Reflexive Religion: The New Age in Brazil and Beyond

Anthony D’Andrea has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, where he has been a Research Associate at the Center for Latin American Studies. He authored Global Nomads: Techno and New Age as Transnational Countercultures in Ibiza and Goa (Routledge, 2007) and has published extensively on topics of cultural globalization, mobility and religion.

• Acknowledgements1 Introduction to the Spirit of the New Age in Brazil1 Subtle Patterns of New Age Conversion2 Problematizing the Modern Self 3 Post-Traditional Religiosities: Individualism and Reflexivity4 Methodological Challenges: Identifying New Agers 5 Book Structure: Native Expressions and a General Theory of the New Age 2 Post-Traditional Religiosities: Reflexivity and Individualism Transforming the Religious Field1 Reflexivity in Contemporary Religions: From Totalization to Privatization 2 The Crisis of Modernity and the Rise of Post-Traditional Religiosities 3 Revisiting Self-Realization 3 Sociological Overview of the New Age1 Introduction: Globalization of Reflexive Mysticism 2 Sociological Aspects of the New Age 2.1 Social Class and Distinction 2.2 Gender and Race2.3 Generational Differences 3 Reflexive Xenophilia 4 Conclusion: The Reflexivity of Nomadic Spiritualities 4 The Perfect Self: Neo-Enlightenment and Romanticism in New Religious Forms1 Enlightenment and Romanticism: From Reason to Self-Shaping 2 The Duality Today 3 Further Interconnections: Love and Power in Tension 5 Ethnology of the New Age in Brazil: Hybridism, Individualism and Reflexivity1 Beliefs in Brazilian New Age 2 Genealogy of the Term 3 Major Theoretical Options 4 Ethnological Categories of the New Age 4.1 Hybridism4.2 Individualism4.3 Experimentalism4.4 Reflexivity5 New Age as the Popularization of an Elite Mysticism 6 The New Age in Brazil: Religious Individualism between Spiritism and Psychological Culture1 Mapping the New Age in Brazil 2 Mapping the New Age in the Brazilian Religious Field 7 Psychological Culture: Management, Therapy and Art in the New Age1 Therapy, Management and Reflexivity 2 Conclusion: Art as Emancipatory Spirituality 8 The New Age Christianity of Paulo Coelho1 “Invisible Religion” in Rio de Janeiro 2 The New Age Christianity of Paulo Coelho 3 New Age References 4 Christian References 5 New Age and Catholicism in Perspective 6 The Cultural Meaning of Post-Traditional Christianity 9 New Age Spiritism: The Supernatural between “The Doctrine” and Reflexivity1 The Common Sources of Spiritism and New Age in Brazil 2 The Fragmentation of Spiritism under New Age Pressures 3 Conclusion: The New Agerization of Brazilian Religions 10 Niche Globalization of a Brazilian Parascience: The Case of Projectiology/Conscientiology1 Structure and Agency in Organizational Growth 2 Out-of-Body Experience, Parascience and Niche Globalization 3 Parasciences and Globalization: New Age Hybrids between Science and Religion 4 Secular Spirituality: Organization, Cosmology and Ethos of Projectiology 5 From Ipanema to China: Spaces, Channels and Barriers to Projectiology 6 Conclusion: National Cosmologies and Transnational Possibilities 11 New Age in Latin America: From Gregarious Syncretism to Reflexive Individualism1 What’s New in the New Age? 2 Reflexivity and Individualism in Post-Traditional Religiosities 3 New Age Studies in Latin America 4 Gregariousness and Individualism in Latin American New Age 5 New Religious Studies as Pseudo-New Age 6 Conclusion: New Age as Post-Traditional Spiritualities of the Self 12 Final Thoughts: The New Age as a Religious Pragmatic of Late Modernity1 The Logic of Post-Traditional Religiosities 2 The Rise of Reflexive Religiosities3 Neither Secularization nor Re-Enchantment BibliographyIndex