The New Age Christology of David Spangler -- By: Ronald C. Rhodes
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 144:576 (Oct 1987)
Article: The New Age Christology of David Spangler
Author: Ronald C. Rhodes
BSac 144:576 (Oct 87) p. 402
The New Age Christology of David Spangler
Bible Teacher
Dallas, Texas
David Spangler has been called the shaman of the New Age movement.1 Many prominent New Age writers acknowledge their indebtedness to his writings and lectures.2 Indeed Spangler’s book entitled Revelation: The Birth of a New Age has been called the “Bible” of the movement.3 George Trevelyan, leader of the movement in England, says that this book is one of the most important New Age books ever written,4 and he further believes that “David Spangler is one of the most challenging thinkers of our time.”5 William Irwin Thompson, a cultural historian who has taught at Cornell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
BSac 144:576 (Oct 87) p. 403
York University, believes Spangler to be a modern-day prophet.6 He says that in Spangler “we can glimpse the beginnings of a new level of religious experience, neither Eastern or Western, but planetary.”7 Clearly Spangler’s influence is substantial.
Spangler presently teaches New Age courses at the University of Wisconsin. His goal is to reeducate human beings by taking the traditional doctrines of Christianity (anthropology, hamartiology, soteriology, Christology, eschatology, etc.), and redefining them with a New Age slant.8 His particular concept of the New Age involves a period of time characterized by a new dominant quality, a quality that focuses on the inner divinity of all men.9 He seeks to reinterpret traditional Christian doctrines through the mental grid of man’s inner divine nature.
As one who is unquestionably a driving force behind the New Age movement, Spangler’s views on Jesus Christ are of particular significance. His views on Christ have been amply set forth in over a dozen books he has authored in a period of 15 years. Furthermore he has written scores of articles and recorded numerous cassette tapes that are widely distributed by the Lorian (New Age) Association. His views have also been expounded in the Lorian Journal, a publication of which he is the editor. His wide impact is best reflected in the fact that numerous New Age groups around the globe base their world views (including their views of Christ) on his writings.10
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