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Originally Posted by rivercrow
Personally, I think Christianity started to lose some of its power once it started being codified in the early Councils.
More of its esotericism got lost during the de-emphasis of ritual. What ritual is good for is to give the active mind a focal point while stilling it. A reaction was the turn to Eastern religion.
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I would say the same thing. The shift in the 60's and 70's towards more Eastern religions was very predictable. And Christianity always seems to lose power once it is transformed into the establishment and codified. There is a fine line between standardization and sterilization.
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While I think it is possible to find an enveloping experience in modern Christianity, I think that experience is downplayed and denigrated by large parts of the faithful. I'm willing to accept that what the Evangelicals describe as being saved is a similar experience, but I'm not convinced it's a transformative experience, which I think it should be. It's too clean and contained and doesn't seem to change the core--only serves, in many cases, to re-emphasize existing beliefs.
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Well, there are groups/philosophies that would identify themselves as part of the Evangelical movement that promote the very transformative faith that you describe here. Spiritual development and growth (and not just "pray three times a day and read 30 minutes in your Bible as a Quiet Time" as pseudo-spiritual development, but actually trying to connect with God and experience something more fulfilling, integrating your relationships with other people) is growing within the church. I think the most sterile times were actually the 80's and early 90's for the church.
The largest difficulty nowadays still seems to be the political movements -- the notion that it is the church's job to create a theocracy, rather than simply having people as individuals be effective in their roles in life and impact the lives of those around them.
That is my perspective, as an "insider" type.