New Religious Movements and the Romantic Spirit of Modernity

Although new religious movements (NRMs) are characterized as diverse and unique, this Element analyzes the cultural logic underlying this apparent diversity from a sociological approach. Section 1 demonstrates that NRMs are substantially shaped by the Romantic counterculture emerging around the 1960s and its critique of churched religion, modern industries, science, and capitalism. Section 2 shows how these Romantic NRMs shaped the Western mainstream in the twenty-first century. Subsequent sections discuss the institutionalization of New Age spirituality in health care and business; the mediatization of modern paganism in film, television series, and online games; and the emergence of new NRMs in Silicon Valley that are formed around technologies of salvation (virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology). The Element concludes that the Romantic spirit of the NRMs – once distinctly countercultural – has paradoxically developed into a driving ideological force that now consolidates and strengthens the machineries of late-modern institutions.