John Saliba, a scholar in religious studies, has written a handsome survey of Christian responses to new age spirituality. Saliba's manuscript, which was completed in 1997, covers a wide range of views. These views include fundamentalist, evangelical, mainline Protestant, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic. Whilst the scope of the survey is broad, it is by no means exhaustive.

Saliba argues that a large percentage of Christian literature on new age constitutes a monologue or soliloquy. That is, Christians have largely spent their time talking amongst themselves about new age, but with very few forays at serious dialogue with new age writers. He documents how various apologists approach new age beliefs from a confessional or biblical standpoint. Most writers show that new age beliefs are largely incompatible with Christianity.

Saliba expresses frustration with writers who offer a blanket condemnation of new age and thereby fail to see that new age offers some serious questions that Christians should grapple with. He is also equally impatient with those few writers who celebrate anything new age, without engaging in critical discernment.

After surveying the spectrum of views, Saliba concludes his work by considering a few select theological issues, such as reincarnation, crystals and Christology. With respect to Christology Saliba suggests that there may be several different models Christians could explore in opening up dialogue with new age seekers.

A few critical points should be noted. Firstly, Saliba does not really deal with the possible application of cross-cultural mission principles as a basis for more effective dialogue and apologetics. He does not explore how such a paradigm could be grounded in Scripture, such as the Mars Hill address of Acts 17.

Secondly, there are some minor textual errors in need of correction. On p 60 Kerry McRoberts is referred to as "her" when in fact McRoberts is a male; on p 90 the author Lockhaas should read Lochhaas;on p112 Millikan is called an Anglican when he is in fact a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia.

Lastly, although the coverage is generous, and acknowledging that the text was submitted back in 1997 for publication, the book is already in need of a fresh edition. For example Saliba needs to take notice of John Drane's What is the New Age Still Saying to the Church? (Harper Collins 1999); Ross Clifford & Philip Johnson, Sacred Quest (Albatross 1995); and John Newport, The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview (Eerdmans, 1998).

Despite these shortcomings Saliba's book is to be commended. Christian apologists, whatever their theological commitments, would profit from grappling with this book.

John Saliba presents a very useful, but by no means exhaustive, survey of Christian apologetic literature treating the New Age. The text begins with a sketch of what is the new age as viewed both by seekers and scholars. Saliba then surveys fundamentalist/evangelical, mainline Protestant, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic responses. Although most authors surveyed are mainstream, he also includes controversial writers like Matthew Fox. His survey is current up to the mid 1990s and includes authors from Europe, Australia and North America.

Saliba argues that many Christian texts about New Age are inaccurate and inadequate. He points out that whilst Christians should certainly understand and challenge New Age theologically, the stance taken by many Christians is undergirded by fear. He indicates that making doctrinal comparisons between Christian and New Age beliefs constitutes a monologue inside the Christian community. Although doctrinal comparisons may help clarify differences in belief, this approach scarcely stimulates any effective engagement with New Age. In other words, Christians need to take a further step of facing the critiques New Age presents to Christianity, as well as challenging some key weaknesses in New Age. Saliba concludes his book with some methodological issues and then explores several different models of Christology that might be fruitful in any sensible dialogue with New Age thinkers.

This book will prove to be disconcerting for some readers who have relied on the apologists as their primary source of information about new age. However his critical analysis deserves to be examined, especially by those authors he treats. The tone of Saliba's treatment is courteous but firm. Saliba expresses frustration with writers who totally debunk new age and fail to find anything worthwhile in it. He is also impatient with those Christians who simply embrace anything new age and fail to discern its pitfalls.

A few critical remarks about the book are in order. Saliba's book does not interact with Christian models of cross-cultural mission. He does not really address the specifics of how Christian evangelists or congregations could interact with seekers. He does offer guidelines about dialogue based particularly on inter-faith models. However it is a pity that his book, which was completed in 1997 but only published in 1999,has missed out on more recent works such as John Drane's What is the New Age Still Saying to the Church? (Marshall Pickering 1999) and Ross Clifford & Philip Johnson's, Sacred Quest (Albatross 1995). If Saliba had had access to these and other materials, his book would be worthy of a higher rating than that awarded here.

The text also has a few minor typographical errors (e.g. "Don Rhodes" should read "Ron Rhodes" on p. 61; "Philip Lockhaas" should read "Philip Lochhaas" on p. 90). There are also factual errors (such as Kerry McRoberts is "he" not "her" on p.60; David Millikan is a Uniting Church minister not an Anglican p. 112).

Overall the book is well written and properly documented. It initiates a badly needed debate inside Christian circles over the effectiveness and sensitivity of apologetic material on new age (and by extension counter-cult literature). The book should be read by Christians who are serious about apologetics and mission and is to be recommended as a text book for tertiary institutions. The author is to be congratulated for partly filling up a major scholarly lacuna.

First, I want to say that I have NOT read this book; I have some comments based on its table of contents. I teach research methods in education, and have served on over a hundred dissertation committees in education and other fields (including several dissertations in psychology), and I would not use or recommend this book primarily because of its extremely limited treatment of qualitative research. Despite the book cover's claim that the book deals with "the entire range of research methodologies in psychology", the coverage of qualitative methods appears to be limited to one chapter on naturalistic and case-study methods. (A second chapter which deals with field research in fact seems to focus on quasi-experimental and single-subject designs, which are not qualitative.) The rest of the book is heavily quantitative/experimental in its approach (there are three chapters on experimental design alone). It seems revealing that although there are sections on the limitations of naturalistic and case study research and correlational and differential research, there is no explicit section on the limitations of experimental research. There is also no discussion of one of the most common qualitative approaches used in psychology--the qualitative interview study, which is different from a "case study". (For more on this approach, I recommend "Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies", by the psychologist Robert Weiss.)

If you are a student in a very quantitatively-oriented psychology department, this may be a useful book for you. However, at a time when many research methods books are devoting much more space to qualitative methods, Graziano and Raulin's book seems a bit anachronistic. Several highly regarded research methods textbooks that are more even-handed in their coverage are David Krathwohl, Methods of Educational and Social Science Research: An Integrated Approach (second edition, 1998), and Colin Robson, Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers (1993; second edition forthcoming). There is also an enormous literature on qualitative methods specifically; simply search this site under "qualitative research".

As a Ph.D. student that is about to start my dissertation I found this book extremely helpful in wading through the various research and analysis methods. Filled with examples (although principally focused on Psychology), the book has helped me plan my dissertation. A great reference book and in my opinion a must have for those who are about to start their dissertation.

I decided to adopt this text for my course as it is comprehensive, up-to-date, and includes a wealth of supplementary materials that are web-based, as well as available on the accompanying CD. Recommended highly for undergrad AND graduate students.