Catholics and the New Age

by Mitch Pacwa

Book Overview

In Catholics and the New Age , Father Pacwa probes the reasons why many Catholics are dabbling in the New Age Movement. A Servant Book. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 089283756X
• ISBN13: 9780892837564
• Release Date: February 1992
• Publisher: Servant Publications
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Very important

This is an incredibly important book for Catholics to read. For some reason I cannot explain, many Catholics, including my parents when I was growing up, were and are deeply interested in the occult and new age spirituality. It is VERY dangerous stuff. My parents bought me my first set of runes, and my first Ouija board. I do not think they were being willfully evil. They were just VERY ignorant regarding Catholic truth, and also regarding the dangers of the New Age. Luckily, when I was in my late 20s, I met a wonderful and faithful priest who also went though a period of experimentation with "crystals" and "runes" and other garbage when he was a teenager. He walked me through the dangers and pitfalls such approaches to "spirituality" present. The interesting thing was, in my heart of hearts, I always knew that my parents and I were offending Jesus with the actions we were taking. I just KNEW I was doing something wrong, despite my parents' tacit approval and even encouragement. All Father had to do was bring out of me the answers I already had on my heart. He gently led me to repentance, and then forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Still, until recently, I had never known anyone whose life was ruined because the New Age. However, I can now say that the New Age is destroying people in my family. I have several family members hopelessly fascinated with this stuff. Some have had tragedies in their lives and are unable to really heal and deal with the ramifications of such deep personal loss because they are holding on to their loved ones with seances and other inappropriate forms of spiritualism and communication with the dead. Rather than find comfort in faith and prayer (the Catholic Church is a wonderful place to be, for we teach we can still pray for people, even though they are gone) they turned to psychics and the New Age. I see pain linger and grow in them. By contrast, faithfully Catholic and Christian friends who have experienced similar tragedies have fared much better. If I were not a person of faith, I would conclude from my experience that the New Age is psychologically unhealthy and dangerous for mental health. As a person of faith I believe that this is certainly true, but, more importantly, I believe that dabbling in the New Age can cause real and spiritual trauma to the soul of the individual involved. It opens the door to the Devil and his minions. This book is SO important. If it convinces one Catholic to flee sin, flee the New Age, flee Satan and his army of Demons and seek the rock of Jesus Christ, then it has had positive effects that will echo in eternity. Thank God for faithful Catholics like Father Mitch Pacwa.

Fr. Pawca Is An Expert

I happen to know Father Pawca and have heard him speak on this subject. He is, contrary to those detractors who added their opinions, a world renown expert on the subject of this book. This so-called valid and "cutting edge" psychology mentioned by these pseudo-intellectuals is nothing more than unproven designer science that offers no hope of actually helping people.

Wonderful, wonderful!

I believe that the New Age is a subtle diabolical movement, that mixes up all the religions of the world into one deceptive cocktail of demonic lies. The following are some of the things that New agers believe. At the end are the biblical references which refute these lies. A. All is one (monism). Reality is a seamless garment. (Gen. 1:1ff.)B. All is God (pantheism). God is an all-pervading impersonal Energy, Force or Consciousness. (Rom.1:18-32)C. Self-deification/self-salvation. We look within for power, knowledge and healing. (Ezek. 28:1-9; Eph. 2:8-10)D. Paranormal potential. We can experience ESP, telepathy, spirit-contact (spiritism), etc. (Deut. 18:9-14)E. Ethical relativism. Moral absolutes can be transcended. (Matt.5:17-20; Rom. 13:8-10)F. Cosmic evolutionism. The human race is progressing toward a "New Age" of planetary peace and prosperity. (1 Thess. 5:3; Matt. 24:3-31).G. Religious syncretism. All religions are really one, and teach the above (A-F). Jesus was just one of many mystical masters. Reincarnation is stressed. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Heb. 9:27)God bless, and buy this book.

A Balanced and Objective View on the New Age

Pacwa, a Jesuit priest, gives a balanced and systematic treatment of the New Age movement. There are no emotional tirades and scathing attacks. This book is rigorous and scholarly (includes endnotes, a glossary and bibliography) yet very readable. He gives the history and logical arguments against these practices. This book is not just a good read. It's also good to give away to those who need it and good as a reference as well. Pacwa exposes the roots of New Age infiltration into the Catholic Church. It's a controversial topic but he makes it pretty clear that using something like the Enneagram (a typology purporting that there are 9 types of characters) just doesn't square with being Catholic. Seen in the light of Tradition and Scripture, which Fr. Pacwa makes reference to, this and all New Age practices are dubious at best and diabolical at worst.

Rational and non-inflamitory summary of the New Age.

Father Pacwa is one of the few Christian writers, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, who is able to write about the subject without losing his readers in a web of delusional conspiracy theories. He assesses the dangers, philisophical implications, and silliness of many aspects of New Age culture, and relates them to his own life experiences. This book is already a Christian classic.