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Religions of Modernity
Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital
Series: - International Studies in Religion and Society, Volume: 12
Religions of Modernity' challenges the social-scientific orthodoxy that, once unleashed, the modern forces of individualism, science and technology inevitably erode the sacred and evoke the profane. The book’s chapters, some by established scholars, others by junior researchers, document instead in rich empirical detail how modernity relocates the sacred to the deeper layers of the self and the domain of digital technology. Rather than destroying the sacred tout court, then, the cultural logic of modernization spawns its own religious meanings, unacknowledged spiritualities and magical enchantments. The classical theoretical accounts of modernity by Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and others, it is argued in the introductory chapter, already hinted that there's a future for such religions of modernity.
Contributors: Stef Aupers, Kelly Besecke, Kirsten Marie Bovbjerg, Siobhan Chandler, Olav Hammer, Dick Houtman, Murray Lee, Carly Machado, Karen Pärna, Adam Possamai, Linda Woodhead, and Dorien Zandbergen.
Contributors: Stef Aupers, Kelly Besecke, Kirsten Marie Bovbjerg, Siobhan Chandler, Olav Hammer, Dick Houtman, Murray Lee, Carly Machado, Karen Pärna, Adam Possamai, Linda Woodhead, and Dorien Zandbergen.
Stef Aupers (Ph.D., 2004) is Associate Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and a member of the Center for Rotterdam Cultural Sociology (CROCUS). He published on contemporary spirituality, conspiracy culture, internet culture and authored
Under the Spell of Modernity (Ashgate, 2010).
Dick Houtman (Ph.D., 1994) is Professor of Cultural Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and member of the Center for Rotterdam Cultural Sociology (CROCUS). He studies cultural change in the contemporary west, particularly the spiritualization of religion and culturalization of politics.
Dick Houtman (Ph.D., 1994) is Professor of Cultural Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and member of the Center for Rotterdam Cultural Sociology (CROCUS). He studies cultural change in the contemporary west, particularly the spiritualization of religion and culturalization of politics.
This book should be required reading in the sociology of religion; it would be equally valuable to scholars in cultural anthropology and the study of religion, and indeed anyone with an interest in New Age spirituality and the development of religion in the modern Western world. -
Margaret Gouin University of Wales: Trinity Saint David in:
Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review, Vol. 2, Iss. 1 (2011)
Academics and students in the social sciences and humanities interested in the sociology of religion and the manifestation of spirituality, New Age, magic and re-enchantment in contemporary modern society.