92 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Balanced and Objective View on the New Age, August 10, 2000
This review is from: Catholics and the New Age (Paperback)
Pacwa, a Jesuit priest, gives a balanced and systematic treatment of the New Age movement. There are no emotional tirades and scathing attacks. This book is rigorous and scholarly (includes endnotes, a glossary and bibliography) yet very readable. He gives the history and logical arguments against these practices. This book is not just a good read. It's also good to give away to those who need it and good as a reference as well.
Pacwa exposes the roots of New Age infiltration into the Catholic Church. It's a controversial topic but he makes it pretty clear that using something like the Enneagram (a typology purporting that there are 9 types of characters) just doesn't square with being Catholic. Seen in the light of Tradition and Scripture, which Fr. Pacwa makes reference to, this and all New Age practices are dubious at best and diabolical at worst.
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98 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
simple yet eloquent, August 8, 2001
This review is from: Catholics and the New Age (Paperback)
I just finished this book and I have to say that I am amazed at the angry negative reviews I've read on this page. Folks, if crystals, horoscopes, tarot cards and contemplating one's navel are now considered (as was suggested in one review) modern, cutting edge psychology, then our society is in deep doo-doo. We should be furious that this mumbo jumbo has infiltrated the once respectable field of psychology, but the priest who wrote this book shows absolutely no anger towards the new age movement with which he experimented for a while. It seems clear to me that as he grew spiritually, he simply tired of the shallow, simplistic, ego-centric silliness of the new age - just as a boy becoming a young man tires of playing with the toys of his childhood.
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41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very important, April 9, 2007
This review is from: Catholics and the New Age (Paperback)
This is an incredibly important book for Catholics to read. For some reason I cannot explain, many Catholics, including my parents when I was growing up, were and are deeply interested in the occult and new age spirituality. It is VERY dangerous stuff.
My parents bought me my first set of runes, and my first Ouija board. I do not think they were being willfully evil. They were just VERY ignorant regarding Catholic truth, and also regarding the dangers of the New Age.
Luckily, when I was in my late 20s, I met a wonderful and faithful priest who also went though a period of experimentation with "crystals" and "runes" and other garbage when he was a teenager. He walked me through the dangers and pitfalls such approaches to "spirituality" present. The interesting thing was, in my heart of hearts, I always knew that my parents and I were offending Jesus with the actions we were taking. I just KNEW I was doing something wrong, despite my parents' tacit approval and even encouragement. All Father had to do was bring out of me the answers I already had on my heart. He gently led me to repentance, and then forgiveness in Christ Jesus.
Still, until recently, I had never known anyone whose life was ruined because the New Age. However, I can now say that the New Age is destroying people in my family. I have several family members hopelessly fascinated with this stuff. Some have had tragedies in their lives and are unable to really heal and deal with the ramifications of such deep personal loss because they are holding on to their loved ones with seances and other inappropriate forms of spiritualism and communication with the dead. Rather than find comfort in faith and prayer (the Catholic Church is a wonderful place to be, for we teach we can still pray for people, even though they are gone) they turned to psychics and the New Age. I see pain linger and grow in them. By contrast, faithfully Catholic and Christian friends who have experienced similar tragedies have fared much better.
If I were not a person of faith, I would conclude from my experience that the New Age is psychologically unhealthy and dangerous for mental health. As a person of faith I believe that this is certainly true, but, more importantly, I believe that dabbling in the New Age can cause real and spiritual trauma to the soul of the individual involved. It opens the door to the Devil and his minions.
This book is SO important. If it convinces one Catholic to flee sin, flee the New Age, flee Satan and his army of Demons and seek the rock of Jesus Christ, then it has had positive effects that will echo in eternity.
Thank God for faithful Catholics like Father Mitch Pacwa.
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