A Crash Course on the New Age Movement: Describing and Evaluating a Growing Social Force [Hardcover]

Elliot Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1989

An in-depth assessment of the New Age movement by a former New Ager! Are you confused by the abundance of New Age terms and teachings such as altered states of consciousness, networking, paradigm shift, psychic energy, all is One, crystals, and channeling? Avoiding either a superficial or an alarmist stance, Elliot Miller clearly unscrambles these terms and teachings as he expertly penetrates the "semantic jungle of the New Age vocabulary." Miller does an "inside out" probe of the New Age mindset. He was converted from New Age spirituality to Christ. Since that time, Miller, as the New Age specialist at the Christian Research Institute, has devoted years of research and observation of the New Age movement.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Baker Pub Group (May 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801062519
• ISBN-13: 978-0801062513
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #825,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fair, informative, but a little dated., May 11, 2000

By 

David Marshall - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Crash Course on the New Age Movement: Describing and Evaluating a Growing Social Force (Paperback)

Elliot Miller does a good job of giving an overview of the New Age movement. While the book needs up-dating, I certainly found it a helpful and sane introduction to the movement from an American point of view. (I tend to approach New Age thinking more from the point of view of Asian religions, so many of the names he brought up were new to me.) He is fairly objective, and does well to give all sides of the matter, but does not leave any doubt where his loyalties lie. (Jesus -- the Gospel version.) He finds things to praise in the New Age movement, as well as things to criticize in some Christian critiques of it. (A discussion of Constance Cumbey's simplistic attacks on the movement fills a chapter, but there too he is balanced enough to point out the good as well as the bad that her attacks accomplished.) Miller describes the movement, its influence on politics and science, and channeling and other forms of the occult within that movement, without settling for "one size fits all" answers. (i.e., "The devil is taking over over the world," as if he didn't have it already.) Miller shows a breadth of thinking wide enough to engage New Agers on a variety of topics, though I don't see all of his arguments as equally valid. The appendix in which he tells his own story may be the most interesting part of the book.

Author, Jesus and the Religions of Man (July 2000)

5.0 out of 5 stars A BALANCED EVANGELICAL RESEARCHER'S LOOK AT THE "NEW AGE", June 16, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Crash Course on the New Age Movement: Describing and Evaluating a Growing Social Force (Hardcover)

At the time this 1989 book was written, Elliot Miller was the editor of the Christian Research Journal (publication of the Christian Research Institute founded by Walter Martin). He is also the author of The Cult of the Virgin: Catholic Mariology and the Apparitions of Mary (Cri Books).

Here are some quotations from the book:

"The NAM (New Age Movement) is not a cult by any accepted sociological definition of the term. Although there are several cults which could be classified within it ... most are on the movement's periphery... Cult membership is by far the exception and not the rule for New Agers." (Pg. 16)
"It is not that there is nothing sinister or dangerous about the New Age movement---but evangelicals should resist the temptation to try to locate the evil in simplistic black-or-white categories, for in so doing they will fail to see New Agers for who they really are." (Pg. 21)
"One reason New Agers have rejected the traditional Hindu view of the world is that many of them have a social conscience." (Pg. 22)
"It may seem astoundingly inconsistent for a movement that considers itself too sophisticated for literal belief in the Bible and heavenly Father to wholeheartedly embrace the mythological concept of an Earth Mother." (Pg. 71-72)
"The ambiguity surrounding channeling has generated some skepticism even in New Age ranks. For example Ken Wilber, a highly regarded New Age thinker, expressed doubts about A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume, highly regarded channeled work." (Pg. 167)
"In light of all this, how is it that the current rage of the New Age movement is a practice which purports to bring a loosely defined special revelation? If, as New Agers have consistently maintained, all answers lie within and therefore we do not need special revelation (that is, the Bible), why do we need channeling?" (Pg. 174)