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In this
issue:
EVANGELICALISM
-
"why Americans are fleeing liberal churches"
ISLAM -
profile: "The Arab world's first Muslim tele-evangelist"
SCIENTOLOGY
- visiting its new "anti-psychiatry museum" in Hollywood
YOGA -
"the Hindu reformers' adaptation of Christian notions"
Apologia Report 11:3
January 18, 2006
EVANGELICALISM
Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity,
by David Shiflett [1] -- reviewer John Bolt explains that in Shiflett's
view "liberal theologians 'hollowed out God' and 'created a spiritual
vacuum. Their deity is one most Americans cannot respect, much less worship.'
...
"What makes this volume distinct is that it is not a scholarly study
filled with data nor is it written by someone with a strong partisan interest.
It is largely a set of interviews with key people along with anecdotal
material from sermons, news articles, and polemical writing. What is noteworthy
is the author's scrupulous fairness with respect to those whom he interviews
and on whom he reports. ... Shiflett demonstrates the truth of this ...
by comparing the politically correct Unitarian-Universalist Creed with
the magisterial Nicene Creed.
"After describing the train wreck of Episcopalianism in part 1, Shiflett
goes on to engage in an extensive dialogue with a number of key figures
in three traditions" (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant).
"A highlight is the concluding interview with Charles Colson who
criticizes some large evangelical churches for basing their church growth
strategies on becoming 'purveyors of self-centered worship.' ...
"[T]his book is not just about the church's role in culture and society,
it is about culture and society itself. Specifically, it posits the thesis
that when the church in our culture becomes increasingly countercultural,
it will prosper and when it accommodates to our culture it will die."
Calvin Theological Journal, 40:2 - 2005, pp411-413. [5]
ISLAM
"Amr Khaled: Islam's Billy Graham" by David Hardaker -- describes
Khaled as "a religious and marketing phenomenon [who is] trying to
pump oxygen into the arid lives of Muslim youth" and as "the
Arab world's first Islamic tele-evangelist, a digital age Billy Graham
who has fashioned himself into the anti-Bin Laden, using the barrier-breaking
power of satellite TV and the Internet [amrkhaled.net] to turn around
a generation of lost Muslim youth." Hardaker observes that Khaled's
"proudest boast" is that he "is more popular than the US
talk show juggernaut Oprah Winfrey." The article's title is misleading.
Based in Cairo, Khaled is more a Pied Piper of the faithful than an evangelist
of those outside Islam. He describes his dream: "'I am going now
to build a bridge between the East and the West,' he declares."
What does Khaled mean by this? "His prime target is the youth of
the Arab world, who feel that they are second-class citizens in a world
dominated by the United States and its values. To these young people he
has a tough message about the destructive force of self-pity. 'We Muslims
are living as parasites on the world. Our problem is that we have got
used to taking without ever giving,' he says. 'Don't tell us it is a Western
conspiracy against us, it is not.'"
Nevertheless, "Khaled's words are music to the ears of Western interests.
But while the preacher might be hip, he is deeply conservative."
Khaled strongly supports women wearing "the veil" and remains
critical of loose Western morals. The Independent, Jan 4 '06 <http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article336386.ece>
SCIENTOLOGY
"Scientology vs. Science" by Andrew Gumbel -- profiles the group's
"new anti-psychiatry museum in Hollywood ... Psychiatry: Industry
of Death'" <cchr.org/index.cfm/12434>. Gumbel identifies the
more extreme claims made by the exhibition such as "psychiatry's
long-standing 'master plan' for world domination [and] Adolf Hitler's
central role in making this plan a reality." Further, the museum
advances the view that "Psychiatry is the key to understanding Hitler,
not extreme nationalism ('no man in history has been more prominent in
the psychiatric dream of world domination'). ...
"It's not enough for Scientologists to express their near-pathological
hatred of psychiatry in all its forms; they also have to feel they are
being persecuted for their beliefs." Gumbel includes examples in
support of this observation.
Gumbel documents other wild claims: "'Suicide bombers are assassins
manufactured through drugs and psycho-political methods,' one of the displays
asserts."
Unsurprisingly, Gumbel notes that "the assertions themselves are
characterized by a glaring failure to provide even the most basic factual
corroboration."
The over-the-top declarations include arguments that "there is no
justification for the theory that chemical imbalances cause mental health
problems; Ritalin is never appropriate, for children or adults; in fact,
there may be no such thing as mental illness in the first place."
Los Angeles City Beat, Jan 12 '06 <http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3137&IssueNum=136>
Also see <http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/editorials/ la-op-psych1jan01,1,436152.story>
YOGA
A History of Modern Yoga, by Elizabeth De Michelis [2] -- reviewer Charles
E. Farhadian explains that this book "traces the conceptual developments
that link Classical Yoga, as outlined by Patanjali's Yoga Sutra [3], to
Modern Yoga, as promulgated by Vivekananda's Raja Yoga [4]. De Michelis
argues that classical Hinduism was shaken by the radical 'otherness' of
new ideas introduced by various types of Christianity, Enlightenment,
and Post-Enlightenment, which gave rise to a variety of Hindu reform movements
spearheaded by some of the great Hindu thinkers of modern India: e.g.,
Ramohan Roy, Debendranath Tagore, Keshubchandra Sen, Ramakrishna, Narendranth
Datta (i.e., Swami Vivekananda)."
Readers will look in vain for an overview of the rise of yoga in the West
at the end of the 20th century. Many could more easily provide that than
come up with the foundation that De Michelis provides. Farhadian notes
that "Hinduism reached its zenith through the Indian missionary to
the West, Vivekananda" and adds that "the reason why this book
makes such an important contribution to understanding the Hindu religious
tradition, are the ways in which Neo-Vedanta adopted aspects of Christianity's
'spiritual' and esoteric teaching.
"A significant strength of A History of Modern Yoga is its fine discussion
of the Western Christian, and Indian influences that gave rise to Modern
Yoga, including helpful introductions to Roy, Tagore, and Sen. Interspersed
throughout the history are reflections on the relationship between Christianity
and culture in India and the Hindu reformers' adaptation of Christian
notions to further their own cause." (Imagine how shocking this last
observation would be to most who are familiar only with today's pop-yoga
movement. -Ed.)
"De Michelis discusses the influence of Neo-Vedantic yoga (Modern
Yoga) on Western audiences of the 19th and 20th centuries who craved practices
and religious techniques rather than orthodoxy. As such, there are important
points of contact between Modern Yoga and the development of New Age movements
in the North-Atlantic world. ...
"Because
of its fairly technical language, this book is most appropriate for graduate
students or advanced undergraduates." Missiology, 33:4 - 2005, p477.
[6]
Sources,
Monographs:
1 - Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative
Christianity, by David Shiflett (Sentinel, 2005, hardcover, 224 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595230076/apologiareport>
2 - A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism, by Elizabeth
De Michelis (Continuum, 2005, paperback, 282 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0826487726/apologiareport>
3 - The Yoga Sutra, by Patanjali (Harmony/Bell Tower, 2002, hardcover,
144 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609609599/apologiareport>
4 - Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda (Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1980,
paperback, 327 pages)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/091120623X/apologiareport>
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Sources, Periodicals:
5 - Calvin Theological Journal (Calvin Sem.), (616) 957-6209, <ctj@calvinseminary.edu>,
<http://www.calvinseminary.edu/pubs/journal.php>
6 -
Missiology (American Society of Missiology), (606) 858-3581 x2215, <http://www.asmweb.org/missiology.htm>
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