A Reflection Paper about New Age Spiritualities

A Reflection Paper About New Age Spiritualities
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A Reflection Paper About New Age Spiritualities
Summary
In this reading, Wouter J. Hanegraaff (1999) emphasizes how the New Age religion manifests in the modern world. He argues in the New Age movement, which represents a secular type of religion pegged on radically private symbolism. In this type of religion, every person can practice their deepest self at free will even though it is embedded in the collective symbolism of an existing religion. While trying to define religion in three different ways, Wouter opines that religion may generally express itself in "spiritualities" or "religions" forms. He sets the context of secular religion as the transformation under the influence of new developments, but not an occurrence caused by its degradation. Wouter essentially connects secular religion to the sovereignty of spiritualities. He concentrates on the intricacies of private symbolism's impact on the New Age spiritualities and secular religion per the spiritual evolution of "the self."
From the beginning, the author agrees with Durkheim's illustration of the new type of religion as indeed accurate. According to Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life, he poses the challenge of the New Age movement to religion historians. Durkheim further equates religion to a social phenomenon and highlights the alternative probability of the emergence of "individual religions" meant for "the self." Similarly, Wouter supports Durkheim's stand to emphasize that the modern New Age movement vividly portrays secular religion and the new age spiritualities. He further affirms that New Age epitomizes secular religion pegged on private symbolism, therefore challenging religion historians and sociologists. While drawing from the text, we observe that, just like the author, other exper...