New Age, Religiosity, and Traditionalism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

摘要

New Age is a phenomenon that requires study for understanding both spirituality and thenature of contemporary society (Hanegraaff 2005; Heelas 1996; Kubiak 2005). Efforts to studyNew Age phenomenon are accompanied by some lack of clarity about its limits; some theoristseven regard attempts to define New Age as essentially futile (Lewis 1992). Most influentialauthors focus on subjective self-awareness and the individual experiential dimensions of NewAge (Bochinger 1994; Hanegraaff 2005; Knoblauch 1989; Melton 1992a; Moerth 1989; Siqueira1999; Tucker 2002). They also stress that "New Age strongly favours a holistic—interconnected,essentially the same, basically unified—outlook" (Heelas 1996:33; Hanegraaff 2005; see alsoSiqueira 1999). In addition, emphasis is given to the coming of a new era, which brings about thepositive values man has been seeking for millennia (Brown 1997; Burridge 1971; Radoani 2005),as well as to the social criticism and counterculture aspects of New Age (Heelas 1996:87-88;Hoellinger 2004; Stolz and Sanchez 2005).