The challenge of the New Age to Christian theology and life

• Main Author: English, Barton Dean
• Published: University of Edinburgh 1995
• Subjects: 230
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.650025

The New Age Movement is an eclectic and syncretistic paradigm shift in world-views which is particularly affecting modern western culture. The major concern of this dissertation is to demonstrate how the New Age Movement challenges the evolution of Christian theology and the body-life of the church in its doctrine and devotion to God, the earth and human need. The thesis of this dissertation is that the New Age Movement as expressed in modern western culture is symptomatic of changes in foundational thinking which have also come about with regard to a change from a Biblical view of the origins of life, the authority and inspiration of the Bible and the uniqueness of the Gospel of Christ. The challenge of the New Age to the evolution of Christian theology is to establish an informative and evangelistic dialogue with the New Age to awaken within churches and individuals the various themes which have to do with care for the earth and human need without sacrificing the foundational structure of Christian belief in creation, the authority of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation. The introduction will introduce the popularity and wide scope of the New Age. Chapter one will follow with three sections. The first will introduce a wide range of definitions and critiques of the New Age by both protagonists and antagonists. The second section will offer an exposition of major themes in modern western culture and the global scene which constitute a paradigm shift. The third section will give an exposition of the major identifying marks of the New Age Movement.