New Age Spirituality ─ Rethinking Religion

New Age and holistic beliefs and practices - sometimes called the "new spirituality" - are widely distributed across modern global society. The fluid and popular nature of new age makes these movements a very challenging field to understand using traditional models of religious analysis. Rather than treating new age as an exotic specimen on the margins of 'proper' religion, "New Age Spirituality" examines these movements as a form of everyday or lived religion. The book brings together an international range of scholars to explore the key issues: insight, healing, divination, meditation, gnosis, extraordinary experiences, and interactions with gods, spirits and superhuman powers. Combining discussion of contemporary beliefs and practices with cutting-edge theoretical analysis, the book repositions new age spirituality at the forefront of the contemporary study of religion.

Steven Sutcliffe is Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Children of the New Age: A History of Spiritual Practices (Routledge, 2003) and co-editor of Beyond New Age: Exploring Alternative Spirituality (Edinburgh University Press, 2000). Ingvild Saelid Gilhus is Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Bergen, Norway. She is the author of Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins: Laughter in the History of Religion (Routledge, 2009).