Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World

Today’s Nonfiction review is on Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton. It is 320 pages long and is published by Public Affairs. The cover is an illustrated stained glass window. The intended reader is someone who is interested in modern culture and society. There is mild foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Fifty-Five years have passed since the cover of Time magazine proclaimed the death of God, yet while participation in mainstream religion has indeed plummeted, Americans have never been more spiritually busy.

While rejecting traditional worship in unprecedented numbers, today's Americans are embracing a kaleidoscopic panoply of spiritual traditions, rituals, and subcultures- from astrology and witchcraft to SoulCycle and the alt-right. As the internet makes it ever easier to find these new tribes and consumer capitalism forever threatens to turn spirituality into a lifestyle brand, remarkably modern American religious culture is undergoing a revival comparable with the Great Awakenings of centuries past. Faith is experiencing a renaissance. Disillusioned with organized religion and political establishments alike, more and more Americans are seeking out spiritual paths driven by intuition, and not institutions.

In Strange Rights, Tara Isabella Burton visits the techno-utopias of Silicon Valley, Satanist and polyamorous communities, witches from Bushwick, wellness junkies and social justice Advocates and devotees of Jordan Peterson, proving Americans are not abandoning religion but remixing mixing it. In search of the deep and  the real, they are finding meaning, purpose, ritual, and communities and ever-newer, ever-stranger ways. 

Review- A fascinating treatise on modern culture and society viewed through the lens of how Americans are expressing their spirituality if it's not their religion. Burton does excellent research interviewing many people from all walks of life, other peer-reviewed sources on sociology and other topics about current culture, and she comes to some interesting conclusions. The main conclusion is that Americans are not less religious than ever but they are more spiritual than ever. Unfortunately what is spiritual and spirituality is really hard to define and Burton does spend some time discussing that. She talks about how people are saying they are spiritual not religious and in the way that they reflect that be that in self care and wellness or in general advocacy for those who are downtrodden in our society. Burton’s conclusions are easy to follow, and are backed up in my personal experiences with people out in the world. But I'm not sure what the point is. I don't know if Burton is wanting to examine this from a religious perspective, a sociological perspective, or just more of a treatise on modern society. If you were curious about the spiritual not religious rise here in America or just more interested in the way modern society appears to be living in a religious sense I would recommend this book.

I give this non-fiction book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrow this book from my local library.