Forskningsprojekt: New Age Revisited: A Deconstruction of a Concept

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Liselotte Frisk
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The concept of New Age has always been problematic. As it is more of a cultural current than an organized religion, problems of content and delimitation arise. Besides it is not an emic concept: few people engaged in these currents identify themselves with this concept. “New age” is a term created by outsiders to bring together artificially a number of disparate ideas that may not be linked by their exponents. Its changing nature is also a problem.

I would like to try a perspective or an argumentation according to which New Age does not exist, that it is an etic construction. Historically, it may have existed. But today all cultural elements mix on a global level. Essentialized categories of “religion” and different kinds of religion, whether New Age or Christianity, make less and less sense. All borders blur and elements migrate freely with individual choice as the only limit. Elements of the historical field of alternative religion more and more mix with other elements of religion in the popular mode, and has today developed into part of mainstream.

Konferensbidrag: CESNUR/INFORMs konferens i London den 16-20 april 2008.”New Age Revisited: A Deconstruction of a Concept”.
Konferensbidrag: IAHR, Toronto, Kanada: augusti 2010: New Age and Stark & Bainbridge´s Theory of Religion
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