Customer Reviews

Unicorn in Sanctuary-New Age

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is a must read for any and all Catholics. This shows the subtle (and sometimes alarming) ways the New Age movement is slowing seeping into the Catholic church, our schools, business' and lives and the dangers it brings with it. Even though this books is about the New Age movement and it's impact on the Catholic church, every Christian can gain some very useful knowledge and insights from this book.

Highly readable and sadly amusing 1990/1992 book quoting priests and religious advocates of "New Agey" liturgical changes...some of whom have either been excommunicated or left voluntarily by the time of this review (1998.) Good resource for Catholics who support respect for tradition in liturgy, who aren't sure why some of the radical changes don't "feel right" spiritually, or who just don't like underrdressed informality and bad music at their Sunday Masses.

Randall England's eye-opening book examines the dangers of the New Age movement, the movement's beliefs, and its efforts and success in infiltrating mainstream Catholic Churches.

England effectively shows how the New Age movement's beliefs that "we are gods" and efforts to "re-imagine" the Church, have already made their way into many Catholic schools and parishes.

Although somewhat dated it presents factual information that continues to have long-ranging effects on the celebration of liturgy, Christian retreats, and the education of our young. A funeral Mass I was at recently was overflowing with New Age theology.

This is still an important book.

There's no shortage these days of Catholics who believe in astrology. No doubt there are Catholics who believe in reincarnation, the healing power of crystals, trance channeling, spirit guides and other New Age nonsense. Unicorns have nothing to do with this, however. The unicorn is barely mentioned in the main text of "The Unicorn in the Sanctuary." The cover features a ghastly demon unicorn. The brief prologue asserts that the mythical beast is an evil New Age symbol of destruction that has wrongly been associated with Christ.

There is no "wrongly" about it. Catholic writer Sandra Miesel, in an article for the impeccably orthodox This Rock magazine ("The Unicorn Hunters," August 1991), points out that church fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, Jerome and Basil called the unicorn a symbol of Christ and that it appeared widely in medieval art as a symbol of the Incarnation. The unicorn also came to symbolize chaste love and faithful marriage. And remember Jewel, the noble unicorn in C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia."

As if misrepresentation of the unicorn weren't enough, the book as a whole is poorly researched and misleading. The text, footnotes and bibliography indicate that the author has relied heavily on the sensationalistic, anti-Catholic "cult expert" Dave Hunt. He also cites as a reference Texe Marrs, an evangelist who has alleged that all New Agers are part of a conscious, Satan-directed conspiracy to exterminate Christians by 2004; that C.S. Lewis' fiction is "New Age"; and that J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is "demonically energized." Yikes! All this is obviously fringe fundamentalist, not Catholic.

If you enjoy absurdity, you may find the book amusing. But please don't take it seriously. It's a fount of misinformation.

This book will open your eyes to the ways that New Age teachings are being presented by some supposedly Catholic leaders. It reminds us that we need to be strong in our faith, so that we can discern when something fishy is going on.

I give it 4 stars because I feel the author's tone creates a strong uneasiness regarding the unfamiliar, a sort of "in this place there be dragons" warning. Instead, he might have encouraged us to do more to reclaim our spiritual heritage. Through study and God's grace, we can uncover and embrace the truths that have been hijacked and twisted by the promoters of these teachings. (For example, Catholics don't need to be afraid to explore the theological dimensions of ecological questions -- as long we base our understanding of the universe on our understanding of God, rather than the other way around.) Still, I agree that avoiding questionable ideas is a safe approach, especially for those who are going through a period of spiritual or theological uncertainty.

If there's an up side to the story, it's that the people involved in this scene are an aging demographic. Today's young people generally feel free to choose their own religious paths, so someone who prefers, say, Wicca to basic Catholic teachings is likely to be honest about it and leave the Church. Although it seems like a harsh observation, this would actually be a good thing. By increasing the doctrinal unity of the Church, it would make Catholicism more appealing to reverts and converts, as well as the lifelong faithful.

Some people might think Unicorn in the Sanctuary could qualify as a horror book, for all the information about Catholic dissidents and others trying to incorporate New Age sentiment in the Church. Alas, this is all too real (I've seen it myself in churches I used to attend), and England does a satisfactory job of detailing various movements (ennegrams, visualization, and non-Christian Eastern thought) trying to infiltrate the Church parish by parish.

The only thing that bothered me, as mentioned elsewhere here, was the reference to Dave Hunt's work. Mr. Hunt is rabidly anti-Catholic, and it bothered me to see his works were included in the bibliography of a Catholic book. I'm guessing Fr. Mitch Pacwa's books were not out at the time England was researching this one.

At the time he wrote this 1990 book, Randy England was "managing editor of the Missouri Law Review. A Catholic pro-life activist and an expert on the New Age." He is also the author of The Last Fisherman: A Novel of the Last Pope, the Antichrist and the End of the Age.

He wrote in the Foreword, "I began to research the (New Age) Movement and quickly found that many individuals in my own church had deep involvement... If the reader finds a personal hero or two entangled in New Age concepts it should not necessarily be taken as an indictment of those individuals. Rather, it is an indication of how far this influence has spread and has been taken into the life of the Church... Within the Church, however, there must be limits beyond which the title 'Christian' can no longer apply... it is every Catholic's duty to judge teachings and actions in light of the truth he claims to hold and serve."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"The third sort of music does not SEEM to be New Age music at all. It sounds normal; it has melody; it goes somewhere during the song and then comes back at the end. It may be that even New Age musicians just get sick of the mindless pabalum they usually play and every once in a while stick in a real tune. Or perhaps the record companies, knowing that New Age music sells, get a little over-zealous in attaching the 'New Age' lagel. The safest course, however, is to stay away from all of it." (Pg. 50)
"Doubtless, (Thomas) Merton was remarkable. Anyone who captured such interest from Christians, Eastern mystics and occultists would have to be. It is regrettable that he found traditional Christianity so insufficient (and even maddening), feeling instead, the need to look to the east for truth." (Pg. 81)
"Teilhard (de Chardin) is deadly. To such ideas as his, the door to the Church has always been barred. Barred to spiritualists, barred to witchcraft and the lie of the 'god within.'" (Pg. 98)
"The struggle is difficult. It is more likely than not that your pastor is open to New Age ideas. Matthew Fox is quoted from the pulpit. Too many bishops are more worried about feminist concerns than they are about the loss of faith. Even Catholics with no interest in New Age practices are becoming accustomed to its concepts; they should be well primed by the time Creation-Centered Spirituality becomes the norm in our churches. But our resistance is neither hopeless or futile." (Pg. 159)

A piece of garbage from the outset by a man with heretical views of the Church, her saints and the Papacy. England purports to be a theologian but has no training and it shows when he condemns a Franciscan and Jesuit theology of the earth as dangerous thinking. If we listen to England it is OK to destroy all of the earth and learn nothing from the wisdom of its original people becuase it will be done in the name of the Church. He even goes as far as to denigrate Saints in waiting Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Merton, thereby dismissing the wisdom of those Vatican officials including Pope Benedict XVI who have built on their teachings.

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Among many other things .... c'mon ... you really believe that anyone who claims to channel religious figures isn't just suffering from spiritual pride? Or is trying to be a guru? Or perhaps is a failed actor wanting to be famous in a special way? Do you really believe that it's OK to enter w church when you believe in a momotheist Universe? And can you reconcile the belief that crystals can heal in the face of medical evidence showing it to be questionable at best. How can you profess surrender to God and follow the First Commandment when you think you are God yourself and can magically cause things to happen just by thinking of them? People are entitled to their spiritual beliefs but the question is ... is it spirit or is it an attempt at manipulation akin to spiritual abuse?