ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a historical review of the Reformation and the Awakenings that followed and places these developments in the context of a much larger process of new religious emergence. This unfoldment is tracked into our current era, where it has solidified into five major new religious streams: Neo-Christian, metaphysical, Neo-Eastern, New Thought and eco-spiritual. Though the formats and emphases of these five movements often vary greatly, closer examination shows them to all engage with very similar themes, the ones that were introduced in the previous chapter. Each just interprets and acts them out differently. This discussion solidly sets the scene for the succeeding chapters in which the situation becomes clearer through detailed expositions.
