Self religion
A self religion (or self-religion) is a religious or self-improvement group which has as one of its primary aims the improvement of the self.[1] The term "self religion" was coined by Paul Heelas[2] and other scholars of religion have adopted/adapted the description. King's College scholar Peter Bernard Clarke builds on Heelas's concept of self religion to describe the class of "Religions of the True Self".[3]
Contents
Scope
Hanegraaff notes that "self religion" may equate to New Age spirituality in general.[4] and author Michael York writes, "If 'self-religion' means personal exegesis and selection by the individual, the general rubric is applicable to trends in the late modern/early postmodern transition, which encompass much more than simply New Age and Neo-pagan religiosities."[5] Eileen Barker, in her 1999 book New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance, said that they were "toward the New Age end of the NRM spectrum".[6] Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist of religion, describe "self religion" as "a deep but vague and unorganized interest in the sacred".[7]
Examples
Groups characterized as (or associated with the concepts of) self religions or "religions of the True Self" include:
- Arica[8]
- the Emin Foundation[9]
- est[10] has been called "the most important of the self religions"[11]
- Exegesis[12][13] (an est-offshoot[14])
- The Gurdjieff Work.[15] Heelas traces some self-religions to the tradition of Gurdjieff:[16]
- Insight Seminars[17][18]
- Landmark Forum[19] (a derivative of est)[20]
- the Life Training (Kairos Foundation)[18]
- Mind Dynamics[21]
- Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA)[18]
- Rastafari movement[22]
- LaVeyan Satanism[23]
- the School of Economic Science[24]
- the Church of Scientology is characterized by Heelas as "one of the best known self-religions"[25]
- Silva Mind Control[13][26]
Notes
- ↑ Chryssides, pp. 290-291.[need quotation to verify]
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- ↑ est features prominently in Heelas's "Western Europe: Self-Religions" articleLua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. as an influential movement. Heelas writes in his very first paragraph: "And the founder of est (the highly influential seminar training established by Erhard in 1971) observes that, 'Of all the disciplines that I studied, and learned, Zen was the essential one.'" (page 167). And Heelas goes on to discuss est and Erhard a few pages later: "No European city comes anywhere near the 'one out of 34 adults have taken est' figure provided by this organisation for Boston. [...] To the extent that Erhard, for example, is a latter-day Gurdjieffian (it is surely not a coincidence that he devotes himself to what he calls 'The Work') he can appeal to a similar clientele as those attracted to the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man." (page 172).
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References
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