The Other Worldview: Exposing Christianity's Greatest Threat

by Peter R. Jones

"A must-read for every concerned American--and especially for every Christian who weeps at the graveside of his culture." --R.C. Sproul

A cataclysmic change has occurred as our culture has shifted toward belief in "Oneism."

Every religion and philosophy fits into one of two basic worldviews: "Oneism" asserts that everything is essentially one, while "Twoism" affirms an irreducible distinction between creation and Creator. The Other Worldview exposes the pagan roots of Oneism, traces its spread throughout Western culture, and demonstrates its inability to save.

"For bodily holiness and transformed thinking . . . we depend entirely on one amazing thing: the incredibly powerful message of the Gospel to a sinful world, which is the ultimate expression and goal of Twoism. The only hope is in Christ alone."

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Christian, Cultural, Christianity, Nonfiction, Christian Non Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2015

About the author

Peter Jones (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is the author of many books, including One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference, The God of Sex: How Spirituality Defines Your Sexuality, and The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An Old Heresy for the New Age. He is the executive director of truthXchange and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America.

Reviews

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s important that we understand where the culture is at so we as Christians know where to resist - and Peter Jones articulates everything you need to know in this incredibly well researched book.

The information he provided has been life changing in terms of how I think about apologetics and how I relate to and engage with this world as a Christian. I had to put the book aside often because I was so moved to worship God for opening my eyes and setting me free from all these demonic things. Having come from a pagan background before being born again, this book gave me the language I needed to be able to explain to people what exactly I used to believe in, while also revealing to me blind spots in my thinking. I also have a much better understanding of the subtleties of the world’s teachings, and a better understanding as to what worldly and seeker-friendly Christianity looks like, which I am immensely grateful for. Highly recommend!!

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely well written book that describes the two worldviews which are battling for the allegiance of every human on earth. Dr. Peter Jones describes how the Bible teaches there are only two religions in the world, monism (called oneism) & Christianity (called twoism).

Chronicling the decline of the Christian philosophical underpinnings of Western culture, Dr. Jones documents the resurgence of ancient paganism in modern dress. He does this by giving us a historical overview of the nature of the cultural & spiritual war we are involved in. He describes how in many ways we have returned to similar spiritual conditions that prevailed during the Roman Empire with its diverse multiculturalism & monistic views of reality.

Dr. Jones contends that the modern day wellspring feeding this new Oneism is found in the teachings of 20th century psychologist Carl Jung, I was surprised by that, & he makes a compelling case. The author effectively unpacks the lesser known but more authentic Jung for us, a spiritual pantheist whose mystical & philosophical musings are found interwoven into various modern movements such as the Sixties sexual revolution, the so-called Age of Aquarius, new age mysticism, yoga, re-definitions of gender & sex & the related redefining of the institution of marriage. This worldview foundationally holds that all good & evil, all right & wrong, male & female, indeed all creational opposites of importance simply cease to exist as such... defined away. Rather than separate entities or opposing realities they are just various integrated parts of the whole. All is homogenized & accepted as good because it exists. The only wrongs are biblical moral distinctions & the acknowledgment of a sovereign Creator God.

Dr. Jones helps us greatly by making distinctions & giving us categories to enable us to better understand what is going on & to be more effective in communicating the truth.

A very important read.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jones defines and analyzes the rise of neopaganism in North America and makes a case for the urgency of the Christian response. This book was eye-opening, almost to a horrifying level. Jones helped me understand the philosophical connections between the various cultural revolutions of the 20th and 21st centuries. I was encouraged by his focus on the centrality and beautifully compelling nature of the Christian gospel and the type of life it produces in the believer. I've recently encountered some of these neopagan ideas while sidewalk counseling and Jones's explanation was helpful and clarifying for conversations that otherwise would have been utterly shocking and disorienting.

[Mak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cogent and sobering, with far-reaching implications. I find Jones’ paradigm of One-ist VS Two-ist worldviews to be extremely helpful. Highly recommend.

[Chris Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Jones begins this remarkable book with a bold and striking claim: “the dark forces of Sauron have taken power in the once Christian Shire of Western culture. First appearing as secular humanism, these forces have now grown into a much more formidable opponent of Christianity: a full-blown cosmology of pagan lore.” The LoTR reference initially comes across as cliched, but as the book continues, Jones’ thesis becomes first credible and then compelling. In short, he sees all worldviews and religions as being in one of two categories - either recognising the Creator-creature distinction or failing to do so. He calls these two categories “Oneism” (pantheism or monism) and “Twoism” (cosmic duality), which is initially simple but actually incredibly powerful as an explanatory tool when seeking to understand contemporary culture. His secondary contention is that, with the credibility of humanistic secularism as a coherent and compelling worldview, a pagan spirituality similar to that encountered by the early church is the main alternative to the monotheistic faiths. While his primary focus is on the West, thinking in terms of Christianity and post-Christian spirituality, the same principles can be applied anywhere and are useful in understanding any faith system or worldview. As he unpacks these ideas in the Western context, he shows that the post-secular age we are now in - the age of oneism - has adopted a synthetic worldview that combines science, Western romanticism and Eastern mysticism. Further, he shows that there is deep compatibility between secular humanism and pagan spirituality, which allows the prevailing non-Christian Western worldview to appear both coherent and convincing.

The first few chapters set out the essential building blocks for the prevailing ‘oneist’ worldview in the 21st-century West. He begins by setting out some definitions, and his explanation of what we mean by “worldview” is excellent: “A worldview contains a series of convictions and conclusions about the nature of the world that provide fundamental meaning and direction for our lives, just as the Tube map will direct a journey across London. Though our beliefs often are unarticulated inklings or unexamined hunches, we all have a worldview - the simple act of opening our mouths to speak shows a belief that life has significance and somehow fits together. Interpreting a map of life is more complicated than that of the London Underground, so we sometimes give up and hop on the next train that comes by.” In a Western context, Jones continues by pointing out that our previous (more or less) Christian civilisation and its related plausibility structures have been replaced by a new system of spiritual beliefs and practices. These include: “Morality is relativized by varied (and often contradictory) personal or social convictions; Honesty means being true to one’s inner commitments and longings more than to external expectations or objective facts; Acceptable models of sexuality and family allow various combinations of persons and genders; Marriage is often functionally indistinguishable from mutually convenient cohabitation; Motherhood is celebrated in the same breath with abortion on demand.” Further, “The meaning and context of spirituality and religion have undergone a paradigm shift no less fundamental. The notion of God now allows for polytheism (many gods) or pantheism (a god identical with the universe)...Spirituality has become a do-it-yourself life hobby that blends ancient Eastern practices with modern consumer sensibilities.”

In comparing and contrasting these two prevailing worldviews, he comments that, “Oneism sees the world as self-creating (or perpetually existing) and self-explanatory. Everything is made up of the same stuff, whether matter, spirit, or a mixture. There’s one kind of existence, which, in one way or another, we worship as divine (or of ultimate importance), even if that means worshipping ourselves. Though there is apparent differentiation and even hierarchy, all distinctions are, in principle, eliminated, and everything has the same worth…Twoism…the only other option is a world that is the free work of a personal, transcendent God, who creates ex nihilo (from nothing). In creating, God was not constrained by or dependent on any preexisting conditions…There is God, and there is everything that is not-God…This worldview celebrates otherness, distinctiveness. We only worship as divine the distinct, personal, triune Creator, who placed essential distinctions within the creation…Both of these worldviews, whether implicitly assumed or explicitly embraced, require the same fundamental certainty. In other words, if one is ultimately true, the other must be false.”

Next, Jones examines the rise and fall of secular humanism, describing “a period of about two centuries during which the secular humanist program was an immense success. Even the church was invaded in full force and began seeking to reinterpret the Christian message in anti-supernatural terms. In the 19th century, secularism in Christian dress, known as theological liberalism, became a powerful factor in the Christian movement…So, what is secularism or secular humanism, and what has it become? It is now known under other names. As an intellectual discipline it is called philosophical materialism; as a social movement it is known as modernity; as a somewhat religious expression it is described as atheism; as a political theory it is practiced as Marxism; and for many people, it is an un-thought out, default way of living as if God did not exist. All these expressions of secularism reject the supernatural as a holdover from superstitious, primitive faith systems.” Jones argues that secular humanism has largely run its course, helped along by postmodernism: As a philosophy, postmodernism deconstructs the validity of the claim of rational discourse to be an objective account of the true nature of things. Truth, taken in this sense, is merely personal power that one person or social group attempts to impose on others or to employ for selfish ends. A rational explanation has become impossible…the end of secular humanism is also the end of postmodernism. As a reasonable critique of rationality, postmodernism is, in some ways, the last gasp of enlightenment philosophy, which presupposes a metanarrative of its own, one perhaps more subtle than others, but in the end no less subject to deconstructive criticism.”

From here, Jones moves on to look at the influence of Carl Jung and his dream for a ‘new humanity’. The parting of ways between Jung and Freud mirrored the wider cultural victory of spirituality over humanistic materialism, as “Jung was not just proposing a theory of psychological therapy, but a worldview by which all could reach higher levels of personal liberation.” Importantly, the view of psychological health that Jung promoted, and which remains so influential today, is deeply influenced by historic pagan religion. Jones points out that, “We doubtless have little understanding of the new spirituality’s origins if we are only now, in the 21st century, noticing its arrival. We are not, as some may think, entering uncharted territory. Spirituality always grows from deep roots. Jung’s use of ancient pagan archetypes in psychology was only new because of its application to modern therapeutic techniques. Many people today identify themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” but where did that come from?... What Jung and his circle promoted in the first half of the 20th century…is now appearing on the surface of our culture as what it really is - the return to the West of an elaborate, extensive, impressive paganism that in one form or another has flourished throughout the entire course of human history.” Jones is careful to point out here that pagan does not in this context refer to ancient tribal religions or immoral, ‘godless’ people. Most modern pagans are opposed to organised religion in any form - what unites them is an essentially oneist worldview. A connected idea is what Huxley referred to as the ‘perennial philosophy’, which finds in the soul something similar to or even identical with divine reality. In other words, the divine ultimately lies within creation, or even within the individual, rather than outside and separate from the creation.

Jones wraps up this first part of his book by considering the spiritual and sexual revolution of the 1960s. In short, the Christian view of God was reinterpreted via a pantheism that was heavily influenced by Hinduism: “In the Sixties, during the postmodern deconstruction of secular humanism, an odd spiritual phenomenon with no real precedents in Western history arose, calling itself 'the New Age.’ A stream of Eastern spirituality merged with a brook of Western esoterism (the search for the true divine self) to become, in a few short years, a flood engulfing what had been for over two centuries a historically theistic/ Twoistic culture.” Jones concludes that the result of these changes is “social and personal implosion,” explaining that “The public interest or the common good are meaningless unless we have a common measure, an agreed principle of justice and a concept of human flourishing. Pragmatism can only take us so far. We need convictions about moral truth, and we no longer have them…Oneists describe what seem to be civic or political issues, but which hide a deep spiritual program below the surface…eliminating a final hell eliminates an absolute Judge, thus obliging the human race to create its own set of morals and to enforce them. This produces hell on earth. There is no ultimate justice or accountability with regard to real evil - only the values imposed by human power.”

In the second part, Jones draws out some of the results of this giving over of Western culture to an essentially pagan worldview, and the ways it challenges or opposes a Christian worldview. He begins with a helpful and striking summary of what he has said thus far: “America has become the creator and incubator of a worldview that joins Eastern spirituality with Western pragmatism. It is promoted as a new wisdom tradition of Western shamans for the salvation of the entire planet. Christian believers must understand the systematic character of this wisdom tradition, both in order to speak the gospel clearly to it and also to avoid subtle temptations to compromise.”

One such challenge, also noted elsewhere, is in the subtle redefinition of tolerance: “After decades of undermining the West’s Christian heritage, the new utopian, totalitarian vision, empowered by a sense of historical destiny, is using selective tolerance to make it obvious that in the future there will only be one way or the highway…the postsecular era can claim to be on the right side of history in representing the triumph of a pagan cosmology over both materialistic secular humanism and biblical faith.”

Another is the blurring, indeed synthesis, of good and evil. Jones explains that, “for Jung, all archetypes or mythical powers are finally united, pointing to ‘the sphere of the unus mundus, the unitary world… the ultimate ground of the universe.’ Experiencing this unity is the key to mental health. His analytic psychology saw the task of the self to unify all polarities into a psychic whole. The self is the total complex of unconscious archetypes (that is, our instincts) whose conscious integration brings wholeness. For wholeness to occur, good must be integrated with evil, male balanced with female, darkness with light…This joining of the opposites means that there is more to a spiritual high than mere trancelike ecstasy. Going beyond the limitations of the mind also goes beyond rational definitions of right and wrong. Everything about you is okay. All your instincts are valid. In pantheism, good and evil are part of the whole. When we go within, notions like right and wrong, guilt and bad conscience disappear. Jung speaks of drawing strength from the dark or shadow side of the self, accepting evil as the partner of good, assuming both to achieve self-reliance or individuation.” This is a striking insight, and extremely helpful in understanding some of the more puzzling aspects of recent societal and cultural change in the West, from a Christian perspective. Jones concludes that, “Jung indeed has succeeded where the pagan apostate emperor Julian failed.” He expands on this by explaining that “Once a person or a culture adopts the idea that this world is all there is, as is typical of pagan myth, certain things follow regardless of the primitiveness or the modernity of the person or culture. Among these are the devaluing of individual persons, the loss of an interest in history, fascination with magic and the occult and the denial of individual responsibility. The opposites of these, among which are what we have taken to be the glories of modern Western culture, are by-products of the biblical worldview. As that worldview is progressively lost among us, we are losing the by-products as well. Not realizing that they are by-products, we are surprised to see them go, but we have no real explanation for their departure.”

In the final part of the book, Jones starts to plot a way forward for Christians as we seek to engage missionally with our culture, to challenge its assumptions with a biblical perspective, and ultimately to offer a better and more satisfying explanation for the nature of reality through the good news of the gospel. He begins with a warning, reminding the reader that “Well-meaning Christians have often made the mistake of thinking that their surrounding culture is, at worst, neutral and, at best, a redemptive work of the Spirit that shares authority with the Scriptures.” Hopefully, everything that has gone before has shown that this is not the case, and that the prevailing Western culture is indeed post-Christian, pagan, and radically incompatible with any form of biblically faithful Christianity.

One of the helpful insights from this section is the importance of the concept of holiness, a given for a twoist worldview but an impossibility for the oneist, to any coherent notion of justice and human rights. Jones explains the significance of this as, “Oneism is a form of spiritual holism where everything is considered good because it is an aspect of the whole - including God and Satan, virtue and vice. Twoism in its very essence contains holiness, where things are not confused but have their special, God-ordained places…To create is to separate and to separate is to make holy. They are synonymous terms. Thus, created things, in their separateness, reflect in a creaturely way the holiness of God…it is from a biblical understanding of holiness - things in their rightful, God-ordained places - that the civic principles of justice and rights derive…From justice flow human rights that make possible successful communal living…If Nature is denied, then justice will necessarily be reduced to what is willed, which, in turn, becomes right as the rule of the stronger.”

Another helpful insight is on the place and purpose of the mind. Briefly, for the twoist, the goal “is not to know an intellectual system, but to know the personal God behind it and be saved.” This flows from our cosmology, which must describe “the character of the divine as either ontologically transcendent and separate from nature or ontologically immanent within nature. These two options are mutually exclusive; there is no hope of bringing them together in some kind of hybrid system. The struggle will go on until the end of history, when the Truth will be finally and fully revealed.” For the Christian, the latter view (that of the divine as being ontologically immanent within nature) is what the Apostle Paul describes as blindness, the result of an undiscerning, debased mind. While not necessarily where we would start an evangelistic conversation, this is an important truth for Christians to hold onto as we remember the importance of the transformation of the mind that is part of regeneration and conversion. This cannot be overstated, as “The transformed mind that Scripture describes and offers enables us to know the essence of God’s revelation of the truth of existence. We are called to think and to worship God with all our mind, our heart, our soul, and our strength.” Among others, this transformation impacts on ontology (We glorify the person of God by recognizing his holiness as a radically distinct being, expressed as the essence of Twoist truth), theology (We recognize in God’s self-disclosure the personhood of God in the Twoist character of the Trinity— three distinct persons joined in the perfect unity of the godhead), cosmology (Because of the being of God as Creator and everything else as creature, the nature of existence is two), anthropology (We know who we are as intended created beings, not the results of chance, made for God’s glory), morality (Because God creates everything in its place, creation is holy, and from this we derive notions of right and wrong), soteriology (Because God is Trinity, and thus upholds a Twoist cosmology, he can be the effective Redeemer) and eschatology (This salvation has a final, cosmos-transforming moment).

It would be a grave mistake to read the above, and indeed the whole book, and to conclude that the task of the Christian is to win an intellectual argument with our non-Christian neighbours. What we need to work, pray and witness for is that they would encounter God himself in the person of the Lord Jesus. Jones explains that, “at the heart of biblical cosmology, extended to all, is a transformational meeting with the power of God…For Jung, getting in touch with one’s true harmonious self, joining the opposites of good and evil and eliminating guilt, was the world’s only hope. This solution illustrates a major problem of paganism and emergent liberalism— no real recognition of evil, and thus the inability to genuinely deal with it. Everything is finally excused and relativized away…Only the gospel offers an effective answer for the problem of cosmic evil…The same message that the early church preached is the one we now carry forward by the Spirit of God. The culture cannot renew the planet, forgive sins, or create eternal life. All is God’s doing.”

This, finally, is our hope in engaging with a perplexing and often hostile culture. Peter Jones has written a timely and supremely helpful book to help Christians in the 21st Century West engage more effectively, sensitively and thoughtfully with the cultural moment in which we find ourselves.

[Sud Alogu · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his book, The Other Worldview, Peter Jones explores the clash between the Christian faith and modern culture. He presents a compelling case for why the church should embrace the gospel’s unique perspective on social justice and cultural engagement. By doing so, he argues that Christians can effectively spread their message and make an impact in today’s world. The central theme of Jones’ book is that Christianity offers a unique worldview that differs markedly from most other philosophies.

He outlines this worldview as one of “the kingdom of God,” a term used to describe God’s rule on earth. According to Jones, this kingdom stands in stark contrast to the secularism which has become increasingly popular in our current society. Secularism places ultimate value on things like material possessions and individual autonomy, while Christianity values relationships between people and service to others. Jones then delves into what it looks like for Christians to live out their faith each day within this different worldview. He calls it “living missionally”—that is, living life intentionally with an outward focus on how we can serve those around us.

This involves actively engaging with our culture by seeking to understand it first before trying to change it—a practice he refers to as “cultural discernment”. Finally, Jones emphasizes the need for unity among believers as they attempt to live out their faith in today’s world.

•Peter Jones argues that there are only two worldviews that underlie how we interpret the world – “Oneism” and “Twoism.”

• Oneism is associated with ancient paganism and it has overtaken the Western cultural structures rooted in biblical truth (Twoism).

• Onism is a lie that has been presented as an explanation of human existence. In the United States, millennials are the first generation to be immersed from birth with such a coherently antibiblical system.

•Carl Jung is an important figure in the history of religious thought.

• His influence can be seen in the rise of paganism and “spiritual but not religious” beliefs in modern society.

• The term “perennial philosophy” refers to the belief that all religions share a common origin and goal.

• This philosophy has been promoted by influential figures such as Prince Charles, Joseph Campbell, and Huston Smith.

•In the 21st century, Western culture is increasingly fascinated by ancient mythology and spiritualities, including many forms of Oneism.

• This trend is evident in the popularity of yoga, meditation, and other Eastern practices; the mainstreaming of the New Age movement; and interfaith efforts by religious leaders.

• Jungian psychology has played a role in this shift, with its emphasis on breaking free from traditional constraints and exploring one’s “instinctual being.”

• The result is a society that is more open to diverse sexual identities and practices.

•Hollywood and the media have been manipulating the rising generation on the issue of sexuality in recent years.

• Pansexuality is a pretext for a much larger agenda.

• The sexual agenda is just a visible symbol of a powerful, century-long deconstruction of the Christian worldview and its replacement with a pagan Oneist cosmology, of which sexuality is a sacrament.

•Sexual boundary-breaking and excesses in today’s culture are due in part to the resurgence of an ancient Oneist worldview that views sexuality as a spiritual act.

• This change can be seen in the way we openly celebrate what would have shamed many previous generations.

• The biblical understanding is that though sexual sin is indeed an issue of immoral behavior, it’s even more an expression of a religious commitment.

• Sexual inversion of the created order is an embodied manifestation of Oneist worship and cosmology.

•There is no inherent limit on what, who, or how many can be married.

• The rejection of sexual individualism was at the core of Christian culture.

• The West is rapidly re-paganizing around sensuality and sexual liberation.

• Through technological advances in medical science, deadly diseases have been eradicated.

• Millions have been lifted from poverty and have gained access to education and health care, leading to longer, more prosperous lives.

• Wayne Baker believes that Americans are solidly bound together through 10 core values.

Rieff wrote, “the rejection of sexual individualism” was “very near the core” of the Christian culture. Today, that same core is being challenged by a resurgence of Oneist thinking that celebrates sexual freedom and expression as a spiritual act. This challenge is manifested in the way our society celebrates what would have shamed many previous generations, the increase of sexually liberal values, and the open acceptance of different sexual identities and practices. The West is quickly transforming from a traditional, Christian society to one that is more open to diverse beliefs and practices, with sensuality and sexual liberation at its core.

There is, therefore, no inherent limit on what, who, or how many can be married—why limit an important aspect of human self-realization to one man and woman, or to only two consenting adults?

•Many have given up on formal marriage due to insecurities, with 50% of women living with a partner they’re not married to (up from 35% in 1995)

• Couples often wait too long to have children, resulting in record levels of infertility

• Emotional health is declining as the family collapses, with suicide now surpassing car crashes as the leading cause of death for Americans

• One third of American employees suffer chronic and debilitating stress

•Despite the initial optimism of the “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” generation of their parents, millennials face 16 percent unemployment, crushing debts for sometimes worthless degrees, a 20 trillion dollar government deficit they did not create, and oppressive taxes.


Continue reading:

https://unearnedwisdom.com/the-other-...

[Élizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Very timely book! Loved his thesis that there is fundamentally only two world views. Loved seeing how our world developed into its present state.

The first half of the book was a bit of a heavy read with lots of social and philosophical details, which decreased my pleasure a bit (an entire chapter on Jung! I shall never think of my Myers Briggs in the same way ever again).

Also--this book is extremely well researched! On my kindle, the book's actual content represents only 30% of the length!!!

Overall, I'm glad I persevered.

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more relevant now than when it was published (2015). Jones uncovers the tangled roots of our cultural meltdown. Ideas have consequences, and there are really only 2 options for our worldview. Read this book if you want to understand what is happening in our world today.

[Kiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simplification of the worldview discussion and yet a complexed treatment of what is at stake, Jones collapses all non-theistic worldviews into the notion of “oneism” and presents an historical and biblical theology of its falsehood. Oneism is a closed cosmological system, where all things are of the same essence. All is nature (materialism), all is spirit (idealism), or all are both collapsed on each other (monism/paganism). His contention, and I agree, is that materialism as a worldview is dying. It’s empty and has left the west craving spiritual salve. Anesthetized to Christian theism, the west is turning back to paganism. This is in contrast to Christian theism, or Twoism, that contrasts creator and creation. Instead of this hetero-spirituality that acknowledges the otherness of our creator, each other, and many other self-evident distinctions in creation design, oneism collapses into a homo-spirituality, seeing no distinction from creator and creation, between genders, seeking a pan-spirituality to bolster its pan-sexuality, cannot accept a personal trinitarian godhead, and seeks a self-divinity by looking within. Progressive sects of Christianity are exposed in this regard as well, as paganism in Christian dress. Jones has a compelling treatment on Jungian thought as the intellectual framework for modern Neo-Gnosticism, and his influence on modern global power brokers. He ends with classic gospel centered calls to holiness, clear communication of biblical truth, and reminders of where the real spiritual power resides, in our creator who redeems his fallen creation. Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 272 pages of truth, and everything else.

[Mark Loughridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading - probably a lot of reviews say that about books - but this one is essential reading for those who wish to think deeply and carefully about the world we live in and communicating the gospel within it.

How are we to make sense of what is happening in terms of people's thinking? Peter Jones suggests that the issue boils down to something very simple: What is reality? Is it One or Two?

The book is an analysis of how One-ism (the idea that there is only one entity [matter or spirit, but ultimately only spirit]) has come to dominate thinking, and how it is a fundamental denial of Two-ism (the idea that there is both Creator and Creation) and all its distinctions. This book will make you think--it will join up dots for you in a very helpful way. Why is the current ethos to deny distinctions between male and female? Why are we increasingly incapable of distinguishing right from wrong (or at least articulating it)? Part of the answer is that the whole fundamental issue of there being this and that, Creator and creature, or there even being distinctions is under attack.

After analysing it, and showing the pervasiveness of it, almost causing you to despair, Jones proposes how Christians are to live in such a world. And wonderfully and gloriously the solution is simple and biblical. I will leave it there, but I found his closing section in which he shows that it has always been thus and that how Paul addressed the Roman Christians still applies today, wonderfully helpful and encouraging.

[Landon Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jones presents two basic options to categorize all worldviews, religions, ideologies, and faiths: oneism and twoism. Oneism is essentially paganism, and with the demise of modernism, Jones argues that oneism / paganism is making a comeback (Jones isn't the only one making this argument today, by the way). Against pagan oneism, Jones presents traditional, orthodox, Biblical Christianity as twosim. That is, Christianity is a faith that recognizes the fundamental distinction between God and creation. While this book isn't the easiest to read (likely because of the abstract content, and possibly because of Jone's writing style), the fundamental idea of oneism and twoism is very helpful when thinking about worldview issues.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jones unveils the growth of paganism in our day and introduces his useful paradigm, “oneism vs. twoism” based off Romans 1:25 “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped the creation over the Creator.” For Jones, there is only two kinds of worship, either the Creator God who is distinctly other and separate from his creation or some object of creation. There are only two options. To be human is to worship. Empty notions of pagan spirituality are on the rise in our day says Jones, and we must understand these claims in order to counteract them with gospel truth.

Jones also reveals contradictory nature of Carl Jung’s theories when compared with the revealed truth of Scripture.

[Raewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book for a Christian or even a secular person to sit down and read and contemplate why the western world has gone the way it has with regards to the changing sense of morality or right and wrong. One doesn't have to be American to find value in this book. I personally have found it well written, researched and the ideas pulled together and presented in a way that makes sense.

If you're curious about the culture today and how wrong it now seems (antithetical to previously held views on just about every moral notion that no longer seems to have a yes or no answer in the world), read this book.

The author puts forth the notion of oneism and twoism and that the pagan world view is oneist in its ultimate aim to unite the individual to the universe and Christianity is twoist - seeing the creature and creator as separate. That's just one part of (I thought) a well-thought out book on what society's culture really is in contrast to the Christian world view and perhaps even to suggest why it's at odds.

[Carole Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a child of unbelief during the tumultuous 60s. But while raising children in the 80s and 90s, I sensed I was rowing my family’s boat against a strong current of cultural dishonesty and immorality. After my marriage failed—he chose to go with the flow—I began to embrace Christianity. Thanks to Peter Jones’ insightful and incisive book, I now know that strong current is paganism—all is one—and my choice was and is two: God is God, and I am not. Evil exists in the world, and with the help of God, I will not conform to that paganism. One of the most important books I’ve ever read.

[Sara Christians · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, I believe, the best of Peter Jones's works. He so eloquently and succinctly identifies the competing worldviews of Oneism and Twoism in a way that can be grasped by anyone. Although the concept is simple, he provides rich analysis and observations from a lifetime of study. All Christians should read this book; it is the best that I have read on the subject of worldview and on the pagan beliefs of the culture we live in

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incisive and insightful. Made me look at Jung and Jordan Peterson in a different way. Jones presents the ancient antithesis between God’s way and the world’s way in a paradigm that I still need to think about (especially with regard to how it fits in with the triperspectival framework I’ve adapted from John Frame). But the endnotes themselves are an education. Outstanding and highly recommended!

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Jones's thesis is that there are only two belief systems: that all is one (what he calls Oneism and which he links to paganism, gnosticism, and the belief behind a lot of the current social and gender issues) or that there is a distinction between creature and Creator (what he walls Twoism). The book is well researched, which makes his thesis pretty convincing. I found it to be informative.

[Katie Buckner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philosophical look at Christian worldview

A good summary of how the world thinks differently than Christ teaches. Helpful to understand what is wrong in our world. Well written. Nice description of philosophers' views.

[Kevin M. Labadessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be useful in exposing the other worldview that Christians must contend with as Ambassadors of Christ! If you enjoy Christian apologetics as much as I do then you will want to read this book!

[Lanny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things I learned: Why Jung matters and the mysticism subtext all throughout American culture.

Important thing worth noting: Approximately 1/2 of the book are just the notes in the back so don't let the length of book scare you.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic breakdown of the spirit of the age driving the decline of Western Civilization. Highest of recommendations. In fact, it is almost necessary reading for correctly understanding current culture and it's opposition to Biblical truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[Keith Tolbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vitally important!

[Christian Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.

Insightful analysis of the present conditions of the world and provides a new and thoughtful paradigm to examine current events .

[Jerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone interested in Christian Apologetics.

[Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading in today's Oneist climate.

[Brian de Britto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful analysis of modern new age spirituality, which is merely the revival of ancient paganism, and the threat it poses to the church.

[Dr. Jon Pirtle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand why paganism, 'spiritual but not religious' talk pervades the West nowadays, this book by Dr. Jones is a gem.