Celebrating Christian Tradition

David Lane, Wellington NZ – Editor APOLOGIA – Focus on James Veitch

August 22, 2015 by SPCS Leave a Comment

David H. Lane M.Sc. (Hons.), Dip. Tchg. Apologia Editor

[Author of The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, (1996)]

DAVID LANE Hataitai Wellington New Zealand – Editor of Apologia

FOCUS ON JAMES VEITCH

Apologia Volume 7 (1/3) 2000 ISSN 1171-5863

Published by The Wellington Christian Apologetics Society Inc. (“WCAS”)

Focus on James Veitch has been republished by the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society (“WCAS”) to mark 25 years since the Society was founded and commenced publications of its journal Apologia. This work is a major critique of a booklet published by Presbyterian Minister and academic Dr James Veitch – and deals with the man and his message. In his booklet “The Birth of Jesus: History or Myth? – an expanded version of public lectures Veitch delivered in Wellington – he espouses a very liberal theological perspective on Jesus and the Gospels. This Apologia critique of his work involving a range of theological scholars, thoroughly strips away the intellectual façade surrounding this provocateur who has bamboozled audiences with his rhetoric. He was once a darling with the liberal secular New Zealand media for his espousal of a redefined version of Christianity which jettisons all traditional understanding of the Faith, including the doctrines of God as Creator and Man made in the image of God.

A range of thought-provoking scholarly essays are provided by contributors including: Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum Th.M, PhD; the late Dr. George Duggan SM, one of New Zealand’s leading Catholic theologians; and New Testament scholars Dr Derek Tovey and Dr Christopher Marshall. In addition there are articles by other scholars addressing other theological aspects of the debate.

How to purchase your copy of APOLOGIA: Focus on James Veitch [Read more…]

David Lane Wellington Author – The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age: Book Review

August 18, 2015 by SPCS Leave a Comment

David H Lane, Hataitai, Wellington, New Zealand. SPCS Executive Director.

Author of The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age (Macon, Georgia, Mercer University Press, 1996). 189 pages. ISBN 0-86554-498-0 MUP/P131

Book Review by Professor Murray Rae PhD (London) [see ref 1].

The French Jesuit palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who died in 1955, has attained, at a popular level, a quite remarkable status as a prophet delivering a vision of a new spirituality which unites human beings with one another and enables them to recognise their evolutionary destiny as participants in a divine cosmos. Although Teilhard himself claims continuity between his vision and Christian tradition, there is with only a few exceptions, very little enthusiasm for his work amongst academic theologians. His prominence is largely at a popular level, amongst post-Christian New Age sympathisers.

While a great deal has been written about Teilhard and his work, most published critiques have been written by those who are largely in agreement with his philosophical position. In contrast David Lane offers a critique of the inadequacies and errors of Teilhard’s thought, outlining both the nature and extent of its divergence from orthodox Christian faith, and giving insight into the degree to which many New Age philosophies claim inspiration from the works of this populariser of the notion of spiritual evolution.

It is a moot point, as Lane himself makes clear, whether New Age thinkers are deliberately reflecting on and extending Teilhard’s thought or whether instead they are simply calling upon his name in order to give some academic respectability to their own work. Nevertheless, Lane’s book critiques the extent to which Teilhard’s attempt to graft Christianity onto evolutionary theory issues in the kinds of pantheism, monism and gnosticism favoured by New Agers. There can be little doubt, as Anne Roche Muggeridge has observed and Lane abundantly confirms that, despite his retention of the language of Christian dogma, Teilhard’s reliogio-philosophical writings empty that language of its traditional content. His appeal, amongst Christians as well as New Agers, can be attributed as much to the power of his poetic expression as to the mistaken perception, encouraged by Teilhard himself, that his work takes Christianity to the next step of its evolutionary development. [Read more…]

Bishop Spong shown as shallow, inaccurate – Review by the late John Mackey DD, CBE

August 18, 2015 by SPCS Leave a Comment

FOCUS ON JOHN SHELBY SPONG (Apologia 1st pub. 2000) – Reviewed

BOOK REVIEW: Reproduced from NZ Catholic – May 20, 2001, p. 19

Reviewer: The late Bishop John Mackey DD, CBE (d. 2014) was the Bishop Emeritus of Auckland.

Review Title: Bishop Spong shown as shallow, inaccurate

This is a difficult publication to review because it is a journal rather than a book, with almost 20 articles from a variety of authors. The presentation is attractive, the print clear and the photos and illustrations illuminating.

It is produced by The Wellington Christian Apologetics Society (Inc.), a body of Christians who defend traditional Christian beliefs against the more fashionable secular beliefs of people like Lloyd Geering, James Veitch and the American, Anglican Bishop Spong. This volume is devoted to a critique of Bishop Spong, his many publications and his lectures. There is also an article on Veitch, a follow-on from a previous volume, Focus on James Veitch.

The criticisms of Bishop Spong’s scholarship are really quite devastating. In almost every area in which he claims competence, and from which he draws his conclusions that Christianity is an outmoded proposition, he is shown to be either shallow or inaccurate, and often both. This is not surprising because the faith that Geering, Veitch and Spong expound is as much a faith as that of any other worshipper. The difference is that they have transferred their allegiance from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the worship of humanity. Such worship is hard to justify.

The essays are all very competently presented. Some are short and trenchant; others are longer and more meticulous in the exposition of Spong’s shallow erudition. This is especially true of three long essays by the editor, David H. Lane. He writes: “While there is sometimes a fine line between argument that is ad hominem and a rigorous critique, we have sought to avoid charges/accusations of dishonesty, stupidity, hypocrisy, and the like, even though the subject of our investigation regularly directs such barbs at his critics.” [Read more…]

DAVID LANE Wellington NZ – Author and Editor FOCUS ON JOHN SHELBY SPONG

August 16, 2015 by SPCS Leave a Comment

DAVID LANE Hataitai Wellington New Zealand – Author and Editor of Apologia

“FOCUS ON JOHN SHELBY SPONG”

Apologia Volume 7 (3/3) 2000 ISSN 1171-5863

Published by The Wellington Christian Apologetics Society Inc. (“WCAS”)

Editor and major contributor – David H. Lane M.Sc. (Hons.), Dip. Tchg.

[Author of “The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age”

(Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1996)].

DAVID LANE Hataitai Wellington New Zealand – Author and Editor of Apologia

Focus on John Shelby Spong has been republished by the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society (“WCAS”) to mark 25 years since the Society was founded and commenced publications of its journal Apologia. This work is a major critique of the published work of retired Episcopalian Bishop – John Shelby Spong – and deals with the man and his message. It thoroughly strips away the intellectual façade surrounding this provocateur who has bamboozled audiences with his rhetoric and become a darling with the liberal secular media for his espousal of a redefined version of Christianity which jettisons all traditional understanding of the Faith including the doctrines of God as Creator and Man made in the image of God.

A range of thought-provoking scholarly essays are provided by contributors including: the late Dr. George Duggan SM, one of New Zealand’s leading Catholic theologians; Dr Jonathan Sarfati, author of Refuting Evolution (1999); Michael Bott, former Vice-President of WCAS; David H. Lane, current WCAS President and author of The Phenomenon of Teilhard (1996); Prof. Gerald O’Collins, the late Archbishop of NZ Brian Davis; Dr Frank Mobbs; Kathleen Loncar; David Mills; The Very Rev. Dr Peter C. Moore (Dean and President of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry); Dr Stephen M. Smith , Prof. of Theology & Ethics, Trinity Episcopal School of Ministry; Wayne Jackson and others. The work includes a commentary on Spong’s 1997 lecture tour of NZ, a number of in-depth analyses of Spong’s theology and world-view, and reviews of Spong’s books: Resurrection: Myth or Reality?, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, and Here I Stand.

How to purchase your copy Focus on John Shelby Spong

For orders of “”, from outside New Zealand, please contact “WCAS Publications” – C/- The Editor – Apologia” by e-mail – (spcs.org@gmail.com) providing your postal address and number of copies required. Our administrator will quote you a price taking account of postage rates and negotiate payment details etc via email.

For orders from within New Zealand please send a cheque for $29.95 NZ (per copy ordered) made out to “Wellington Christian Apologetics Society” and send it to “WCAS Editor” C/- P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville 6440. Please provide your postal address and number of copies required.

Please note: Bulk discounts are available on request. For more details on the Journal visit www.christian-apologetics.org

Special Note: The republication of this work Focus on John Shelby Spong has been undertaken with the approval of SPCS Inc. which has as one of its objectives from Section 2 of its constitution: 2.(c) To encourage self-respect and the dignity of the human person, made in the image of God.

David Lane, Wellington, NZ – Author: The Phenomenon of Teilhard – Mercer University Press

August 14, 2015 by SPCS Leave a Comment

David Lane, Wellington New Zealand – Author

The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age.

By David H. Lane.Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press (1996). 189 pages

In The Phenomenon of Teilhard, David Lane makes a thorough and well-documented case for the thesis that a relatively obscure Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), exerted a major influence on the evolving modernist theology of the church as well as the New Age movement within Western civilization. Teilhard’s numerous writings of a philosophical or theological nature were considered so harmful by the Roman Catholic Church that they were banned in 1947. This only added to his prestige as Teilhard “seemed to delight in seeing himself as a modern-day Galileo” (p. 13). Throughout his life, Teilhard privately wrote a succession of essays and letters revealing his evolving synthesis of philosophy and theology with the theory of evolution. He wrote in a lyrical, evocative style laced with highly personalized neologisms and ephemeral imagery lulling his followers along a mystical pathway toward what he called the “Omega Point,” where allegedly all reality, consciousness, and mankind in general spirituality unite in perfect godhead. Teilhard believed that: “Science, in all probability, will be progressively more impregnated by mysticism” (p. 83).

David Lane, Wellington NZ. Author

(photo inset copyright D. Lane)

Teilhard de Chardin’s marked influence as an “evolutionary natural philosopher” was largely due to his degrees in geology and paleontology (p. 11). He wrote at a time in history when society was fascinated by all that claimed to be “scientific.” Teilhard was determined to reconcile the doctrine of evolution with Christianity, and Lane shows how he changed the Christ presented in Scripture into a universal redeemer, the “cosmic emergence of the Spirit” (p. 20). [Read more…]

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