Religious structures of a secular society: the shape of religious future-shock in contemporary New Zealand

Abstract

The idea being advanced here is that patterns of behaviour, attitudes, values and realms of experience are observable in contemporary Western secular life that exhibit many aspects of behaviour and experience associated with traditional religious practice. The initial intention was to argue that these facets of secular experience did, in fact, constitute a new and valid cultural expression of the religious process. My view was that this new form of religious expression was concealed within the structures of overtly secular social experience and required recognition within the focus of Religious Studies.