Using historical and biblical accounts, the authors present practical advice for evangelizing practitioners of new religions with approaches similar to those used to reach foreign people groups.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
This book is must reading for those involved in cross-cultural witness, especially to new religionists. Most evangelicals will be stimulated and challenged by it. The subtitle, A Holistic Evangelical Approach, does not reflect a dilution of revealed truth but rather a cross-cultural perspective in presenting truth effectively by marrying missiology to apologetics for effective evangelism. It points us toward approaching new religionists the same way intercultural missionaries approach animists, atheists, secularists, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, or any other belief systemópresenting the gospel in culturally sensitive ways and using terms they can understand as we seek to love them to saving faith in Christ. (William T. Commons Criswell Theological Review 20070301)
From the Back Cover
In the last century. new religious movements (NRMs) have sprung up around the world This book’s contributors propose that the most effective way to reach these groups is to view them missiologically as different people groups—and thus to approach them with a cross-cultural mindset—instead of following more traditional methods that focus on biblical heresies and doctrinal aberrations.
In this book, top missiologists present biblical and historical considerations, methodology and practical advice for reaching out to groups such as the Latter-day Saints, New Spirituality, Wicca, Mother Goddess, and Satanism.
“An important ‘breakthrough’ book. Exactly what we need for an effective presentation of the gospel to folks seduced by the false promises of non-Christian worldviews.”
—Richard J. Mouw
President and Professor of Christian Philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary
“At last, apologetics and missiology meet! Proactive in intent and positive in tone, it . . . [charts] a new way forward.”
—Ken Mulholland
Former president, Evangelical Missiological Society
“This resource is not merely a valuable compilation of strategic thinkers in the fields of Christian apologetics and missiology; it synthesizes the two disciplines and offers practical strategies for evangelism in a new day!”
—Rudy Gonzalez
Director, North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention
Irving Hexham, professor of religious studies at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is the author of seven books, including Understanding Cults and New Religions and The Pocket Dictionary of Cults and New Religions.
Stephen Rost, pastor of Grace Fellowship of Dixon in Dixon, Cal., has served as president of the Society for the Study of Alternative Religions study group in the Evangelical Theological Society.
John W. Morehead II, associate director of Watchman Fellowship in Sacramento, Cal., is the cofounder and coeditor of Sacred Tribes: Journal of Christian Missions to New Religious Movements, an e-journal that focuses on reaching adherents of new religions.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is both exhaustive and exhausting to read as a lay person. If you are an ardent fan of more poetic Christian Living writing as offered by many of our current prolific evangelical writers, this book is not for you. If however you are looking for innovative, effective, and even orthodox ways to engage members of these spiritual movements that are moving from the fringe to the mainstream of western culture, then buy this book! This book casts some new light on techniques and approaches to evangelism to new religious movements. The ministry examples are insightful and present fresh ideas on contextualizing the gospel to many of the subcultures that have traditionally been bumbled by the Western Church.
Our efforts must go beyond the handing out of tracts, confrontational discussions of apologetics, and holding demonstrations. Encountering New Religious Movements provides an in-depth history of apologetics and missions to new religious movements as well as chronicling the successes and failures their-in. Though the book is written by several authors, there is a continuous attention brought to solid doctrine and sound missional philosophy in outreach. The authors are each leaders in their respective areas and provide strong biblical foundations and historical data outlining the inception of the movement they represent and the methodology they recommend.
Too many of our seminary graduates are not equipped with the knowledge of how to engage our various subcultures with the Gospel. Many of our seminaries continue to turn out pastors equipped only to perpetuate an ineffective Christendom approach to church and outreach. If our goal is to get out of the church and to impact our culture, then we must have leadership that is prepared. This book should be high on the list of required reading in our seminaries and our various church boards, sessions, and leadership teams.
If you live somewhere that you do not believe these subcultures are present, then either you do not live in the Western World or you are simply mistaken.
Our efforts must go beyond the handing out of tracts, confrontational discussions of apologetics, and holding demonstrations. Encountering New Religious Movements provides an in-depth history of apologetics and missions to new religious movements as well as chronicling the successes and failures their-in. Though the book is written by several authors, there is a continuous attention brought to solid doctrine and sound missional philosophy in outreach. The authors are each leaders in their respective areas and provide strong biblical foundations and historical data outlining the inception of the movement they represent and the methodology they recommend.
Too many of our seminary graduates are not equipped with the knowledge of how to engage our various subcultures with the Gospel. Many of our seminaries continue to turn out pastors equipped only to perpetuate an ineffective Christendom approach to church and outreach. If our goal is to get out of the church and to impact our culture, then we must have leadership that is prepared. This book should be high on the list of required reading in our seminaries and our various church boards, sessions, and leadership teams.
If you live somewhere that you do not believe these subcultures are present, then either you do not live in the Western World or you are simply mistaken.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sympathetic Christian responses to alternative spirituality and cults
March 28, 2010
Format:Paperback
ENCOUNTERING NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS: A HOLISTIC EVANGELICAL APPROACH
Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost, & John W Morehead II, General Editors
Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004
Another evangelical but more explicitly missiological approach to new spirituality can be found in some of the articles of Encountering New Religious Movements. The authors are North Americans and Australians who are engaging apologetically and missiologically with new religious movements. The North American writers provide introductory and methodological chapters and a chapter on cross-cultural mission to Latter-day Saints. The Australian chapters include Harold Taylor's discussion of contextualised mission in history (especially in Celtic and Muslim missions) and then most of the practical applications.
Philip Johnson and John Smulo discuss reaching Wiccan and Mother Goddess devotees - seeing them as a subculture with their own customs and traditions to understand, and John Smulo similarly works toward a contextualized apologetic to LaVeyan Satanism. Ruth Pollard explores sacred oils and the gospel (a good chapter for anyone interested in arguments over complementary medicine). Philip Johnson evaluates the festival booth ministry of Community of Hope with new age and do-it-yourself seekers, explaining their change from an adversarial and dismissive approach to one of dialogue and cultural understanding. In another chapter Philip explores the challenges of reaching a Bible-based group like the Christadelphians. Ross Clifford reframes a traditional apologetic to reach "new spirituality" seekers, arguing for the centrality of the resurrection, debunking myths that new spirituality seekers are not interested in factual discussion and metanarrative, and engaging rather than dismissing culture.
The paradigm shift the whole book espouses is to move away from being confrontational and aggressive with what has traditionally been called `the cults', and seek to incarnationally and sympathetically understand the culture of people in what is better termed `new religious movements'. Rather than basing ministry on mainly refuting heresy and asserting correct doctrine (as in Walter Martin's The Kingdom of the Cults), the authors espouse an approach that includes cross-cultural missiological methods including worldview analysis and cross-cultural communication.
The world is shrinking and innovations in travel and communication (let alone religious consumerism) bring a smorgasbord of religious options. The challenge is not just to hold up the cross to protect the church and our children, but to take the cross to this variety of cultural groups in evangelism. There is plenty of room for further development of these ideas and their missiological application to other new religious movements.
Darren Cronshaw is a student and teacher of practical theology and originally reviewed this for Australian Journal of Mission Studies, Vol.1, No.2 (December), p.58.
Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost, & John W Morehead II, General Editors
Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004
Another evangelical but more explicitly missiological approach to new spirituality can be found in some of the articles of Encountering New Religious Movements. The authors are North Americans and Australians who are engaging apologetically and missiologically with new religious movements. The North American writers provide introductory and methodological chapters and a chapter on cross-cultural mission to Latter-day Saints. The Australian chapters include Harold Taylor's discussion of contextualised mission in history (especially in Celtic and Muslim missions) and then most of the practical applications.
Philip Johnson and John Smulo discuss reaching Wiccan and Mother Goddess devotees - seeing them as a subculture with their own customs and traditions to understand, and John Smulo similarly works toward a contextualized apologetic to LaVeyan Satanism. Ruth Pollard explores sacred oils and the gospel (a good chapter for anyone interested in arguments over complementary medicine). Philip Johnson evaluates the festival booth ministry of Community of Hope with new age and do-it-yourself seekers, explaining their change from an adversarial and dismissive approach to one of dialogue and cultural understanding. In another chapter Philip explores the challenges of reaching a Bible-based group like the Christadelphians. Ross Clifford reframes a traditional apologetic to reach "new spirituality" seekers, arguing for the centrality of the resurrection, debunking myths that new spirituality seekers are not interested in factual discussion and metanarrative, and engaging rather than dismissing culture.
The paradigm shift the whole book espouses is to move away from being confrontational and aggressive with what has traditionally been called `the cults', and seek to incarnationally and sympathetically understand the culture of people in what is better termed `new religious movements'. Rather than basing ministry on mainly refuting heresy and asserting correct doctrine (as in Walter Martin's The Kingdom of the Cults), the authors espouse an approach that includes cross-cultural missiological methods including worldview analysis and cross-cultural communication.
The world is shrinking and innovations in travel and communication (let alone religious consumerism) bring a smorgasbord of religious options. The challenge is not just to hold up the cross to protect the church and our children, but to take the cross to this variety of cultural groups in evangelism. There is plenty of room for further development of these ideas and their missiological application to other new religious movements.
Darren Cronshaw is a student and teacher of practical theology and originally reviewed this for Australian Journal of Mission Studies, Vol.1, No.2 (December), p.58.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Crazy Horse
Format:Paperback
This is a collection of essays by fifteen authors detailing recent dissatisfaction with the fundamentalist/evangelical countercult movement by those on its margins.
The collection was motivated in part by concern over the propensity of the countercult to engage primarily in internal theological boundary maintenance among American conservative Protestants (see p. 290).
In addition, lament the authors, the countercult is ineffective in witnessing, given its notoriously aggressive confrontational mode of behavior (p. 13). In cautious language, since the authors whose essays appear in this volume risk being savaged as dangerous heretics, if not as cult apologists, by those within the countercult, several essays suggest that the already marginalized countercult ought to adopt a different approach (see p. 290).
They suggest one that would tone down the confrontational, largely polemical, and also highly ineffective mode of operations set in place in 1965 with the publication of The Kingdom of the Cults. John Morehead describes its author, Walter Martin, as the "granddaddy of this counter-cult movement that over time has become a virtual cottage industry" (p. 280; cf. p. 286).
A number of essays in this volume question the effectiveness of the way countercultists deal with so-called "cults," now sometimes called "new religious movements" (p. 17). Since belligerent confrontation has not been successful in bringing fundamentalist/evangelical religiosity to "new religious movements," Morehead and others now want to blend a much softened mode of apologetics with something called "missiology" into a new "methodology" (p. 299). The editors claim that there are now some new "field-tested models" (p. 21) where the target audience is approached missiologically. They recommend a substantive change in "theology, theory, and practice of ministry"--a "change from ridicule to empathy" (pp. 13--14), away from confrontation and toward sharing a message with gentleness and respect. Perhaps this explains the endorsement of the book by Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, and Craig J. Hazen, who teaches apologetics at Biola University.
The "field-tested models" have been directed at the followers of Anton Szandor LaVey's Church of Satan, Christadelphians, Wicca, various "New Spirituality" (or New Age) seekers, "Do-It Yourself" (DIY) enthusiasts, various aromatherapists, and, of course, Latter-day Saints (pp. 159--73).
Kenneth Mulholland, of the Salt Lake Theological Seminary, describes an effort he calls "Bridges," which he claims is "relational evangelism rather than confrontation" since it makes use of what he calls "points of contact" (p. 159). While the rhetoric in which Mulholland sets out his "new model" (p. 162) is less abrasive than that commonly found in countercult circles, what he says about the faith of the Saints is neither accurate nor respectful. It is only a marginal improvement over what Morehead and others seem to complain about.
In the best essay in this book, Philip Johnson, who lectures "on cults, world religions, and philosophy" at the Presbyterian Theological Center in Sydney, Australia (p. 10), describes the "wooliness" of religion in Australia, where most everyone believes in a Supreme Being, yet the churches are mostly empty (pp. 228â'29) and self-help books detailing how to pleasure oneself and find well-being thrive. Feel-good "spirituality" dominates the hearts and minds of Australians, when they are not focused on sport. Johnson describes his own evangelistic efforts at booths at "spiritual festivals." These "festivals" are set up to market "holistic healing and spiritual empowerment, borrowing from many different sources, including alternative healing remedies, astrology, first-nation indigenous cultures, meditation, nature-based pagan religion, reincarnation, tarot, theosophy, and much more" (p. 232).
He does not see his efforts as merely another in the parade of voices trying to get attention in a land dominated by hedonism.
The collection was motivated in part by concern over the propensity of the countercult to engage primarily in internal theological boundary maintenance among American conservative Protestants (see p. 290).
In addition, lament the authors, the countercult is ineffective in witnessing, given its notoriously aggressive confrontational mode of behavior (p. 13). In cautious language, since the authors whose essays appear in this volume risk being savaged as dangerous heretics, if not as cult apologists, by those within the countercult, several essays suggest that the already marginalized countercult ought to adopt a different approach (see p. 290).
They suggest one that would tone down the confrontational, largely polemical, and also highly ineffective mode of operations set in place in 1965 with the publication of The Kingdom of the Cults. John Morehead describes its author, Walter Martin, as the "granddaddy of this counter-cult movement that over time has become a virtual cottage industry" (p. 280; cf. p. 286).
A number of essays in this volume question the effectiveness of the way countercultists deal with so-called "cults," now sometimes called "new religious movements" (p. 17). Since belligerent confrontation has not been successful in bringing fundamentalist/evangelical religiosity to "new religious movements," Morehead and others now want to blend a much softened mode of apologetics with something called "missiology" into a new "methodology" (p. 299). The editors claim that there are now some new "field-tested models" (p. 21) where the target audience is approached missiologically. They recommend a substantive change in "theology, theory, and practice of ministry"--a "change from ridicule to empathy" (pp. 13--14), away from confrontation and toward sharing a message with gentleness and respect. Perhaps this explains the endorsement of the book by Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, and Craig J. Hazen, who teaches apologetics at Biola University.
The "field-tested models" have been directed at the followers of Anton Szandor LaVey's Church of Satan, Christadelphians, Wicca, various "New Spirituality" (or New Age) seekers, "Do-It Yourself" (DIY) enthusiasts, various aromatherapists, and, of course, Latter-day Saints (pp. 159--73).
Kenneth Mulholland, of the Salt Lake Theological Seminary, describes an effort he calls "Bridges," which he claims is "relational evangelism rather than confrontation" since it makes use of what he calls "points of contact" (p. 159). While the rhetoric in which Mulholland sets out his "new model" (p. 162) is less abrasive than that commonly found in countercult circles, what he says about the faith of the Saints is neither accurate nor respectful. It is only a marginal improvement over what Morehead and others seem to complain about.
In the best essay in this book, Philip Johnson, who lectures "on cults, world religions, and philosophy" at the Presbyterian Theological Center in Sydney, Australia (p. 10), describes the "wooliness" of religion in Australia, where most everyone believes in a Supreme Being, yet the churches are mostly empty (pp. 228â'29) and self-help books detailing how to pleasure oneself and find well-being thrive. Feel-good "spirituality" dominates the hearts and minds of Australians, when they are not focused on sport. Johnson describes his own evangelistic efforts at booths at "spiritual festivals." These "festivals" are set up to market "holistic healing and spiritual empowerment, borrowing from many different sources, including alternative healing remedies, astrology, first-nation indigenous cultures, meditation, nature-based pagan religion, reincarnation, tarot, theosophy, and much more" (p. 232).
He does not see his efforts as merely another in the parade of voices trying to get attention in a land dominated by hedonism.
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
3
books
cite this book:
- Understanding Cults and New Religions by Irving Hexham on 4 pages
- Christianity and the Hellenistic World (Christian free university curriculum) by Ronald H. Nash on 4 pages
- Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith on page 102, page 160, and page 169
- Communicating Christ Cross-culturally: Introduction to Missionary Communication (Contemporary evangelical perspectives) by David J. Hesselgrave in Front Matter, page 295, and Back Matter
- The Emerging Network by Michael York on page 210, page 235, and Back Matter
See all 100 books this book cites
- Paradigms in Conflict: 10 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today by David J. Hesselgrave on page 239
- In Search of New Age Spiritualities (Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies) (Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies) by Adam Possamai in Back Matter
- A Guide to New Religious Movements by Ronald Enroth in Back Matter
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
