JourneyOnline
Monarch Books (Oxford) 2007
RRP $29.95
We are commonly told that today everyone is looking for some sort of spiritual experience – a far cry from the rationalistic tendencies of the last century. The form of the spiritual experience varies from the ancient wisdom of the Pharaohs and the secrets of Stonehenge to nature mysticism and New Age. “… we are positively hooked on the supernatural. The gods have come back with a vengeance!”(p.11)
The published advertising for Michael Green’s book says it offers a way to navigate all the options open to the modern seeker in the attempt to discover a true spirituality to live by, a spirituality which is relevant and able to change lives. However, Green’s answer is very quickly given as a reliance on the person of Jesus Christ without any real consideration of alternatives which supposedly make up the maze we encounter.
Green makes most of this book as an apologetic exercise for conservative reformed Christianity, assuming as certainty much of that which is being seriously debated within the postmodern church of the twenty-first century; in fact Green makes little use of logical and rational argument as part of his polemic and tends towards simplistic explanations. The final chapter even reads almost like an “altar call” at an evangelistic crusade of the last century.
The book may be a useful tool for those who find comfort in an uncomplicated faith, but in my mind would give little benefit to a thinking seeker in our postmodern world.
Reviewed by Peter Harvey Frontier Services – Flinders Patrol
