New Spirituality
New Spirituality teaches that everyone and everything is connected through this divine reality.
What is divine consciousness?
Postmodernism was founded as a reaction to this earlier worldview.
What is Modernism?
Witnesses teach that this is the name of the one true God and Creator.
What is Jehovah?
Buddhism is centered on the teachings of this figure, with claims that his path leads to awakening.
Who is the Buddha?
Diagnosis: Ignorance
Cure: Science
What is Secularism?
This term describes New Spirituality's theology: everything in the universe is ultimately divine.
What is Pantheism?
Postmodernism is suspicious of these big, overarching stories that claim to explain reality.
What are metanarratives?
Witnesses reject this doctrine, teaching that Jesus is distinct from God and that the Holy Spirit is God's active force.
What is the Trinity?
The Buddha's path of ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom ends in this release.
What is nirvana?
Diagnosis: the rich took more than their fair share
Cure: overthrow society's structures and move toward communism
What is Marxism?
This term describes New Spirituality's ethics: good is returned to those who do good, and evil to those who do evil, in this life or the next.
What is Karma?
This term describes Postmodernism's ethics: truth and morals are relative to one's community.
What is Cultural Relativism?
This term describes why Witnesses do not vote, hold office, salute national symbols, or serve in the military.
What is political neutrality?
This is the community of monastics and supporters that preserves the teachings and supports the practice.
What is the Sangha?
Diagnosis: selfishness
Cure: rid ourselves of ego and melt into the oneness of things.
What is New Spirituality?
This political term means "the rule of oneself."
What is Autaracy?
This term describes how Postmodernism views human beings as social constructs with no singular essence, nature, or soul.
What is Decentered Self?
Witnesses teach that the dead are unconscious until this future event.
What is the resurrection?
This term describes the Buddhist psychological teaching that the person has no eternal soul; the self is composed of changing physical and mental processes.
What is Non-Self?
Diagnosis: sin, death, and a world system opposed to God's Kingdom
Cure: loyal obedience to Jehovah
What are Jehovah's Witnesses?
This term describes New Spirituality's view of history: we are progressing toward the ultimate goal of realizing our own divinity.
What is Evolutionary Godhood?
This term describes Postmodernism's approach to history: reinterpreting the past to serve an ideological purpose.
What is Historical Revisionism?
This term describes Witnesses' view of history: the present world system is nearing its end, followed by God's Kingdom and restored Earth.
What is Kingdom and Armageddon?
This philosophy holds that things arise through causes and conditions, and nothing has a permanent, independent essence.
What is Dependent Origination?
Diagnosis: those in power force everyone to submit to their idea of ultimate truth
Cure: suspicion of all truth claims and reliance on personal experiences
What is Postmodernism?