The Many Faces of Spirituality

Abstract

While the public's interest in spirituality and the number of people claiming they are spiritual is growing, scholars debate what constitutes spirituality. Much is written about spirituality and its many dimensions corresponding to a variety of human experiences, such as the body, relationships, sense of self, and creativity. However, discussions surrounding spirituality and its different aspects are separated in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to combine these disjointed discussions into a conceptual framework of spirituality, which consists of five dimensions of spirituality related to various areas of human existence. Belly dance, as a spiritual activity, is used to illustrate each dimension. This conceptual framework will ideally sensitize scholars to possible spiritual dimensions relevant to the cases they examine, and/or challenge them to consider new paths that may not appear to be spiritual on the surface. Such examinations will help create a more holistic understanding of spirituality.

Reflections and theoretical approaches to the study of spiritualities within the field of somatic movement dance education

“…In broad conceptual terms, spirituality 'is generally understood as a personal search to connect with the sacred' (Kraus 2009: 51). The following full citation by Rachel Kraus is a good example of an extensive, inclusive working definition, which transverses theistic and non-theistic terrain, is agreed on in much scholarly discourse, and illuminates key components and dimensions of spirituality (Kraus 2009: 52):…”

Implicit Religion, Explicit Religion and Attitude Toward Substances

“…(Francis et al, 2013, p. 953) Bailey's account of implicit religion, then, is an intentionally broad and multi-faceted construct which takes seriously the persistence of religious and spiritual worldviews within contemporary British societies, in ways both continuous with and discontinuous from the conventional practice of Christianity (Bailey, 1997(Bailey, , 1998(Bailey, , 2002. Empirical studies concerned with the study of implicit religion have operationalised this concept in a variety of ways, including: the implicit religion of contemporary belief systems and spiritual practices, such as belief in luck , belief in the paranormal (Williams, Francis, & Robbins, 2011), commitment to New Age beliefs (Kemp, 2001;Francis et al, 2013), and the spirituality of the practice of belly dancing (Kraus, 2009); the implicit religion of secular activities, such as the implicit religion of a British public house (Bailey, 1997), the practice of football (French, 2002), and contemporary rock music (Till, 2010); and the implicit religion of more conventional religious practices, such as the implicit religion of contemporary pilgrimage and ritual (Schnell & Pali, 2013), and the implicit religion of prayer requests (ap Sion & Edwards, 2013;ap Sion & Nash, 2013). Working within this framework of implicit religion the present study is concerned to build upon the growing body of empirical research exploring the implicit religion of Christianity outside the framework of the Churches.…”

Implicit Religion

“…Portmann, 1999, the place of ritual in everyday life (Borg, 2008a), compulsive shopping (Arya, 2009a,b), belly-dancing (Kraus, 2009), Budo (Molle, 2010), the appeal of islands (Grainger, 2009), "sacro-egoism" (i.e., the ideology of self-fulfilment) (Knox, 2008), and "fandom" (Porter, 2009). At a more cultural level, they have included the values of young leaders (Carter, 2009), the rationale underlying the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (Reinbold, 2009), recent popular instances of transcendental experiences in the Netherlands , the "hidden curriculum" of Walmart stores' architecture (Newton, 2009), the philosophy behind (environmental) "transition" towns (Reader, forthcoming), Evolution as itself a Creation myth (Badertscher, forthcoming), and a survey of the literature on spiritual capital (Baker and Miles-Watson, 2010).…”

“…Its spiritual components have been debated by Gollnick (2003b) and Grainger (2004), Kraus (2009) andPapadopoulos (1999). Its central meaning has been analysed by Dupré (2001), Hamilton (2001), Hunter (2004), Lord (2006), and Ménard (2001Ménard ( , 2009.…”