About this item
Highlights
- James A. Herrick offers an intellectual history of the New Religious Synthesis, examining the challenges it poses to Judeo-Christian tradition, demonstrating its sources and manifestations in contemporary culture, and questioning its acceptance in church and society.
- About the Author: James A. Herrick is Guy VanderJagt Professor of Communication at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and is the author of The Radical Rhetoric of the English Deists (University of South Carolina Press).
- 331 Pages
- Social Science, Sociology of Religion
Description
About the Book
James A. Herrick offers an intellectual history of the New Religious Synthesis, examining the challenges it poses to Judeo-Christian tradition, demonstrating its sources and manifestations in contemporary culture, and questioning its acceptance in church and society.
Book Synopsis
James A. Herrick offers an intellectual history of the New Religious Synthesis, examining the challenges it poses to Judeo-Christian tradition, demonstrating its sources and manifestations in contemporary culture, and questioning its acceptance in church and society.
Review Quotes
"A compelling analysis . . . must-reading for those of us who are called to engage our culture with the gospel."
"God is not dead in our culture. Only his identity has changed. The claim of autonomy for human reason has led to its own deification and the rejection of the importance of history, the development of a spiritualized physics and a return to an ancient gnosticism--in short, a New Religious Synthesis. The dominant god today is the cosmic spirit embodied in the self. Herrick shows us how this shift has come about. A lucid intellectual history with important implications for navigating the religious currents of our day."
"Herrick reminds us that the main opponent of Christianity today, especially in popular culture, is not secularism but New Age spiritualism. He offers a detailed taxonomy that will help readers trace the richly varied sources giving rise to the new synthesis of East and West."
"I think that this book should be considered must reading for all pastors and seminary students."
"James Herrick's book surveys a variety of spiritual movements subversive of traditional Christianity that often broadcast intoxicating messages of self-improvement and self-deification. . . . Herrick illuminates both the historical origins of these movements and the current scene in which they thrive so abundantly."
"Once in Western societies to be 'religious' was to be 'Christian.' Why that is no longer the case is the subject of James Herrick's compelling new book. It is a volume that both raises key questions and clarifies 'the spiritual' in an unusually helpful way."
"This is an excellent overview of the development of Western religious thought and life that reveals the roots of much of 'modern spirituality.' As such it is a must-read for anyone who simply wants to understand the spiritual ferment all around us."
About the Author
James A. Herrick is Guy VanderJagt Professor of Communication at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and is the author of The Radical Rhetoric of the English Deists (University of South Carolina Press).