ABSTRACT
In his classic work linking economy and religion, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1920), Max Weber proposed that the Puritan teaching of predestination and its ideals of hard work, moral discipline and frugality combined with rational capital accumulation were determining elements in the successful rise of early modern capitalism.1 Since this book was rst published, capitalism has become the dominant economic system in the world, almost mysteriously dynamic and all-pervading, and economic mindsets and instrumental rationality are increasingly invading areas formerly outside the sphere of nancial calculation. While hard work still must be considered conducive to economic success, the other values listed by Weber as “the spirit of capitalism” more or less counteract the consumer capitalism that reigns today. Peter Berger makes the obvious, but tting comment that values which function well in one period of economic development may not be functional in another period (Berger 1999: 17). Lavish consumption is a cornerstone in Western capitalist economies, and a frugality ethic is obviously not a sustaining attitude for such a system.2 In a parallel way, the theological exclusivism and morality of Puritanism and its likes are unable to legitimate the multireligious commodication of today. How religious ideas and values in uence economic development in a society is a pertinent question. An equally interesting issue, however, concerns how religion is shaped by economic conditions.3 is seems obvious in relation to New Age, where social interaction now to a large extent takes place within a framework of selling and buying. Is this development connected with the lack of conventional religious organizing in the New Age movement? is lack has been a notorious headache for scholars wishing to dene it (cf. Possamai 2007). Guy Redden proposes that it is exactly the market character of New Age that is the reason for the diuse shape of the movement and the problems of denition (Redden 2005). How its market structure interacts with “the spirit
of New Age”, and what values and ideas are incorporated in this “spirit”, are urgent issues concerning this religious eld today. e contention in this chapter is that key New Age concepts and their usage are in uenced by the commercial purview and stimulate economic expansion, with the concept of energy being picked out for closer scrutiny.
