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AMERICAN HUMANISM AND THE NEW AGE By LOUIS J.A. MERCIER / THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY MILWAUKEE / Winner of the French Academy Doctor of Letters / Professor of Comparative Philosophy and Literature Georgetown University

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AMERICAN HUMANISM AND THE NEW AGE By LOUIS J.A. MERCIER / THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY MILWAUKEE / Winner of the French Academy Doctor of Letters / Professor of Comparative Philosophy and Literature Georgetown University

 

  • Format:Hardcover
  • Language:English
  • ISBN:B0007EIQFU
  • Release Date:January 1948
  • Publisher:Bruce Publishing Co.
  • Length:227 Pages
  • Weight:0.95 lbs.

 

WHAT is man? To this, the most important question that any one may ask, contradictory answers are given today. The average American student may enter college still thinking that he is distinct in nature from other animals; but he is likely to come out convinced that he is not, or else completely befuddled as to which is the true alternative of thought.
 
This is a very recent phenomenon. In the Greece of Aristotle, in the Rome of Cicero, in Europe clear down to the end of the 18th century, in the America of the founders of this nation, man was considered to have a distinct essence. Cicero may be quoted as summing up that belief for the ancient world: The natural constitution of the human mind is twofold. One part consists of appetite, by the Greeks called impulse, which hurries a man hither and thither, the other is reason, which instructs and makes clear to him what is to be done or avoided; thus it follows that reason fittingly commands and appetite obeys." 
 
This definition clearly establishes the dualistic distinction of man unique in nature through the possession of reason which can furnish him norms for curbing appetite. Cicero, as the heir of Greek  philosophy, believed that man was unique because he could conceive principles, and hence could choose his behavior by inhibiting some impulses and canalizing others in the light of those principles.
So there were studies particularly worthy of such free men, the studies which revealed what man could and should do with his freedom: the literatures, the principles of the arts and sciences, ethics or the principles of conduct; in short, the humanities. Such was the point of view of classical humanism. Then came Christianity, the culmination of the Jewish tradition.
 

New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consider it a religious movement, its adherents typically see it as spiritual or as unifying Mind-Body-Spirit, and rarely use the term New Age themselves. Scholars often call it the New Age movement, although others contest this term and suggest it is better seen as a milieu or zeitgeist.

As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age drew heavily upon esoteric traditions such as the occultism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the work of Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer, as well as Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy. More immediately, it arose from mid-twentieth century influences such as the UFO religions of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the Human Potential Movement. Its exact origins remain contested, but it became a major movement in the 1970s, at which time it was centered largely in the United Kingdom. It expanded widely in the 1980s and 1990s, in particular in the United States. By the start of the 21st century, the term New Age was increasingly rejected within this milieu, with some scholars arguing that the New Age phenomenon had ended.

Despite its eclectic nature, the New Age has several main currents. Theologically, the New Age typically accepts a holistic form of divinity that pervades the universe, including human beings themselves, leading to a strong emphasis on the spiritual authority of the self. This is accompanied by a common belief in a variety of semi-divine non-human entities, such as angels and masters, with whom humans can communicate, particularly by channeling through a human intermediary. Typically viewing history as divided into spiritual ages, a common New Age belief is in a forgotten age of great technological advancement and spiritual wisdom, declining into periods of increasing violence and spiritual degeneracy, which will now be remedied by the emergence of an Age of Aquarius, from which the milieu gets its name. There is also a strong focus on healing, particularly using forms of alternative medicine, and an emphasis on unifying science with spirituality.

The dedication of New Agers varied considerably, from those who adopted a number of New Age ideas and practices to those who fully embraced and dedicated their lives to it. The New Age has generated criticism from Christians as well as modern Pagan and Indigenous communities. From the 1990s onward, the New Age became the subject of research by academic scholars of religious studies.

 

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