Re-sacralisation in Fourteen Themes: An Historical Perspective

Abstract

The twentieth century and onwards has witnessed unmistakable changes in religious practice and conceptuality. This has included a downturn in formal, traditional religious adherence, particularly in the West. Many interpreted the latter as an irreversible ‘secularisation’ that would in time significantly marginalise the role of ‘religion’ in human affairs. This thesis argues for re-sacralisation as a more accurate explanation for what has been occurring. This project of re-sacralisation is moreover demonstrated to have been in process for a few hundred years, the effects of which have been compounding. It has been marked by fourteen or more new religious themes (NRTs). These are evident across the religious spectrum, stretching from changes within the major traditional world religions to the innovations of numerous new post-traditional religious or spiritual forms. It is in the latter that the themes find their freest expression. The themes and their effects will be chiefly illustrated via a case study of one particular new religion, that group being the Unification Church/Movement/group, now officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Though the themes have and will continue to encompass diversity, their direction and meaning is singular: religion has been transforming itself from a segregated and controlled relationship with the sacred into one that is more integrated and internalised.