A Matter of Choice: A Micro-Level Study on how Swedish New Agers Choose their Religious Beliefs and Practices

Abstract

A necessary, but surprisingly neglected, postulate within economic and rational choice theories on religious phenomena is that religion is a matter of individual choice. But what does it actually mean to choose religion? Is it a choice similar to other choices - or is it something rather different? In this article individual choices of religious beliefs and practices, both from theoretical and empirical points of view, are discussed. The empirical material consists of ten in-depth interviews within one particular, and also rather special, religious field - namely the Swedish New Age movement. Some of the main findings concern the respondents' strategies to estimate costs/benefits and to reduce different kinds of uncertainty. In the interviews we find an interesting duality. On the one hand there seems to be a highly individualized ideology, stressing individual responsibility and authority; on the other hand social contacts and recommendations seem to be of great importance.