Membership in most American Christian churches has been declining for years. This trend has been accompanied by the rise of individuals identifying with no religion and others who claim to be “spiritual, but not religious.” Analysts attribute this to various influences, usually stemming from mainstream culture. This “culture war” framing is not entirely accurate, but it is true that both cultural trends and scientific inquiry fail to support the outdated worldviews of many Christian conservatives.
The function of a religion is not to lay down a bunch of rules for people to follow in a group. That’s the job of society and culture. The function of a religion is not to impart intellectual truths. That’s the job of science and philosophy. So what does religion actually do? The function of a religion is to produce spiritual experiences. In Neo-Gnostic terms, this is the gnostic experience, direct realization of the divine.
From a Neo-Gnostic perspective, then, religions fail because they fail to accomplish this central mission. But Classical Gnosticism was declared heretical for what the Catholic Church considered a very good reason. Direct spiritual experience challenged the social and political power of the church, whereas intercessory spirituality expanded it all across first the Roman Empire and later Medieval Europe.
Any effective religious system can be deconstructed into three parts:
(1) A narrative. This is often the story of the founder of the system. For a narrative to atract adherents, it must be inspirational to a significant number of those hearing it.
(2) One or more technologies. Since the function of religion is to produce spiritual experiences, every effective religion must have some set of spiritual practices that facilitate these experiences.
(3) A sociopolitical structure. This is how the religious system integrates itself into the society at large, polices its members, and advocates for its interests in the political sphere.
Most new religions start out with (1), develop (2) soon after, and only progress to (3) once there are enough members to sustain any sort of political structure. It is important to understand that (3) is not really necessary for a religious system to work, but nonetheless it is often sought out by leaders who want power in the material world as well as the spiritual. Part of the general disaffiliation from organized religion is likely due to a general distaste for the excesses of such leaders, but I think it goes further than that.
The Christian Church has never had many problems on the narrative side. The “good news” that evangelical Christians try to spread and communicate to others – the story of Christ as found in the Gospels – is inspiring to many people and this probably explains the growth of Christianity in parts of the world only recently exposed to it on a large scale, such as Asia. The idea of Christ’s sacrifice in exchange for the salvation of the world is moving and powerful, and seems to resonate with much of humanity.
I would posit that Christianity’s current problems are related to the collapse of (2) in service of (3), and that this has been going on for a long time. In the first millenium the Christian Church persecuted Classical Gnostics into near-extinction because they dared to value (2) above (3). The intercessory model of the Christian priesthood was specifically created in service to (3), and the implication of it was that regular people should not have any access to (2). The various spiritual technologies available to monks and the priesthood were kept from lay believers, and behind closed doors these practices eventually deteriorated.
It should be noted that this problem is not confined to Christian churches. Many spiritual and religious organizations become ineffective due to the top-down leadership emphasizing (3) over (2). The eventual result is a group that returns no real spiritual benefits to its members, but spends and inordinate amount of time policing their behavior and protecting their power. Destructive cults do this to an extreme degree, often threatening the lives and health of members. It is important to keep in mind that this is simply the result of following (3) over (2) to its logical conclusion.
Intercessory spirituality is an enormous problem from a spiritual perspective because the truth is that no one can do spiritual practices for you. You have to do them yourself. As a result, an intercessory system such as that found in Christianity and a number of other organized religions is essentially parasitic – it draws on the resources of all believers in order to benefit the few practitioners who are actually working the system. Access to spiritual realization confers salvation, so by keeping congregations completely in the dark actively does harm in that the overall potential for realization is reduced in society as a whole.
In service to its leadership, the Roman Catholic Church also spent a great deal of effort on maintaining its political power throughout the Medieval period. In many ways the history of the Church during that period reads like the history of a military and political nation or alliance ruled by the Pope. The Church allied itself with various rulers and opposed others, organized the great armies of the crusades, and accumulated vast wealth. But none of this really benefited lay adherents of the system. They were promised rewards in heaven that the Church really had no way of securing for them.
The Protestant Reformation was an attempt to break free from this restrictive structure and set up new churches in which Christians would be more free to practice on their own. However, many Protestant sects also threw out most of the technologies developed over the centuries. “Justification by faith” is not a theology that supports personal spiritual practice. Most Protestant sects still teach either the idea of Grace, which suggests that spiritual awakening is something that only God can do for you and which is unrelated to your actions, or Predestination, in which God essentially decides when you are born whether or not you are of “the elect” who will be saved. Either way, there’s nothing you can do.
Some modern Protestant movements, such as Pentecostal Christianity, do emphasize personal experience over dogma and doctrine, and are sometimes criticized heavily for it by other Christians. But at a basic level that’s how it’s supposed to work. Experience should be more important than doctrine. If you are experiencing the divine directly, rules and regulations should be the last thing on your mind.
I’m not going to go so far as to defend some of the ridiculous practices found in Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. “Speaking in tongues” as practiced in those churches is nonsense and many “faith healers” are total fakes. Here’s a hint – in order to heal somebody using a spiritual practice you need to be able to actually direct spiritual energy, not just say “Lord, heal this person in Jesus’ name!” and then hit them on the forehead.
On the other hand, the “conversion” or “born again” experience described by a lot of Christians sounds like a genuine spiritual awakening of some sort, which was described as metanoia in the Gospels. One of the things that the Classical Gnostics got right is that metanoia is the key function of the Christian religious system, just like enlightenment is the key function of Buddhism. Furthermore, there is a lot of evidence in neuroscience suggesting that at least at the physical level they are essentially the same experiences.
A religion can last a long time without an effective technology for achieving personal illumination especially if it has achieved significant social power, but with the advent of the information age people are being exposed to other religious systems and realizing that (2) is actually important. For example, Buddhism is starting to become more popular in the United States, and Buddhism is a religion that emphasizes the technology of meditation. Buddhism has also lasted sigificantly longer than Christianity or for that matter Judaism.
In addition, many people in Europe and the United States are becoming more aware of Gnostic Christianity through the publication of various alternative Gospels such as those found in the Nag Hammadi collection. Neo-Gnosticism is appealing to people who are inspired by the narrative of Christ and long for effective spiritual technology. Unfortunately it is also considered heretical by most mainstream Christian denominations and this may preclude any organized affiliation for such individuals.
As far as organized religions in general go, the most effective suggestion that I can make for any religious system that wants to survive long-term is to focus on the technology. Teach the practices, recommend them strongly to adherents, and continue to develop them so that spiritual realization can be achieved as efficiently as possible for those who are willing to do the work. Political and social power should only be sought as an afterthought, and the pursuit of such power should never take precedence over religion’s real function – cultivating awakened realization.
This will always be the primary goal of the Holistic Gnostic Assembly. The teachings and techniques outlined here are all designed to cultivate the gnostic experience in their own particular ways. If you are looking for meaning, connection, and contact with the divine you have come to the right place. Take the next step in your spiritual journey with us today!
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