Customer Reviews

Catholics and the New Age

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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.

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.

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.

Father Pacwa is one of the few Christian writers, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, who is able to write about the subject without losing his readers in a web of delusional conspiracy theories. He assesses the dangers, philisophical implications, and silliness of many aspects of New Age culture, and relates them to his own life experiences. This book is already a Christian classic.

I happen to know Father Pawca and have heard him speak on this subject. He is, contrary to those detractors who added their opinions, a world renown expert on the subject of this book. This so-called valid and "cutting edge" psychology mentioned by these pseudo-intellectuals is nothing more than unproven designer science that offers no hope of actually helping people.

I believe that the New Age is a subtle diabolical movement, that mixes up all the religions of the world into one deceptive cocktail of demonic lies. The following are some of the things that New agers believe. At the end are the biblical references which refute these lies.

A. All is one (monism). Reality is a seamless garment. (Gen. 1:1ff.)

B. All is God (pantheism). God is an all-pervading impersonal Energy, Force or Consciousness. (Rom.1:18-32)

C. Self-deification/self-salvation. We look within for power, knowledge and healing. (Ezek. 28:1-9; Eph. 2:8-10)

D. Paranormal potential. We can experience ESP, telepathy, spirit-contact (spiritism), etc. (Deut. 18:9-14)

E. Ethical relativism. Moral absolutes can be transcended. (Matt.5:17-20; Rom. 13:8-10)

F. Cosmic evolutionism. The human race is progressing toward a "New Age" of planetary peace and prosperity. (1 Thess. 5:3; Matt. 24:3-31).

G. Religious syncretism. All religions are really one, and teach the above (A-F). Jesus was just one of many mystical masters. Reincarnation is stressed. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Heb. 9:27)

God bless, and buy this book.

Because of our "accept anything society" today, most Catholics are unaware of the insidious influence of the New Age culture. Fr.Pacwa writes from experience and with great clarity, the traps that things like ouija boards, yoga and eastern meditation can be for us and our children.

I'm reading this for the second time. The book is fair, circumspect, and respectful. It contains clear, interesting descriptions of some New Age practices and thoughts. Fr. Pacwa is not on a search-and-destroy mission. He shines the light of Truth on astrology, enneagram, creation-centered spirituality (Matthew Fox), and others.

Fr. Mitchell (Mitch) Pacwa is a Jesuit priest, who appears as host of several programs on EWTN, and is President and Founder of Ignatius Productions. He has taught at the University of Dallas and Loyola University Chicago, and is now the Senior Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1992 book, "What are Catholics to make of all these New Age practices at parishes, retreat houses, universities, and colleges? Why are they attracting so many Catholics today, especially clergy and religous? Are these practices legitimate expressions of spirituality for Catholics? Or do they run counter to the Catholic faith? This book approaches these questions and issues autobiographically because I, like so many contemporaries in the 1960s and 1970s, dabbled in occult practices now called New Age... And I was a Jesuit seminarian studying for the priesthood!"

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"Like so many people who adopt a hero, I was partially blind to some of Teilhard's deficiencies. He admitted that the major stumbling block to his evolutionary model of the universe was the doctrine of original sin... The church, however, has consistently taught that the first humans rebelled against God's command and committed sin. This sin is passed on to all other humans..." (Pg. 29)
"Until such verification of the enneagram occurs, resulting in ways to discern who has enneagram expertise, I recommend that people not patronize the workshops, seminars, and retreats." (Pg. 117)
"Much of (the enneagram's) authority in our lives depended on its antiquity and the presumed wealth of experience behind it. However, the Enneagram literature provides no evidence that it antedates Oschar Ichazo... it has no authority except the personal experience of those who give and make the workshops." (Pg. 119)
"(Matthew Fox) complains that Christians have allegorized the Song of Songs... However, it was rabbinic tradition that first allegorized the Song of Songs." (Pg. 176)
"(Matthew) Fox claims (Meister) Eckhart was a feminist influenced by the beguine movement, but in fact no reliable evidence exists for either assertion." (Pg. 178)
"Is Fox a New Ager? It is hard to say. He borrows New Age ideas, like the paradigm shift, the threat of ecological disaster, and the need for a new religious and social paradigm... On the other hand, Fox criticizes New Age 'pseudo-mysticisms'... Fox's analysis is inadequate. He does not go far enough in rejecting the occult practices of the New Age movement." (Pg. 182-183)

Father Mitch Pacwa has delivered a solid, concise, and very educational book with his "Catholics and the New Age."

It's partly a personal testimony of the Father; his training as a young Jesuit, how he himself was drawn in by the lure of the New Age guise, and how he was eventually disillusioned with the whole enterprise. Father Pacwa was involved in Jungian thought, Eastern meditation, the enneagram, astrology, etc.

Though he initially thought nothing of the practices, he soon became wary of them and their empty promises, hollow philosophies, and contradictory teachings. Because of his personal experience with the practices, Father Pacwa has great insight on the varying things taught by so many of the New Age teachers/gurus/channelers.

But as Father Mitch began to take a closer look at the things of which he was personally consuming, he soon discovered the fallacies, discrepancies, and half-truths on which so many of the New Age teachings are based. Using Science, Scripture, and Philosophy to back his conclusions, Father Pacwa decides that the New Age and all of it's trappings are not things on which he could place any true value.

Far from being inflammatory, fundamentalist, or small minded, Father Mitch writes in a calm, pastoral, and fair manner. Father Pacwa actually points out positives of some New Age philosophies; being very respectful and balanced.

For anyone wanting an honest Catholic perspective on the incredibly vast umbrella that is the New Age, this is a great book to delve into.

Don't be dissuaded by the negative reviews, this is an objective, intelligent, and insightful look at a phenomena which is quickly gaining ground in the world around us.

Definitely recommended!