Lausanne Movement

There is in the post-modern western world a growing sense of the need to have some spiritual orientation in life. At the same time this quest for spirituality is uncomfortable with institutionalised religion as well as with scientific reductionism and the materialistic and consumerist tenets of society. This quest has lead many westerners to adopt practices and worldview from other religious and spiritual traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism as well as from the pagan past of Europe and from shamanism.

The expected outcomes of the work done on this issue were:

1. A balanced understanding of the quest for spirituality and how to contextualize the gospel within this quest.
2. What is this new spirituality (often called New Age) telling the church.
3. How can we educate Christians to share the gospel with those who are involved with these new spiritualities.

Convener:
Ole Skjerbaek Madsen,
Denmark
Missionspreast

Co-convener:
Ross Clifford, Australia
Principal, Morling Theological College

Facilitator:
Lars Mollerup-Degn,
Denmark
Secretary of Dialogue, Areopagus 

• Issue Group 16 Website
  
• Lausanne Consultation on Christian Encounter with New Spiritualities (Hong Kong 2006)
• Lausanne Occasional Paper 45: Religious and Non-Religious Spirituality in the Western World (“New Age”) (.pdf format; 403 KB)
• Lausanne Occasional Paper 11: Christian Witness to New Religious Movements