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Relevant Reading:
Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World
Tara Isabella Burton, PublicAffairs, 2020, $28.00
The Rise of Progressive Occultism
Tara Isabella Burton in The American Interest (2019)
What the Culture War Is Really About
Tara Isabella Burton in The American Interest (2020)
According to most accounts, modern America is rapidly secularizing, with a marked increase in religious “nones” who profess no religious affiliation at all. In her new book Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, Tara Isabella Burton complicates the picture, noting that many Americans are disaffiliating from institutional religion but seeking spiritual outlets in other forms—from consumer trends like SoulCycle to the progressive social justice movement to the darker corners of the alt-right.
These “intuitional religions,” Burton argues, are already reshaping our political landscape, from Silicon Valley to the White House— and they have only become more prominent in the wake of COVID-19 and the ongoing national unrest.
Tara Isabella Burton is a contributing editor at The American Interest. Today, on her book’s release day, she joins Richard Aldous to discuss its timely implications for our current politics. Be sure to tune in, catch up on Tara’s past writing in our pages, and don’t to forget to follow @aminterest and @NotoriousTIB on Twitter.