Book Review

Pagans in the Pews: How the New Spirituality Is Invading Your Home, Church, and Community

Peter Jones, Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 2001, 288 pp.

Peter Jones is professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. Pagans in the Pews is a significant revision and expansion of his 1997 book, Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America. This book is an expose of New Age inroads into liberal and, even, evangelical church life and contemporary culture. Jones’ primary insight is that the contemporary church’s struggle with current New Age heresies is as ancient as the primitive, orthodox church’s struggle against Gnosticism in the first centuries of Christianity. Jones argues that the dilemma faced at the beginning of the third millenium is the same as that at the start of the first millenium: Will our culture be influenced by Biblical Christianity or paganism?

The book falls into two primary parts. In Part I, “The Origin and Purpose of the New Spirituality,” Jones traces the birth of the contemporary religious left in the counter-culture of the 1960s. He identifies the creed of the religious left and offers “the five points of monism”: (1) all is one and one is all; (2) humanity is one; (3) all religions are one; (4) there is one problem (namely, the Biblical worldview); and (5) there is one means of escape (personal religious experience rather than the objective truth of the gospel). He then sketches how these views have filtered into liberal expressions of Christianity and concludes by asserting that these same views were found in early Gnostic heresy.

In Part II, “Anatomy of an Apostasy,” Jones takes a more in-depth look at the inroads of modern paganism. His method is first to offer a chapter describing a current neo-pagan trend followed by a chapter drawing comparisons with ancient Gnosticism. The topics he chooses include views on the Bible, Bible study, God, sexuality, and spiritual experience. Just as ancient Gnostics attempted to add books like Thomas to the canon of scripture that elevated “secret” teachings of Jesus and downplayed the objective reality of the cross and resurrection, so modern historical-critical biblical scholars downplay canonical authority and revealed truth. Just as ancient Gnostics held a monistic view of humanity, so modern feminists and militant homosexuals deny Biblical distinctions between men and women, in favor of bland androgyny. And just as ancient Gnostics elevated esoteric spiritual experiences above scripture, so modern witches, Wiccan functionaries, and occultists seek wild and erotic spiritual experience.

This book is a treasure trove of sage observations, cultural anecdotes, and insights. Jones provides a provocative sketch of ancient and modern paganism and the alternative world-view that Biblical Christianity offers. Jones is as comfortable describing modern religious life, such as his first-hand observations at the 1994 Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, as he is in handling Gnostic Nag Hammadi texts, or quoting early defenders of the faith like Irenaeus or Tertullian. As the title of the book indicates, Jones also offers Pastors and committed Christians insight into the pagan world-view that is likely to have filtered into the minds of many who sit in our evangelical pews on Sundays, not to mention its influence in our pulpits and seminary classrooms. Jones sees us locked not just in a culture-war, but in a strategic spiritual war over minds and hearts.

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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