This fundamental article (about 6500 words) – that gained dozens of scientific citations – surveys and maps the junction between New Age and Judaism, in Israel.
It presents the scenes of Jewish-New-Agey meeting, with many examples, and it deals with the question, how such a thriving and vibrant space may avoid the research gaze.
A parallel research in Hebrew also presented those ten types, while addressing other aspects of the interchange of Judaism and New Age (see here).
I’ve coined the term Jew Age to describe those Jewish New Age phenomena, and used it also in other researches. See links to further items below.
The survey of the intercultural meetings in this article entails:
1. From Psychotherapy to Body/Soul Practices
i. Psychology, Psychotherapy, Spiritual Counseling and Coaching
ii. Body/Soul-Oriented Practices
2. Nature Veneration and Feminism
3. Channeling
4. Alternative Sacred Art
5. Alternative Commentaries and Calendar
i. Jew Age Commentaries
ii. Jew Age calendar
This extract is the opening pharagraphs of the article:
INTRODUCTION—CURRENT SPIRITUALITIES IN ISRAEL
Recently, new spiritualities have been emerging in Israel, which combine Judaism and New Age spirituality. Surprisingly, these interesting phenomena are being overlooked by academic and public discourse regarding Jewish spiritual innovations. Consequently, current developments and processes, which are strongly influenced by New Age spirituality, are being misunderstood.
New Age Spiritualities
New Age spiritualities have become widespread recently, and they have gained legitimacy in Israeli society and worldwide. The New Age can arguably be defined as a Western, global, liberal spirituality that strives to offer an alternative to mainstream culture in all areas of life. Notwithstanding the variety of outlooks on New Age spirituality, its very general characteristics, which are accepted in the academic discourse,2 will serve us well in our discussion. The following are three such characteristics: First, scholars regard New Age spirituality as a Self Religion – celebrating, empowering, even deifying the individual, with a focus on one’s inner life, on intimate relationships, belonging, potential inner resources and self realization, personal experiences of the sacred, bodily pleasures and pains, investigation of feelings and inclinations, matters of livelihood and lifestyle, identity issues, and so on.
Language
English
Academic/Non-academic
Academic item
Bibliographical citation
Ruah-Midbar, Marianna, “Current Jewish Spiritualities in Israel: A New Age”, in Modern Judaism – A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience 32.1 (February 2012): 102-124.
