The New Age in the Modern West: Counterculture, Utopia, and Prophecy from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Bloomsbury Academic
Abstract
Description
Nicholas Campion traces New Age ideas back to ancient cosmology, and questions the concepts of the Enlightenment and the theory of progress. He considers the contributions of the key figures of the 18th century, the legacy of the astronomer Isaac Newton and the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg, as well as the theosophist, H.P. Blavatsky, the psychologist, C.G. Jung, and the writer and artist, Jose Arguelles. He also pays particular attention to the beat writers of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, concepts of the Aquarian Age and prophecies of the end of the Maya Calendar in 2012. Lastly he examines neoconservatism as both a reaction against the 1960s and as a utopian phenomenon.
Keywords
New Age , Modern , West , Cosmology
Citation
Campion, Nicholas. The New Age in the Modern West: Counterculture, Utopia, and Prophecy from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. PSt