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Religion, renewal and choice - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Many of the new forms of religion or spirituality that Lyon refers to are New Age beliefs and practises. New Age spirituality rejects the idea of obligation and obedience to external authority found in traditional religions. Instead, it emphasises the idea of life as a journey of discovery, personal development, autonomy and connecting with one’s ‘inner self’. The key idea linking all these features is individualism: the notion that every individual is free to decide what is true for him or her, for example by engaging in spiritual shopping, picking and mixing ideas found online and so on. For this reason, New Age beliefs and practices have been called ‘self-spirituality’ or ‘self-religion’.
  - - - Lyon criticises secularisation theory for assuming that religion is declining and being replaced by a rational, scientific worldview. And argues that we are now in a period of re-enchantment, with the growth of unconventional beliefs, practises and spirituality. Although traditional forms of religion have declined, especially in Europe, Lyon points to the growing vitality of non-traditional religion in the West and its resurgence elsewhere in the world.
  - - - Emphasises that this is true of religion, where we act as ‘spiritual shoppers’, choosing religious beliefs and practices to meet our individual needs, from the vast range available in the religious marketplace. We no longer have a sign-up to any religious tradition; instead, we can pick and mix elements of different faiths to suit our tastes and make them part of our identity, until something more fashionable or attractive comes along.
  - - - They distinguish between two kinds of internet activity; religion online is a form of top-down communication where religious organisations use the internet to address members and potential converts and there is no feedback or dialogue between the parties. This is an electronic version of the traditional, hierarchical communication of churches to their members, communicating only the officially approved ideas.
        Online religion is a form of ‘cyber-religion’ that may have an existence outside of the internet. It is a ‘many-to-many’ form of communication that allows individuals to create non-hierarchal relationships and a sense of community where they can visit virtual worship or meditation spaces, explore shared spiritual interests and provide mutual support.
    - - Gained a sense of self-worth from feeling that they belonged to the global network. However, postmodernists might see online religion as a radical new alternative that may be replacing religion.
  - - - The growing interconnectedness of societies which led to greatly increased movements of ideas of beliefs across national boundaries. The media/ technology gives us access to the ideas and beliefs of previously remote places and religions. Religious ideas have become ‘disembedded’, the media left them out of physical churches and moved them to a different place and time. Because of this religion is de-institutionalised and detached from its place in religious institutions, floating in cyber-space.