HOW TO SHIFT MINISTRY TO NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS FROM THE FRINGES TOWARD THE MAINSTREAM OF

MISSIONS

Philip Johnson

Copyright © 2004.

Draft manuscript only. For members of the Lausanne Forum 2004 Issue Group 16.

Not intended for wider distribution.

PROLOGUE

I have never met anyone who plays the Appalachian dulcimer, nor have I ever heard a performance featuring this instrument. So I am unable to say whether a performance featuring this instrument would appeal to my musical tastes. It is certainly not a popular instrument, and perhaps one must acquire a taste for music of this genre. Unless or until I make an effort to hear a performance of it, for me the Appalachian dulcimer is a quaint mystery that simply does not impinge on what I consider to be important interests for my life.

Nonetheless there are people who enjoy playing it and those who are enthralled by musical performances featuring the instrument. For these people the Appalachian dulcimer generates enthusiasm and enjoyment, the excitement of which is something that only fellow hobbyists seem to understand.

You may be puzzled. What is the connection between the Appalachian dulcimer and new religious movements? The connection is found in an analogy. Those of us who believe that the subject of new religious movements and alternate spiritualities is important might be compared to enthusiasts who play the Appalachian dulcimer. What is exotic in an arcane or esoteric sense will spark the interest of enthusiasts or hobbyists, but it is not likely to be recognised as important by those who simply do not share in or feel the same concerns. What we deem to be significant arises out of our experiences and interests in the subject. Our self-interests though are not shared by Christians generally and it takes a fellow hobbyist to spot another hobbyist.

The following discussion consists of a broad general sweep of the topic and is not intended to be comprehensive or exhaustive. The discussion will identify the problem, offer a summary of reasons why the subject has existed on the fringes, and then propose some solutions and possible projects that could help change the climate of opinion in a very favourable manner. The standpoint presupposed in this essay is that cross-cultural missional approaches provide the best model for reaching devotees of new religions and alternate spiritualities (Hexham, Rost and Morehead, 2004). This essay has been hurriedly produced for the purposes of discussion in the Lausanne Issue Group exploring religious and non-religious spiritualities in the contemporary world. My comments are based entirely on English-language sources, with observations largely shaped by my Australian cultural context. They do not purport to apply to the Two-Thirds World contexts. Readers would do well to recall that we Australians have a reputation for being blunt or direct in our speech!

I. THE PROBLEM:

The subject of contemporary new religions has largely been of tangential interest to the Church. This might seem like a very bold generalisation but I believe there is sufficient evidence to support my point. New religious movements simply do not loom large in the mainstream theological, missiological and evangelistic discourses of churches within industrialised nations. You will notice that I have used the qualifying word “mainstream”. I apply this qualifier because I am not claiming that the churches have totally ignored new religious movements.

There are apologists who are preoccupied with opposing the beliefs and practices of new religious movements and alternate forms of spirituality. However, while there are apologists dealing with the subject and advocating ministry, the stark reality is that both the subject of new religions and those who minister with devotees of new religions are essentially marginalised from mainstream Christian activities.

II. INDICATORS OF MARGINALISATION:

I do not pretend to have assembled here all the plausible reasons why Christians have relegated new religious movements to the theological fringes. I have previously discussed some of these issues in two essays (Johnson, 2000; 2002). However, if some constructive suggestions for shifting the subject into the mainstream are to be properly understood, then it is necessary to consider what factors probably keep the subject on the margins.

Fringe ReligionsPerhaps a very obvious and simple point is that new religious

movements seem to begin as sub-cultural or fringe societal activities. What is found on the margins of society, or as an interest among a smaller cultural group within a larger host society, by definition is outside of the mainstream in society. Unless or until a new religious movement directly impinges on mainstream society – such as in the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo initiated by the Aum Shin Rikyo group – there does not seem to be any compelling reason to be bothered with fringe religions.

This same point is mirrored within mainstream Church life. It is not until a new religious movement’s actions directly confront Christian laity and leaders alike, one does not need to be concerned about them. Sadly, it is often the case that one’s personal interests in new religious movements are only spurred on after one’s family, or a parishioner, has been directly touched by a group.

Fringe Studies As the new religions have emerged on the fringes of society,

so too those Christians who have been deeply immersed in studying

these groups have often found themselves working on the edges of ministry. The bibliographical evidence in English language publications from the early nineteenth century until the period of the First World War, indicates that new religions were criticised spasmodically by a few clergy, some career apologists, journalists and various ex-members of groups (Shupe, Bromley and Oliver, 1984). Similarly, the subject was long regarded as a fringe area of study among scholars in the social sciences.

However, since the 1960s scholars in religious studies and the social sciences have gradually recognised that the subject is worthy of serious study. There has been some resistance to legitimating this field, but it is steadily gaining ground. Academic journals (e.g. Aries, Culture and Cosmos, Esoterica, Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, Journal of New Age Studies, Nova Religio, and The Pomegranate), and conferences devoted to the new religions, the esoteric and new age, have been established. A few universities have endowed professorial chairs in esoteric studies (e.g. The Sorbonne, University of Amsterdam).

Although new religions and alternate spiritualities do not command the centre of studies in the humanities, nonetheless it needs to be noted that secular scholarship is rapidly taking notice of it, and post-graduate dissertations in this field are increasing in number. Much of this coincides with the emergence and partial legitimation of new religions and alternate forms of spirituality in some sectors of pop culture. One might also be tempted to compare these developments within the contemporary academy with the esoteric interests and scholarship of Renaissance figures like Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Giordano Bruno and others.

Sadly, within Christian circles this field remains on the fringes. It is largely commanded by non-academic apologists with a small niche market of pop literature that excoriates new religions as irrational and demonic. While a few professionally accredited theologians and apologists do write about new religions, the subject itself remains disconnected from mainstream ministry and pastoral concerns.

Amateur ApologistsIn my essay in Sacred Tribes (Johnson, 2002), I indicated that

contemporary countercult apologetics is dominated by lay-apologists. There are positive and negative outcomes to be discerned in the lay-apologetic.

What’s PositiveOn the positive side, the appeal of countercult lay-apologetics

has had an empowering effect on its participants. That is, people who might not otherwise have their spiritual gifting recognised,

have found their own outlet for personal expression and significance through establishing their countercult ministries. This is an important point that needs to be kept in perspective particularly when we recall the Protestant Reformation principle of the priesthood of all believers. God can, and certainly will continue to, accomplish his will through lay-vessels just as much as through professionals.

In some respects alternate forms of spirituality, including western folk religion based in divination and magic, can be understood in part as representing the “protest” of some people at the hierarchical and institutional forms of church (Ellis, 2004; Johnson and Payne, 2004). This protest can be understood as a powerful perception by protesters that church institutions often disempower and marginalise laity from any meaningful ministry.

It is perhaps ironic then that while many people in their protest at the church have drifted into do-it-yourself and non-institutional forms of spirituality, that the primary voice of opposition in apologetic arguments to these informal spiritualities likewise has stemmed from lay-Christian apologists who are often surviving on the margins of ministry. One group “protests” at the church for its deficiencies and looks elsewhere for nourishment. The other group consists of marginalised apologists who protest at the “protesters” for either deserting or criticising the church.

We can also acknowledge that, even within the critical limitations and weaknesses found in countercult apologetics, God has nonetheless used various apologists and ministries to here and there engage in discipling some new religion seekers to follow Christ.

What’s ProblematicThe effectiveness of this outreach is truncated, for new

religions proliferate at a rate that exceeds the numbers of those deconverted from these groups into faith in Christ. So we must admit that problematic and negative outcomes can be detected in the dominance of lay-apologists and scholarly apologists not trained in missiology tackling new religious movements and alternate forms of spirituality.

I have identified at least eighteen problematic factors, which are summarised as follows but not in any order of priority:

1. New Religions Not Classified As Unreached Peoples . New religious movements and alternate forms of spirituality have generally been typecast as heretical and a rival to the church in the quest for converts. One outcome of this thinking is that the new religions are seen as movements that must be

challenged and condemned. Unfortunately, there has been a corresponding unwillingness to view them as unreached people from whose ranks disciples should be made. Put another way, the tendency is to treat these groups as enemies, rather than emphasizing the need for missional responses.

2. Unpaid Bills of the Church . Part of the previous point is compounded by a general unwillingness to accede to the sound observation made many years ago by the Reformed theologian-apologist J. K. van Baalen (1944: 13) concerning the cults as “the unpaid bills of the church.” Van Baalen did not coin this expression, but he did pick it up as an aphorism to signify that the cults exist because of deficiencies in the ministry and witness of the Church. While there are historical and sociological factors we ought to bring into any equation to account for the existence of new religions, there remains much valuable wisdom in what Van Baalen argued. The ramification of Van Baalen’s point necessarily disturbs the status quo inside the Church. It is not easy to critically reflect on how we have developed blind spots in teaching and praxis that then creates a spiritual vacuum which new religions seem to fill. Even more distressing is the thought that these lapses and deficiencies are imperfectly mirrored in the teachings and praxis of new religions and alternate spiritualities. Yet, it is far easier to regard new religions as the enemy, than it is to engage in the critical self-reflection “what does this movement say back to the church?” (Cf. Drane, 1999). By marginalizing the movements as fringe enemies, the apologist by definition relegates his/her work to the fringes too.

3. Military Metaphors . There are unhelpful metaphors and analogies and conflict-flavoured vocabulary used by apologists that perpetuates the image of an enemy that must be defeated. Consider the tenor of book titles like these: Spirit Wars, The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back, Dark Secrets of the New Age, What’s With The Dudes at the Door? Consider how two scholarly apologists set up a hypothetical dialogue to demonstrate a point. They create the characters Freddy Fundamentalist and “Nancy Newage (rhymes with “sewage”)” (Beckwith and Parrish, 1997: 205). As the character representing New Age has her surname sounding like “sewage”, the apologists betray their own contempt for this spirituality. However, this scathing grammatology effectively short-circuits any shift in mindset that would treat the adherent of a new religion as someone who is spiritually fallen but still bears the marks of the Imago Dei. The rhetoric used often reinforces a siege-mentality that evokes metaphors of battle, but never evoking those concerning the Christ as the

prince of peace (cf. Sire, 1980: 18-19). Again, while the new religions are regarded as an enemy to be repulsed, the notion of missional work toward them is sidelined or ignored.

4. Poorly Educated Apologists . Lay countercult apologists generally lack any formal education or training in theology, missiology and apologetics. Much of the popular apologetic literature is composed by well meaning apologists whose grasp of the history of theology, the history of apologetics and missions is very poor. Thus, their ministry enterprises and written materials display an amateurish quality that in some cases is frankly appalling and theologically embarrassing.

5. False Credentials . Some lay apologists claim they have theological credentials, which on closer inspection may be discredited because they derive from unaccredited colleges or “diploma-mills” whose academic value is equivalent to zero. This problem tends to have two outcomes. One is that those who hold these credentials parade themselves as experts and do not take kindly to being called to account. The other is that the diploma-mill awards only undermine the credibility of the apologetic enterprise among both new religionists and academics.

6. Ex-Devotees . Some apologists enter into countercult ministry as a result of their own spiritual transition from a new religion into the Church. Whilst we are prayerfully grateful for their walk with Christ, we should nonetheless be prepared to insist on accountability and integrity from ex-devotees. Unfortunately some celebrated spiritual autobiographies (like Mike Warnke’s The Satan Seller) have been shown to be fraudulent both in autobiographical details as well as in the “insider” view of what is taught and practised in a given group (Hertenstein and Trott, 1993; Smulo, 2002). Sadly, by relying on these discredited testimonies Christians have framed very hostile portraits of groups and even contributed to the outbreak of social panics (Ellis, 2000). This lack of accountability and transparency also perpetuates the amateurish features of countercult ministry, and further undermines the recognition of its importance in academic quarters.

7. Personality Types . A fascinating topic that requires formal research concerns the personality types of countercult apologists. A comparative study of countercult apologists and of those attracted to missional approaches with alternate spiritualities might yield some interesting results in light of the marginalisation of ministry to new religions. In the absence of formal research I can only posit some anecdotal ideas based

on my observations and encounters with countercult apologists. If apologists were surveyed according to the Myers-Briggs test I believe that many of the apologists would fit into these personality types: Extrovert Sensing Thinking Judging; Introvert Sensing Thinking Judging; Extrovert Sensing Feeling Judging; and Introvert Sensing Feeling Judging. My hunch is based on observing apologists in Internet forums, from their writings, and also on the basis of those few I have met face to face.

In my experiences I have found some apologists exhibit rigidity and inflexibility that inclines them to dogmatic black and white interpretations of other faiths. Some seem to revel in the adrenalin rush associated with winning heated debates, and I’ve noted that a few like to assume Internet identities with cyber-monikers that evoke images of themselves as a warrior or champion knight. I have also observed a few who react in a bellicose and bullying manner when colleagues question their scholarship. These sorts of traits lend themselves well to the rough and tumble of debunking other beliefs. Unfortunately, these traits do not readily predispose the apologist toward missional sensitivities. Apologetic pugilism may very well repel the broader church population from paying attention to the subject of new religions. (I hasten to add here that in highlighting these features I am not saying that these apologists are all unpleasant people with no virtuous qualities).

The aforementioned observations of mine can be contrasted with a different group of people. In Sydney, Australia there is a core group of people in Sydney who collaborate with me in outreach to devotees of new religions and alternate spiritualities. All the core group members have undertaken the Myers-Briggs test and the results are intriguing. What is striking about the results is that all our core group members share similar personality traits, and our Myers-Briggs’ types are among the smallest within the general population. The results for our group: Introvert Intuitive Thinking Judging; Extrovert Intuitive Thinking Judging; Introvert Intuitive Thinking Perceiving; and Introvert Intuitive Feeling Judging. (A curious trait we have also observed is that many New Age seekers are left-handed!). As “Intuitive” types comprise a small sub-strata in the general population, intuitives gravitate toward one another but perhaps at the cost of being isolated from the rest of the church population.

8. Independent Spirit . Lay ministries often operate in isolation with very little formal connections or structures of accountability to local churches, denominational bodies or

professional theological networks. The independent pioneering spirit of Western frontier countries is often reflected in independent ministry enterprises and personal empire building that is inimical to accountability.

9. Peer Review . Very little peer review of ministry and literature occurs, which ensures that the amateur features of countercult apologetic arguments and ministries are perpetuated and unchecked. This is reflected in the shoddy scholarship and illogical arguments used to oppose new religions in sensationalist documentary films like The God Makers, The Pagan Invasion and Gods of the New Age. Similar difficulties abound when lay apologists, and even the occasional scholarly apologist, indulge in plagiarism rather than undertaking primary research (Clifford and Johnson, 2001: 25).

10. Reification . A sizeable proportion of countercult books can be classified as written by “armchair critics” because the authors have not undertaken any field research of the groups they are describing and debunking. One of the problems is that in the absence of primary research where devotees are interviewed and primary sources from the religion are directly consulted, then what the apologist creates on the page about the group may be of his/her own invention. When readers accept that portrait and act on it, the portrait is reified. That is the paper version of reality is projected as if it actually corresponds with reality. When apologists inaccurately describe a religious group, then the likely outcome is reification. This process impedes effective missional work.

11. Nasty Novels . Laity and pastors alike seem to be enamoured with Christian fiction, particularly novels that cast new religions and alternate spiritualities in the role of an identifiable social and spiritual enemy. This observation is supported by the massive sales for Frank Peretti’s novels This Present Darkness and Piecing the Darkness, and the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. A forerunner to this was the British brethren preacher Sydney Watson. Watson, who lived at the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth centuries, composed didactic novels warning of the deception of groups like Christian Science (Escaped From the Snare), Spiritualism (The Lure of a Soul), and Russellism (The Gilded Lie). Watson also provided the fictional template for LaHaye and Jenkins with his twin eschatological novels In The Twinkling of an Eye and The Mark of The Beast.

A close examination of the plots and underlying messages of these novels reveals all the hallmarks of what Cowan (2003) refers to as boundary maintenance and propaganda. The groups excoriated in the novels are roughly equivalent to a vampire that must be defeated and dispatched. Like an allegorical morality story, the novels’ plots create a simplistic cast of “good guys” versus “bad guys”. In some respects it is akin to the 1950s phenomenon of “McCarthyism” in American society where suspected communists were a perceived threat that had to be suppressed. This extreme characterisation of new religions as the source of Antichristic power in the world quashes any meaningful prospects that Christians could show any respect for those adherents of new religions who may be seeking God. At an intellectual level we must express some disquiet that the attitudes of Christians toward new religions and alternate spiritualities are being powerfully influenced by pop novels.

12. Ethnocentrism/Paternalism . Much of the English-language countercult literature is mono-cultural or ethnocentric. By that I mean the focus of attention is exclusively on heretical movements identified in North America or Western European contexts. Apologists overlook the proliferation of indigenous new religious movements found in East Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Eastern Europe, and only refer to them if they happen to be present in North America. There are paternalist attitudes in some western Christian circles about the “youthfulness” of the churches in the Two Thirds World contexts. A paternalist outlook can unwittingly perpetuate a theological hubris and snobbery about the superiority of the First World churches over against all other churches. One feature of this paternalism is that some western Christians then presume that African, Asian and Latin American Christians have to be taught by westerners before they will be able to cope with new religions. An ethnocentric mentality cuts the apologetic literature off from being enriched by a global perspective on new religions found on all inhabited continents. There is surely important wisdom to be found among the churches outside North America, particularly those in the non-English speaking cultures.

This neglect of new religions on a global level does a great disservice to the Body of Christ worldwide, particularly for those developing nations where apologetic resources may be scant. Furthermore, it is very rare to find collaborative apologetic books that rise above the North American context to include contributors from other nations (Hexham, Rost and Morehead, 2004). One other negative effect is the influence of

North American countercult literature on other nations by transferring models that debunk and demonise new religions at the expense of encouraging missions.

13. No Holistic Apologetics . The apologetic models that are principally relied on by lay apologists basically involve erecting defensive boundaries that creates a monologue inside the church, but does not stimulate any meaningful dialogue with non-Christians (Saliba, 1999). These apologetic models tend to focus on sorting out doctrinal errors, emphasizing spiritual deception and fraud (Cowan, 2003; Drane, 1998; Johnson, 2002; Morehead, 2004). However these models only reflect one angle or perspective found in Scripture, and so the result is a lop-sided apologia that centres on debunking others. This constitutes fringe thinking that is disconnected from a robust, holistic understanding of Scriptural models about evangelism, positive apologetics, missiology and pastoral care.

14. Hyper-Specialisation . Hyper-specialisation in theological education has also contributed to the continuing isolation of countercult apologetics and ministry to new religions. Thus disciplines like missiology and apologetics are kept apart, and even within these twin subjects new religions are often relegated to the fringes of the curriculum (Hexham, 1992). Ordinands for the ministry therefore are not obliged to study world religions and new religions as a compulsory component of their studies. This is highly problematic given the social reality of religious pluralism within most western parishes today.

15. Absence of Missiologists . Professionally trained theologians and missions specialists have not been prominent in the study of new religions, which by default ensures that the subject persists on the academic fringes. These specialists are the trainers of the church’s next generation of leaders. However by overlooking or marginalizing the subject of new religions and world religions, the gulf between the local church’s missional needs and the social realities of contemporary religious diversity grows ever wider and tomorrow’s leaders are bereft of the skills to cope with this changing context.

16. Religious Studies Credentials . A concomitant of the previous point is that there are so few theologians and missiologists who have acquired formal credentials in a secular university specifically in the social sciences and religious studies where the subject of new religions is taught. The critical skills and insights from these academic disciplines

therefore are not integrated into the apologetic endeavours of those few professionals who occasionally contribute papers or books on the subject of new religions and alternate spiritualities (Melton, 2000; Muck, 2004).

17. NRMs As Frontiers Of Missions . It should be noted that current scholarship on new religions and alternate spiritualities highlights that these groups form new global sub-cultures (Hexham and Poewe, 1997; Hexham and Poewe, 2004; Melton, 2000). The new religions represent the pioneering edges of the meeting place between Christianity and the world’s major religious traditions (Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic etc). Thus theologians and missiologists need to recognise that these frontiers set the context for the Church’s missional engagement for the foreseeable future. To adequately prepare future pastors and laity alike to live in a multi-religious context, necessarily means that the subject must be relocated from the fringes of denominational agendas and college curricula and brought into the mainstream.

18. Inadequate Research . Even some of the works produced by Evangelical academics in this area have critical weaknesses. A lack of scholarly precision weakens the apologetic endeavour. It also conveys a poor impression to scholars both within and without Christian circles that apologists tend to rush in and make hasty judgments. This hastiness could be tempered by if more time were taken to get deeper bearings on the topic and allowing space for very sober reflections.

An example of the previous point can be found in James Herrick’s historical account of the rise of esoteric spiritualities. In it he includes a mere two paragraphs of critical and dismissive statements concerning the Lutheran astrologer-astronomer Tycho Brahe (2003: 46). Herrick accuses Brahe of offering a “magical view of science”, but fails to locate Brahe’s work in the context of changing philosophical moods of the day in science and theology. He nowhere acknowledges Brahe’s commitment to Lutheran beliefs. When one examines Herrick’s bibliographical citations on Brahe we discover that there he has not cited any primary sources (i.e. Brahe’s own writings). There is no reliance on any specialised scholarly studies about Brahe’s life and work. He does not refer the reader to any texts on the history of science in the Renaissance and Reformation eras. He does not cite any scholarly works on Reformation history or the history of Lutheran thought that would assist the reader to understand Brahe in his own historical context.

Instead, Herrick relies on just one bibliographical reference to support his argument about Brahe. It is an article from a popular periodical written by a countercult apologist who has no formal academic credentials in any of the aforementioned scholarly fields (the apologist whom Herrick relied on has two degrees which include a BS in manufacturing engineering and an M.Div in apologetics and counselling from the now defunct International School of Theology that was established under Bill Bright’s leadership). This is an example of how a scholar can cut corners in writing by not undertaking thorough bibliographical research. There is also the deleterious effect that evangelical readers who implicitly trust the author as an unquestioned figure of authority do not realise that the interpretation of Brahe rests on such tenuous bibliographical support.

III. CHRISTENDOM AND FORMULAIC ANSWERS:

Although the structure of western Christendom has long since collapsed, many Christians seem to behave as if they are still living in a Christian society. So another set of critical factors that might impede ministry to new religions can be traced to the lingering effects of Christendom. Some of those lingering effects that might have a deleterious bearing on ministry to new religions include:

1. Attractional Church . An urban-geographical model of church developed in the pre-automotive era when parishioners walked to church. In that model church services attracted people who were domiciled in the local community. However the social realities of contemporary urban living often undercut the notion of belonging to a group located in the suburb where one lives. It is in this anachronistic church model that pastors still apply certain evangelistic and preaching strategies. One strategy is premised on “attracting” prospective converts to attend services. In this approach, evangelistic activity is largely conducted in the safe and controlled environment of church-owned property. The mindset that accompanies this approach is that one expects local non-Christians will come to us. So a corresponding de-emphasis then on reaching non-Christians in their own social settings often prevails. With the expectation that non-Christians will join in, there is scant need to concentrate on actively engaging non-Christian religionists who never darken the doorsteps of the church.

However, the stark reality is that the attractional model of the local church is malfunctioning in nations like Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand, where many congregations have aged members with shrinking numbers of

regular adherents (Davie, 1994; Hughes, 1997). One strongly suspects that the same trends are now emerging in the USA. David Moberg (1984: 546) has some sagely sociological advice that needs to be grasped in our highly mobile era:

“Few churches are able to retain successfully an unmodified program of activities over long periods of time. Social change cuts across every aspect of the work of the church … the church must understand much better than ever before its continually changing social environment and the impact of that environment upon the lives of people if it is to cope successfully with the tremendous challenges it faces. If the church is merely another social institution, not significantly different in its objectives and activities from others in society, its services are not particularly needed to meet the challenges of the present age.”

2. McDonaldisation of Evangelism . John Drane (2000b) has drawn attention to what he refers to as processes of McDonaldisation in contemporary churches. By this term Drane is describing the propensity of contemporary churches to opt for stereotyped structures, predictable, pre-packaged forms of worship that are franchised as a “church-growth” solution. Accompanying these processes is the reliance on franchised tools and courses in evangelism and discipleship that are intended to help churches grow but ironically do not seem to reach those who truly dwell beyond the walls of the church.

Franchised courses in evangelism and discipleship have certainly been used by God to revitalise the faith of many who have attended church over the years. These courses have also been helpful in reaching the “God-fearers”, those unconverted people who exist on the fringes of church activities. For all of these positive outcomes we can give praise and thanks.

However, some sober, honest and searching reflections on the array of franchised courses now used in Britain, North America and Australia are warranted (cf. Hunt, 2004).

First, many of these franchised courses have been designed by Christians who do not appear to have road-tested their material with a “control group” of non-Christians who genuinely dwell far beyond the reach of the churches (like devotees of alternate spiritualities, and those who have never attended church in their life). The courses are structured around a pre-packaged topical menu with questions that Christians feel are important and have worked out answers for the participants to be spoon-fed without debate. The result is

that these programmes reflect lingering influences of Christendom.

An example of this is where franchised courses commence with proofs for God’s existence. Here the creators’ assumptions about the non-Christian west seem to be resting on the notion that atheism and agnosticism are rampant. However one need only take note of the broad mass of non-Christians in Britain and Australia who participate in major religious traditions (such as the various Buddhist groups in the west), or are exploring esoteric and do-it-yourself forms of spirituality. These people presuppose there is some transcendent reality, and thus are inclined toward working with tools that facilitate contact with the divine. The modernist era was surely characterised by classic debates between Christians and atheists. However it is a moot point to what extent those debates are now central in our current contexts. If one is going to speak of disbelief in God’s existence in many cases that disbelief is not about a transcendent reality, but rather represents a rejection of a truncated portrait of the Christian view of God.

Second, the sorts of questions that are progressively answered in these courses are often remote from the questions many non-Christians are actually exploring. If one meets up with those who are exploring other spiritualities (which is where a sizeable proportion of the western world has headed), then one discovers that they are asking questions like these:

How can I be the best person I can possibly be? How can I find my place in the cosmos? Who am I anyway, and who might I become? How can I be useful to others? Where do I find release from my brokenness? Where do I find peace? How can I reconnect my soul with the divine source of life? What values should I embrace? What spiritual tools work the best and how do I choose

which ones are right for me? How is it that the cosmos I inhabit, which appears to have

order and design and ought to be harmonious, is so screwed up?

I have not seen these sorts of questions (and there are many more) being addressed in franchised courses.

Consider the cultural context of Australia. The sociological data gathered across the twentieth century repeatedly

indicates a high percentage of belief in the existence of a supreme deity, but parallel with this high belief is a corresponding low attendance rate in church. Hans Mol (1971: 302) neatly summed up this ambiguous situation:

“The fact that such a large percentage of the Australian population does not worship regularly but still ‘believes in God without doubt’ and still holds the churches and clergy in high esteem fits the picture of ambiguity. As in Britain the goodwill towards religion is counter-balanced by a massive wooliness in thinking about it. Australia seems to be a Christian nation in search of a religion, or a heathen nation in flight from one. Most Australians, like Englishmen, are obviously heathen, but wish they were not.”

Now if one accosts Australian non-Christians with the following well-known questions the typical response consists of a mixture of bemusement and boredom: “Is Christianity relevant?” “Is Christianity boring?” “Is Christianity true?” These questions are premised on the Christendom order still existing, with the added presumption that most people simply need a friendly nudge to attend church.

While these courses seek to overcome intellectual objections to the Christian faith, the kinds of questions and the forms of answers given still reflect the era of modernity. For example, most courses address the problem of evil and suffering, but rely on a cursory summary of answers derived from C. S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain. Now there are some valuable points that Lewis made and these can still be used. However I have yet to see any franchised course address the widely held concepts of karma and rebirth. Many non-Christians now hold to a modified western view of karma (as mediated through Blavatsky, Leadbeater and New Age) as a plausible way of accounting for suffering in the world. Yet the franchised courses on evangelism do not even recognise how important karmic explanations have become in the west.

Again, many courses present brief arguments for the reliability of the gospel records that are derived from Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands A Verdict. Although that material is valuable and has an enduring place (though some sceptics have highlighted factual errors in McDowell’s book), it is inadequate to meet today’s challenges where non-Christians are likely to have read Notovitch’s claims about Jesus in Tibet, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, and the Gospel of Thomas. Likewise one cannot simply trot out the Lord, Liar, Lunatic trilemma in a world where non-Christians have read Bishop Spong’s views of myth and heard about the results of the Jesus Seminar where the gospels contain “legends”.

Another thread that can be discerned in some courses is the need to refute an imagined view of “relativism”. This gambit often centres in proving that a statement like “there is no ultimate truth” is itself a claim to ultimate truth and is therefore an illogical and untenable position. Another notion concerning the relativity of truth to culture is sometimes construed to be a denial of ultimate truth. Doubtless there are people who take that view.

However, there are more subtle and important points overlooked in these courses. One key point is that those seekers who have been influenced by Blavatsky’s Theosophy will reply to Christian truth claims of exclusivity by saying “that’s your truth.” Adepts of this approach do not mean that there is no concept of ultimate truth. Far from it! In this approach one finds the idea of “perennism”. In this view lying behind all the cultural accretions of truths expressed in religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, there is a higher synthesis or system of truth that is superior to these culturally relative religions. That synthesis of course is Theosophy. Some anti-New Age writers misconstrue perennism with the view “there’s no such thing as truth” or with the rarefied views of postmodernists like Derrida. In fact New Age style spiritualities do embrace metanarratives, and so cannot be legitimately interpreted as a religious manifestation of deconstruction theory. Perhaps it is high time we admitted that Derrida’s postmodernism is by no means a grass-roots phenomenon (Drane, 2000b; Hexham, 2001).

Third, while some franchised courses are attractively packaged in video/DVD formats, there remains a fundamental problem with the communicative style of a forty-minute monologic, cognitive, non-interactive talk. That style presupposes a Christendom model where the attention span for lengthy oral sermons was cultivated in the pre-TV era of the Reformation. Or put another way the film is simply a radio broadcast with pictures of the announcer. One need only visit a Mind-Body-Spirit festival to discover that today’s searchers eagerly attend interactive workshops where they have guided spiritual experiences, as well as being free to ask the workshop facilitator their questions. All too often the structures and group dynamics of the post-video session controls or stifles the kinds of questions that New Agers are likely to ask (such as Jesus’ missing years, Church conspiracies against the Gnostics, the Da Vinci Code, the compatibility of astrology with Christianity, the role of women in the church, etc). What is also problematic is that the well meaning church groups that sponsor these franchised courses

are not educated in the apologetic issues raised by esotericist and New Age writers.

What also needs to be grasped is that today’s seekers do not simply have cognitive or intellectual objections to Christianity. The burgeoning consumer culture in which do-it-yourself spirituality flourishes is a portal that opens up access to an array of spiritual tools and disciplines about which most lay Christians and pastors are ignorant (e.g. Cabala, tarot, astrology, feng shui, Reiki, chakras, auras, etc). Seekers are savvy to both the experiences and the metaphysics associated with these tools, to which Christians seem to have nothing in common. If seekers attend a franchised course and bring with them questions or challenges based on their journey, how can the courses meaningfully interact with seekers when the Christian facilitators have no background of relatedness to it?

In Australia we have directed a few New Age seekers into attending franchised evangelism courses. We have noted from their own feedback that the programme’s content fails to connect with their search. The courses address questions that are over their heads, do not relate to their exploratory journeys, or concentrate on cognitive issues they are disinterested in.

We might also anticipate a possible rejoinder offered because of the current faddish wave of enthusiasm for Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life programme as a potential panacea. This programme is a product of Southern Californian Christian culture, which is peculiar to North America and less amenable to working well with inquirers into faith in other cultures. The main point I would make though is that none of the preliminary lessons grapple with life issues that New Age, Neo-Pagan and do-it-yourself seekers see as crucial.

Now there is an experiential Christian spirituality course that has been devised in England with New Age seekers in mind, known as Essence (Frost, 2002). It has many attractive and valuable features to it covered in a six-week programme, with material suitable for certain kinds of alternate seekers. However, lest we fall into the trap of McDonaldised franchising, it must be noted that even this helpful programme needs to be adjusted when used in cultural contexts beyond England.

Fourth, the great fallacy of franchised courses is that one can create a recipe for evangelism and discipleship that will operate the same worldwide. By McDonaldising evangelism

the assumption is that “one size suits all” in outreach and therefore should be replicated. The flaw with this thinking is exposed by the stark and simple truth that the cultural contexts of each western nation vary considerably and what works in London won’t necessarily work in Sydney, Auckland, Johannesburg and Los Angeles.

To take but one poignant example, in Australia over 3,000 pastors have been trained by the Hybels organisation in the art of seeker sensitive church services. Out of all those congregations who have had pastoral staff trained, there is only one Australian congregation that is successfully replicating the seeker sensitive model. Quite apart from the underlying fallacy of McDonaldising the Hybels model, there is the simple fact that there is a tremendous cultural gulf in attitudes about church in the USA and Australia. Bill Hybels’ successful model of church is a product of his culture, and what worked for him there simply does not work elsewhere.

3. Preaching Taboos . Another strategy is that the problem of new religions can be “cured” by an emphasis on pulpit preaching and setting taboos for parishioners when encountering door-knocking adherents of cults. A clear example of this is presented by a much beloved former missionary, Rev Dr Graham Miller (1979), in brief notes prepared on behalf of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. Miller, a returned missionary from Vanuatu, recommended the remedy of preaching in these words:

“‘The Church is not in competition with the cults’ declares Dr. D.M. Lloyd-Jones, ‘she is not in competition with other religions’. Her role is to get on with the God-given task of preaching the Word. That is the antidote to all cults, heresy and dissent.”

To be sure parishioners need to be instructed in sound teaching and be aware of doctrinal error. Sound preaching and exegesis of the Word is a high priority for a pastor. However, in our electronic age it has to be admitted that the attention span of today’s parishioners is extremely short and does not easily keep pace with lengthy monologic sermons. One can seriously query to what extent parishioners have retentive memories of the sermon’s content once the Sunday service has concluded.

Moreover, while one can preach against doctrinal error, the preacher has a corresponding duty to balance this with solid practical demonstrations on how parishioners can apply what is taught. The laity needs to be empowered on the specifics of how to make disciples from the new religions. Laity cannot

deduce that practical application of Scriptural teaching from the mere rhetoric of sermons. Quality teaching should supply both information and advice on implementing what is learned. We should also keep in view our earlier discussion on “the unpaid bills of the church”. Clearly, preachers must ensure they present the whole counsel of God, but since theological and missiological gaps continually exist the teaching ministry of the churches is prone to human fallibility and failings.

Miller also uses a proof text to direct parishioners to dismiss adherents of new religions who door-knock. Miller (1979) states:

“Our people should be shown the apostolic command in II John verses 9 and 10 and encouraged to challenge every cult visitor with these verses, keeping a copy of the Bible handy for this purpose. We are here forbidden to allow them into our homes (the request which Mormons habitually make) or to wish them well in their work (which we good-naturedly tend to do). These two verses, used and used again, could prove a positive instrument in bringing our people back to Scripture as the only effective answer for the cults.”

The fundamental weaknesses with Miller’s remedy are that (a). For many decades (and this includes the year 1979 when Miller wrote) preachers in Australian Presbyterian churches have been essentially preaching to the choir (so how are new religionists ever going to hear the gospel when in the first place they are not attracted into the local congregation?) and (b). His evidence for prohibiting contact with non-Christian adherents at our front doors involves an exegetical fallacy in understanding 2nd John 9-10. Miller ignores the socio-cultural-historical context of the first century church meeting in houses, and assumes that the Johannine advice immediately correlates to our modern domiciles (cf. Marshall, 1978; Stott, 1960).

To be consistent with Miller’s exegesis we would have to apply his taboo to almost everyone we meet. We would have to point-blank refuse entry to our houses anyone who does not bring the doctrine of Christ, which could include friends, relatives, neighbours, and tradespeople (any or all of whom could be Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, New Agers and so forth) (cf. Martin, 1984: 392).

Furthermore, Miller uses this Johannine text in isolation from Biblical mandates about compassion, grace, bearing witness, the lessons one learns from how Jesus treated people, and the model of the apostles in presenting the gospel. The dismissing of false teachers in Scripture generally addresses dissenters

found inside the Jewish Temple cultus (Elijah versus prophets of Baal; Jesus versus Pharisees and Sadducees) and then in the church (Simon Magus, circumcision party, Nicolaitans). It is not a prescriptive remedy for how to handle people of other religions. The net effect of Miller’s remedy in preaching and proof-text dismissals effectively mothballs Christians from ever regarding people in new religions as worthy of being befriended and discipled — which is an extremely bizarre viewpoint when one recalls that Miller served as a missionary in a non-western culture!

IV. INCREMENTAL CHANGES AND REMEDIES:

It is reasonably easy to describe and analyse the problem of ministry marginalisation. However, I would be guilty of performing a disservice to the Lausanne Issue Group if I merely offer armchair criticisms. So in this closing part of the paper I want to point out some projects that could be undertaken as part of a remedy to the problems I have outlined.

Our struggles with legitimating missional ministries to new religions simply reflect the wider problem the Church has in adapting to and engaging with a whole new era. For just as the transition from the church of the Middle Ages into the Reformation brought with it much angst, confusion and dislocation of structures, we are facing comparable difficulties. This closing section of the paper then is inward focussed on what can occur inside the church at both an academic and popular level. There is also an obvious outward focus that must be acted on, namely shifting from talk about missions to the actual engagement in missions with devotees of new religions. However that outward focus cannot be entertained in this paper.

I believe that the current climate of opinion about ministry to new religions and alternate spiritualities can be favourably altered. I do not believe there are any obvious or uncomplicated solutions that will automatically transform the mainstream tide of opinion. I am persuaded though that it is possible to work at a slow but unflinching pace. If the Lausanne delegates can agree on global collaboration, then we can all effect changes that will have a cumulative effect long term. If we make an effort to work patiently for incremental changes, rather than attempting radical trauma-based surgery on the church, then in the passage of time we may indeed alter the climate of opinion to such a degree that our concerns about alternate spiritualities do indeed become mainstream in the churches. It is toward that end then that the following embryonic suggestions and projects are set out, but with the realisation that none of these proposals are a panacea. Once again, the suggestions are not in any special order of priority.

1. Professional/Academic Conferences . Lausanne delegates could undertake to lobby Missions organisations (like the Evangelical Missions Society) and professional theological bodies to create a permanent strand on new religious movements in their annual conferences. For example, the Society for the Study of Alternative Religious Movements is a sub-stream gathering that is included under the canopy of the annual conference of the Evangelical Theological Society. The advantage of including new religious movements in professional missiological and theological conferences is that scholars can interact with one another, keep abreast of developments, swap papers, and mutually benefit from the cross-fertilising of ideas.

Although professional academic conferences do not often set the world ablaze (at least in lay circles), the amateurism that pervades countercult apologetics needs to be progressively reduced so that lay-apologists can become proficient in their ministries. Here scholars can be a positive force by reshaping the agenda, attitudes and models. Those of us who are specialising in new religions have much to offer the general missions community, and the same is true for the missions community in offering wisdom to the embryonic ministries to new religions. A fruitful partnership with missions conferences could help to shift the subject of new religions toward the mainstream.

In addition to professional conferences operating within Christian circles, there is a profound need for Christians to participate in secular academic conferences. For example, Scholars of New Age (SONA) is an annual academic conference for secular scholars (sociologists, anthropologists, phenomenologists, historians, etc). Other scholarly conferences include those sponsored by the Centre for the Study of New Religions (CESNUR), the Australian Association for Religion Studies (AASR), the American Academy of Religion, etc. The keen edge of secular scholarship can help refine and improve the usual short-sightedness found in apologetic literature that ignores these fields. These conferences also provide an informal opportunity to develop relationships with non-Christian scholars.

2. Academic Journals . From time to time essays dealing with new religions and alternate spiritualities have appeared in Missions journals (e.g. Evangelical Missions Quarterly, International Journal of Frontier Missions, Missiology). However this is an avenue that has not been adequately exploited. Once again, Lausanne delegates should encourage one

another in submitting essays to missions journals. It would be helpful to lobby journal editors to call for papers on the intersection between missions theories and outreach to new religious movements. Similarly, there is a need to lobby editors for a “special focus” edition of a journal devoted exclusively to missions and new religions.

In addition to missions journals, there is a need for contributions to appear in theological journals (Bibliotheca Sacra, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, etc) where the focus would be directed toward theological questions. I have had a warm relationship with the editor of the Lutheran Theological Journal who over a period of seven years has kindly published four of my essays, along with two from my colleagues. The integration of theological studies with the study of new religions in journals could also help bridge the existing gulf between theologians and apologists.

The advent of the e-journal Sacred Tribes: Journal of Christian Missions to New Religious Movements also opens an avenue for semi-scholarly discussions and case studies in missional dialogue and methodological reflection.

There is also another avenue where the presence of evangelicals seem to be few and far between, and that is in secular academic journals that deal exclusively with new religious movements. Aside from Irving Hexham, Karla Poewe, and J. Gordon Melton, I cannot recall any other evangelical Christians who have contributed essays in Nova Religio since its release in 1997. To this one can add in those academic journals devoted to Religious Studies (e.g. Numen, Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion), and specialised journals dealing with religious traditions like Buddhist studies.

3. Training Kits . A post-Lausanne project that could prove invaluable is the development of a training kit in missions to alternate spiritualities. One of the tremendous weaknesses with existing franchised courses in evangelism and discipleship is that they reflect the cultural eccentricities of their creators. I believe that a helpful way forward is for a global project that partakes of the wisdom of missionary practitioners from Europe, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Africa. A co-ordinated project that partakes of the cross-cultural wisdom of many practitioners could go a long way towards eliminating the McDonaldisation factor of “one size suits all”.

The training kit would need to be designed in format that encourages the participants to think, interact with one another, have role plays, and practical exercises where they leave their comfort zones and interview a practitioner of alternate spirituality. Ideally the training kit would blend together theory and praxis in missions, provide a useful overview of the main contours of alternate spiritualities, and demonstrate different methods of how to converse with devotees. The kit would need to be designed with printed matter and DVD technology in mind, as well as being developed in several languages. It would also need to be emphasized in the course materials that the training kit is not a recipe or formula. The aim of the kit is to equip people but the course content would have to be very explicit in indicating that the material cannot be duplicated in the absence of critical reflection on one’s own cultural circumstances.

One avenue to consider in developing such an ambitious training kit is to do it in partnership with a couple of major missions organisations (e.g. Operation Mobilisation, Wycliffe etc). This could be a helpful way of handling the perennial problem of funding. The kit could be promoted among missions organisations as a training tool for their staff, for other para-church groups (e.g. Navigators, Inter Varsity Fellowship, etc), and throughout denominational networks.

4. Reframing Classic Christian Topics . There is a glut of copycat texts that poorly imitate The Kingdom of the Cults, and appeal to a niche market. Instead of producing more books that reinvent the wheel, I believe that there are some other creative ways in which new religions and alternate spiritualities can be brought before a general reading audience. Among the sorts of works that are intended for a broad readership are books that cover explanations of theology, spiritual disciplines like prayer, healing, faith and vocation, and social justice issues. These are the kinds of topics where discussions that take up these themes and simultaneously interact with new religions.

For example, Clifford and Johnson (1998) produced a popular theology of the resurrection that positively illustrated the meaning and power of Christ’s resurrection while also contrasting it through the prism of New Age and do-it-yourself spiritualities. With that example in mind, one could easily produce a popular theology of the creation that brings to life what the Scriptures teach, while interacting with neo-Buddhist and neo-Pagan understandings of the creation. Similarly a theology of wisdom based on Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, could interact with neo-Buddhist views of wisdom in the west.

A book exploring the theory and practice of prayer could easily contrast and interact with New Age approaches to guided meditations, Islamic Sufi approaches to prayer, chanted decrees of Elizabeth Clare Prophet and so forth. Likewise texts exploring divine healing and Christian lifestyle could readily interact with complementary healing modalities, sifting out metaphysical concepts at odds with Scripture.

Similarly, there is an increasing demand for practical spirituality that can be applied in the workplace and with one’s vocation. In many instances New Age and human potential workshops have found a niche within the world of business and industry. Again one could develop texts on practical spirituality for the workplace that simultaneously contrasts with the Mormon approach of Steven Covey, the New Age approach of Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer, and so on.

Social justice issues also lend themselves to an exposition of Biblical truths that challenges the social visions and policies of various new religions. For example, ecological questions immediately opens one up to the Book of Genesis, and a dialogue with neo-pagan views. Questions concerning poverty and education from a theological and ethical standpoint could interact with the radical social visions of Soka Gakkai, the Raelians, New Age-Aquarian agendas, and Sun Myung Moon. The debates surrounding the advent of stem cell research, cloning and nano-technology take us into Biblical anthropology and right to life issues, but also brings us into direct dialogue with the cloning agenda of the Raelians, and the embryonic Vampire religions that are beginning to emerge.

The advantage of taking this approach to mainstream Christian topics is that one can impart genuine Biblical truths alongside an exploration of discerning the good and bad elements of new religions and alternate spiritualities. The reader is doubly assisted by the exercise because practical truth is received while also learning about new religions.

5. New Bible Studies . The phenomenon of Bible study booklets can also be brought into the service of missions and new religions. As with the themes suggested about reframing classical Christian topics in popular works of theology, so too Bible studies could be reframed along these lines. Again the emphasis of such studies is on expositing and applying Biblical truth but in the light of spiritual alternatives that educates lay believers. This could help to move the subject of new religions

from the fringe into the mainstream. Here is a short list of possible studies:

OT studies in prophecy, guidance and divination. Living With Pagans and Astrologers: Insights from Daniel. The Book of Genesis: Studies in creation, paganism,

Mormonism, and nomadic faith. Paul’s guide to evangelism and the New Age. Ecclesiastes and the Buddha.

A similar sort of popular studies on Christian leaders could also be a vehicle for illuminating new religions, like:

Melanchthon and Calvin on Astrology. St Patrick’s principles for discipling pagans. St Cyril and St Methodius’ guide to reaching pagans. Church Fathers and Other Religions.

6. New primer texts on Missions . A very basic but necessary way for marrying missiology with new religions is to develop some new introductory textbooks and case studies in missions that focus on new religious movements. Encountering New Religious Movements is one such example of the case study method combined with some theoretical and methodological discussion. However there are many other projects that need to be undertaken, and again here is a list of suggestions:

A book mirroring David Hesselgrave’s Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally, and Charles Kraft’s Christianity in Culture, but where the illustrations all centre on the ethnography and missional communication with Mormons, New Age, Neo-Pagans, etc.

A book mirroring Paul Hiebert’s Incarnational Mission, but where the case studies are exclusively on new religious movements.

A book mirroring Hiebert, Shaw and Tiénou’s Understanding Folk Religion could be developed to explore western forms of magical, esoteric, and New Age religions.

Case studies in the history of missions where pioneering missionaries from previous generations are examined, and the wisdom gleaned from their work is summarised and then applied to new religions. For example, case studies on Patrick, Columba, Cyril and Methodius could be valuable prisms through which neo-paganism can be studied. Case studies on Ramon Lull, Samuel Zwemer and Phil Parshall, could be applied to reaching western-based Sufi groups, Ahmadiyya Muslims, and Baha’i. Studies on Matteo Ricci, Robert de Nobili and Karl Reichelt could be used to

illuminate issues in approaching neo-Buddhist, neo-Hindu, and neo-Confucianist movements in the west.

New books dealing with a specific major world religion, such as Buddhism, should be developed but where the focus is not only on the traditions found in Asia. It should be mandatory to include chapters that treat western movements (like Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, the commodification of the Dalai Lama’s teachings, etc).

7. Multidisciplinary books on NRMs . Countercult books are dominated by doctrinal refutations of new religions with criticisms largely centred in Christology and soteriology. I believe that one way to help strengthen the field is for more collaborative book projects that employ multi-disciplinary tools (theology, church history, missiology, apologetics, pastoral care, communications theory, anthropology, sociology of religion, phenomenology etc). Projects that operate on an integrative format stand a good chance of shifting the subject of new religions into mainstream academic reading. Books like The New Mormon Challenge are an instance where reputable and known evangelical scholars from NT studies, philosophy etc have been involved in contributing chapters. While the debunking style pervades this book, still it is illustrative of what can be done if collaborative projects draw in people across disciplines. It is certainly one way of joining the dots somewhat between the rather disparate academic hyper-specialisation of scholarship that persists in seminaries. 

Some of the possible projects that could be undertaken are listed as follows:

Missional theological texts that brings Christian theology into dialogue and analysis of the teachings of new religious movements. For example, a work on pneumatology would work through Biblical theology and history of theology, and interact with say Neo-pagan views of an immanent spirit, Mormon views of the spirit and so forth. Or a work on Trinitarian theology that is developed opposite Mormon, Tibetan Buddhist and New Age views of the transcendent.

A replacement volume for The Kingdom of the Cults that is multi-authored with chapters by missional specialists, and with methodological chapters explaining missions theory, communications theory, and so on.

A work on pastoral theology and care that focuses on ministry with new religions. Such a volume would not be shaped by the brainwashing-mind control theories, though those issues should be addressed. Rather the application of basic types of counselling methods and pastoral care in

meeting with devotees, interacting with families split over a new religion, etc.

A work on the hermeneutics of scripture in the light of new religions. All too often the question of hermeneutics is glossed over in countercult books, and so the subtle ways in which a group like the Mormons read the Bible are misunderstood. I have briefly hinted at the hermeneutical problem in my essay on the Christadelphians (Johnson, 2004). Such a project would meet in the middle ground between Don Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies and James Sire’s Scripture Twisting.

8. Analyses of Consumer Pop Culture . Some secular academics do take quite seriously the phenomena of pop culture and the emerging consumer culture (e.g. Journal of Pop Culture, Journal of Film and Religion, Culture and Religion, Journal of Consumer Culture). It is in the nexus of pop and consumer cultures that new religions and alternate spiritualities are finding niches that we can ill-afford to overlook. Indeed there are fruitful new frontiers into which missional action can occur.

I believe that consumer and pop cultures offer many different angles from which creative writing projects could tackle, and in that process bring new religions and alternate spiritualities into mainstream discourse in churches.

One approach to take is grounded in the OT prophetic tradition. Rampant consumerism and materialist attitudes can be judged prophetically as “bankrupt”. What Christians need to be helped to see (be they academic or laity) is that consumer culture is an integral part of the world we live in. It spread via globalisation, and is also in some respects a product of globalisation. Consumer culture impacts life and thought globally, and many western middle class Christians live lifestyles that are captive to consumerist values.

Beyond the deleterious influences of consumerism inside the Church, one finds new religions, New Age and other alternate spiritualities as part of this consumer cultural landscape. Some of the mainstream links between alternate spiritualities and consumer culture can be detected in the commodification of New Age, Wicca and Tibetan Buddhism through products, courses, and Internet sites. Examples of this include spell-boxes as commodities of Wicca; the health and wealth success packages offered by the Unity School of Christianity, Anthony Robbins’ books, CDs, magazines, seminars etc.A different facet to the prophetic angle is cyber-religion. The entire phenomenon of cyber-religion — that is creating

religion and practising it on the Internet — is another feature of globalised pop culture. A few examples of cyber-based religions include:

Celebrity-based religions, such as those created in the wake of the death of Diana Princess of Wales.

Satanism (most Satanic groups exist on the web because their adherents are so thinly distributed around the world).

Neo-paganism and Wicca (where the metaphor of the worldwide web is invoked as being analogous to the web of consciousness pagans believe in).

Vampire and Goth religions. Fan-fiction sites where fans of films, TV shows, or novels

(e.g. Star Trek, X-Files, Dracula) write their own stories keeping characters alive and give expression to their own myths, folklore, cosmologies and spiritual beliefs.

Another burgeoning area of pop culture that impinges on the frontiers of ethical problems concerns the discourses on stem-cell research, cloning, nano-technology, and the new narcissistic behaviour of bodily alterations (botox injections, plastic surgery, body piercing and tattoos). While some of the raw edges of these discourses are profound ethical problems, there is also the consumerist dimension that one can improve self-esteem and personal significance through physical alterations. Some new religious movements, like the Raelians, are deeply committed to myths about science replacing religion. The Raelians also believe that cloning is essential to the next evolutionary stage of human history.

The physical alteration of humanity is something embedded in Gothic myths, particularly those concerned with the “Undead”. The creation of Frankenstein’s monster occurs in the cultural matrix where different conceptions of human anthropology were emerging from both the alchemical traditions of Renaissance Europe and the Darwinian theories of human origins. A feature of nineteenth century gothic literature is the mad doctor or scientist who attempts to recreate humanity in his own image. In many respects the new scientific thresholds of cloning and nano-technology provide a fresh impetus for reflecting on the same issues that nineteenth century gothic novels explored. One might also reflect on the current pop cultural pre-occupation with the Undead in film and TV stories (“Blade”, “Interview with a Vampire”, “Van Helsing”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” etc), and how that interfaces with these ethical questions.

The “Undead” characters (vampires, werewolves, Wandering Jew, golem etc) can be found distributed through various

cultures. It can be argued that profound theological and moral questions run through the gamut of Undead characters. Much of it centres on whether immortality and eternal life should be obtained in this flesh or beyond the grave. The myths associated with the Undead intersect with the notion of being divinely cursed (think of Cain marked out by God so that no-one is allowed to kill him; consider those afflicted with leprosy, and the vilification of Jews, medieval witches, HIV-infected persons, etc). One also finds blood-motifs that easily lend themselves to analysis from the standpoint of atonement theologies. There are new emerging pop cultural spiritualities centred in the Undead (such as Vampire religion) that represent another sub-culture of unreached people warranting missional action.

9. Renovating Theological Education . One long range challenge in bringing new religious movements into mainstream Christian discourse concerns overhauling models of theological education. Earlier in this paper it was noted that ordinands for ministry are not obliged to study world religions or new religions in preparation for parish ministry. If this situation is to change then the priorities and models of current theological education must be renovated (cf. Drane, 2000a).

There is much ferment among theorists of education about styles of learning. In some secular universities the lecture format has given way to seminars where students undertake preparatory reading, keep a reflective journal, have field exercises, and combine this with tutorials guided by the course facilitator. The advent of inter-disciplinary courses also signals some dissatisfaction with the prevailing currents of hyper-specialisation in subjects.

What would be helpful is for the emergence of some inter-disciplinary approaches to undergraduate theological studies. For example, a course on the Book of Genesis could be approached on an integrated and inter-disciplinary model. The OT lecturer would provide the historical, cultural and theological background to the book. Then the NT lecturer would explore the importance of Genesis in the NT. The theologian would tackle topics like God, creation, fall etc in systematics and in the history of doctrine. The church historian would explore how Genesis has been understood by the Church Fathers and in other epochs. The ethicist would tease out the ramifications of the teachings found in Genesis on human rights, ecology and creation and so forth. The apologist would examine apologetics questions about God’s existence, evil, and competing views of creation in other worldviews (like how neo-pagans view creation, how Mormons

view creation, how Jehovah’s Witnesses view creation etc). The missiologist would examine what principles of cross-cultural mission derive from the first eleven chapters, and then again in the Patriarchal narratives.

This sort of synthesis though on paper appears very involved could nonetheless prove to be invaluable for students who after four years of study graduate with intellectual and spiritual indigestion, and who have not been helped to synthesize all they learned in their specialised core subjects (i.e. OT, NT, Theology, and Church history).

If the subject of new religious movements is to shift from the margins, then some intentional action is required on the part of theological educators to renovate current curricula. New religions must be shifted from being an optional elective subject and integrated into core studies in theology, apologetics and missions. While such a renovation portends something of epic proportions, the Church has previously passed through epic times (the transformation from the medieval to Reformation being just one case). The question is whether educators have the courage to tackle this problem, and with it also comes the willingness to encourage post-graduate students in theological studies to acquire credentials in secular universities in religious studies.

CONCLUSION:

I believe that more than enough has been said on the subject of shifting new religions from the fringes and into mainstream discourse. If some of the projects and suggestions could be taken up then perhaps over the course of time the climate of opinion in Christian circles might adjust. The challenge is now before you the reader to digest and reflect on this discussion and to collaborate with the other Lausanne delegates in working through these issues. I look forward to your constructive feedback.

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