Adam Possamai is a sociologist and novelist born in Belgium and living in Australia.
17 Facts About Adam Possamai
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Adam Possamai is the former Director of the Religion and Society Research Centre Adam Possamai is married to Alphia Possamai-Inesedy, and lives in the south-western suburbs of Sydney with his family.
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Adam Possamai is the former President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religions.
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At present Adam Possamai is researching the interrelation between migrants and New Religious Movements, the implications of consumer and popular culture on religion, law and religion, popular religion in late modernity, Muslim indigenous populations and Sydney as a post-secular city.
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Adam Possamai obtained a Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Leuven.
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Adam Possamai obtained his PhD from La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia, with a dissertation on New Age spirituality.
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Adam Possamai's dissertation won the Jean Martin Award for the best PhD.
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Adam Possamai began his teaching career as a tutor at La Trobe University, and then in 1999 received an appointment as lecturer in sociology at the University of Western Sydney.
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Adam Possamai has recently published the science fiction novel Le XXIe siecle de Dickerson et Ferra.
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Adam Possamai was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2023.
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In exploring the manner in which the internet has become a source of religious inspiration, Adam Possamai has discussed the emergence of what he dubs "hyper-real religions".
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Adam Possamai detects a synergy between various stories and icons of popular culture and the role of the individual to create a new religious message.
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Adam Possamai explores the intersection between late modernity and spirituality, noting the emphasis on the authority of the self replacing external forms of conventional religious authority.
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Examples cited by Adam Possamai include the Church of All Worlds, the Church of Satan, and Jedi religion.
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Adam Possamai's work considers the complex interplay between fundamentalist Christian groups that resist the synergy between popular culture and religion, and yet reappropriate aspects of pop culture to promote fundamentalism.
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Adam Possamai argues that the term New Age is imprecise and the previous scholarly conceptualisations of New Age are either limited or misleading.
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At the heart of this conceptualisation of reality lies a commitment to what Adam Possamai has dubbed "perennism", the notion that a holistic understanding of truth is accessible in esoteric wisdom or gnosis that is unfettered by the dogmas of the world's religions.