Christmas can be a time when people think about spirituality more often than usual, which I think is great. However, recently I was wandering through my local Dymocks bookstore and paused to have a look at the ‘spiritual’ section.
The Bible featured prominently on the top shelf with a few different versions, along with some other texts from major world religions.
After that, it was fascinating. Well, I thought it was. So much so, that I took photos.
I took an individual photo of this next one because I thought it was so fascinating (when I write fascinating, read crazy).
Consulting the infinite source of wisdom that is the internet, I discovered that “Woo-Woo” can mean a range of things including a type of alcoholic beverage. However, the majority appeared to agree with my supposition that the definition of woo-woo is ‘unconventional beliefs regarded as having little or no scientific basis, especially those relating to spirituality, mysticism, or alternative medicine’.
Now, I know that lots of people think that Christianity is woo-woo. I don’t.
So I can’t understand why anyone would openly present what they’re writing about as completely scientifically unfounded and unconventional.
Unless there’s something I’m missing on the woo-woo. When you use the word once it means to court someone. Twice, is anyone’s guess.
Let’s move on shall we…
Whilst the vibes book didn’t do it for me, I did see books in the spiritual section that I think would appeal to me if I wasn’t a believer. If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll know that this alter-ego of mine is known as HNAC Alison (because she’s hypothetically not a Christian).
When I was at Dymocks, I deliberately bought two books which I think HNAC would buy, because I’m that type of person who likes to think about these sorts of things.
One was called Morning Meditations by Danielle North.
There’s some really good stuff in it. In the introductory pages it suggests drinking water before your morning coffee so you don’t dehydrate, writing down your dreams and considering what they mean, as well as looking at the sky before we look at a screen (I really like that one).
But before long it unsurprisingly gets into Eastern religions and at that point I have to part ways.
Modern Western society seems very keen to treat religion and spirituality as an eclectic mix. This is very fashionable in the 21st century in pretty much any discipline and you can understand why. There’s been enough research done and trialled methodologies in the past when we were told that “this is the only correct way”. They didn’t work perfectly, so now we’re blending the best of all we’ve got to get the ultimate mix.
I’m happy to do that with pedagogy. Not so with theology.
I think the Magi are a good guide for us here. They came from the East. Jesus is open to everyone no matter where they come from or where they were born. But he doesn’t want us to stay there.
Yes, the Magi journeyed back home again, but don’t take the analogy too far.
When we journey to Jesus we come just as we are, but we make a complete change. We don’t mix bits and pieces together however floats our boat. It’s actually a good thing that Christianity has some orthodoxy to it. People can go overboard with it (to continue the sailing analogy) but it’s better than being totally unconventional and making up your own religion.
I’ve seen it happen: both the dogmatic enforcing of “the right way” and the free ranger making up their own religion.
I pray neither happen to you.
Yours minus the woo-woo,
Alison
