New Thought vs. New Age

December 21, 2012 The Day Everything Changes What Will Happen to You? Download Survival Guide!

The New Thought movement -- not to be confused with New Age -- is a more than century-old, practically oriented spirituality that promotes fullness of all aspects of living, through constructive thinking, meditating, and other ways of realizing the presence of God. New Thought includes Unity, Religious Science (Science of Mind), Divine Science, and other groups and individuals. It was recognized as "The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness" by William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience. New Thought involves habitual God -- good -- aligned mental self-discipline. It has no one creed, but has affinities to idealistic philosophical traditions of all ages and places. It is mostly Christian in background, but has become allied to various religions. New Thought continues to develop conceptually, educationally, and organizationally.

Because New Thought affirms freedom of belief of each person, New Thoughters cover a broad range of theological positions, from traditional supernaturalistic theism (God largely outside the world) at one extreme, to pantheism (all is God) at the other, with the newer panentheism (all is IN God) as a centrist, mediating position, rapidly gaining supporters in many theological quarters. In common with most other religions and spiritualities, most forms of New Thought take for granted the existence of continuing substance; however, the Process New Thought represented by the Anderson and Whitehouse writings linked below accepts a process understanding recognizing experience, process, living quanta of energy, and the interactions of these many minds, as the nature of reality. This Process New Thought presents process, panentheism, and a personalism recognizing God as the supreme, not anthropomorphically conceived, person as essential to an adequate New Thought. The latest expression of process thinking within New Thought is Process Science of Mind. An earlier non-pantheistic interpretation of New Thought was advocated by Horatio W. Dresser.

December 21, 2012
The Day Everything Changes
What Will Happen to You?
Download Survival Guide!