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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding critique, sarcastic tone,
By M. J. Keel (Somewhere in the Far East) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America (Paperback)
In "Spirit Wars" Dr. Peter Jones does a masterful job of delving deep into many seemingly disparate aspects of the New Age movement, some liberal Christians, radical feminists, many in the pro-homosexual movement, and Neo-paganism to uncover a central theme that links many of the leading thinkers in all of the above. The link is an essentially monistic (all is One or all is God in some way) world-view. With exhaustive documentation and thorough analysis Dr. Jones takes the idea of his earlier book "The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back" that ancient Gnosticism has crept into our culture and goes much deeper, not just into the cultural influence this ancient spirituality is having, but the influence it has in the Church. What he has produced is alarming to say the least. All those who have a concern for the Truth and the faith delivered once and for all to the saints (Jude 3) should read this book.
Having said that I have the same problem with this book that I had with "The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back"; its sarcastic tone. I found his tone so tongue in cheek and disrespectful at times that it aroused skeptical feelings in me about the material I was reading. It took me almost a month to read this b/c 1) I kept getting frustrated and putting the book down. More people would be willing to read the book all the way through if Dr. Jones would stop making fun of those he disagrees. 2) The skeptical feelings he gave me caused me to read almost all the footnotes (which was tedious but well worth it). The footnotes were outstanding and proved that despite his tone Dr. Jones had done his homework and his thesis is valid. In the last chapter of the book Dr. Jones apologizes if he has offended and explains his passion and asks for love toward those who are unsaved, but it was too little too late. In conclusion, I recommend this as a great resource that every church leader, or anyone concerned with the growing influence of those who worship false Gods whether in "churches" or in other types of religious milieus, in America should read. Just keep a thick skin and ignore Dr. Jones' sarcasm. I don't recommend this book as an example for how to write or speak to those who don't believe in orthodox Christianity. If you do, they will walk away having heard nothing, but your mean-spirited tone. For a great primer on talking to people about what they believe read Charles' Strohmer's "The Gospel and the New Spirituality."
22 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but flawed,
By "revmax" (www.enemies.com) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America (Paperback)
As a gnostic, I have always wanted to check this book out. Brought it to the beach on Labor Day and read it in one sitting. So, what's the verdict? Dr. Jones has done his homework. He actually retained a translator to translate the Nag Hammadi documents for him as Robinson, et al, would apparently not give permission. And he does cite them unlike so many other anti- "New Age Authors". And he is witty and the book is entertaining.While I completely disagree with his agenda (roll back women's and gay rights, put an end to religious pluralism, etc) he does not come accross as a wide-eyed conmspiracy theorist a la Jack Chick or Hal Lindsey. This guy is an actual academic, albeit somewhat reactionary. The flaws in this book are as follows: Jones pays a lot of attention to the perceived indignities suffered by YHWH (Lord of Hosts) in those gnostic scriptures which denounce the demiurge as a lion-headed demon, but completely ignores those Gnostic Texts which explain the gnostic concept of the spiritual esurrection. He criticizes gnosticism for ignoring "sin" and then himself ignores the gnostic redemption. Plus he collapses the systems (equating Sophia w. Barbelo, ignoring the Basilidean and Valentinian apocalypses in favor of the flashier On the Origin of the World). To his credit he give one of the more coherent explanations of Gospel of Thomas Logion 114 (I think) wherein Jesus recommends that women bacome male in order to enter heaven. Jones actually explains what this means, as reverse-creation, the rib going back into Adam. Good Job there. Unfortunately, Jones also pushes the ridiculous interpretation that the archetype of the divine androgyne can be literally and directly equated with homosexuality and the gay rights movements. WHile it is true that gnostics are a tolerant group, the idea that andro (male) + gyne (female)= homosexual (same + sex) is absurd on the face of it. The gnostic concept of balancing - and even cancelling - the opposites - light and dark, good & evil, etc - of course includes sexual difference - so too do certain schools of tantric buddhiusm, which depict this "alchemical wedding" as a seated (male) god with the shakti power (dakini - sky travelling goddes) sitting on his lap in flagrante delicto! Clearly this has less to do w. homoeroticism than joining the opposites, exactly as the word "androgyne" would imply. The stuff about the Minesotta Re-Imagining conference and the resemblace of the gnostic hermaneutic to reader-response theory was pretty interesting. Maybe I should write this guy a letter and find out a good place to go to divinity school.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The 1990's New Age Movement Exposed,
This review is from: Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America (Paperback)
In "Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America," Dr. Peter Jones has furnished the reader with an enormous amount of pertinent research regarding Gnosticism (ancient and modern versions), the occult, and the New Age Movement (NA). The book is formatted for non-scholars; nonetheless it has significant historical material for trained apologists. It is encased in the religious activity of the 1990's yet provides documentation for our current time period. Yes, while it's deficient in argument, refutation, and application of truth, the book is a smooth read and is hard to put down (over 300 pages).
The reader will discover in this unique book research on: - The translated Nag Hammadi primary documents - The 1990's political stars immersed in the NA worldview - The birth of the religious Left - The Gnostic Bible - Christian Liberalism - Gnostic spirituality - Gnostic sexuality - The Gnostic text that has a Gnostic Jesus instructing women to become men in order to enter heaven - Hundreds of footnotes - And a plethora of additional material. One powerful Christian quote presented at the front of the book: "Unless we are mistaken ... we will witness ... a gigantic conflict of spirits ... between the Old and New worldview" (Hermann Bavinck). Dr. Jones does discuss the need to embrace truth and reject error as one trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The reader will notice that of the hundreds of footnotes very few are from Christian scholars, theologians, and apologists, thus this adds to the lack of refutation of the NA views Jones exposes. The author furnishes massive amount of information that reveals the NA influence and Gnostic doctrines, but it is very short on logical and apologetic negation of the NAM, the Occult, and Gnostic belief systems. This is a terrific text to have in one's apologetic library as it has many unique features and is written in an engaging style; and now it's so inexpensive. see the book that contends for the existence of God by employing moral absolutes: There Are Moral Absolutes: How to Be Absolutely Sure That Christianity Alone Supplies or "One Way to God: Christian Philosophy and Presuppositional Apologetics Examine World Religions" type in ASIN#: 1432722956
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