Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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New Age
Also very popular among postmoderns is New Age spirituality, both similar and
different from Neo-Paganism. “New Age” became popular terminology in the 1980’s.
The term describes a quasi-religious set of beliefs, encompassing a wide array of beliefs.
These practices are largely confined to the industrialised West. They can be also be
traced to the socio-political unrest of the 1960’s, and the height of postmodern
deconstructionism. “The 21st Century has opened with a widespread resurgence of
interest in spirituality” (Clifford, 2003:2). This resurgence is primarily due to two
factors: (1) the long period of spiritual repression by modernity; and (2) the dawn of the
postmodern cultural wave.
In the Western world there is a growing sense
of need to have some spiritual orientation in
life. However, those who pursue this quest
for spirituality are uncomfortable with
institutionalised religion. They are also
disturbed by explanations of life that are
based on scientific reductionism, as well as
the consumerist tenets of society. As a result
many Westerners have adopted practices
and worldviews from other religious and
spiritual traditions such as Hinduism,
Buddhism, and Taoism as well as from the
Pagan past of Europe and from various
shamanic traditions (Johnson, 2004).
Many postmodern spiritual seekers are looking to the past for present fulfilment, often
turning to pre-modern religions and spiritualities. “Seekers do not wish to revert to premodernity,
but rather to blend the best elements of modernity with carefully selected
morsels of pre-modern spiritual practice. So, New Age spirituality attempts to resacralize
a world that has been de-supernaturalized by modernity” (Clifford, 2003:11).
Terms like Aquarian Age, New Consciousness, New Edge, New Spirituality, Next Age,
Next Stage, and Postmodern Spirituality, have now mostly replaced the once popular
term, “New Age.” Where these new religious expressions were long considered fringe
and ‘off-beat,’ they have now become mainstream and normative, almost as much so as
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa