New Age and Neopagan Religions in America - (Columbia Contemporary American Religion (Hardcover)) by Sarah Pike (Paperback)

About the Book

Sarah Pike traces the history of New Age and Neopagan religions in the United States from their origins in the nineteenth century to their reemergence in the 1960s counterculture. She also considers the differences and similarities between the New Age and Neopagan movements as well as the antagonistic relationship between these two practices and other religions in America, particularly Christianity. Covering such topics as healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience, she offers a sympathetic yet critical treatment of religious practices often marginalized yet soaring in popularity. Her book is a rich analysis of these spiritual worlds and social networks and questions why these faiths are flourishing at this point in American history.

Book Synopsis

From Shirley MacLaine's spiritual biography Out on a Limb to the teenage witches in the film The Craft, New Age and Neopagan beliefs have made sensationalistic headlines. In the mid- to late 1990s, several important scholarly studies of the New Age and Neopagan movements were published, attesting to academic as well as popular recognition that these religions are a significant presence on the contemporary North American religious landscape. Self-help books by New Age channelers and psychics are a large and growing market; annual spending on channeling, self-help businesses, and alternative health care is at $10 to $14 billion; an estimated 12 million Americans are involved with New Age activities; and American Neopagans are estimated at around 200,000. New Age and Neopagan Religions in America introduces the beliefs and practices behind the public faces of these controversial movements, which have been growing steadily in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century America.

What is the New Age movement, and how is it different from and similar to Neopaganism in its underlying beliefs and still-evolving practices? Where did these decentralized and eclectic movements come from, and why have they grown and flourished at this point in American religious history? What is the relationship between the New Age and Neopaganism and other religions in America, particularly Christianity, which is often construed as antagonistic to them? Drawing on historical and ethnographic accounts, Sarah Pike explores these questions and offers a sympathetic yet critical treatment of religious practices often marginalized yet soaring in popularity. The book provides a general introduction to the varieties of New Age and Neopagan religions in the United States today as well as an account of their nineteenth-century roots and emergence from the 1960s counterculture. Covering such topics as healing, gender and sexuality, millennialism, and ritual experience, it also furnishes a rich description and analysis of the spiritual worlds and social networks created by participants.

Review Quotes

[A] lucid and interesting survey of esoteric and New-Age religions.--Philip Jenkins "Journal of American History"

[Pike] offers a succinct, thorough introduction to the wolrds of Neo-Pagan and New Age practices.--Ed Cook "Journal of Church and State"

A clear and well-written primer for what is a bedazzling array of religious worldviews and practices.--Guy Lancaster "Mission Studies"

A superb introduction to the visions and practices of both neopagan and New Age movements.... Highly recommended.--W. L. Pitts Jr. "Choice"

A view from the mountain...an admirable job of weaving together multiple strands of New Age practice into a single pattern.--Michael F. Brown "Natural History"

Pike makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of New Age and Neopagan religions in America...--David H. Vila, John Brown University "Religious Studies Review"

Pike's study is fascinating in all its detail.--Dan Barnett "Enterprise Record"

This book works wonderfully to introduce readers to the fascinating and still developing religions... An excellent text for courses.--Cynthia Eller "Journal of Religion"

This work offers general readers a scholarly assessment of Neopaganism and the New Age movement.... Pike provides an overview of key themes of these movements and traces their beliefs back to 19th-century traditions of mesmerism, seances, Swedenborgianism, and Theosophy.... her book provides a necessary complement to Margot Adler'sDrawing Down the Moon and Paul Heelas'sThe New Age Movement.-- "Library Journal"

About the Author

Sarah M. Pike (PhD, Religious Studies, Indiana) is Professor of Comparative Religion and Humanities at California State University Chico. She is the author of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search ofr Coomunity (California, 2001), New Age and Neopagans in America (Columbia, 2004), and For the Wild: Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism (California, 2017). Her interests include new religious movements, religion and ecology, and ritual studies.