A self religion (or self-religion) is a religious or self-improvement group which has as one of its primary aims the improvement of the self. The term "self religion" was coined by Paul Heelas and other scholars of religion have adopted/adapted the description. King's College scholar Peter Bernard Clarke builds on Heelas's concept of self religion to describe the class of "Religions of the True Self".
Contents
Scope
Hanegraaff notes that "self religion" may equate to New Age spirituality in general. and author Michael York writes, "If 'self-religion' means personal exegesis and selection by the individual, the general rubric is applicable to trends in the late modern/early postmodern transition, which encompass much more than simply New Age and Neo-pagan religiosities." Eileen Barker, in her 1999 book New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance, said that they were "toward the New Age end of the NRM spectrum". Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist of religion, describe "self religion" as "a deep but vague and unorganized interest in the sacred".
Examples
Groups characterized as (or associated with the concepts of) self religions or "religions of the True Self" include: