In a well-paced and reader-friendly book, Dougherty goes to great lengths to explain New Thought and show where it makes its presence known both in the wider culture and the church. It has influenced the rise of relativism and new notions of identity. It lies behind certain forms of self-help and the Law of Attraction. And it makes its presence known in Word of Faith, progressive Christianity, and even (to lesser degree) the seeker-sensitive Church Growth Movement.

I’m quite certain you have heard of the New Age movement. Though its popularity seems to have crested and begun to wane some time ago, it continues to wield a good bit of influence. But I wonder if you’ve heard of another similarly-named but quite different movement called New Thought. Unlike New Age which originated within Eastern religions, New Thought originated within a Christian (or Christianesque, at least) context. This means it has a guise of Christianity and uses many of the same words and concepts. It can therefore disguise itself within churches and movements while maintaining a veneer of Christianity. It’s a clever deception.

New Thought is the subject of Melissa Dougherty’s new book Happy Lies: How a Movement You (Probably) Never Heard Of Shaped Our Self-Obsessed World. As you may surmise from the title, Dougherty believes New Thought is not merely a movement that infiltrates and perverts Christian contexts, but also one that has helped shape the Western world. Have you ever wondered why objective truth has been diminished in favor of subjective feelings or why young people are told to relentlessly focus on positivity yet seem sadder than ever? Have you ever wondered why some churches preach messages of personal empowerment in favor of biblical emphases like meekness and poverty of spirit? The answer—or partial answer, at least—is New Thought.

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