From Faith in God to Faith in Self: A Critical Analysis into the Concept of "Faith" in New Age Spirituality

Document Type : Original Article

Author

عضو هیات علمی گروه ادیان و عرفان، دانشکده الهیات و ادیان، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی

10.22081/jip.2026.74366.1156

Abstract

The widespread prevalence of expressions such as "believe in yourself" and "have faith in your inner power" within the literature of New Age spirituality poses a fundamental question: Can the "self" be the object of faith? Adopting a theological-critical approach based on conceptual analysis, this article examines the transformation of the meaning of faith in contemporary culture. It demonstrates that the core issue is not merely the usage of the term "faith," but rather the displacement of its object, function, and orientation. In the Islamic tradition, faith (Iman) is a bilateral existential relationship with the Transcendent, encompassing objective, propositional, and intuitive dimensions. In contrast, in New Age spirituality, faith is often redirected toward the autonomous human sphere and inner potentials. By extracting and formulating a set of measurable theological indicators—including the subject, origin, and teleology of faith, the structure of the Servant-Lord relationship, its connection to primordial nature (Fitrah), its relation to disbelief (Kufr), the limits of self-reliance, and the basis of self-knowledge—this research provides an analytical framework to distinguish between "self-confidence" and "self-faith." The findings indicate that in some interpretations, self-faith is merely an intra-religious psychological reinforcement; however, in others, it reaches a level that stands in parallel to faith in God or Revelation. By eliminating the element of servitude (’Ubudiyyah), it constructs a self-referential and sometimes self-deifying paradigm. Thus, the primary distinction between religious spirituality and New Age spirituality regarding the discourse on faith pertains to the "object of faith" and its governing theological indicators—a distinction that holds significant epistemic and educational value for religious propagation.

Keywords

Ofogh e Tabligh
Volume 6, Issue 14
February 2026
Pages 119-150

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