Legitimating new age in India
Subtitle: religion, science and magic revisited
By: Kathinka Froystad
Contributors: Delhi School of Economics. Department of Sociology; University of Delhi
Series: Occasional papers (New series) -- 2006/1
Publisher: Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Delhi
Language: eng
Number of pages: 26
Subjects: Religion and science
Description: With the growing dominance of modern science, religious movements increasingly turn to science for legitimacy. This article examines five ways in which scientific legitimacy is constructed in the Indian New Age movement: scientific experiments, mimesis, use of doctoral titles, narrative entanglement, and analogies. Much of the persuasive power of science lies in the intricacy of scientific allusions and arguments, which give them a magical and sublime 'underside'. If religion is construed as scientific in ways that have magic-effects, spiritual scientism allows us to reconceptualise the relation between magic, science, and religion.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 24-26).