First as Sociology, then as geography: A review essay on Steven Sutcliffe and Ingvild Saelid Gilhus's new age spiritualities: Rethinking Religion

• Main Author: TSE, Justin Kh
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Ethics and Political Philosophy; Religion
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3089
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This essay reviews Steven J. Sutcliffe and Ingvild Sælid Gilhus's New Age Spiritualities: Rethinking Religion. It shows that their attempt to redefine religion through new age spiritualities is actually an attempt to impose an economically elite social geography onto religious studies as a social fact. My central argument is that this effort in turn reveals that religious studies serves as a sociological factory for liberal economic ideologies. It suggests that to mitigate this ideological work, a shift toward critical geography in religious studies is the way forward.