| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

New Age and Neopagan Religions in America. By Sarah M. Pike. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. xvi, 220 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-231-12402-3.)
Sarah M. Pike's lucid and interesting survey of esoteric and New Age religions notes the paradox that such archaic-seeming faiths flourish especially in the most technologically and socially advanced areas of contemporary America. The large consumer market sustained by that very old-time religion continues to grow and flourish.	1
Though much of Pike's work concerns the cultural and religious impact of the 1960s, she stresses the older roots of these phenomena, dating back to colonial times. So abundant in fact is the evidence for esoteric, occult, and mystical ideas that they can scarcely be seen as a fringe movement, however important. Throughout the history of American religion, one rarely has to scratch too deep beneath the surface of mainstream religion to find thinkers and activists deeply imbued with esoteric doctrines and practices, people interested in Mesmerism and prophecy, astrology, or the lessons of the Great Pyramid.	. . .

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