Discuss the main thesis/claim of Carrette and King?  What is the problem with defining spirituality?  What specific examples of their criticism can you find in the areas of either New Age religion or the appropriation of Asian traditions?

            For Carrette and King's thesis, I will cite them directly for what I perceive it to be: “This book attempts to uncover what amounts to a silent takeover of 'the religious' by contemporary capitalist ideologies by means of the increasingly popular discourse of 'spirituality' ” (Carrette and King 2).Their belief is that religion has been hijacked by an elite group of capitalists and entrepreneurs and re-branded as a spirituality movement, focusing on an individualistic rather than a communal experience. The bottom line for those that control this trend is a maximization of profit. As can be inferred from the title, they are literally “selling spirituality”.

            At the very beginning of their introduction they use a rather bold statement as heading: “God is dead but has been resurrected as 'Capital' ” (1). While a cynical view, the examples that follow add weight to the claim; a vast proliferation of spiritual products and literature that have burgeoned in the past couple decades. I can personally attest to this, having worked as a receiving manager for Barnes & Noble Bookstore for five years in the early 2000s. The “New Age” section there was one of our most popular, and I distinctly remember a Feng Shui craze where we couldn't keep enough product on theshelves. There were all sorts of up-sale merchandise as well, from mini Zen garden kits to Buddha bookends. It's all become too convenient, in the authors' opinions, when they observe “the most troubling aspect of many modern spiritualities is precisely that they are not troubling enough... and provide little in terms of a challenge to the status quo...” (5). Beginning with the Enlightenment, and increasingly ever since, leisure has increased and people's capacity for hard work has diminished.

            Spirituality's definition has changed significantly. Before the Enlightenment, it had no real connotation of representing an individual process. It became a term for a more personal view, but the authors contend that since about the 1980s, the word has become watered down to the point that, “ In a consumer society it can mean anything you want, as long as it sells” (30). While once simply signifying a communal relationship with God, Carrette and King now see it more as a brand label- “Alongside TVs, hi-fi systems, washing machines, IKEA furniture and designer clothes, you can also have your very own spirituality, with or without crystals!” (53).

            To understand the emergence of the New Age phenomenon and its frequent borrowing from Asian traditions, Carrette and King  point out that modern psychology has had a huge influence on the more individualistic and private conception of reality. This has led to the idea that we can construct our own do-it-yourself spirituality, and opened the floodgates for a vast array of products and Westernized versions of Taoism, Buddhism, and other traditions. Often showing up in self-help books, these Eastern philosophies have had a trickle-down effect into New Age offerings, with such titles as The Tao of Relationships, or Taoist Sexual Secrets. It's not very likely what Lao Tzu had in mind. The irony lies in the fact that in the true ancient traditions of these philosophies, a practitioner is instructed to strive to remove the concept of self. The New Age consumer versions turn all this on its head. When East and West blend like this, for purely commercial reasons, both components suffer in the aftermath.

Carrette, Jeremy R., and Richard King. Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of

            Religion. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.