New Age and Neopagan Religions in America

Sarah M. Pike

ISBN 10: 0231124031 / ISBN 13: 9780231124034

Edité par Columbia University Press Okt 2006, 2006

A propos de cet article

Neuware - From Shirley MacLaine's spiritual biography Out on a Limb to the teenage witches in the film The Craft, New Age and Neopagan beliefs have made sensationalistic headlines. In the mid- to late 1990s, several important scholarly studies of the New Age and Neopagan movements were published, attesting to academic as well as popular recognition that these religions are a significant presence on the contemporary North American religious landscape. Self-help books by New Age channelers and psychics are a large and growing market; annual spending on channeling, self-help businesses, and alternative health care is at $10 to $14 billion; an estimated 12 million Americans are involved with New Age activities; and American Neopagans are estimated at around 200,000. New Age and Neopagan Religions in America introduces the beliefs and practices behind the public faces of these controversial movements, which have been growing steadily in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America.What is the New Age movement, and how is it different from and similar to Neopaganism in its underlying beliefs and still-evolving practices Where did these decentralized and eclectic movements come from, and why have they grown and flourished at this point in American religious history What is the relationship between the New Age and Neopaganism and other religions in America, particularly Christianity, which is often construed as antagonistic to them Drawing on historical and ethnographic accounts, Sarah Pike explores these questions and offers a sympathetic yet critical treatment of religious practices often marginalized yet soaring in popularity. The book provides a general introduction to the varieties of New Age and Neopagan religions in the United States today as well as an account of their nineteenth-century roots and emergence from the 1960s counterculture. Covering such topics as healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience, it also furnishes a rich description and analysis of the spiritual worlds and social networks created by participants.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9780231124034

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: New Age and Neopagan Religions in America
• Éditeur: Columbia University Press Okt 2006
• Date de parution: 2006
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0231124031
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780231124034
• Reliure: Taschenbuch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 229 L x 166 H x 13 P (en millimètres) 229 millimètres de largeur par 166 millimètres de hauteur par 13 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 340 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

From Shirley MacLaine's spiritual biography Out on a Limb to the teenage witches in the film The Craft, New Age and Neopagan beliefs have made sensationalistic headlines. In the mid- to late 1990s, several important scholarly studies of the New Age and Neopagan movements were published, attesting to academic as well as popular recognition that these religions are a significant presence on the contemporary North American religious landscape. Self-help books by New Age channelers and psychics are a large and growing market; annual spending on channeling, self-help businesses, and alternative health care is at $10 to $14 billion; an estimated 12 million Americans are involved with New Age activities; and American Neopagans are estimated at around 200,000. New Age and Neopagan Religions in America introduces the beliefs and practices behind the public faces of these controversial movements, which have been growing steadily in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America.

What is the New Age movement, and how is it different from and similar to Neopaganism in its underlying beliefs and still-evolving practices? Where did these decentralized and eclectic movements come from, and why have they grown and flourished at this point in American religious history? What is the relationship between the New Age and Neopaganism and other religions in America, particularly Christianity, which is often construed as antagonistic to them? Drawing on historical and ethnographic accounts, Sarah Pike explores these questions and offers a sympathetic yet critical treatment of religious practices often marginalized yet soaring in popularity. The book provides a general introduction to the varieties of New Age and Neopagan religions in the United States today as well as an account of their nineteenth-century roots and emergence from the 1960s counterculture. Covering such topics as healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience, it also furnishes a rich description and analysis of the spiritual worlds and social networks created by participants.

À propos de l'auteur

Sarah M. Pike (PhD, Religious Studies, Indiana) is Professor of Comparative Religion and Humanities at California State University Chico. She is the author of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search ofr Coomunity (California, 2001), New Age and Neopagans in America (Columbia, 2004), and For the Wild: Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism (California, 2017). Her interests include new religious movements, religion and ecology, and ritual studies.