i. Orientation

The last decades of the twentieth century have unfolded with some tremendous upheavals in Western thought. The assumptions of modernity were grounded in an anti-supernatural bias with an overarching confidence in European based rationalism, science and technology as the pre-eminent tools for understanding reality. This system of thought brought many advances and powerfully shaped our technologically based way of life. Yet, its assumptions have proven inadequate in the context of an emerging global civilization. The modern era is passing away as another framework, known as postmodernity or globalism supplants it.

The postmodern mindset has offered some razor sharp insights into the shortcomings of modernity. The suppression or disparagement of spirituality has been quite rightly regarded as an aberrational outworking of Cartesian thought. Now the accent is back on the spiritual, with the grass roots emphasis on spirituality as a lifestyle issue. Indeed seekers tend to favour spirituality expressed beyond the formal structures of church, temple and mosque.