Across families
New Thought and Spiritual But Not Religious
Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.11 (0 would be identical).
An impersonal Divine Mind that everything participates in, and a claim that thought shapes circumstance. There is nothing wrong with you that correct understanding will not fix — the highest C3 value in the matrix.
Something more than the material, approached personally and eclectically, with institutions declined on principle. This is a described population rather than a doctrine, which is why its dispersions are the widest in the matrix after Unitarian Universalism.
Where they agree
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at leaning optional or absent — a gap of 0.00.
D3 The body
Both sit at leaning to be celebrated — a gap of 0.00.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at metaphorical, or no text at all — a gap of 0.02.
E1 Exclusivity
Both sit at many valid paths — a gap of 0.03.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at reason and direct experience — a gap of 0.04.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at an individual choice — a gap of 0.05.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at leaning impersonal principle or order and between impersonal principle or order and a personal being one can address respectively — a gap of 0.06.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at individual conscience decides — a gap of 0.07.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at ignorant but fundamentally sound — a gap of 0.07.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at achieved by effort or insight and leaning achieved by effort or insight respectively — a gap of 0.10.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | New Thought | Spiritual But Not Religious | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | leaning a divine reality certainly exists | 0.15 |
| A2 Personhood | leaning impersonal principle or order | between impersonal principle or order and a personal being one can address | 0.06 |
| A3 Plurality | strictly one | between strictly one and many powers and spirits | 0.38 |
| A4 Locus | fully present within it | leaning fully present within it | 0.13 |
| B1 Source of truth | reason and direct experience | reason and direct experience | 0.04 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | metaphorical, or no text at all | metaphorical, or no text at all | 0.02 |
| B3 Institutional authority | individual conscience decides | individual conscience decides | 0.07 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | leaning continues in some form | 0.20 |
| C2 Shape of time | between one life, then judgment and cyclical return | between one life, then judgment and cyclical return | 0.13 |
| C3 The human condition | ignorant but fundamentally sound | ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.07 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | achieved by effort or insight | leaning achieved by effort or insight | 0.10 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | leaning optional or absent | leaning optional or absent | 0.00 |
| D3 The body | leaning to be celebrated | leaning to be celebrated | 0.00 |
| E1 Exclusivity | many valid paths | many valid paths | 0.03 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | leaning an intentional act | between an intentional act and beginningless or natural | 0.33 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | an individual choice | an individual choice | 0.05 |
| E4 Standing of nature | leaning animate and itself sacred | leaning animate and itself sacred | 0.14 |
Positions for New Thought rest principally on Holmes, The Science of Mind (1926) and Unity’s statements of belief; for Spiritual But Not Religious, on Survey scholarship on the spiritual-but-not-religious (Pew, Fuller, Mercadante). Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.