Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

New Spirituality and Social Engagement

“…The Netherlands is a very secularized country. Houtman, Aupers, and Heelas (2009) show that the degree to which New Age (spirituality) and Christian religiosity overlap differs per country and is greater in less secularized countries. Therefore, a comparable study carried out, for instance, in massively Catholic Poland or Portugal may reveal levels of social engagement that differ even less between traditional religious and new spirituality groups.…”

“…As Houtman, showed in response to Flere and Kirbiš (2009), definition and operationalization of concepts like 'New Age' and 'religiosity' in 'sympathetic' or 'antagonistic' ways can influence outcomes greatly. Houtman, Aupers, and Heelas (2009) also showed that in more secularized countries, the overlap between the two will probably be smaller. Therefore, it is no wonder that in the highly secularized Netherlands, we see only a small overlap.…”

“…In quantitative studies that aim to investigate the relationship between spirituality and other variables, especially those related to health or well-being, it is inevitable to use a more precise, narrow definition of spirituality (cf. Moreira-Almeida and Koenig, 2006;Houtman, Aupers, and Heelas, 2009;Salander, 2012). But researchers who conduct such studies should be well aware that they do not measure the relation between the subjective 'spiritualities' of their respondents and their dependent variables.…”

“…In quantitative studies that aim to investigate the relationship between spirituality and other variables, especially those related to health or well-being, it is inevitable that a narrow definition of spirituality be used that avoids overlap with the other variables being investigated (cf. MoreiraAlmeida and Koenig, 2006;Houtman, Aupers, and Heelas, 2009;Salander, 2012). Such a narrow definition might focus on transcendence.…”

Christian Religion In The West: Privatization Or Public Revitalization?

“…This thesis is critiqued nowadays by those who maintain that it is only institutionalized religion (read: churched Christianity) that loses ground in Western countries (with the possible exception of the United States), while in the non-Western world Islam and Christianity (in particular Pentecostalism) are thriving (Berger, 1999). Moreover, even in Western countries, and particularly in those where the Christian churches have declined most, post-Christian inner-life spiritualities of the 'New Age' variety have come to flourish in precisely the same period during which the Christian churches declined (Heelas and Woodhead, 2005;Houtman and Aupers, 2007;Houtman and Mascini, 2002;Houtman et al, 2009). …”