New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine
This paper discusses the concept of New Age healing. Its emergence into popular culture in the 1980s can be traced to burgeoning interest in human potential and holistic health in the 1960s and 1970s. These phenomena in turn, were rooted in the appearance of Theosophy, New Thought, and spiritualism...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Religions |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/9/777 |
| _version_ | 1797482944760119296 |
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| author | Jeff Levin |
| author_facet | Jeff Levin |
| author_sort | Jeff Levin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper discusses the concept of New Age healing. Its emergence into popular culture in the 1980s can be traced to burgeoning interest in human potential and holistic health in the 1960s and 1970s. These phenomena in turn, were rooted in the appearance of Theosophy, New Thought, and spiritualism in the 19th Century. Rather than a social movement, or even a singular phenomenon, the New Age is characterized as a hodgepodge of several elements with a characteristic inclination to borrow beliefs and practices from the other traditions and systems of belief and practice. These include mysticism, esoteric metaphysics, the occult, and self-actualization regimens. The rise of New Age healing has sparked converging conservative religious, secular-rationalist, and biomedical critiques of the phenomenon. Since the 1990s, the New Age label has mostly disappeared from popular usage, but associated beliefs and practices have been successful in seeding themselves into contemporary Western medicine and mainline religion, with implications for their intersection. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:40:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8902da49dd48430fbea07a3b8c392787 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:40:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-8902da49dd48430fbea07a3b8c3927872023-11-23T18:40:45ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442022-08-0113977710.3390/rel13090777New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and MedicineJeff Levin0Institute for Studies of Religion and Medical Humanities Program, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USAThis paper discusses the concept of New Age healing. Its emergence into popular culture in the 1980s can be traced to burgeoning interest in human potential and holistic health in the 1960s and 1970s. These phenomena in turn, were rooted in the appearance of Theosophy, New Thought, and spiritualism in the 19th Century. Rather than a social movement, or even a singular phenomenon, the New Age is characterized as a hodgepodge of several elements with a characteristic inclination to borrow beliefs and practices from the other traditions and systems of belief and practice. These include mysticism, esoteric metaphysics, the occult, and self-actualization regimens. The rise of New Age healing has sparked converging conservative religious, secular-rationalist, and biomedical critiques of the phenomenon. Since the 1990s, the New Age label has mostly disappeared from popular usage, but associated beliefs and practices have been successful in seeding themselves into contemporary Western medicine and mainline religion, with implications for their intersection.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/9/777New Agehealingmedicinereligionesotericholism |
| spellingShingle | Jeff Levin New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine Religions New Age healing medicine religion esoteric holism |
| title | New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine |
| title_full | New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine |
| title_fullStr | New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine |
| title_full_unstemmed | New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine |
| title_short | New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion and Medicine |
| title_sort | new age healing origins definitions and implications for religion and medicine |
| topic | New Age healing medicine religion esoteric holism |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/9/777 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jefflevin newagehealingoriginsdefinitionsandimplicationsforreligionandmedicine |