The document discusses the rise of new religious movements in America from the 1960s onward. It attributes their growth to factors like disenchantment with mainstream religion, disillusionment with science and technology, and a desire for personal spirituality. Many new religious movements offered alternative beliefs and practices that were experiential, therapeutic, or promised to answer existential questions. The document provides examples of some prominent new religious movements like Scientology, the Hare Krishna movement, and movements that revised older religions like Neo-Paganism.
5. New Thought
Mind-Healing movement based on religious and metaphysical presupposition that all
problems may be solved through the power of the mind
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, April 13). New Thought. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Thought
7. Transcendentalism
19th Century movement of writers and philosophers in New England, holding the
belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of humanity, and
supremacy of intuition over logic, and experience over reason
8. Phineas Quimby
1802 - 1866
Transcendentalist from New England
Founded New Thought
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, April 13). New Thought. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Thought
9. Christian Science
Mary Baker Eddy
1821 - 1910
Concord, MA
Gottschalk, S. (2023, November 29). Mary Baker Eddy. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Baker-Eddy
10. Power of Positive Thinking
Rev. Norman Vincent Peale
1898 - 1993
Marble Collegiate in NY
Gottschalk, S. (2023, November 29). Mary Baker Eddy. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Baker-Eddy
11. “How to be Happy”, Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, 1983
12. Word of Faith Movement
Kenneth Hagin
1917 - 2003
Tulsa, OK
Pentecostal Preacher
13. Word of Faith Movement
Focused on healing and prosperity
through positive confession and
believing
15. If you can dream it, you can do it!
— Tom Fitzgerald, Disney Writer
Veness, Susan. (2021). Walt Disney’s most inspiring quote. Attracts Magazine. https://attractionsmagazine.com/walt-disney-most-inspiring-quote-isnt-actually-his/
20. Max Weber
1864 - 1920
Coined term “disenchantment”
Weber. (1920) The Sociology of Religion
21. Disenchantment
The supposed condition of the world once science and
the Enlightenment have eroded the sway of religion and superstition.
Chua, E. Jin (2016, November 29). disenchantment. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/disenchantment-sociology
22. Disenchantment
Entzauberung, translated into English as “disenchantment” or
“de-magic-ation.”…The word connotes the breaking of a magic spell.
Scienti
fi
c methods and enlightened reason rendered the word
transparent and demysti
fi
ed.
Chua, E. Jin (2016, November 29). disenchantment. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/disenchantment-sociology
24. American Civil Religion
• Robert Bella, in 1967 claimed Religion in
America had been reduced to Civil Religion”
Bella, Robert. (Winter, 1967). Civil religion in America. Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 96(1): 1-21.
25. American Civil Religion
• 1800s to the 1960s
• Religion became an institution that taught
patriotism, moral principles, and religious
rituals.
Bella, Robert. (1982). Varieties of Civil Religion. HarperOne.
26. Practicing Civil Religion
1. Public Invocation of God — ex. Pledge of Allegiance, “In God we trust.”
2. Citing the Bible by politicians — ex. FDR called big business “unscrupulous money changers!”
3. Venerating American leaders — ex. Washington’s Birthday, Lincoln’s Day
4. American leaders as moral role models — ex. Washington cutting down cherry tree
5. Association of American holidays with religion — ex. Thanksgiving, Fourth of July
6. Religious symbols on public buildings — ex. Ten Commandments
7. Retelling National Myths — ex. The Pilgrims, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
27. Devoid of Spirituality
• Many Americans felt civil religion sterile
• Devoid of spirituality
• Having no personal meaning
34. Future Shock
The physical and psychological distress su
ff
ered by one who is
unable to cope with the rapidity of social and technological changes
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/future%20shock
35. Religion in America
1. Disenchantment
2. Civil Religion
3. Horror of World War II
4. Future Shock
5. Distrust in traditional institutions
36. Distrust
• In the Government
• In American leaders
• In traditional institutions
38. Religion in America
1. Disenchantment
2. Civil Religion
3. Horror of World War II
4. Future Shock
5. Distrust in traditional institutions
6. Disillusionment with science & technology
39. Science & Technology
• Has not solved our social problems
• Has not made us better people
• Has not improved our planet
• Has not answered ultimate questions
41. Desire for
Personal Spirituality
• Desire to look elsewhere for spirituality
• Hunger for religious experience
• Search inward instead of outward
• Renewed interest in supernatural
45. Gibson, Jung (2006) Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign Born Population of the United States. No. 81: US Census Bureau
Asian Immigrants Tripled between 1970-1980
46. Globalization of Culture
• Immigration from Asia and Eastern religion
• Greater awareness of other religions
• Exotic practices promising inner peace
47. Popular Interest in…
• Practices of Eastern Religion
• Beliefs of ancient earth religions
• Mystical practices of the West
54. Re-Enchantment of Western Religion
The rediscovery and new interest in the heroic, mythical, and
supernatural nature of the world reinterpreted into modernity.
Berman, Morris. (1981). The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press
55. New Age Movement
Religious movement emerging in the 1970s and 80s looking to a
new era of life & light through metaphysical healing, and modern
esotericism.
Melton, J. Gordon (2016, April 7). New Age movement. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Age-movement
56. New Religious Movements (NRM)
Religions emerging in 20th century that o
ff
er spiritual responses to the conditions of
the modern world, that are often countercultural and alternative to mainstream religion.
Rubinstein, M. (2023, November 29). new religious movement. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/new-religious-movement
57. New Religious Movements
1. PERSONAL — O
ff
er spiritualities that are contemplative and look inward.
2. THERAPEUTIC — Promise to ease anxiety and help cope with life.
3. EXOTIC — Provide new practices or rituals not found in mainstream religion
4. TRANSCENDENT — Seek answers to ultimate questions science and religion failed to answer
5. SUPERNATURAL — Describe an invisible reality that intersects with our natural world.
58. New Religious Movements
6. EXPERIENTIAL — Provide embodied “experiences” traditional religion failed to supply
7. SCIENTIFIC— Add to rather than replace Scienti
fi
c & psychological explanations
8. REGRESSIVE — Seek to connect with ancient mythologies and religious traditions.
9. CHARISMATIC — Founded and led by creative, charismatic leaders
10. OPTIMISTIC — Envisions a utopian future of peace, health, happiness, and end to problems
60. Case: Scientology
• Personal — Finding personal ful
fi
llment
• Therapeutic — Finding solutions to anxiety, and daily struggles
• Exotic Practices — Auditing
• Transcendent — Past lives, other galaxies
• Supernatural — Our Theta lives on
• Answers big questions — reason for our existence, origins, destiny
• Adds — science, extraterrestrial existence, and ideas from psychology
• Personality driven — L Ron Hubbard
61. Case: Jewish Renewal Movement
• Personal — Individual Judaism rather than corporate
• Therapeutic — Kabbalah can help you be a better person
• Exotic Practices — chanting, meditation, dance
• Transcendent — Kabbalistic and Eastern explanations of the soul
• Supernatural — supernatural experiences (often through drugs)
• Answers big questions — Reasons for Jewish practice and ritual
• Adds — Added to Judaism, Jewish practice, and social justice.
• Personality driven — Zalman Schlachter Shalomi
62. Some New Religious Movements
• International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hari Krishna)
• Family Federation for World Peace and Uni
fi
cation (Sun Myung Moon)
• Church of Scientology
63. Revised Older Religions
• Neo-Paganism & Wicca
• Native American Religion
• The Kabbalah Center
• Buddhism: Zen, Nichiren Shoshu
• Hinduism: Transcendental Meditation
• Tarot Cards (Voodoo)
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