Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

One way this manifests in postmodern culture is the fresh embrace of Hinduistic
reincarnation beliefs, a way to appease the conscience, without actually having to deal
with sin in any immediate sense. Westerners also routinely go to Eastern countries (e.g.,
Katmandu, Nepal) looking for answers in their personal, spiritual quest. The reality they
sometimes discover is that pantheistic cultures are often quite corrupt. People raised in
Western cultures seldom realise how profoundly their worldview has been impacted by
the Judeo-Christian sense of morality -- all rooted in biblical imperatives. This construct
provides the individual the potential for one or many more chances to be and do good,
earning one’s way to Nirvana.
The postmodern approach accords well with postmoderns on their quest for ‘selfactualisation.’
We “shouldn’t be surprised by the growth of pantheistic spirituality today.
It fits in with the aspirations of the postmodern soul. People want something spiritual to
answer the heart-cry that secular humanism could not meet. Pantheism provides an
answer without violating the quest for a life without submission to objective realities like
a supreme God, a strict moral code, and an infallible Bible” (Ajith Fernando, in Carson,
2000:135). Pantheistic cultures do not bow the knee to any supreme ‘god.’ This accords
perfectly with the postmodern penchant for anti-foundationalism. Fernando identifies a
key reality about Eastern religions and philosophies, that there is no true holy god, only
‘gods’ who are holy in much the same way the early Greek gods were ‘above’ humanity,
but hardly holy like the God of the Bible.
The gods of Hinduism were morally neutral,
and they are often seen to be doing things that
we consider quite unholy. The emphasis in
Those spiritualities is not so much on
holiness in the sense of moral purity as on
holiness in the sense of spiritual power -- of
power over the mind, over the body, over
anxiety and circumstances. We have seen
that even in Christian circles when there is an
emphasis on spiritual power, sometimes there
is a tendency to neglect teaching on moral
issues (Ajith Fernando, in Carson, 2000:134).
Fernando adds that with such religions the focus is “self; evil is reinterpreted and thus
emasculated; and any notion of judgment imposed by a personal / transcendent God
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University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa