Upon recommendation I read The Alchemist by best-selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. A fable/parable novel, it has some great insights into why we don’t pursue our dreams.
What bugs me about the book is its New Age-y themes. Although Christ appears in the book, there are a crystal shop, omens, Melchizedek, and the mysterious Urim and Thummim as well.
Many people may be blest by the book, but I have a feeling of dys-ease about stuff like this, born of Isaiah’s prohibition of the occult (8.19-20).
Today’s Christians have yet to decide where the boundaries are about the occult. Yeah, that includes Harry Potter—all volumes of which I’ve read and admire.
If you compare Narnia to Potter, however, you notice the difference between books drenched in the Bible and the Holy Spirit (Lewis) and books which commend virtue but do not provide a foundation for it (Rowling). The culture has lost much of its Christian light.
I don’t like closed-minded critics, and hope not to be one.
This issue belongs among those like food offered to idols (1 Cor. 8). Some say such things as witches have no life, hence are harmless; while, for others, witchcraft is a grave danger to life in Christ.
Coelho’s book was a good read, a fast read. I especially liked the prologue to the 10th anniversary edition. My dream has been to write and publish, which I’ve done only a little. Perhaps Coelho will encourage me not to let go of that dream yet.
The Pilgrimage, same author, is an autobiographical/fictional account of the author’s pilgrimage along El Camino de Santiago de Compestelo (Way of St. James in northern Spain), which he describes as a life-changing event. Would it answer some of my questions?
Your insights are welcome.
