A spiritual renaissance

The cultural creatives have raised a whole new set of moral concerns and values.

with contributions from Paul H. Ray, Sherry Ruth Anderson

"IMAGINE A NEW COUNTRY the size of France suddenly sprouting in the middle of the United States. It is immensely rich in culture, with new ways of life, values, and worldviews. It has its own heroes and its own vision for the future. Think how curious we all would be, how interested to discover who these people are . . . . "

That's how sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson describe their discovery of a new social type — cultural creatives. Their survey research over the last decade on the values and attitudes of more than 100,000 Americans uncovered a profile for a community of altruistic thinkers who reject worldviews of scarcity or fear, and see nature as sacred. Their findings — paralleled by a similar European Union study finding the same phenomenon among Western Europeans — are laid out in their new book The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World.

The two social scientists talked to the Sentinel about one of the most hopeful characteristics of this nascent American subculture: its commitment to spirituality.

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