Bücher von Michael York

"Matter Matters" is a comprehensive overview of one of the world's oldest religious movements, Paganism. It explores the common practices, traditions, and core beliefs of this earth-centric form of spirituality, including self-reliance, open-mindedness, and freedom of choice. The book emphasizes the importance of coming to the spiritual table with an open mind to varying paths and is an inspiring resource to readers who wish to explore Paganism and build their personal spiritual practice.

Finally, overviews of sectarian pagan ethics (Shinto, Santeria, Heathenism, Druidry, Romuva, Slavic, Kemeticism, Classical and Wicca) provide both the general and pagan reader with an understanding of the provocative range and differentiation of pagan ethical thought.

The 1980s saw the emergence of New Age and neo-paganism as major new religious movements. In this study of these movements, Michael York describes their rituals and beliefs and examines the similarities, differences and relationships between them, profiling particular groups.

The decline of institutionalized religion in the increasingly secularized West has been offset by the contemporary spiritual development understood in the form of emerging New Age movements. This reference presents the potpourri of spiritual and psycho-physical therapeutic practices associated with this affirmation of the individual's spiritual freedom, the expectation of a future golden age, the emphasis on self-development, and the holistic pluralism that sets the dominant pulse for innovative spirituality in the twenty-first century. The A to Z of New Age Movements furnishes profiles and explanations of New Age spokespeople and leaders, of a range of human potential and self-help practices, of countercultural spiritual developments, and of different groups and organizations that identify as New Age. The dictionary consists of over 240 individual entries along with an introduction that describes the historical foundations of the New Age orientation and its relation with contemporary Western paganism. It also presents the sociological dimension of New Age expression, as well as the kinds of criticism with which the New Age identity must contend. There is both a New Age Chronology and a bibliography also included.

This dictionary is a reference manual presenting the key concepts, activities, groups, people, and overlapping domains of the contemporary spirituality known as New Age.