Seekership as Social Institution in Alternative Religion

Abstract

This article approaches a new biography of Frederick Bligh Bond by placing the subject’s life and career in the wider context of the formation of modern alternative religion. While acknowledging the rich particularities of Bond’s interests, attention is paid to the broader cultural context in which Bond lived and worked. This includes the modern cult and mythos of Glastonbury in both elite and popular cultural aspects as well as a wider social institution of seekership which shapes individual biographies. The article argues that through his seekership Bond was paradoxically more of a ‘type’ than his biographer allows and that his contributions to Glastonbury and to the New Age milieu should be interpreted in this light. The Rediscovery of Glastonbury: Frederick Bligh Bond Architect of the New Age, by Tim Hopkinson-Ball. The History Press (Sutton Publishing), 2007. 236pp., £20.00. ISBN-13: 9780750945646.