Summary:
“I have no doubt that many might well be offended by the challenges I have made to other beliefs in this book. I must expect that and will make every effort to defend my approach. Some might even consider the tone of this book too strong or harsh. That is not my intent. But it is hard not to get passionate when you read the bizarre twists of truth offered by proponents of the New Spirituality. I have been fairly blunt because I want readers to be brutally honest with themselves.” (230)
Dr. Ravi Zacharias indeed writes a searing, incisive work on the New Age movement that has invaded every facet of Western American thinking. Taking to task two well known proponents, Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra, there are no minced words as Dr. Ravi utterly upturns many of the preposterous assertions given by nebulous, exploitative, “Oneness” religion endorsed by the two celebrities. We also find that such strange religion has been endorsed by us, an unwitting generation fooled by foolish claims.
Strengths:
I was almost taken aback by the force of Dr. Ravi’s barbs against the New Spirituality. Had I not known that Dr. Ravi is one of the world’s most compassionate evangelists today, I may have mistaken some of his writing as aggression. But I sense his urgency: he is fighting for the truth, as many of us today live in a blind fog of capitulation to relativism. Dr. Ravi’s no-nonsense clarity by itself will knock most readers out of their reverie, quickly exposing how many strange lies we have believed.
The opening chapters may take time to settle in since Dr. Ravi hits the ground running. While at first I sensed almost a “conspiracy theorist” vibe in the way he approaches visual media and celebrity antics, I was soon on board with the many concrete examples Dr. Ravi offers of our deteriorating times. When he begins his attack on relativism is when the book takes off and continues soaring. It’s something we’ve always known but never confront: that a self-referential starting point for morality leads to inevitable chaos and greed. As always, Dr. Ravi has such a clear-headed voice with a rich vocabulary that at times it will take you several moments to breathe it in. If you’re used to reading some of what passes for literature today, particularly “Christian literature,” be ready for a serious undertaking.
Dr. Ravi makes unequivocal statements without apology. “All religions are exclusive.” He shows how those who make absolute truth claims are the victims of the worst sort of bigotry: a huge irony that we miss easily. He demolishes Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. Our path to “enlightenment” is always interrupted by painful experiences and hungers for real relationships, which New Age cannot answer with coherence or consistency. The problem of evil, sooner or later, must be met in a moral context. On and on, Dr. Ravi does away with much of the postmodern drivel we’ve bought into.
There are not many kind words for Deepak Chopra, a self-proclaimed mystical guru who has combined quantum physics, Christianity, and Hinduism into a hybrid mess of self-help programs. I suspected no real malice on Dr. Ravi’s part here, as he only points out what many others simply will not: that Deepak Chopra is a profit-driven hack. His contradictory ideas, amassed fortune, one-size-fits-all religion, and upside-down ideas about Jesus reveal an opportunist who has unfortunately taken some Christian churches by storm. Just reading excerpts of Chopra’s work without any extra explanation was cringe-inducing.
For Oprah Winfrey, it appears Dr. Ravi is much kinder. He presumes that success may have taken Oprah down a fork in the road where she has abandoned Christianity for a safe, believe-all mentality. Oprah is much a product of today’s New Spirituality as she has shaped it herself, still using the name of Jesus but perhaps for profitable reasons. I felt a sincere compassion here for Oprah, as often success is harder to deal with than pain. Dr. Ravi makes note of this in one of the best chapters of the book, “The Ties That Bind,” in which pleasure and pain reveal our need for something more than chants and chimes and daytime television therapy.
Dr. Ravi also reads Scripture as straightforward as possible. This is refreshing; I’ve read too many works where authors and pastors butcher the Bible as they see fit, gleaning from its pages a pragmatic lesson on finances or marriage or Having A Good Day. All pastors including myself have been guilty of this. Every instance of Scripture in Why Jesus points honestly to Jesus, as it should.
I get a sense that Dr. Ravi is a Christian purist, completely unencumbered by the American consumerism that so dominates modern Christianity while also disassociating himself with Christianity’s stranger practices of self-purported visions and words-from-god. Dr. Ravi is exactly the sort of real Christian you would get if one had really met Jesus from the Bible and was transformed by his raw love. There’s no touting of “Reformed theology” or “Gospel Centrality” or “Republican values.” It’s hard to pin down Dr. Ravi in any one category: not quite Reformed but has sound doctrine, not charismatic but you’d expect he wouldn’t blink an eye at it, and not an Eastern mystic but retains much of their reflection, meditation, and silence. It is this sincerity that is most endearing in his voice, even as he is dissecting other religions with a sharpened edge, and I yearned for more of his “logical simplicity” in my own faith.
Having listened to Dr. Ravi when I first became a Christian, I smiled most of my way through the book. His use of art, stories, philosophy, and logic is unlike any other Christian writer today.
Weaknesses:
The book’s main audience appears to be Christians. For a well-known evangelist who has reached countless atheists, agnostics, and people of other religions, I was surprised to find this a hard sell for non-Christians. A proponent of New Spirituality would balk at the occasional harsh tone and may give up before Jesus is presented.
For a book called Why Jesus? I was hoping for more of him. The last couple chapters, Dr. Ravi makes him the spotlight, but some of this is rushed and pieces feel missing. While the affront on New Age is well done, the exposition of Christ himself is left a bit wanting.
There are also times, as with his last book, that Dr. Ravi spins some complex concepts that may lose you fast. I tried my best to read slowly through the more verbose sections, but could only conclude that Dr. Ravi is a much, much smarter man than I.
Bottom Line:
This is an excellent work on a subject that must gain more awareness. We live in a time now where values are easily compromised, vulgarities are the new normal, and the weight of relativism makes relationships impossible. Dr. Ravi Zacharias’ clear, hard-hitting approach is at times a freight train and other times a precise scalpel, cutting away to the true heart of the matter. We must ask ourselves the tough questions of identity and purpose without numbing ourselves with mantras and oils and safety. I highly recommend it to those who are seeking Truth amidst so many “truths.”
Choice Quotes:
“If the person promoting the fantasy is incapable of defending it and wishes to be taken seriously, then it becomes clever to inject into the argument a dose of the final authoirty — science. … This is quite ironic. At its core, postmodernism is a philosophy of inexactitudes. But in an effort to find credence, it goes to the exact sciences. … We are now in the precarious position where science has given us the tools — and possibly the imperative — to convey fiction, and fiction has the persuasive power of science. … Gurus can get away with saying nothing if they cloak it in ponderous terminology.” (8-11)
“Fame, fortune, and adulation are generally based on measurements that serve only to disfigure reality and make the imagination king over common sense. Common sense ought to tell us that there is no guarantee that a person with a gifted voice and musical genius is any better a person than someone who cannot sing or write music. Common sense ought to tell us that a world without heaven or hell in the future generally leads to one or the other in this world. But a gifted voice and an errant imagination can angle a lie to fit into the worldview one wants to believe.” (26)
“‘Enlightenment’ has a whole new meaning now, each person in front of his or her own screen deciding for himself what is truth and what is fancy. … The end result is spirituality without dogma, religion without God, argument without substance, rationalization without rationality, and tranquility by transfer of funds from the seeker’s bank account to the company that makes the best offer of nirvana, at the same time producing dogmatism about relativism in matters of ultimate meaning.” (27)
“Worship [at its core] is the sense and service of God. Worship brings into confluence all the questions and answers that we have and do not have. For the answers we do not have, a relationship with the One who does have them carries us through. It is the submission of our will, heart, and purpose to the sovereign will and the person of God who created us and loves us. Worship is a relationship from which all inspiration flows and the relationship through which all our needs are met. It is knowing even partly the One who knows us fully.” (173)
” True spirituality is not a game we play. It is not merely a preference for some position over another. Nor as it at its core a search for some healing balm. It is an ultimate choice of ultimate definitions that require one’s utmost commitment. One had dare not make a commitment to a belief for secondary or tertiary reasons or to ‘feel good.’” (230)
“It is clear, abundantly clear, that all religions without exception are exclusive. All religions ultimately collect cultural trappings and in turn become identified with culture. Buddhism is not Hinduism. Islam is not Christianity. Jainism is not Judaism. Each has its own uncompromising moorings. Each is distinct from the others.” (253)
Disclaimer: I was given a promotional copy of this book by the DeMoss Group for review purposes. I was not obligated to write a positive review.
