This insightful and provocative journey through spiritual landscapes explores the ways in which spiritualities of life have been experienced and understood in Western society, and argues that today’s myriad forms of holistic spirituality are helping us to find balance in face of the stifling demands of twenty-first century living.

• An enlightening book which explores the ways in which spirituality has been experienced and valued in Western society
• Traces the development of modern spirituality, from the origins of Romanticism in the eighteenth century, through to the counter-cultural sixties and on to the wellbeing culture of today
• Explores the belief that modern spirituality is merely an extension of capitalism in which people consume spirituality without giving anything back
• Contends that much of the wide range of popular mind-body-spirit practices are really an ethically charged force for the ‘good life’, helping us to find balance in the demands of twenty-first century living
• Written by an acknowledged world-leader working in the field
• Completes a trilogy of books including The Spiritual Revolution (2005, with Linda Woodhead) and The New Age Movement (1996), charting the rise and influence of spirituality today.

"A welcome contribution to many areas in the study of religion and culture … .An alternative to the popular idea that everything within the New Age can be denounced as simple individualist consumerism." (Reviews in Religion and Theology, January 2010)

"[Heelas] convinced me, a skeptic when encountering his book, that new age philosophies are more complex than their American Journal of Sociology critics allow." (American Journal of Sociology, November 2009)

"Heelas' style is, as ever, measured, elegant and good-humored, and this book will undoubtedly appeal to, and be accessible to, those outside the academy who are interested in religion and culture, and who might wish to think through the changing spiritual landscape in Britain today." (Theology, November 2009)

"His emphasis is on inner-life spirituality or simply 'spiritualities of life,' rooted in a universal human potential and developed by a variety of effective practices. [He] makes plausible the importance of holistic forms of complementary and alternative medicine. Recommended." (CHOICE, November 2008)

Paul Heelas is Professor in Religion and Modernity in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University. For some thirty years he has published extensively, including The New Age Movement [ Blackwell, 1996) and The Spiritual Revolution [ Blackwell, 2005, with Linda Woodhead]. and is one of the world's leading authorities on the study of contemporary spiritualities.