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New Age Religion and Western Culture
Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought
Series: - Numen Book Series, Volume: 72
Author:
Recent years have seen a spectacular rise of the New Age movement and an ever-increasing interest in its beliefs and manifestations.
This fascinating work presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of New Age Religion and its historical backgrounds, thus providing the reader with a means of orientation in the bewildering variety of the movement.
Making extensive use of primary sources, the author thematically analyses New Age beliefs from the perspective of the study of religions. While looking at the historical backgrounds of the movement, he convincingly argues that its foundations were laid by so-called western esoteric traditions during the Renaissance. Hanegraaff finally shows how the modern New Age movement emerged from the increasing secularization of those esoteric traditions during the 19th century.
This ground-breaking publication is compulsive reading for all those involved or interested in the New Age movement.
This fascinating work presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of New Age Religion and its historical backgrounds, thus providing the reader with a means of orientation in the bewildering variety of the movement.
Making extensive use of primary sources, the author thematically analyses New Age beliefs from the perspective of the study of religions. While looking at the historical backgrounds of the movement, he convincingly argues that its foundations were laid by so-called western esoteric traditions during the Renaissance. Hanegraaff finally shows how the modern New Age movement emerged from the increasing secularization of those esoteric traditions during the 19th century.
This ground-breaking publication is compulsive reading for all those involved or interested in the New Age movement.
Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Ph.D. (1995) in the Study of Religions, University of Utrecht (The Netherlands), is currently a Research Fellow at the Department for the Study of Religions at Utrecht University. He has published articles in English and Dutch.
'This major ground-breaking study of minute scholarship and intellectual vigor takes its place as the standard work in the field. Proceeding from a well-defined historical orientation, it provides an integrated overview of the New Age, as well as a clear explanation of the basic ideas behind this movement, by bringing together its various aspects in a focused, comprehensive treatment, and by uncovering the real roots of continuity - and discontinuity - between this tangled web and previous esoteric traditions. There will be no book like this for some time to come. It should be on the reading list of any student of religion and brings into the foreground a needed agenda for those in the humanities and social sciences, and will be valued by all those who appreciate fine, clear writing. I wish I had written it myself.'
Antoine Faivre, Ãcole Pratique des Hautes Ãtudes (Sorbonne), Paris, France.
'Finally, someone has mastered the vast literature of, and reality which is the New Age movement, and produced a comprehensive and authoritative survey of its major themes and most important leaders. Hanegraaff's effort should immediately become the foundation upon which future research of the movement will be constructed.'
J. Gordon Melton, Institute of the Study of American Religion, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
'Dr. Hanegraaff's book fills a gap in the international study of new religious consciousness. While other authors have described the New Age as a sociological network, or a revival of the Western esoteric tradition, for the first time we are offered here a comprehensive survey of the theoretical and doctrinal features that made the New Age a unique phenomenon in the history of 20th century and the forerunner of an emerging postmodern spirituality.'
Massimo Introvigne, CESNUR (Center for Studies of New Religions), Torino, Italy.
'Wouter Hanegraaff's book is the fullest and most incisive overview to date of New Age Religion as an intellectual movement. Rather than dismissing the intellectual content of New Age beliefs. Hanegraaff painstakingly reconstructs the sources of them in Western thought. He works out the difference as well as the similarities among New Age adherents. No less attentive to the practices than to the beliefs, he shows how the practices evince the beliefs. A first-rate book.'
Robert Segal, Department of Religious Studies, University of Lancaster, U.K.
'This is the best critical study of New Age thinking hitherto available. An outstanding achievement.'
Garry W. Trompf, School of Studies in Religion, University of Sydney, Australia.
âThis is a must for all students of religionâ¦â
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Ambrix, 2002.
Antoine Faivre, Ãcole Pratique des Hautes Ãtudes (Sorbonne), Paris, France.
'Finally, someone has mastered the vast literature of, and reality which is the New Age movement, and produced a comprehensive and authoritative survey of its major themes and most important leaders. Hanegraaff's effort should immediately become the foundation upon which future research of the movement will be constructed.'
J. Gordon Melton, Institute of the Study of American Religion, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
'Dr. Hanegraaff's book fills a gap in the international study of new religious consciousness. While other authors have described the New Age as a sociological network, or a revival of the Western esoteric tradition, for the first time we are offered here a comprehensive survey of the theoretical and doctrinal features that made the New Age a unique phenomenon in the history of 20th century and the forerunner of an emerging postmodern spirituality.'
Massimo Introvigne, CESNUR (Center for Studies of New Religions), Torino, Italy.
'Wouter Hanegraaff's book is the fullest and most incisive overview to date of New Age Religion as an intellectual movement. Rather than dismissing the intellectual content of New Age beliefs. Hanegraaff painstakingly reconstructs the sources of them in Western thought. He works out the difference as well as the similarities among New Age adherents. No less attentive to the practices than to the beliefs, he shows how the practices evince the beliefs. A first-rate book.'
Robert Segal, Department of Religious Studies, University of Lancaster, U.K.
'This is the best critical study of New Age thinking hitherto available. An outstanding achievement.'
Garry W. Trompf, School of Studies in Religion, University of Sydney, Australia.
âThis is a must for all students of religionâ¦â
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Ambrix, 2002.
Part 1: Orientation: Major Trends in New Age Religion.
Preliminary Demarcation of the Field - Channeling - Healing and Personal Growth - New Age Science - Neopaganism - New Age in a Restricted and in a General Sense.
Part 2: Exposition: The Varieties of New Age Experience.
The Nature of Reality - Meta-Empirical and Human Beings - Matters of the Mind - Death and Survival - Good and Evil - Visions of the Past - The New Age.
Part 3: Interpretation: New Age Religion and Traditional Esotericism.
Towards a Historical Perspective on New Age Religion - A Historical Framework - The Mirror of Secular Thought - Conclusions: The New Age Movement and the Nature of New Age Religion.
Preliminary Demarcation of the Field - Channeling - Healing and Personal Growth - New Age Science - Neopaganism - New Age in a Restricted and in a General Sense.
Part 2: Exposition: The Varieties of New Age Experience.
The Nature of Reality - Meta-Empirical and Human Beings - Matters of the Mind - Death and Survival - Good and Evil - Visions of the Past - The New Age.
Part 3: Interpretation: New Age Religion and Traditional Esotericism.
Towards a Historical Perspective on New Age Religion - A Historical Framework - The Mirror of Secular Thought - Conclusions: The New Age Movement and the Nature of New Age Religion.
Those with a specific interest in the New Age movement, contemporary "alternative" religiosity in general, and the history of western esotericism; also, those with a general interest in the academic study of religions and the western history of ideas since the Renaissance.