The "New Earth" in Old Skins

Nuncius · #1 Jun 24, '08, 2:41 pm

Just got done listening to the podcast with Sharon Lee Gigante re "the New Earth" and "A Course in Miracles" etc. Two comments, to whom it may concern:

1. I was fascinated by the description of these "ideas" (to compliment them): I have been a student of classical Gnosticism for many years, and the parallels are complete. This is nothing but Gnosticism, and I recommend anyone to read Hans Jonas' The Gnostic Religion and Robinson's The Nag Hammadi Library to see just how far gone into that heresy these movements are.

2. A caller mentioned C. S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain as an anodyne to much of this nonsense about Pain as illusory. The caller was exactly correct. I once spent a grant doing nothing but reading classical works on theodicy, and ended up having to admit that no one did it better than Lewis, and that that work in particular was a masterpiece of understanding and presentation. Every Catholic should own it.

Just my two cents.

yinekka · #2 Jun 24, '08, 5:54 pm

Nuncius, thank you for your post. I too have just listened to the programme which featured Sharon Lee. I have never heard of the New Age stuff she mentioned but I asked my 22 year old son and he said that it is the 'new spirituality'; so it has even reached Australia.

Thank you for the recommendation of C S Lewis; I will put him on my 'to be read' list. On a daily basis I am in quite a deal of pain but I have the wonderful Catholic teaching of redemptive suffering and the knowledge that God is probably refining me here on earth to stop me becoming too inwardly focussed. Peter Kreeft is a great admirer of Lewis and I have been listening to some of Kreef't's talks on Lewis' books.

Mimi · #3 Mar 25, '10, 8:28 am

I did a search for "Gigante" and this old thread came up.

Sharon Lee Gigante is now on Catholic Answers Live once a month!

I appreciate her knowledge (she was an "insider" and teacher of A Course in Miracles, which Oprah endorses and apparently believes) - and also her enthusiasm for the Catholic faith. She has a distinctive perspective on this stuff and has also suffered because of new age practices.

Welcome back, Sharon, and Thank GOD you were led home!

She is able to explain why the tenets and practices of ACM and Tolle's new age-ism is incompatible with Catholicism.

Her ministry (if it can be called that) is invaluable and I hope and pray that many who have fallen for this, or any "new age-ism", will return to the One True Faith wholeheartedly and completely.

God bless,
Mimi