ReviseSociology

Tag: new age

  • Why are there more women in the New Age Movement than men>?

    Woodhead (2007) suggested women are more attracted to New Age Movements because they experience double alienation in the family…. they family fails to give them a sense of occupational identity, and they feel dissatisfied with their limited role as housewife and caregiver. New age movements offer a chance for self-exploration and can provide women with…

  • Posmodernity and the New Age

    Paul Heelas (1996) points out that the New Age Movement seems to have much in common with postmodernism: It seems to involve de-differentiation and de-traditionalisation. De-differentiation involves a breakdown of traditional categories, such as that between high and low culture. The New Age movement seems to be doing something similar with its fusion of traditional…

  • Explaining the Growth of the New Age Movement…

    Steve Bruce points out that the New Age mostly appeals to successful, highly educated, middle class individuals, especially those working in the creative and expressive professions. The kind of individualist beliefs espoused by the New Age Movement fit in well with the world view of such individuals. The doctrine of self-generated success fits their experience…

  • What is the New Age Movement?

    During the 1980s increasing numbers of people started turning to various unconventional spiritual and therapeutic practices, which have been labelled as the ‘New Age Movement’ by sociologists such as Paul Heelas (1996). The New Age Movement consists of an eclectic range of beliefs and practices based on Buddhism and Taoism, psychology, and psycho-therapy; paganism, clairvoyance,…

  • Types of religious organisation: the cult

    Types of religious organisation: the cult

    Steve Bruce (1995) defines a cult as a ‘loosely knit group organized around some common themes and interests but lacking any sharply defined and exclusive belief system’. Cults correspond closely to Roy Wallis’ category of ‘World Affirming New Religious Movements’. Examples of Cults/ World Affirming NRMs include Scientology Transcendental Meditation The Human Potential Movement  Key…

  • Religious Pluralism: Evidence of Secularization?

    Durkheim’s view of religion implied that a truly religious society could only have one religion in that society. In Durkheim’s analysis this was the situation in small-scale, Aboriginal societies, where every member of that society comes together at certain times in the year to engage in religious rituals. It was based on observations of such…