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-- I received an ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review --I have something of an interest in post-Internet nonfiction, such as Because Internet and Trick Mirror, and Tara Isabella Burton's Strange Rites piqued my interest as a title befitting that theme. While at times I found the author's writing style cumbersome to parse and prone to overkill, it was overall an educational read with perceptive insight.First and foremost, the book is excellent about giving the numbers. Pew Research
Strange Rites is an important book for those interested in the religious landscape of America. Burton brings together many sources to show the different strains of thought vying for our post-Christian souls. Well-written and recommended.
An engaging, well-researched look into the spiritual lives of the religiously unaffiliated, who Burton refers to as the "Remixed." This includes those who are "spiritual but not religious," practice a hybrid or relaxed version of a traditional religion, or simply demonstrate a sense of personal spirituality through their actions and beliefs. Burton identifies the four main pillars of what religion has traditionally provided--meaning, purpose, community, and ritual--then uses this framework to id...
Perfect analyzing of new thought on religion, fringe health, and fake science. All belief evolves.
Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton (PublicAffairs, 2020)Reviewed by Rabbi Reuven Chaim KleinBurton opens her book with a vivid description of Sleep No More, an immersive theatre show which developed a cult-like following. She describes the experience of attending one of these shows as a sort of multi-sensory ritual that feeds into man’s proclivity for the religious and sublime. This is but one example of how Americans nowadays are feeding their hunger for re...
Disappointing. This barely comes together as a book. It's one of those collections of articles with a very loose theme that became a book. The loose theme is that Americans are becoming anti-institutional and getting their religious experiences from somewhere else. Chapters explore some of those "somewhere else" places including witchcraft, polyamory, Soul-Cycle, social justice, "techno-utopianism" (think Peter Thiel), and the alt-right. It's a good overview of how people throw themselves into t...
super kooky insane hot takes in here, like how Harry Potter gave rise to both BLM and the incel community. in essence, lost in the desert of the ecumenical, evangelicals saw the light in some tired dorm room Thoreau and Emerson’s deity of man gospel (re-upped for the gilded/consumerist age by hypnotist charlatan Phineas Quimby). And as fast as you can say amen, we were reborn in the waters of self-care and cultural resistance
“Strange Rites” put a lot of the pieces together for me as far as understanding the various “religions” of the Nones. I notice a lot of these trends (just hop on Instagram for five minutes) and enjoyed this thorough dissection of everything from wellness culture to super-fan obsession to the social justice movement. What most of these trends or movements have in common: a focus on the self (expressive individualism). A prioritization of the body over the mind. A belief in perfectibility. Also, t...
"When we are all our own high priests, who is willing to kneel?"We are all too familiar with the cultural conflict between Christianity (or religion) against the forces of secularism that continue to challenge the foundations of the generation that came before. However, while many are leaving traditional Christianity behind, they are not necessarily running to the open arms of atheism either.Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World makes a convincing case that today's society is not nece...
1/4 of Americans claim to be non-religious, while among millennials (1990s) it rises to 2/5. These religious unaffiliates “are the single biggest religious demographic in America, as well as the fastest growing one...significantly [outnumbering] white evangelicals...whose numbers are now dwindling at 15%.”So this rise of the (non-Catholic) Nones tells a story of disenchantment, secularisation & atheism, right? Not so fast. A meagre 7% of the American popular are atheist or even agnostic, & for y...
Interesting, but ultimately a surface-level look at modern religions and what Burton believes to be the three most likely to dominate in the US going forward. Disappointing in that she spends so much time breathlessly espousing the wonders of mix-and-match, tarot-and-witchcraft, anything-goes self-made religions that she fails to discuss whether the individualistic nature of modern religions is truly a good thing - she mentions the context in which these religions are flourishing, late stage cap...
I wasn’t sure what to expect from “Strange Rites.” Author Tara Isabella Burton presents the spiritual and religious traditions alive in America today, represented through the words and actions of the followers and supporters. Other groups are included, ranging from the political to the cultish. Many of these I was aware of, some I had only a fleeting knowledge, and I gained a ton of knowledge on all the different opportunities for people to follow. I found it very interesting that the history of...
What an interesting and depressing read. It provides a deep dive into the spiritual thinking of western culture, with some comparison and contrasting to Christianity as it is often practiced currently in the US. I read it to better understand the mindset of both the "nones" (people who check "none" when asked their religious affiliation) and the "Spiritual but not religious." It was both helpful and depressing. Lots of people searching, lots of people picking and choosing what they want to belie...
What a load of bullshit! I don't think that I have read a bigger pile of crap in a long time. The author spends the first chapter of the book defining "religion" and then proceeds to ignore her own definition for the rest of the book. She takes huge leaps that things that have a common community are religion, ie Harry Potter shares a mythos and there is an online community of people that like Harry Potter so therefore Harry Potter is a religion. Um what? She is fantastic at manipulating random d...
Strange Rites is a strange book. Do you expect a coherent book when you hear the subjects are witchcraft, self-help, social justice, Fifty Shades of Grey, and the Alt-Right? Well, Burton has managed to do that by showing that in today's America, individualism drives religion. Increasingly Americans of all religions and/or none are "remixing" their religious beliefs to fit their own self-narratives and new subcultures emerge and realign to provide meaning in a world where traditional institutiona...
Absolutely fascinating. This book is something of a sociological survey of the current religious landscape in America. Burton is not offering solutions or even commentary, necessarily, but I highly recommend for those curious about the many overlapping factors involved in western cultural religion/spirituality.
What a fascinating glance into this current cultural moment. I’d highly recommend to gain insight of this generations’ religious beliefs and understand those around us.
4.5 stars? Another helpful book highlighting the shortcomings of the idea that America is (becoming) disenchanted and secular. Burton argues that lots of people who are religiously unaffiliated and/or leaving the church are adopting other new ideologies/faiths (She names Progressive social activism, alt-Right movements, liberal trans-humanism, sexual Utopianism) in order to find purpose, meaning, community.One point is something like this: just as the history of Protestantism is intertwined with...
Strange Rites presents a fascinating overview of the rise of the religiously unaffiliated, a group Tara Isabella Burton refers to as the "Nones." Religious non-affiliation has exploded in recent years, largely due to the ubiquity of the internet and how various internet sites facilitate the formation of groups of people with disparate interests who find others with common views. Burton claims that these groups, be they pagan spiritualists, adopters of new age beliefs, witches, alt-right trolls,
This book is going to leave me with a lot of things to think about. A few quick points.1) I think a lot of people will get hung up on Burton calling all these different things religion, seeing them more as ideologies. It's a fair point, but I think this is just a part of the challenge of book writing. My advice is don't sweat this too much. 2) I honestly think most readers will be fine reading the opening vignette about SLEEP NO MORE then skipping to chapter 2, reading all of that, and then skip...