AUGUSTA, GA - Last week I was in the mood for a religious buffet. So I went to Borders to check out the magazine section. I took home a handful of glossy magazines — Enlighten Next, an academic spirituality mag; Witches and Pagans, a general lifestyle magazine about pagans; and Purpose Driven Connection, a magazine that debuted earlier this year by Rick Warren, “Purpose Driven Life” author and founder of the mega Saddleback Church.

My goal was to find out what is available to the casual soul-searcher desiring a smattering of philosophies to choose from.

The first magazine that jumped out at me was Enlighten Next, a cerebral magazine about modern spirituality. The feature article, called “The Three Faces of God,” is a conversation between Andrew Cohen, editor of the magazine, and Ken Wilbur, philosopher and writer. In it, they discuss how to cope with spirituality in a post-modern age in which spirituality has become unnecessary or distorted.

Their solution, based on the ideas in Wilbur’s book “Integral Spirituality,” is to think of God as a sort-of extension of the self. In a rewriting of the Christian trinity, the first face of God is like our own consciousness. The second is God “the other” and the third… well, I’m still trying to figure that one out. I think you need a Ph.D. to decode this magazine.

Moving on, I picked up the new Purpose Driven Connection. The main feature is a 47-page self-help workbook based on Christianity that you follow along as you listen to a CD.
The listener fills in the blanks for sentences such as “Ask God for ___.” The workbook could also be used for playing mad-libs with friends.

Most other articles in the magazine were personal testimonies from people whose lives turned around after they accepted Jesus at the Saddleback Church. This may come as a shocker to you, but that kind of Dr. Phil personal discovery stuff doesn’t appeal to me. But given that Warren’s book is a best-selling book of all time, the magazine will probably do OK.

Finally, a Witches and Pagans magazine cover caught my eye. The front cover
featured a red-haired top-hat-wearing woman in purple velvet and bejeweled with an ornament on her forehead.

At least I’ll have lots of fodder for comedy, I thought as I picked it up, with fringe topics on how to cast spells or how to heal yourself with crystals. It turns out the subject matter here had the most appeal to me. One feature article called “Monotheism: Who’s Your Daddy” interested me most. The article examined the polytheistic and pagan roots of Christian holidays. It was enlightening at least. Other articles examined the history of the Renaissance Festival phenomenon and profiled various pagans singer/songwriters and artists.

I didn’t find much to guide me spiritually, but at least now I have more respect for that magazine. Of course, just because someone dresses like a mythical character doesn’t mean they think they are actually one. Frankly, Witches and Pagans offered more actual historical fact than the $10 Purpose Driven Connection workbook.

It wasn’t a total wash, though. At least that one came in handy when I needed to smack a cockroach.