New Age Religion and Western Culture

Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought

Bibliographic Data

ID23397338
AuthorsWouter J Hanegraaff (0000-0001-9570-2010, corresponding author)
Year1996
Publication date1996-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
Reviewed byNew Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, Arthur Mccalla, 1997
VenueNew Age Religion and Western Culture (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/9789004378933
OpenAlexW2004156916
Open LibraryOL51662253M
ISBN9789004378933
LanguageEN
Citations received424

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.

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Art history · China · Literature · Movement (music) · New Culture Movement · Perspective (graphical) · Political science · Reading (process) · Secularization · Sociology · The Renaissance · Variety (cybernetics) · Visual arts · History · Law · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Esoterisme · New Age · New Age movement · Occultism · Okkultismus

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