Young Sport Girl In Tight Yoga Pants

In 1989 and 2003, the Vatican issued two documents: Aspects of Christian meditation and "A Christian reflection on the New Age," that were mostly critical of eastern and New Age practices. The 2003 document was published as a 90 page handbook detailing the Vatican's position. The Vatican warned that concentration on the physical aspects of meditation "can degenerate into a cult of the body" and that equating bodily states with mysticism "could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations." Such concerns can be traced to the early days of Christianity, when the church opposed the gnostics' belief that salvation came not through faith but through a mystical inner knowledge.
The letter also says, "one can see if and how (prayer) might be enriched by meditation methods developed in other religions and cultures" but maintains the idea that "there must be some fit between the nature of (other approaches to) prayer and Christian beliefs about ultimate reality."
Some fundamentalist Christian organizations consider yoga practice to be incoherent to their religious background and therefore a non-Christian religious practice. It is also considered a part of the New Age movement and therefore inconsistent with Christianity.