FIUV PP 31

Temptation of Christ

 by Vasily Surikov

Pope St John Paul II noted that the New Age Movement rejects a ‘rationalistic religiosity’, and for this reason its adherents can find attractive the mystery, ritual, chant, of the Extraordinary Form, and its incarnational character. The Extraordinary Form can in turn help to free those attracted by the New Age from Pelagianism, by its consistent stress on our need for grace; from their spiritual subjectivism, by its objectivity; and from any connections with the Occult, by its evident spiritual power. The potential attraction of the ancient liturgy for New Age adherents is also suggested by the many converts to the Faith from the ‘decadent’ Romanticism of the late 10th century, and from Hermeticism, both precursor movements of the New Age. . . . . . .

The 31st in the FIUV Position Papers series, called “The Extraordinary Form and New Age” is now available in the FIUV Positio section.