Religious Organisations - New Age Movements Flashcards
What are the characteristics of a NAM according to Heelas
-new age covers a wide range of beliefs that have been popular since the 1980s
-heelas estimates there are around 2000 of such activities and 146000 practitioners
-many are loosely organised around an audience or client cult
- they are extremely diverse and eclectic (putting unconnected ideas together in new combos)
-they include beliefs in tarot cards, astrology, yoga and meditation
-for heelas there are two common themes that characterise the new age :
-self-spirituality= people in them have turned away from traditional ‘external’ religions And have looked inside themselves to find it
-detraditionalisation= NAMs reject spiritual authority of external sources e.g. priests or sacred texts. Instead it values personal experience and discovering the truth within ourselves
What are the characteristics of a NAM according to Bruce
He suggests that new age religions consists of these main features:
1.emphasis on the self and the self-within
2. They take a holistic approach - the mind body and soul all connected and the individual is connected to environment and supernatural
3. No higher authority self. There is no single truth in the individual is free to believe what they want. The New Age movement can act as an agent of detraditionalisation in society
4. There is a global cafeteria where is a wide range of beliefs drove across the club and we have free to pick and choose as we wish
5. New age ideas are designed to be therapeutic and aim to make members more successful.
-bruce claims they are far too individualistic and therefore in significant society
-while people may dabble in NAMs they often where they become important to the individuals identity and more short term interest
Who Participate in the New Age
-it has to be many female middle class and highly educated
-Spread across over range of age
-Tend to attract those in expressive professions such as teachers and social workers= as they seem to be more concerned with personal development so use new age to promote themselves spiritually
What does the Kendal project suggest?
-The kindle project was study taken by academics and students from Manchester University
-They had particular interest in holistic milieu and gave out questionnaire Angie’s case studies to gain quality data
-It tested the spiritual revolution thesis-that people are moving away from traditional forms of religion and into new age spiritualities
-51% a people believe in some sort of spiritual force while only 30% believe in God
-67.3% considered themselves spiritual while only 23.5% religious
-While 7.9% of population attended traditional congregational worship 1.7 took part in New Age practices
What is the individual and consumerism explanation for why people participate in new age movements?
-Giddens’ society is more focused around the individual in maternity therefore individuals are increasingly choosing their own identity
- heelas is a post-modernist who argues that contemporary consumer culture encourages people to strive for the perfect person
-By using New Age movements they are able to feel you are work towards a state of perfection
-There’s also no formal commitment so they can approach spirituality the same way that they would buy a mobile phone-trying one out until you find one you like
What is the secular ation argument for why people participate in new age movements?
-people turned to them for new explanations to make sense in the world and fill the vacuum of meaning
-Traditional churches that seem to be outdated and lacking emphasis on spirituality
-Heelas claims that because of the multiplicity of roles that people playing modern society if you have no real self anymore
-New age movements help me cope with their multiple roles
-And offer them an alternative police system
-Maternity needs to sacculation and undermine traditional religion
-For example in the US New Age’s strongest by church going against the lowest in California and NAMs fill the void left by traditional religion
What is the decline of metanarratives for why people participate in new age movements?
-john Drane argues that appeal is part of a shift towards Post Malone Society
-One of the feature of post modern society is loss of faith in metanarratives
-Science promises progress a better world, but instead it’s given as genocide and war
-As old people lost faith in experts and our dissolution with the churches failures to meet the spiritual needs
- heelas claims of the decline in the state of a science makes people feel uncertain about how to make sense of every day actions as a result turn to new age ideas to find the truth of ourselves by looking within
