New Age: the History of a Movement

Does the New Age movement present a serious challenge to the orthodoxies of mainstream Western religion? Here is a coherent response to this question and an accessible overview of the principal themes that unite New Age followers into a distinct spiritual movement in the world today. The New Age movement may well reflect the future of Western religion - a fusion of experential and transformative spiritual practices grounded in the perennial wisdom of both East and West. Nevill Drury explores the origins and precursors of the New Age movement, its consolidation within the counterculture of America in the late 1960s, and its development into an international spiritual perspective in contemporary Western society. He considers the influence on the New Age of metaphysicians such as Emanuel Swedenborg, Mesmer, Madame Blavatsky and Gurdjieff; pioneering thinkers like Freud, Jung and William James; and the contribution to New Age thought of Indian spiritual traditions and transpersonal psychology.