Religion and Spirituality in the Modern World
2 primary works
Book 7
In a critical reinterpretation of the idea of the 'disenchantment of nature', this provocative and timely book argues that contemporary ideas and practices concerning nature and technology remain closely bound up with religious ways of thinking and acting. Using examples from North America, Europe and elsewhere, many derived from original research, it reinterprets a range of 'secular' phenomena in terms of their conditioning by a complex series of transformations of the sacred in Western history. The contemporary practices of environmental politics, technological risk behaviour, alternative medicine, vegetarianism and ethical consumption take on new significance as sites of struggle between different sacral orderings. Nature, Technology and the Sacred introduces a radically new direction for today's critical discourse concerning nature and technology, one that reinstates it as a moment within the ongoing religious history of the West.
Book 8
The Spiritual Revolution
by Paul Heelas, Linda Woodhead, MBE, Benjamin Seel, Bronislaw Szerszynski, and Karin Tusting
Published 3 November 2004
Comparing existing evidence from the USA and Europe, with a UK-based study of religion and spirituality, this fascinating book addresses the most pressing question in the study of religion today: are new forms of spirituality overtaking traditional forms of religion? It is based on the detailed study of religion and spirituality in Kendal, UK. It compares pioneering findings from Kendal with existing evidence from the USA and Europe. The book provides a theoretical perspective which explains both secularization and sacralization; offers some startling predictions about the future of religion and spirituality in the west; and, is written in an accessible and lively style, and will appeal to a broad range of readers interested in the future direction of belief in the western world.