This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Brodin, J.-A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

A Matter of Choice: A Micro-Level Study on how Swedish New Agers Choose their Religious Beliefs and Practices

Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden, Jenny-Ann.Brodin{at}sociology.su.se

A necessary, but surprisingly neglected, postulate within economic and rational choice theories on religious phenomena is that religion is a matter of individual choice. But what does it actually mean to choose religion? Is it a choice similar to other choices - or is it something rather different? In this article individual choices of religious beliefs and practices, both from theoretical and empirical points of view, are discussed. The empirical material consists of ten in-depth interviews within one particular, and also rather special, religious field - namely the Swedish New Age movement. Some of the main findings concern the respondents' strategies to estimate costs/benefits and to reduce different kinds of uncertainty. In the interviews we find an interesting duality. On the one hand there seems to be a highly individualized ideology, stressing individual responsibility and authority; on the other hand social contacts and recommendations seem to be of great importance.

Key Words: New Age movement • rationality • religious choice • uncertainty

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?