First as Sociology, Then as Geography
A Review Essay on Steven Sutcliffe and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus’s New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v44i1.26862Keywords:
New Age Spiritualities, Religion, Critical Geography, Sociology, IdeologyAbstract
This essay reviews Steven J. Sutcliffe and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus's New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. It shows that their attempt to redefine religion through new age spiritualities is actually an attempt to impose an economically elite social geography onto religious studies as a social fact. My central argument is that this effort in turn reveals that religious studies serves as a sociological factory for liberal economic ideologies. It suggests that to mitigate this ideological work, a shift toward critical geography in religious studies is the way forward.
References
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Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid and Sutcliffe, Steven J. 2013. Conclusion: new age spiritualities – “good to think” in the study of religion. In Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 256-262.
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Heelas, Paul. 2013. On transgressing the secular: spiritualities of life, idealism, vitalism. In Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 66-83.
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Mikaelsson, Lisbeth. 2013. New age and the spirit of capitalism: energy as cognitive currency. Ch. 10, in Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 160-173.
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Orsi, Robert A. 2010. The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950, 25th anniversary edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Primiano, Leonard N. 1993. Intrinsically Catholic: Vernacular Religion and Philadelphia’s “Dignity.” Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Religious Studies.
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. 1991. The Meaning and End of Religion 1978. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Stark, Rodney, and Bainbridge, William Sims. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.
Stark, Rodney, and Bainbridge, William Sims. 1996. A Theory of Religion. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. 2003. Children of the New Age: A History of Spiritual Practices. London: Routledge.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. 2013. New age, world religions and elementary forms. Ch. 1, in Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 17-34.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Bowman, Marion, eds. 2000. Beyond New Age: Exploring Alternative Spirituality. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds. 2013a. New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid. 2013b. Introduction: “all mixed up” in thinking about religion in relation to new age spiritualities. In Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 1-16.
Taves, Ann. 1999. Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Taves, Ann and Kinsella, Michael. 2013. Hiding in plain sight: the organizational forms of “unorganized religion.” Ch. 5, in Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 84-98.
Taylor, Charles. 2007. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press.
Weber, Max. 2003. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 1905. Trans, Talcott Parsons. Mineola, NY: Dover.
Žižek, Slavoj. 2009. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. London: Verso.
Berger, Peter. 1967. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City: Doubleday.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 2010. Letters and Papers from Prison. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Works, vol. 8. Minneapolis: Fortress.
Durkheim, Émile. 1965. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life 1915. Trans. Joseph Ward Swain. New York: Free Press.
Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid and Sutcliffe, Steven J. 2013. Conclusion: new age spiritualities – “good to think” in the study of religion. In Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 256-262.
Hannegraff, Wouter. 1996. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill.
Heelas, Paul. 1996. The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Heelas, Paul. 2013. On transgressing the secular: spiritualities of life, idealism, vitalism. In Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 66-83.
Ley, David. 2004. Transnational spaces and everyday lives. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 29, 151-164.
McGuire, Meredith. 2008. Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2005. The Invention of World Religions, Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Mikaelsson, Lisbeth. 2013. New age and the spirit of capitalism: energy as cognitive currency. Ch. 10, in Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 160-173.
Orsi, R.A. (1998). Thank You, St. Jude: Women’s Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Orsi, Robert A. 2010. The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950, 25th anniversary edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Primiano, Leonard N. 1993. Intrinsically Catholic: Vernacular Religion and Philadelphia’s “Dignity.” Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Religious Studies.
Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. 1991. The Meaning and End of Religion 1978. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Stark, Rodney, and Bainbridge, William Sims. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.
Stark, Rodney, and Bainbridge, William Sims. 1996. A Theory of Religion. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. 2003. Children of the New Age: A History of Spiritual Practices. London: Routledge.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. 2013. New age, world religions and elementary forms. Ch. 1, in Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 17-34.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Bowman, Marion, eds. 2000. Beyond New Age: Exploring Alternative Spirituality. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds. 2013a. New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge.
Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid. 2013b. Introduction: “all mixed up” in thinking about religion in relation to new age spiritualities. In Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 1-16.
Taves, Ann. 1999. Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Taves, Ann and Kinsella, Michael. 2013. Hiding in plain sight: the organizational forms of “unorganized religion.” Ch. 5, in Sutcliffe, Steven J. and Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid, eds., New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. London: Routledge. 84-98.
Taylor, Charles. 2007. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press.
Weber, Max. 2003. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 1905. Trans, Talcott Parsons. Mineola, NY: Dover.
Žižek, Slavoj. 2009. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. London: Verso.
Published
2015-04-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Tse, J. (2015). First as Sociology, Then as Geography: A Review Essay on Steven Sutcliffe and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus’s New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 44(1), 39-43. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v44i1.26862
