Short answer: Because the demise of real Christianity in the West (Europe and America), is being replaced by theological flim-flam and all sorts of occulture. (This is part of the reason why I object to Christians baptizing that stuff; “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”).
Longer answer: This important new book — and this important review of that book — is your answer:
The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences
Basically, we have moved into a post-modern, post-Christian world. The transition is well underway. That doesn’t mean most people believe in nothing, or that the West is now secularized. It means a return to mythic thinking (which never went away in modernity, and which was a major part of postmodernism and will continue into the future). Understanding claims of the paranormal and “spiritual stuff” will be crucial to ministry in the future. Rather than run from the matrix of new-old ideas, we need to become fluent in them. Rather than caricature them, we need to see how deep their roots actually are, and how strongly they appeal to the West, which is losing its soul.
I would also add these two titles for serious readers:
