The Re-Enchantment of the West: Volume 1. Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture.

Review by: Christopher Partridge Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 10, No. 1 (August 2006), pp. 126-127 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2006.10.1.126 . Accessed: 24/11/2012 02:04
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Nova Religio

The Re-Enchantment of the West: Volume 1. Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture. By Christopher Partridge. T&T Clark, 2004. $34.95 paper. For better or worse the secularization debate has arguably become the central debate within the sociology of religion, at least in the United Kingdom. However, while the respective positions in the debate have effectively become entrenched, a new and interesting approach to the fate of religion in modern Western societies is provided in this volume by Christopher Partridge. While accepting that institutional forms of Christianity are witnessing a decline, Partridge argues that this is only half the story; spiritual ideas continue to persistif not, indeed, flourish within the reservoir of popular culture. Hence what we are witnessing in the West is the confluence of secularization and sacralization (p. 4); disenchantment as a precursor to re-enchantment. This first volume of two provides the introduction to Partridges thesis. After reviewing the literature on secularization/disenchantment and discussing the emergence of sects and the New Age over recent decades, the broad thesis is presented in chapter three. Here he makes the case, convincingly in my view, that Western societies, while becoming increasingly secular on one level are also permeated by a vast reservoir of spiritual ideas, beliefs, and practices drawn from a variety of traditions and places (what he terms Occulture). These ideas, he argues, are constantly recycled in popular culture and drawn upon by individuals in their lives. Occulture, then, is simultaneously the spiritual bricolours Internet from which to download whatever appeals or inspires, as well

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Reviews as being the well from which the serious occultist draws and the cluttered warehouse frequently plundered by producers of popular culture searching for ideas, images and symbols (p. 85). In the second half of the volume Partridge then discusses several sites within popular culture, examining the impact of Occultural ideas upon them (further sites will be examined in volume II). Firstly, he examines literature and film, focusing on vampire fiction, the popularity of Wiccan beliefs among teenagers and young adults, and the ways in which films and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Matrix, and Star Wars explore spiritual issues; the point being made that such cultural products are not merely expressions of contemporary religious interests and concerns, but they lead, first, to familiarization and fascination, and secondly, to the development of spiritualities (p. 141). Following on from this, he then turns his attention to popular music, examining the post-Beatles impact of Eastern philosophies on Western music, and the impact of spiritual ideas generally on festival culture, and the psychedelic trance and dub/ambient scenes. This is a really excellent book, written in a clear, accessible style, drawing on a range of material from different fields as well as the authors own fieldwork. It deserves to be read by academics across sociology, religious studies and cultural studies, as well as by all those curious about the changing nature of religious belief and practice in the West. John Walliss, Liverpool Hope University

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