CAN CHRISTIANS PRACTICE KABBALAH , AND STILL BE CHRISTIANS ?

The Kabbalah Centre invited Hugo Schwyzer, a Kabbalah student and college professor, to give a lecture based on his expertise of Christianity and how it relates to Kabbalah. This is Hugo’s experience now delivering his lecture around the world.

“Can Christians practice Kabbalah – and still be Christians?

That was the question I asked a crowd of some 350 people in Mexico City when I gave my lecture on Kabbalah and Christianity on November 10. I’ve been fortunate to have given similar lectures across the world, in places like Moscow, London, Manila, Auckland, Sao Paolo, and Antwerp.
It’s also a question I’ve been asking since I came to The Kabbalah Centre as a student nearly a decade ago. At the time that I started studying, I was on the vestry (the governing body) of the largest Episcopal parish in the Western United States. I also taught (and still teach) courses on Western Civilization and religious history at Pasadena City College. In college, I’d briefly studied for the priesthood, and earned a Ph.D. in Christian history from UCLA.
My spiritual path and my academic work had always been linked, and in 2002, they led me to The Kabbalah Centre. Like so many who come to Kabbalah, I was filled with excitement but also a great many questions. I already had a faith I valued, and I wanted to find ways to reconcile the remarkable tools and truths I was learning in the Centre with my deep belief in Christ. Many of my teachers assured me that Christianity and Kabbalah were compatible, but few came from Christian backgrounds themselves. They assured me that I’d find the synchronicities if I looked closely.
What I’ve come to understand is that Kabbalah offers Christians a chance to stop merely worshipping Jesus and to start following Him. As anyone who studies the New Testament will soon see, Christ doesn’t demand our adoration. He doesn’t need us on our knees. His mission was to empower us to transform, to help us become “perfect as God is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). That process of becoming like God is at the heart of the Centre’s teaching (and of course the title of a wonderful book by Michael Berg). Far from contradicting the message of Jesus, Kabbalah helps Christians to do the work He calls us to do.
In my lectures I explore the many ways in which the study of Kabbalah can enrich and enhance the lives of Christians. We cover topics like astrology, reincarnation, the importance of Shabbat and the idea of Jesus as the Messiah. I had questions about all of those topics – and soon found that others who came from Christian backgrounds had similar concerns. I’ve spoken to evangelical Protestants, Mormons, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. All share a faith in Christ, and a hunger for the spiritual insights of Kabbalah. They need to hear that their love for Jesus and their passion for the wisdom of the Centre are not only compatible, they are perfectly and profoundly congruent.
Plans are in the works for future lectures in other parts of Latin America. In the meantime, I welcome your questions about reconciling Christianity and Kabbalah.

Hugo Schwyzer has been a student of The Kabbalah Centre since 2002. A professor of history and gender studies at Pasadena City College, he holds a Ph.D. in church history from UCLA. His work has been published in the Guardian, New York Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and many other places. Hugo’s website is www.hugoschwyzer.net