Book Review: The Magic by Rhonda Byrne

Not all that glitters is gold and not everything is actually what they appear to be. These trite sayings hit me with full force this week in the office when I picked up one of a set of books that was delivered to my boss to skim through. It may not be fair on my part to be reviewing this book since I didn’t read through to the end and in fact, I could not complete it because I decided not to do so and I’m mighty glad I didn’t. I found the content of this book too infuriating and couldn’t stomach all the regurgitation of New Age philosophy that’s been repacked and presented as novelty. This book I am berating is The Magic by Rhonda Byrne.

It was the title of this book, which I assumed to be a novel, that attracted me to pick it up to give it a read but how sorely I was mistaken. The Magic could properly be tagged the quintessential New Age book and like most books in this genre, it marshals an eclectic collection of quotes from all the major religions of the world to corroborate what the author considers “a great mystery revealed.” 

This “great mystery” we are informed is Gratitude and according to the author is the hidden secret behind the successes of all the major movers and shakers of the world both past and present and to buttress this point, Rhonda cites such noted religious leaders and authorities like Mohammed, Krishna and Jesus Christ who according to the author all practiced this secret of success.

Typical of most New Age books, this extensive collection of quotes is meant to achieve a certain kind of cross-over appeal that will gain the approval of all and sundry regardless of one’s (ir)religious background. However, it is this very sort of approach that I find most repulsive as it attempts to mimic some tenets of Christianity but actually ends up misappropriating them because it tries to please everybody, Christians and non-Christians alike, thus end up pleasing nobody especially conventional catholic Christians like me.

What was even more offensive yet unsurprising for me were claims by the author about some biblical characters she employed in her book often out of context. For instance, she says “King David spoke of giving thanks to the whole world, for everything between the heavens and the earth.” This quote is an example of the classic subtle subterfuge that is rampant in New Age philosophy and which many unsuspecting victims fall prey to.

Instead of saying David gave thanks for the world(in which case he’ll be giving thanks to another, presumably Yahweh), she says he gave thanks to the world(in which case the world is the deity to which David’s appreciation is directed. Little wonder New Agers often refer to the earth as ‘mother’). This simple change of proposition totally alters the meaning of the sentence and is likely to escape the uncritical reader and hence likely to be hoodwinked.

Another one of such quotes is this, that “Jesus said “thank you” before he performed each miracle.” This statement though superficially acceptable is very ambiguous as the “thank you” is addressed to no one in particular. This ambiguity syncs perfectly with New Ageism whose deity is an undefined amorphous force and is nothing like Yahweh of Christianity.

I suspect, however, that what gives The Magic its appeal is the fact that ‘gratitude’ is indeed virtuous and every religion teaches and encourages it among its adherents. Yet an even more appealing attribute of this book is its claim that gratitude is the panacea to every problem under the sun and the author assures it will achieve for the reader a healthy body, flourishing career, happy relationships and all other personal desires without breaking sweat! Who wouldn’t want that? And to achieve this, the book is divided into 28 daily readings with confessions and to-do activities that are designed to ensure readers “deliberately feel it [i.e. gratitude] as much as you can, because it’s the force of your feeling that accelerates the magic in your life.”

A lot more could be said about the book but suffice it to say this is not a book I will recommend to any of my Christian friends because it is bad in a not so obvious way which in my view makes it even more dangerous.

Christians, stay away from The Magic!