Christopher Partridge is Professor of Contemporary Religion at University College Chester. His research and writing focuses on Western alternative spiritualities and popular culture.

• Introduction; Part 1: The Disenchantment And Re-enchantment Of The West 1. The Disenchantment of the West; Types of Secularization; Max Weber and the Disenchantment of the World; What Secularization is Not; Rationalization and Pluralism; Conclusion; 2. Understanding New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities; Max Weber on Sectarianism and Charisma; Ernst Troeltsch on Churches, Sects and Mysticism; H.R. Niebuhr on Sectarianism; Bryan Wilson on Sectarianism; Towards a Typology of the New Religious Life Secularization, New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities; 3. The Re-enchantment of the West Disenchantment as the Precursor to Re-enchantment; Non-traditional Religious Vitality; Re-enchantment and De-exotification; Concluding Comments; Part 2: The Significance Of Occulture; 4. Occulture; The Cultic Milleu and Mystical Religion Occulture; New Age Occulture: the Significance of the Self; The Priority of Experience and a Hermeneutic of Suspicion; Romanticizing the Premodern; Pagan Occulture; Concluding Comments; 5. Easternization? Turning East; East Meets West; The Significance of the 1893 World Parliament of Religions; A Revolution of Consciousness: the Sacralizing Significance of the 1960s; Eastern Teachers in Western Traditions; Easternization? Problems and Proposals; Quasi-religion, Instrumental Activism, and Syncretism; 6. Popular Occulture; Popular Culture as Religious Text? The Dilution Thesis; The Significance of Popular Culture; Supernatural Horror: Vampire Fiction Cool Occulture; Popular Sacred Narratives; 7. Popular Occulture: The Significance of Sound Adorno and Popular Music; The Occultural Significance of Popular Music Festival Culture; Psychedelic Trance Culture; Practising the Sacred Art of Dub; Concluding Comments; Bibliography; Index

'[a] useful contribution...if you want a more in-depth treatment you will find this rewarding, largely free of jargon and containing useful summaries of important debates...a good and well-argued assessment of the contemporary situation...listen to Partridge's largely excellent analysis of culture; there is much here to inform. I, for one, will certainly eagerly await the next volume'

Christopher Partridge is Professor of Contemporary Religion at University College Chester. His research and writing focuses on Western alternative spiritualities and popular culture.

• Introduction; Part 1: The Disenchantment And Re-enchantment Of The West 1. The Disenchantment of the West; Types of Secularization; Max Weber and the Disenchantment of the World; What Secularization is Not; Rationalization and Pluralism; Conclusion; 2. Understanding New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities; Max Weber on Sectarianism and Charisma; Ernst Troeltsch on Churches, Sects and Mysticism; H.R. Niebuhr on Sectarianism; Bryan Wilson on Sectarianism; Towards a Typology of the New Religious Life Secularization, New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities; 3. The Re-enchantment of the West Disenchantment as the Precursor to Re-enchantment; Non-traditional Religious Vitality; Re-enchantment and De-exotification; Concluding Comments; Part 2: The Significance Of Occulture; 4. Occulture; The Cultic Milleu and Mystical Religion Occulture; New Age Occulture: the Significance of the Self; The Priority of Experience and a Hermeneutic of Suspicion; Romanticizing the Premodern; Pagan Occulture; Concluding Comments; 5. Easternization? Turning East; East Meets West; The Significance of the 1893 World Parliament of Religions; A Revolution of Consciousness: the Sacralizing Significance of the 1960s; Eastern Teachers in Western Traditions; Easternization? Problems and Proposals; Quasi-religion, Instrumental Activism, and Syncretism; 6. Popular Occulture; Popular Culture as Religious Text? The Dilution Thesis; The Significance of Popular Culture; Supernatural Horror: Vampire Fiction Cool Occulture; Popular Sacred Narratives; 7. Popular Occulture: The Significance of Sound Adorno and Popular Music; The Occultural Significance of Popular Music Festival Culture; Psychedelic Trance Culture; Practising the Sacred Art of Dub; Concluding Comments; Bibliography; Index

'[a] useful contribution...if you want a more in-depth treatment you will find this rewarding, largely free of jargon and containing useful summaries of important debates...a good and well-argued assessment of the contemporary situation...listen to Partridge's largely excellent analysis of culture; there is much here to inform. I, for one, will certainly eagerly await the next volume'

Christopher Partridge is Professor of Contemporary Religion at University College Chester. His research and writing focuses on Western alternative spiritualities and popular culture.

• Introduction; Part 1: The Disenchantment And Re-enchantment Of The West 1. The Disenchantment of the West; Types of Secularization; Max Weber and the Disenchantment of the World; What Secularization is Not; Rationalization and Pluralism; Conclusion; 2. Understanding New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities; Max Weber on Sectarianism and Charisma; Ernst Troeltsch on Churches, Sects and Mysticism; H.R. Niebuhr on Sectarianism; Bryan Wilson on Sectarianism; Towards a Typology of the New Religious Life Secularization, New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities; 3. The Re-enchantment of the West Disenchantment as the Precursor to Re-enchantment; Non-traditional Religious Vitality; Re-enchantment and De-exotification; Concluding Comments; Part 2: The Significance Of Occulture; 4. Occulture; The Cultic Milleu and Mystical Religion Occulture; New Age Occulture: the Significance of the Self; The Priority of Experience and a Hermeneutic of Suspicion; Romanticizing the Premodern; Pagan Occulture; Concluding Comments; 5. Easternization? Turning East; East Meets West; The Significance of the 1893 World Parliament of Religions; A Revolution of Consciousness: the Sacralizing Significance of the 1960s; Eastern Teachers in Western Traditions; Easternization? Problems and Proposals; Quasi-religion, Instrumental Activism, and Syncretism; 6. Popular Occulture; Popular Culture as Religious Text? The Dilution Thesis; The Significance of Popular Culture; Supernatural Horror: Vampire Fiction Cool Occulture; Popular Sacred Narratives; 7. Popular Occulture: The Significance of Sound Adorno and Popular Music; The Occultural Significance of Popular Music Festival Culture; Psychedelic Trance Culture; Practising the Sacred Art of Dub; Concluding Comments; Bibliography; Index

'[a] useful contribution...if you want a more in-depth treatment you will find this rewarding, largely free of jargon and containing useful summaries of important debates...a good and well-argued assessment of the contemporary situation...listen to Partridge's largely excellent analysis of culture; there is much here to inform. I, for one, will certainly eagerly await the next volume'