Spirituality: The Emergence of a New Cultural Category and its Challenge to the Religious and the Secular

“‘Need a Minister? How About Your Brother?’: The Universal Life Church between Religion and Non-Religion”

“…Another day, another place, another interviewer: another self-identification. Terms like religion, spirituality, secularism, and non-religion are discursive, relational constructions contingently articulated in particular locations at specific times for particular purposes (Swatos, 2003: 50;von Stuckrad, 2003;Knott, 2010;von Stuckrad, 2010;Day, 2011;Day, Vincett, & Cotter, 2013;Knott, 2013;von Stuckrad, 2013;Huss, 2014). For this reason, it is helpful to examine my "non-religious" subjects' self-articulations as demarcating a specific positionality within a particular "religion-related field" (Quack, 2014).…”

The scope and implications of spirituality: a dual approach

“…Nevertheless, it has also been perceived as a blend of (sometimes conflicting) constructs and issues such as: religious, metaphysical, moral, subjective, private, experiential, physical, material, public, social, economic, and political arena, to name a few. At present, the dual perception (i.e., the spiritual and the corporeal/material) has become blurred in the current definitions and usages of the term (HUSS, 2014). Also noteworthy is that spirituality seemingly encompasses our relationships by means of a range of distinguished things such as sacredness of life, nature, the universe, and thus it is no more conceptually limited to the traditional places of worship (TACEY, 2004).…”

“…In a certain stream of research, it is argued that "we are able to define spirituality less and less, because it includes more and more" on the grounds that it contains "amultitudeofactivitiesandexpectations" (TACEY, 2004, p. 38, italics added). It has been associated with values and ethics (WESTON, 2002) as well as something essential for human flourishing (WILLIAMS, 2003, p. 1); it is linked to intuition and the right-brain (HOWARD; WELBOURN, 2004, p. 102); and it is some way connected to one's routine, that is, within the practical and physical aspects of life (BLANTON, 2007;HUSS, 2014). Moreover, it is posited that spirituality gives rise to novel taxonomies, as well as shaping new lifestyles, social practices, and cultural artifacts.…”

“…Unsurprisingly, nowadays people are comfortable to pursue spiritual beliefs or principles as long as they are not linked with any sort of religion (HUSS, 2014;ROSE, 2001). In this sense, it is worth pointing out that the spiritual search is regarded as "the attempt to identify what is sacred and worthy of devotion" (EMMONS, 1999, p. 91).…”

The Impact of Fear and Authority on Islamic and Baha’iModernisms in the Late Modern Age: A Liberal Perspective

“…This set of conditions goes some way towards explaining the situation whereby today fundamentalist forms of religion might appear more appealing than progressive ones, while at the same time being prone to conflict with one another, and in the most extreme forms, causing harm and even death to others. Boaz Huss [21], on the other hand, in shedding light on the frequently invoked term "spirituality", which he argues is a challenge to both religion and the secular, refers to a study by Robert C Fuller whose title Spiritual but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America [22] indicates an individualised (self-help?) alternative to organised, authority-based, religion that seems partially to meet the conditions Giddens discusses.…”