Tuesday, November 23, 2004
ARTICLE AT ZENIT ON POSTMODERN RELIGIONS
MADRID, Spain, NOV. 18, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Christianity must be centered on Jesus Christ and have no truck with astrology or superstitions, warns a scholar of religions.
José Luis Vázquez Borau, author of "The New Religious Phenomena: New Age, Occultism and Satanism," holds a doctorate in philosophy and a licentiate in moral theology. He has spent much of the last 20 years dedicated to the study and teaching of the religious phenomenon.
Q: There is a somewhat chaotic resurgence of religion: spiritualisms, esotericisms. Is this phenomenon leading to
something more?
Vázquez: It is difficult to predict if this phenomenon is leading to something more. What can be affirmed is that to the degree that the human being wishes to deny, cover or dissimulate, as if it did not exist, the "religious sentiment which is innate," the latter will seek a thousand ways to make itself present and to manifest itself.
We have a recent example in civil baptisms. The human being has imprinted in him a divine presence which we can go so far as to say that it does not exist. But not because of this will it cease to exist and to manifest itself.
Therefore, three things are necessary: Christian communities that give joyful testimony of the faith and at the same time are involved in the problems of people's lives, especially the poorest; witness of the Absolute; and an adequate religious formation, without which any charismatic sectarian leader, in the pejorative sense of the word, can take over people's uninformed consciences.
Thanks to a reader for the link.
