Re-enchantment: Why are young people getting back into the weird and the magical?

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Surveys suggest growing numbers of younger adults in Gen Z refuse the label ‘atheist’ and instead consider themselves to be spiritual in some way, even if not religious in a conventional sense. Some commentators connect this with the increase in interest in everything from crystals, manifesting, mindfulness to astrology, witchcraft and reiki. Post-Enlightenment modernity was said to be ‘disenchanted’ and have lost touch with the magical, mystical and spiritual aspects of the universe) instead grounded in a purely physicalist and scientific view of reality). Are we now seeing the reverse of that trend, as post-modern Western culture becomes ‘re-enchanted’? And if so, is this good news for a church trying to reignite interest from irreligious post-Christians? Or should we as believers stand against this revival in pagan and New Age practices?

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Released on 18 Mar 2026

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