Today’s title does not suggest that it is a novelty that I am thinking. I am thinking about novelty in religion.
I have been rereading Jeremiah. How has novelty become desirable, even an asset, in religion? Judging from news reports from around the globe, it seems that the more unique and strange the “religious” event, the more likely it is to draw a crowd.
Jeremiah speaks certain judgment against religious novelty, calling for a return to the old paths. That the faith journey must be lived out in the current cultural context is not denied. My concern is not with efforts to live a contemporary faith. My concern is with a process that continually syncretizes the Christian faith with newly discovered religions, especially Eastern religions. It seems that the stranger and vaguer the religion, the more attractive it is in our world.
The new world of religious novelty demands new frameworks and descriptors. Moving away from a “non-denominational” claim, are some groups more accurately described as “omni-denominational”? Are some churches, despite Christian roots, now “omni-religious”? A world of religious syncretism and strange admixtures of religious practices calls for fresh analysis–fresh thinking and preaching and teaching.
What word does the Bible have for those who would be led away by religious novelty? The Old Testament prophets might be a good place to begin!