Customer Reviews

Confronting the New Age: How to Resist a Growing Religious Movement

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I purchased this book here on amazon used a while back and found it to be extremely well written and in depth, and more relevant than ever in our increasing postmodern culture. It's been a long while since I've read the book, but I recently reread some of Chapter 9, on self esteem and the Christian, because my daughter needed some counseling to help her deal with some trauma she'd experienced. Much of today's "Christian" coounseling is very jungian in nature and open to many worldly and unbiblical ideas. I also strongly agree with the author's view of yoga as much more than just an excuse for physical exercise for Christians. The book touches on yoga on pages 77-79 and 133-34. This book has been very helpful. My wife and I have since found counseling that is truly biblical. Mr. Groothuis has done an excellent job and I would highly recommend this book.

Douglas R. Groothuis (born 1957) is currently Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. He is also the author of books such as Unmasking the New Age, Revealing the New Age Jesus: Challenges to Orthodox Views of Christ, Deceived by the Light, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism, etc.

He wrote in the Preface to this 1988 book, "My previous book, 'Unmasking the New Age,' attempted to explain the rise, extent and nature of the New Age movement and to subject it to a Christian critique. 'Confronting the New Age' attempts to build on that foundation by developing strategies for reaching New Agers and confronting New Age cultural advances with the truth of Christianity... Although this book is written primarily for Christians, I hope and pray that those sympathetic with the New Age movement will read it also..."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"Journals such as 'Free Inquiry' and 'Skeptical Inquirer' often set their gun sights on extravagant New Age claims and hit the target in exposing their inadequacies. (Of course, for the secular humanist, all spirituality is bogus, and so we also find articles rejecting Christianity as well.)" (Pg. 72)
"Even journals which tend to be New Age in orientation, such as 'The Journal of Humanistic Psychology' and 'The Whole Earth Review' ... will sometimes police their own ranks and print articles critical of various aspects of New Age thought." (Pg. 74)
"A look at 'New Age Magazine' in the 1970s would reveal few, if any, positive articles on American business." (Pg. 156)
"(T)he New Age is a deep cultural trend and not a passing fad... This is no flash in the pantheistic pan. But we do need to take the New Age hype with a few grains of sociological salt." (Pg. 201)