> You raise excellent points, but can I suggest that New Age culture was
> institutionalized a long time ago
While I'm certainly not going to diss institutions, as a founding member of
a small church, the vitality of a religion (or any other social structure)
comes from the movement surrounding the institutions. When a back and forth
exchange happens on the popular culture level between the various
institutions and the movement surrounding and sustaining them, both are
healthy, when one or the other comes to be too dominant, both falter. Those
involved in institutions tend to believe they own the religion or the
movement, while those principally involved in the amorphous movement don't
see the value of social capital imbedded in long-last impersonal structures,
policies and procedures.
Best,
Sam Wagar
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