This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 12, number 1 (1989). For more information about the Christian Research Journal, click here.
As their first and only book on the NAM, The New Age Rage distills the collective research and insights of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project (SCP). SCP is a forefront “discernment” ministry in Berkeley, California, that has been observing and critiquing virtually every aspect of the NAM since 1974.
The whole gamut of New Age thought and activity is covered, including health care, science, politics, and psychology. Additional chapters are devoted to providing historical background, examining Eastern influences, discussing the end-times and conspiratorial intrigue that many attach to the NAM, contrasting New Age and Christian views of personal growth and transformation, and suggesting strategies for sharing the gospel with New Agers.
Every chapter in the book is worth reading, but some are more so than others. Specifically, the chapters on “A Vision for a New Humanity,” “Cosmic Conspiracy and End Times Speculation,” and “Breaking Barriers by Building Bridges” are invaluable. But the two chapters contrasting Christian and New Age views of growth and transformation, though insightful, reflect inadequate research. They critique the world-denying doctrines of Eastern monism without addressing serious (even if ultimately futile) New Age efforts to redefine these doctrines in more positive terms.
Because of the book’s multiple authorship, it lacks the coherence and evenness of books like Groothuis’s Unmasking. Nonetheless, those who are looking for a serious evaluation of the NAM as a major cultural trend should not miss this book.
— Elliot Miller
