New age

Twentieth-century society, especially in the second half of the century, showed a tendency to express vivid interest in everything connected with sacred, mysterious phenomena such as ancient knowledge, spiritual development, and the place of human beings in the hierarchy of the universe. This interest gave rise to the movement called New Age, with its bewildering variety of manifestations. Its foundations were laid by western esoteric traditions during the Renaissance, which developed through the nineteenth century, alongside increasing secularization, and finally into the present state with its beliefs that are often termed New Age religion (Hanegraaff 1996).