we’re battling, if they only knew it. We too have built massive wealth for a few on the labor of poor and enslaved people. In so many ways—ways that powerful empires always work—we Americans are the Romans in the Jesus story. We believe and act in similar ways with similar justifications. It’s the essence of “Empire” thinking. This simple change in emphasis illuminated so many things for me that evening…

The Cubit Vs. “New Age Colbert,” JP Sears

By The Editors

…el, AwakenWithJP, where he’s developed a following for his wry send-ups of New Age culture via his alter ego “Ultra Spiritual” JP Sears, a kind of Stephen Colbert for the New Age set. Dressed in a purple T-shirt and pale green headband, with a flower tucked into his chest-length red hair. Ultra Spiritual JP delivers earnest, convoluted advice on everything from vegetarianism to ayahuasca to the psychology of the selfie, all in pitch-perfect deadpa…

Who’s Afraid of Sacred Soccer?

By Gary Laderman

…uddhists are doing that—nor is it only spirituality vaguely conceptualized—New Agers with crystals, meditation retreats for the professional class. Instead, both old and new media have lit up the religious landscape, illuminating what is still an unconventional, and nebulous, but certainly increasingly capacious, understanding of the sacred in everyday life. Rock and roll can be religious, according to The Hold Steady; a recent Los Angeles Times a…

The Good Liberal Fear of a Yoga Planet

By Jay Michaelson

…rose from a total of 13 in 2000 to a staggering 46 in 2002 (no more recent numbers?) This at a time when, according to Broad’s own numbers, four million people were doing yoga. Broad offers no quantitative evidence to support Black’s claims, no opposing points of view, and seemingly no conceptual distinction between “yoga” and “pushing yourself too hard during yoga.” In terms of journalism, the article is a failure. The more interesting question,…

War Criminal Henry Kissinger, First Jewish Secretary of State, Had a Lengthy History of Antisemitism

By Noah Berlatsky

…said, “The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.” The ADL is, then, endorsing a man who actively fantasized about ignoring a second Holocaust. Kissinger summed up his attitude to Jewish people by blandly and directly admitting his own prejudice. “If it were not for the accident…

The Religious Lives of Soldiers

By Jonathan Ebel

…d the time to read more fiction and/or the talent to write it. What’s your new book? I have three new things in the works right now. My friend John Carlson and I have co-edited a volume on religion and violence in American history. We have seventeen wonderful contributors, including Martin Marty, John Corrigan, Stanley Hauerwas, Eddie Glaude, Jr., Brent Plate, Sohail Hashmi, James Turner Johnson, and Jean Bethke Elshtain; and we have chapters cove…