This is the “age of the spirit,” proclaims the venerable Harvard University theologian Harvey Cox in his new book, The Future of Faith. Professor Cox has been a leading voice in America since the publication of his book The Secular City in 1965. In that tome he argued that the church was less an hierarchical institution than an expression of faith and action. Cox now reasons that the Christian faithful are ignoring dogma, embracing spirituality, and finding common ground with other world religions. Similar change is happening in other faiths, he observes.

Displaying her deep understanding of the broad view of the divine in other religious traditions, the British theological historian Karen Armstrong argues in her latest book The Case for God that even though faith may be less needed than spirituality and compassion, God, albeit a mysterious force, is a transcendent divinity whose existence cannot be denied.

In a recent Newsweek magazine article, religion editor Lisa Miller suggests that such books are intended to “dismantle the arguments of the atheists.” Further, she says, “Armstrong shows that for most of human history, ‘faith’ and ‘reason’ were not mutually exclusive.” The God in whom reasonable people believe today is nothing like the portrait of an anthropomorphic deity that atheists despise.

The truth seems to lie a little more in the middle ground between faith and reason than either side is ready to accept. Atheism has been under attack for its dissent from a view of God—the old man with a beard sitting on a cloud and dispensing judgment—that no intelligent believer actually affirms. Theologians, despite their historical long view, are increasingly up against a society that is profoundly bored by religion and demonstrates its attitude with its feet. In the USA, a so-called “religious nation,” only 44% of the population attend church regularly. In more-secular Britain, 27%;  Australia is at 16%; and Norway a mere 5%. Unsurprisingly, only 2% of Russians attend church. The world is going secular very fast.

WODEN SAYS:  Once one has become familiar with the viewpoint of our guides, the Masters of the Spirit World, the two sides in the old belief-in-God debate seem rather irrelevant. We are part of an energetic universe, the Masters assert, and the nature of energy at its Source and within its highest dimension is sentient—thinking and feeling—as we are. Moreover, being the Source of all energy, it is in everything that exists and therefore is creative, all knowing, and all powerful. Yet, because it is universal energy it cannot also be an individual personality. Whereas God believers see their deity as a person wholly other than and different from themselves, the Source of energy is wholly connected with its creation in some way or another. Source is in no way “apart” from its creation as theologians assert. On the contrary, say the Masters, it is each one of us, at soul level.

Religion is interested in the human relationship with the divine. In the Masters’ view the energy of Source is, in part, split up into fragments, which are individual souls. They share the eternal Source energy and therefore share in its sentience, knowledge, and creativity. Even when incarnate on planet Earth, souls remain a totally connected vestige of Source energy. People are not “given” souls for an “afterlife.” Souls, which have been detached from Source energy, are given human bodies (which cannot remain alive without soul energy) for the duration of their incarnation on planet Earth. When the body dies, the soul “transitions”  back to its energetic home.

Atheism is interested in verification of truth. Modern physics is giving some help here—for example in the seemingly sentient reaction that sub-atomic particles give to being observed and measured. Essentially, the Masters’ point of view should be easier for the atheist to accept, given the energetic model on which it is based, and the fact that survival of death does not mean the physical survival of a human being who has died, but refers to a pre-existing attached energy continuing to exist unchanged in its own form and nature.

This is a model of life that is destined to replace theology and agnostic or atheist argument in due course. It deserves to be better known.

The best place to look for more detail is The Masters’ Reincarnation Handbook, available from our bookstore either as a booklet or as an instant ebook download. Other reading includes our discussions with the souls of the philosopher Bertrand Russell, the physicist Albert Einstein, and the evangelist Dwight Moody contained in Talking with Leaders of the Past or as single-chapter downloads. Happy reading!