Twenty years ago, Eckhart Tolle’s books, The Power of Now and A New Earth sold millions of copies, and more recently Tolle facilitated what was probably the largest classroom in human history: 1.2 million people simultaneously online.
This great spiritual teacher’s vast popularity has led to the predictable reaction of some conservative Christians who have branded Tolle as a threat to Christianity and a leader of what used to be called the “New Age” movement, which is really simply contemporary spirituality. This is unfortunate because first of all, Jesus said “those who are not against us are for us,” and secondly Tolle can give us fresh new insights into the depths of the teachings of Christ.
A Rabbi once told me that many Jews believe that non-Jewish people who live by the Ten Commandments, whether consciously or not, are on their side. Tolle, while not explicitly claiming to be Christian, is certainly not anti-Christian. If anything, he seems to bring to light things in Christianity that have been buried for centuries.
One could easily argue that Tolle is a latent Christian and capable of helping many people become latent Christians, in that he subscribes to many of the same values as Christians, such as peace and detachment from materialism and consumerism. Also, in A New Earth he quotes Jesus more than anyone else, and the endnotes are almost all references to the New Testament.
Throughout The Power of Now you could replace the word “Now” with “God” and the meaning would not change. His basic message in the book is that we need to live in the present moment, the Now, not in the past or future. Jesus said similar things, for example, “take no thought for tomorrow,” that is, don’t worry about the future or past, live now. He also said the reign of God is “at hand” that is, here and now.
In A New Earth Tolle engages in a brilliant analysis of how the ego causes all our problems and how we must let go of it to live fully. Jesus taught that if you lose your small self you find you true self, your self in God.
Richard Rohr, one of the most enlightened Catholic priests in the world, believes that Tolle could be seen as part of the “Sacrament of the Present Moment” tradition made popular by Brother Lawrence, Francisco de Osuna, and Jean Pierre de Caussade hundreds of years ago. Rohr sees Tolle as no threat to Christianity because Tolle is not teaching doctrines or dogmas, he is teaching practices just as John Wesley taught methods, and Ignatius of Loyola taught exercises, meant to help people overcome their prideful self, the ego.
Rohr also believes that, although Tolle never explicitly states his theology, he is not a pantheist (all things are God), but rather a panentheist (all things are in God). The few times Tolle does speak of God he says things like “God is the One Life in and beyond all forms of life.”
Rohr further believes that Catholics, who have a much longer tradition and are more familiar with mystics like John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart, will more easily embrace Tolle than Protestants whose tradition began in the sixteenth century. Tolle in fact adopted Meister Eckhart’s name when he realized he was also called to be a spiritual teacher.
If Christians want to be relevant, they need to respond to the “signs of the times” by engaging contemporary people who are SBNR, that is, spiritual but not religious, in dialogue. What is needed is intelligent Christianity, capable of sifting out the good wheat in the current “zeitgeist,” or “prevailing thoughts of a culture,” and letting the chaff blow away. Otherwise, Christianity may miss the opportunity to understand its own teachings more deeply and seem irrelevant to millions of people outside the church. These people might be more interested in the church if the church was more interested in contemporary spirituality.
Bruce Tallman is a spiritual director and educator of adults in religion. http://www.brucetallman.com
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 
Mr Tallman, there are a few faulty premises you have built your arguments on.
You suggest that Tolle is with Christ because he has not explicitly denied Christ. That does not follow. The passage you have cited as evidence speaks to the contrary.
The passage you were referencing talks about those who were not physically travelling with Jesus, but nonetheless did great things in His name, doing them by faith in Him, explicitly.
Jesus said the inverse phrase, too. He said “whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30, ESV).
How do we know who is against Christ? Whoever preaches something contrary to the Gospel is against Christ (Galatians 1:8-9). And what is the Gospel? That we, sinners dead in our trespasses, unable to save ourselves from our iniquity and God’s judgment against that iniquity, received the gift of salvation by faith, not by works, so that no man may boast (Ephesians 2 and Romans 5). Then, on the last day, we will be raised bodily from the dead to glory in God’s new creation (John 6:44, Revelation 20-21).
Tolle, and you by extension, have posed a different gospel, one in which you can be justified by your good deeds and disciplines.
Salvation is not the shrinking of the ego, though one sanctified by the Holy Spirit will become more modest, humble, and selfless. Salvation is the remission of sins through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Only by confessing these sins are you forgiven, and only by faith in Christ are men reconciled with the Father (see John 14:6, 1 John 1:9).
It is not enough to say good things about Scripture, or speak moral platitudes that resemble it. One must believe it is the Word of God and obey it. I implore you to read your Bible and recognize the exclusivity of Christ and the necessity to call on Him for salvation. Any message of salvation that does not explicitly confess Christ as the only way to be saved is from the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:2-3).
Christianity should engage those who are spiritual but not religious. That Christianity should be intelligent and know what it believes and why. However, it is the truth of the is what Gospel makes it relevant, not any synthesis with an unbelieving message.
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