Jesus And The Gods Of The New Age: Communicating Christ In Today's Spiritual Supermarket

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According to Ross Clifford Philip Johnson and John Drane in Jesus and the Gods of the New Age, institutional religion seems to be reaching the end of its votive wick and there's a hunger for spirituality at street level that's stronger than ever. Do-it-yourself religion is as popular as B&Q on a Sunday morning, and with celebrity adherents such as Madonna and Richard Gere, it's cool, too.Clifford and Johnson are Christians who have decided to go on their own search to discover why activities such as yoga, alchemy, astrology, paganism and tarot are becoming so hip. Unlike many ignorant detractors, the authors have set out to listen sympathetically to the stories of today's spiritual searchers, to learn from them and to enter an ongoing conversation with those who have swapped traditional religious belief for their pick 'n' mix alternatives.The result, therefore, is a highly engaging and thoughtful insight into how Christians might respond to New Age thinking, and how they might better help their own faith to compete in the spiritual marketplace. It is unashamedly evangelistic in its approach--the aim is to "present a practical, field-tested model of how to share your faith and ... apologetically direct conversations towards Jesus' call to discipleship". But the strength of this book lies in the wealth of ordinary examples it presents, in its quest to discover what Jesus means to the post-religious 21st century.We discover, too, that Christianity has plenty more spiritual connections with everyday life than most of us had realised--and that, in today's spiritual supermarket, it needn't necessarily be left on the shelf. --Brian Draper