Spiritscapes

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Media Reviews

Tom Harpur

Spiritscapes is one of the most balanced and hopeful assessments of today's major spiritual 'Signs of the Times' I have read so far. I commend it to leaders of every faith, to students everywhere, and in particular to all those seeking to make sense of the world as we approach a new millennium. Well done!

Cathleen Fillmore, Atlantic Books Today

"...[left] me with ... an eagerness to hear more from this thought-provoking writer who, by raising questions about our sacred institutions, is not yet writing mysteries, but maybe helping to solve them."

Peter Woelk, Mennonite Brethren Herald

The post-modern age marks a significant stage in the thinking of the West, which calls for dramatic changes in religious thinking...Parent gives a detailed analysis and makes some bold predictions about the religious and spiritual trends in society...a thorough, balanced interpretation of nine major trends that are impacting society.

Cathleen Filmore, Quill & Quire

Organized religion does not adapt quickly to the times, but in Spiritscapes, author Mark Parent argues that such contemporary ideas as the New Age movement, the new physics, feminism, liberation theology, Gaia, and alternative medicine have all affected the church in varying degrees, and with positive and negative results.

The book, best read and digested slowly, contains insights and ideas that beg to be discussed further. He criticizes the "God said it, the scripture recorded it, don't question it" view of many organized religions, suggesting that to survive these religions will need to incorporate the more self-directed, individualistic approach of the New Age and feminist movements. The established churches, he says, need to allow questioning and debate and be willing to accept a greater variety of beliefs about God and spirituality.

Parent concludes that the Christian of the future must be a mystic rather than a dogmatist and that churches will survive only by becoming less institutional.