Trying To Christianize Yoga

[krsna]

 

www.nytimes.com

 

HAMILTON, MASSACHUSETTS, September 17, 2005: When Cathy Chadwick instructed her three yoga students to move into warrior position, she did not remind them to watch their alignment or focus on their breath. Instead Ms. Chadwick urged them to concentrate on the affirmation each made at the beginning of class after she read aloud the prayer of St. Theresa of Avila. "Good Christian warriors," Ms. Chadwick softly said as the women lunged into the position. Ms. Chadwick is one of a growing number of people who practice Christian yoga, incorporating Biblical passages, prayers and Christian reflections. Occasionally, teachers rename yoga postures to reflect Christian teachings or, as Ms. Chadwick did with warrior position, include religious metaphors. Some, like Ms. Chadwick, had taken yoga classes and enjoyed the physical benefits but were uncomfortable with the fact that yoga is a Hindu practice. Others said that yoga allowed them to connect with their spiritual sides, but that it should be filled with their own religion. A similar movement is taking place in Judaism, with teachers merging teachings or texts into yoga classes. Many who take part said Christian and Jewish yoga made the physical discipline more accessible to those otherwise unwilling to take a class for religious reasons.

 

Critics of the alterations say that yoga is inherently Hindu, and that it is not possible to truly practice it without embracing that element. "There is an element of superficiality or hypocrisy there," said Subhas R. Tiwari, a professor of yoga philosophy and meditation at the Hindu University of America in Orlando, Fl. "To try to take Hinduism or aspects of Hinduism outside of yoga is an affront. It's an act of insincere behavior." Douglas R. Groothuis, a professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary, said that yoga was a Hindu practice structured to help people attain a higher spiritual state within, and that was incompatible with Christian teachings. "I don't think Christian yoga works," he said. "It's an oxymoron. If it's truly Christian, it can't be truly yoga because of the worldviews." The Vatican has also expressed misgivings about yoga. In a 1989 letter, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who is now Pope Benedict XVI, said practices like yoga and meditation could "degenerate into a cult of the body." Even so the number of people who practice Christian yoga is rapidly growing, said the Rev. Thomas Ryan, a Paulist priest in Manhattan. Father Ryan developed many of the Christian yoga techniques adopted by others and is assembling a database of Christian yoga teachers.