The New Kids

The New Age movement is a religious phenomenon that peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, a diverse conglomeration of disparate practices that are loosely bound by the concept of an imminent or present “new age” and by a critical reaction against rational materialistic explanations of the universe. Wouter Hanegraaff has painstakingly catalogued many of the practices and beliefs associated with this designation and many of the major New Age authors in New Age Religion and Western Culture. ¹ While much ink has now been spent on describing this expansive phenomenon and its multiple manifestations, one area that remains largely untouched is the special role of children within New Age culture. ²