The New Age movement is a twentieth-century socio-cultural phenomenon in the
Western world with Glastonbury as one of its major centers. The authors develop
a novel theory of social religious movements of broad applicability. Based
around contradictions relating to such central anthropological concepts as
communitas, egalitarianism, individualism, holism, and autonomy, the book
reveals the processes by which, having abandoned a mainstream lifestyle, people
come to build up a counter-culture way of life.