The Evidence of a Spiritual Revolution in Society Today
‘The growth of the New Age and similar movements is evidence of a spiritual revolution is society today’ to what extent do sociological views and arguments support this view? The term ‘New Age’ covers a range of beliefs and activities that have been widespread since at least the 1980s. New Age applies to the extensive range of belief systems and therapies that have been developed in the past 30 years. Paul Heelas estimates that there are about 2,000 such activities and 146,000 practitioners in the UK. Many of them are very loosely organised audience or client cults and they are extremely diverse and eclectic. Where New Age is centred on some form of belief in something, many New-Age Movements (NAMs) are less belief systems and more what Heelas refers to as ‘Holistic Milieu’, which embraces a range of therapies and activities associated with healing and self-discovery. Therefore the idea that New Age reflects a growing spirituality depends on the definition and understanding of what constitutes New Age and spirituality respectively.
The Growth of New Age in the past 40 years has coincided with a 50% decline in attendance at conventional religious services. Many argued that declining participation in mainstream religion was evidence of secularisation. Heelas and Woodhead’s study of the Kendal regional centre investigated the extent to which the ‘congregation domain’ was in decline and whether religion was giving way to spirituality through the holistic milieu. However, the problem with declining congregations is that this in itself does not necessarily mean that religiosity is declining but rather becoming privatised. Grace Davie summed this process up with the phrase ‘believing without belonging’. This is where people hold religious belief without going to church etc.
The Kendal project appeared to suggest that the holistic milieu was growing at a fast rate, providing evidence of spiritual revolution. They argued that people were increasingly searching for
The Growth of New Age in the past 40 years has coincided with a 50% decline in attendance at conventional religious services. Many argued that declining participation in mainstream religion was evidence of secularisation. Heelas and Woodhead’s study of the Kendal regional centre investigated the extent to which the ‘congregation domain’ was in decline and whether religion was giving way to spirituality through the holistic milieu. However, the problem with declining congregations is that this in itself does not necessarily mean that religiosity is declining but rather becoming privatised. Grace Davie summed this process up with the phrase ‘believing without belonging’. This is where people hold religious belief without going to church etc.
The Kendal project appeared to suggest that the holistic milieu was growing at a fast rate, providing evidence of spiritual revolution. They argued that people were increasingly searching for