Paul Heelas
Biographic Data
| ID | 103236 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Heelas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Heelas |
| SIGNATURE | HEELAS P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lancaster University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 260 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Predicting Religion: Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures
Contents: Introduction, Linda Woodhead, Paul Heelas and Grace Davie Secularization theory re-examined: Beyond European and American exceptionalisms: towards a global perspective, JosA(c) Casanova On secularization and its prediction: a self-examination, David Martin The evolutionary principle in the study of religion and society, Olivier Tschannen Predicting Christianity: The demise of Christianity in Britain, Steve Bruce Prediction and prophecy …
“Transpersonal Pakistan”
The essay is controversial. The argument that Sufi-inspired transpersonal experiences, practices and processes are widespread does not match the popular view of Pakistan as a major homeland of Islamic ‘fundamentalism’ and militancy. Neither does the argument match the views of all those Islamists who bind Sufism to the transcendent theism of tradition. In various ways and to varying degrees, the most illustrious of Sufi saints move away from trad…
Theorizing the Sacred: The Role of the Implicit in Yearning “Away”
Existentially, what is it to live within the secular without the sacred? In the absence of religion, can secular frames of reference provide worthwhile sources of significance? For Charles Taylor, “religious longing, the longing for and response to a more-than-immanent transformation perspective ... remains a strong independent source of motivation in modernity.” In line with this contention, I argue that the secular is frequently taken to be ina…
Peter Berger and the Study of Religion
Peter Berger is the most influential contemporary sociologist of religion. This collection of essays is the first in-depth study of his contribution to the field, providing a comprehensive introduction to his work and to current thought in the study of religion. Themes addressed include: * Berger on religion and theology * Religion, spirituality and the discontents of modernity * Secularization and de-secularization A postscript by Peter Berger, …
Peter B. Clarke: Tributes
Spiritualities of Life
Spiritualities of Life
This article suggests that the Sociology of Religion be renamed the Sociology of Religion and Spirituality. This idea could find favour with those, among others, who point out that one of the weaknesses of the sociology of religion is that it suffers from an overly rationalised, narrowly defined, institutionalised conception of the religious. One might also add a criticism of its geographical narrowness, whereby, with some notable exceptions, it …
Ramp Findings and Making Sense of the ‘God Within Each Person, Rather than Out There’
This research note provides selected ‘belief’ data from the RAMP (Religious and Moral Pluralism) survey—data of an apparently arresting nature. The present discussion is primarily directed at offering several hypotheses to do with interpretations and explanations of the data. The overarching aim is to contribute to a research agenda which is of considerable significance for the sociological study of spirituality and religion, with profound implic…
Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
sponsorship: The authors thank Roy Kemmers for this research assistance
Spiritualities of Life: New Age Romanticism and Consumptive Capitalism
The Spiritual Revolution Of Northern Europe Personal Beliefs
The Infirmity Debate: On the Viability of New Age Spiritualities of Life
The ‘infirmity debate’ is becoming increasingly lively. On the one hand, scholars argue that New Age spiritualities of life are in a ‘poor’ condition; on the other hand, scholars argue that they are in a good state of ‘health’. Drawing on key publications, including articles from the Journal of Contemporary Religion, the argument is couched in terms of ‘the turn to the self’—more specifically ‘the massive subjective turn of modern culture’. How d…
The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality
List of Plates.Preface.Introduction.1. Distinguishing Religion and Spirituality: Findings from Kendal.2. Testing the Spiritual Revolution Claim in Kendal.3. Evidence for a Spiritual Revolution: Britain and USA.4. Bringing the Sacred to Life: Explaining Secularization and Sacralization.5. Looking to the Future.Appendices.References.Index
Peter Berger and the study of religion
Work Ethics, Soft Capitalism and the ‘Turn to Life’
Peter Berger and the study of religion
The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity
This article examines the New Age movement as a form of sacralization of modernity. It argues that New Age is not a rejection of modernity but rather a selective appropriation and re-sacralization of key aspects of modern culture. The authors analyze how New Age practitioners draw upon modern therapeutic, psychological, and scientific discourses to construct a spiritual worldview that celebrates the self and personal transformation. They also exp…
New age authenticity and social roles: A response to Steve Bruce
Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power, and Personhood
The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity
The New Age Movement
Detraditionalization: Critical Reflections on Authority and Identity
Notes on the ‘Nova Era’: Rio de Janeiro and Environs
(1994). Notes on the ‘Nova Era’: Rio de Janeiro and Environs. Religion: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 173-180
The New Age in Cultural Context: The Premodern, the Modern and the Postmodern
This article situates the New Age movement within a broader cultural context by exploring its relationship to premodern, modern, and postmodern sensibilities. Heelas argues that while the New Age shares certain characteristics with premodern traditions, such as an emphasis on immanence and experience, it is fundamentally a product of modernity's disenchantment with traditional forms of authority and its focus on individual self-realization. Howev…
The economics of new religious life
James T. Richardson (ed.), Money and power in new religions. Lewiston, New York, and Lampeter, Wales, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988, Volume 22 of studies in religion and society, pp. 435. $39.95
Indigenous psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self
Likeness and Likelihood in Everyday Thought: Magical Thinking in Judgments About Personality [and Comments and Reply]
Magical thinking has perplexed anthropological theorists for nearly a century. At least three perspectives are extant: (1) Magic is a form of science, a relatively effective set of canons and procedures for acquiring knowledge and exercising control (see, e. g., Levi-Strauss 1966); (2) magic is a form of fantasy, an irrational symbolic attempt to influence uncontrollable events (see, e.g., Malinowski 1954); (3) magic is a form of rhetoric, a pers…
The New Age in Cultural Context: The Premodern, the Modern and the Postmodern
This article situates the New Age movement within a broader cultural context by exploring its relationship to premodern, modern, and postmodern sensibilities. Heelas argues that while the New Age shares certain characteristics with premodern traditions, such as an emphasis on immanence and experience, it is fundamentally a product of modernity's disenchantment with traditional forms of authority and its focus on individual self-realization. Howev…
The Infirmity Debate: On the Viability of New Age Spiritualities of Life
The ‘infirmity debate’ is becoming increasingly lively. On the one hand, scholars argue that New Age spiritualities of life are in a ‘poor’ condition; on the other hand, scholars argue that they are in a good state of ‘health’. Drawing on key publications, including articles from the Journal of Contemporary Religion, the argument is couched in terms of ‘the turn to the self’—more specifically ‘the massive subjective turn of modern culture’. How d…
Anthropological Studies of Religion: An Introductory Text
The Experience of Shame in Melanesia: An Essay in the Anthropology of Affect
Psychology and Anthropology: A Psychological Perspective
Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
sponsorship: The authors thank Roy Kemmers for this research assistance
Guilt: The Grey Eminence Behind Character, History and Culture
The Cultural Transition: Human Experience and Social Transformation in the Third World and Japan
Ramp Findings and Making Sense of the ‘God Within Each Person, Rather than Out There’
This research note provides selected ‘belief’ data from the RAMP (Religious and Moral Pluralism) survey—data of an apparently arresting nature. The present discussion is primarily directed at offering several hypotheses to do with interpretations and explanations of the data. The overarching aim is to contribute to a research agenda which is of considerable significance for the sociological study of spirituality and religion, with profound implic…
Some problems with religious studies
New age authenticity and social roles: A response to Steve Bruce
Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers
Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion
Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power, and Personhood
Restoring the justified order: Emotions, Injustice, and the role of culture
Social Representations
Cognitive processes and collective representations
Anthropologists typically adopt the assumption of psychic unity: man universally exhibits the same fundamental cognitive processes. Hence, any apparent heterogeneity in collective representations may not be explained by psychological postulates. On the basis of recent cross-cultural studies of cognitive processes, we move beyond this standard anthropological assumption, arguing that there is cultural variability in the mode of thinking which is e…
Short review and book note
Firth, Raymond, Symbols public and private, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1973, pp. 469, £6.60. Brown, L. B. (ed.), Psychology and religion. London: Penguin, 1973. Duchesne-Guillemin, J., Religion of ancient Iran (E.T. trans. K. M. JamaspAsa), Bombay, 1973, pp. viii + 271, £2. Morenz, Siegfried, Egyptian religion (E.T. trans. Ann E. Keep), London, Methuen, 1973, £7.50. Bunnag Jane, Buddhist monk, Buddhist layman: A study of urban monastic organiz…
Short review and book note
Bahya ben Joseph Ibn Pakuda, The book of directions to the duties of the heart, Introduction, translation and notes by Menahem Mansoor. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973, pp. VIII + 472. £6 Marasinghe, M.M.J., Gods in early Buddhism — a study of their social and mythological milieu as depicted in the Nikāyas of the Pali Canon, Sri Lanka, 1974, pp. xviii + 301. Library ed. RS. 50.00, Popular ed. Rs. 37–50 Conze, Edward, Buddhist wisdom books, T…
Short review and book note
Argyle, M. and Beit-Hallahmi, B. The social psychology of religion, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, pp. 256, £5.95 (£2.95 paper) Rosenthal, Franz, The classical heritage in Islam, transl. Emile and Jenny Marmorstein. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, pp. xx + 298, £5.50 Mirza, Hormazdyar Dastur Kayoji, Outlines of Parsi history, Bombay: Industrial Press, 1974, xxvii + 516 pp, approx £4.50
Rethinking symbolism Sperber, Dan, London: Cambridge University Press, 1975. E1.90 (paper)
Short review and book note
De Mille, Richard. Castaneda's journey: The power and the allegory, Santa Barbara, Capra Press, 1976. Graphics by Frederick A Usher. 205 pp. £3.75 Wilson, Bryan. Contemporary transformations of religon, London, Oxford University Press, 1976. ix + 116pp. £2.95 Bocock, Robert. Freud and modern society. An outline and analysis of Freud's sociology, London, Thomas Nelson, 1976. 200 pp. £7.50 Dunn, James D.G. Jesus and the spirit, London, SCM Press, 1…
Likeness and Likelihood in Everyday Thought: Magical Thinking in Judgments About Personality [and Comments and Reply]
Magical thinking has perplexed anthropological theorists for nearly a century. At least three perspectives are extant: (1) Magic is a form of science, a relatively effective set of canons and procedures for acquiring knowledge and exercising control (see, e. g., Levi-Strauss 1966); (2) magic is a form of fantasy, an irrational symbolic attempt to influence uncontrollable events (see, e.g., Malinowski 1954); (3) magic is a form of rhetoric, a pers…
Short review and book note
John A. Works Jr, Pilgrims in a strange land: Hausa communities in Chad, New York, Columbia University Press, 1976. $18.75 Keith Hitchins, Orthodoxy and nationality: Andreiu Şaguna and the Rumanians of Transylvania, 1846–1873, Cambridge, Mass, and London, Harvard University Press, 1977, 332 pp. £14.70 Celia S. Heller, On the edge of destruction: Jews of Poland between the two world wars, New York, Columbia University Press, 1977. xii + 369 pp. $1…
Some problems with religious studies
Cognitive processes and collective representations
Anthropologists typically adopt the assumption of psychic unity: man universally exhibits the same fundamental cognitive processes. Hence, any apparent heterogeneity in collective representations may not be explained by psychological postulates. On the basis of recent cross-cultural studies of cognitive processes, we move beyond this standard anthropological assumption, arguing that there is cultural variability in the mode of thinking which is e…
Short review and book note
The Bhagavata-Purana, Translated and annotated by Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare. Ancient Indian tradition and mythology series, vol. VII, Part I. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 1976. Rs. 50.00 Joseph Head and S. L. Cranston, Reincarnation: The phoenix fire mystery, New York, Crown 1977. xix + 620 pp. $10.00 Grace G. Harris, Casting out anger. Religion among the Taita of Kenya, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1978, 193 pp. £7.95 S. N. Kramer, From the p…
Indigenous psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self
Short review and book note
Yash Nandan Emile Durkheim. Contributions to ‘L'Année Sociologique’ 1980 Free Press New York Anthony Jackson, Na-khi Religion, Religion and Society 8, The Hague, Mouton 1979, 361 pp. DM 134 Shigeyoshi Murakami, Japanese Religion in the Modern Century, translated by H. Byron Earhart University of Tokyo Press 1980, 186 pp. £6.00 Bruce F. Campbell Ancient Wisdom Reviewed—A History of the Theosophical Movement, University of California Press, 1980. B…
Emotions Across Cultures: Objectivity and Cultural Divergence
One of the themes of this lecture series has to do with the bearing of radical cultural divergencies on the issue of whether or not there is an invariant human nature. Put starkly, the options are between: first, man as a socio-cultural product, which entails that human nature must vary significantly across divergent cultures; second, man as a biological product, which entails (racist theories aside) that human nature is universal and invariant, …
New religious movements in perspective
Roy Wallis. The elementary forms of the new religious life, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984, pp. 156. £12.50
Psychology and Anthropology: A Psychological Perspective
The Experience of Shame in Melanesia: An Essay in the Anthropology of Affect
Guilt: The Grey Eminence Behind Character, History and Culture
Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion
Social Representations
The Cultural Transition: Human Experience and Social Transformation in the Third World and Japan
Anthropological Studies of Religion: An Introductory Text
Restoring the justified order: Emotions, Injustice, and the role of culture
The economics of new religious life
James T. Richardson (ed.), Money and power in new religions. Lewiston, New York, and Lampeter, Wales, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988, Volume 22 of studies in religion and society, pp. 435. $39.95
Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers
The New Age in Cultural Context: The Premodern, the Modern and the Postmodern
This article situates the New Age movement within a broader cultural context by exploring its relationship to premodern, modern, and postmodern sensibilities. Heelas argues that while the New Age shares certain characteristics with premodern traditions, such as an emphasis on immanence and experience, it is fundamentally a product of modernity's disenchantment with traditional forms of authority and its focus on individual self-realization. Howev…
Philosophy (29 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (13 works) · Religious studies (12 works) · Art (11 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Political science (8 works) · Spirituality (8 works)