New Age Religion and Secularization

Abstract

Some years ago a considerable stir was caused in the Dutch popular media by a novel which had climbed the bestseller lists with almost unprecedented speed and then stubbornly refused to vanish from the number one position. The book was written by an American, James Red eld, and had a catchy title: The Celestine Prophecy. Following its phenomenal success, an accompanying Celestine Workbook quickly appeared; and by the time everybody knew that the Celestine Prophecy was about the revelation of "nine spiritual insights," the time was deemed ripe for a follow-up entitled The Tenth Insight, quickly followed by its own workbook. The end is not yet in sight: at the time of writing those who thirst for more may pro t from yet a third volume in the series, The Celestine Vision, again with its own workbook. Even though these later volumes have not attained the same sales as the rst, they must still be considered highly successful books, as attested by their prolonged presence on the Dutch bestseller lists. The "celestine phenomenon" is an international one-on the World Wide Web the nine insights are the subject of enthusiastic discussion, Red eld's books have spawned a whole range of secondary products (books of aphorisms, videotapes, and so on), and the lessons of the workbooks 1 This is a revised English translation of a text that has been published in Dutch, as Christelijke Spiritualiteit en New Age: Over de rol van "Celestijnse Beloftes" in een seculiere samenleving (Utrechtse Theologische Reeks 36), Utrecht 1997. The

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“…A diverse array of new spiritualities has exploded onto the secular scene over the last 50 years or more, and it has been suggested that there is now a spiritual marketplace (Roof, 1999) within which traditional religions take their place alongside a variety of newer, more subjective, and often individualistic options which are untethered from formal institutional structures. These options arguably meet the criteria for definition as religion (Hanegraaff, 2000) but are usually contrasted with traditional religion. They are sometimes referred to as "New Age" spiritualities, although this term is a highly disputed category (without any widely accepted alternative), which may be understood in narrower or broader terms (Sutcliffe and Gilhus, 2013).…”

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