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LJR
Guest
Has anyone heard of this book? I am worried. My son is reading it. Thanks!
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Jennifer123
Guest
It’s pretty new-age, which is bad. Here’s what I found from a Protestant site regarding the book and I don’t vouch for the site’s opinions but it’s a good review that obviously doesn’t take into account Catholic teaching about the authority of the Church and the relationship between scripture and tradition.
aiia.christiananswers.net/thoughtletters/ap-vol9-no9.html
The Problem with Best-Selling Spirituality
–by Andrew D. Witmer
The themes that emerge most clearly from both The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations With God are: (1) skepticism about authority, and (2) the power of the individual to choose his own spiritual beliefs. In a recent interview, James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, said that people “should not allow other individuals to tell us what our truth is. It’s all about not being controlled by other people, other dogmas. If we go out and test out a dogma and it turns out to be something we want to believe in, that’s fine and good, but the calling in this historical period is to go out and find spiritual experience for oneself.”
The religious life has traditionally been understood in terms of submission to authority, but Redfield’s understanding of spirituality stresses the authority of the individual to choose for himself what he will believe. We are free to choose religious beliefs just like we choose the food we eat or the cars that we drive. Take it out for a spin and see how it handles – no obligation to buy! For Redfield and many other Americans now interested in spirituality, the individual is free even to select beliefs from different, competing religions. He makes his choices on the basis of personal needs, experiences, feelings and desires.
Neale Donald Walsch, the author of Conversations With God, takes much the same approach. When the question of authority is raised in Book One of Conversations With God, we are told: “Listen to your feelings. Listen to your Highest Thoughts. Listen to your experience. Whenever any one of these differ from what you’ve been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words. Words are the least reliable purveyor of Truth.”
As evidenced by the massive sales of both The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations With God, this can be a very attractive way of understanding the spiritual life. But the over-emphasis on individual choice fails to account for the key role that submission to authority plays in almost all learning. In order to learn bricklaying, ballet dancing, or any other complex discipline, I need to submit myself to an authority other than myself. The same principle holds true for the religious life, where there is infinitely more to learn and where the stakes are infinitely higher.
I think everyone understands this at some level, even those who claim to reject all authority. After all, one of the most common reasons for turning to religion in the first place is the recognition that on our own we are unable to make sense of the world. We all know deep down inside (even if we refuse to admit it) that we are flawed, imperfect and lacking, and that we need to rely on some authority other than ourselves for guidance in life. It’s important to note that even those who are learning about spirituality from The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations With God (both of which urge their readers to reject authority) are themselves accepting the authority of James Redfield and Neale Donald Walsch.
Where does this leave us? If you accept the idea that submission to authority is necessary for learning about the religious life and agree that we all inevitably accept some authority other than ourselves, you must immediately ask another question: to which authority will I submit myself? There is no more important question than this one, for the eternal fate of your soul rests on how you answer it. It is a tragic fact that many people who recognize the need for authority nevertheless fall into error by submitting themselves to the wrong one. The wonderful news is that there is an authority that deserves your submission! Christianity teaches that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, our final authority in all of life. The Areopagus Proclamation, and many other Christian resources, can provide you with solid reasons to accept the Bible as authoritative and submit yourself to its teaching.
aiia.christiananswers.net/thoughtletters/ap-vol9-no9.html
The Problem with Best-Selling Spirituality
–by Andrew D. Witmer
The themes that emerge most clearly from both The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations With God are: (1) skepticism about authority, and (2) the power of the individual to choose his own spiritual beliefs. In a recent interview, James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, said that people “should not allow other individuals to tell us what our truth is. It’s all about not being controlled by other people, other dogmas. If we go out and test out a dogma and it turns out to be something we want to believe in, that’s fine and good, but the calling in this historical period is to go out and find spiritual experience for oneself.”
The religious life has traditionally been understood in terms of submission to authority, but Redfield’s understanding of spirituality stresses the authority of the individual to choose for himself what he will believe. We are free to choose religious beliefs just like we choose the food we eat or the cars that we drive. Take it out for a spin and see how it handles – no obligation to buy! For Redfield and many other Americans now interested in spirituality, the individual is free even to select beliefs from different, competing religions. He makes his choices on the basis of personal needs, experiences, feelings and desires.
Neale Donald Walsch, the author of Conversations With God, takes much the same approach. When the question of authority is raised in Book One of Conversations With God, we are told: “Listen to your feelings. Listen to your Highest Thoughts. Listen to your experience. Whenever any one of these differ from what you’ve been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words. Words are the least reliable purveyor of Truth.”
As evidenced by the massive sales of both The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations With God, this can be a very attractive way of understanding the spiritual life. But the over-emphasis on individual choice fails to account for the key role that submission to authority plays in almost all learning. In order to learn bricklaying, ballet dancing, or any other complex discipline, I need to submit myself to an authority other than myself. The same principle holds true for the religious life, where there is infinitely more to learn and where the stakes are infinitely higher.
I think everyone understands this at some level, even those who claim to reject all authority. After all, one of the most common reasons for turning to religion in the first place is the recognition that on our own we are unable to make sense of the world. We all know deep down inside (even if we refuse to admit it) that we are flawed, imperfect and lacking, and that we need to rely on some authority other than ourselves for guidance in life. It’s important to note that even those who are learning about spirituality from The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations With God (both of which urge their readers to reject authority) are themselves accepting the authority of James Redfield and Neale Donald Walsch.
Where does this leave us? If you accept the idea that submission to authority is necessary for learning about the religious life and agree that we all inevitably accept some authority other than ourselves, you must immediately ask another question: to which authority will I submit myself? There is no more important question than this one, for the eternal fate of your soul rests on how you answer it. It is a tragic fact that many people who recognize the need for authority nevertheless fall into error by submitting themselves to the wrong one. The wonderful news is that there is an authority that deserves your submission! Christianity teaches that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, our final authority in all of life. The Areopagus Proclamation, and many other Christian resources, can provide you with solid reasons to accept the Bible as authoritative and submit yourself to its teaching.
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Eileen_T
Guest
Get him some free books from www.catholicity.com which are excellent Catholic fiction that will teach him about his Faith at the same time. My particular favourite is Pierced by a Sword.
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YinYangMom
Guest
Hubby gave me that book several years ago as a gift. I read about a chapter or two and haven’t touched it since. I told him I can’t bring myself to spend time and energy reading material or listening to tapes of people whose aim it is to teach people how to reach a spiritual life without Christ as the center.
Hubby likes all the mystical speakers and believes since they talk centered around God or a Higher Power (which to him is always God) that it’s just a more ‘fuller’ understanding and appreciation of God and Man than following just ‘one’ viewpoint (the Catholic Church).
Of course I tell him, well, there is only one viewpoint and Jesus left it with the Church. Apparently he’s not so sure about that (poor thing). So I also explain there is no need to seek any other man’s understanding of God’s relationship with man than Jesus. Any author or speaker who leaves Jesus out of their material is not telling the whole truth to their readers/audience - and that bugs the heck out of me because they’re making a lot of money withholding vital information.
Will it hurt your son?
No.
Didn’t hurt me.
In fact it helped me to see clearer just what was missing from people like that.
Don Miguiel Ruiz’ “The Four Agreements” is also gaining popularity…all of the content is good, but for a believer, the deviance from the Truth becomes quite clear.
I would just recommend you read the book first, take notes over material which would make good teaching points for the Catholic faith and then discuss the book with your son as he reads it - the condition for him being allowed to read it being that he discuss what he takes from it with you along the way - kind of like a book club. This helps you get to know your son better, it helps you identify his comprehension level and his rationale capabilities…good things to know at this stage of his life.
Hubby likes all the mystical speakers and believes since they talk centered around God or a Higher Power (which to him is always God) that it’s just a more ‘fuller’ understanding and appreciation of God and Man than following just ‘one’ viewpoint (the Catholic Church).
Of course I tell him, well, there is only one viewpoint and Jesus left it with the Church. Apparently he’s not so sure about that (poor thing). So I also explain there is no need to seek any other man’s understanding of God’s relationship with man than Jesus. Any author or speaker who leaves Jesus out of their material is not telling the whole truth to their readers/audience - and that bugs the heck out of me because they’re making a lot of money withholding vital information.
Will it hurt your son?
No.
Didn’t hurt me.
In fact it helped me to see clearer just what was missing from people like that.
Don Miguiel Ruiz’ “The Four Agreements” is also gaining popularity…all of the content is good, but for a believer, the deviance from the Truth becomes quite clear.
I would just recommend you read the book first, take notes over material which would make good teaching points for the Catholic faith and then discuss the book with your son as he reads it - the condition for him being allowed to read it being that he discuss what he takes from it with you along the way - kind of like a book club. This helps you get to know your son better, it helps you identify his comprehension level and his rationale capabilities…good things to know at this stage of his life.
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BlindSheep
Guest
I read it years ago. It seems to present a sort of new religion of it’s own, which has these doctrines (as far as I recall):
- We need “energy” which we can draw from the world around us or from other people.
- Most people attempt to get this “energy” through “control dramas”; strategies they use to control and manipulate other people to get energy from them - intimidating, interrogating, aloofness or “poor me” - trying to get sympathy.
- When we stop using control dramas (instead drawing our energy from the natural world) and avoid getting caught in other people’s, we can raise our “vibration”, giving us a sense of peace and well-being and allowing the events in our lives to fall into place perfectly because we are living out our “birth vision”. It is also implied that raising our vibration enough will cause us to ascend to heaven, or some “higher plane”, without dying.
- Children need to recieve a constant supply of “energy” from an adult until they are able to draw energy from the environment on their own, and therefore people should only have one child, so the child can have an adult with them at all times supplying this energy and preventing the child from developing a “control drama”.
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Jennifer123
Guest
I totally agree - that’s the problem with new-age, it really leads people, even those with a lot of knowledge within our own Church, to have a distorted view of Christ’s reality.
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