Think Christian had a piece on Christianity and Yoga. This is a hot topic. I got involved in the comment stream. Here is one of my responses.

Yoga can deliver what it offers: a sense of peace, a sense of power, a sense of unity, etc.

There is nothing wrong with stretching, exercise, breathing, quietness, etc. Yoga is not simply that, however. No serious Yoga proselytizers I’ve encountered have been dishonest in what they’re offering. It’s no secret. If you take a yoga training class part of the class is to spread the practice. Right?

“The Eight Limbs, the Core of Yoga” It is a regimented system to achieve an end and the end it offers is union with the divine. What they mean by “union” in this case is pretty important because it isn’t identical with what Christianity means by “union with Christ”.

Seeking the Divine

Many religions offer union with their articulation of the divine or transcendent. Shrine prostitution for example was a vehicle for gaining access to the divine through sexual contact. Some traditions of yoga offer similar things.

In many animistic practices experience is gained through music, dance, alcohol, smoking different things, etc. We long for an experience of connection with something larger than ourselves and when we have it we feel safe, powerful, at peace, etc. The more destructive these things are, as in the two cases I sighted, the more short-lived they tend to be. The larger, older religious systems have learned a lot.

Most religious systems, including Christianity, work on the basis of “if it’s true in the little things then the large claims are true.” Yoga gains credibility by yielding a sense of peace, centeredness, self-control, etc. and for most of us those are desirable qualities.

Yoga delivers on those outcomes. So if they are right on how to gain a sense of wellbeing and power that I seek then the larger claims must be true.

So what larger claims do you believe?

Do you believe that “shalom” was lost because we forgot we were divine and the “salvation” is achieved by a systematic process of practices and disciplines to regain what we lost?

Do you believe that our world is broken because of our rebellion and down to its core breaking down, but that in the revelation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ the reversal of that rebellion is already underway?

Yoga works to convince you of the former. Life in the Christian community, under the cruciform yoke of Christ, together with Christian spiritual disciples should also yield peace, joy, self-control even in the context of suffering and loss.

Hope this is helpful. pvk

The posts in what turned out to be a series:
Christians and Yoga
Is Yoga a Religion?
Is Yoga Helpful?
Should You Give Yoga Your Heart?