Being spiritual but not religious

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 121-125
Author(s):  
Maria Wixwat ◽  
Gerard Saucier
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual But Not Religious

scholarly journals Religious, but Not Spiritual: A Constructive Proposal

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 433
Author(s):  
J. Aaron Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Social Presence ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Spiritual But Not Religious ◽  
Recent Increase

Often the debates in philosophy of religion are quite disconnected from the empirical data gathered in the sociology of religion. This is especially the case regarding the recent increase in prominence of those identifying as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) within an American context. In the attempt to bring these two fields into productive conversation, this essay offers a constructive account of the SBNR in terms of what they reject (i.e., their status as “not religious”) and also what they affirm (i.e., their identity as “spiritual”). In brief, the suggestion is that the SBNR do not reject theism or even common “religious” practices, but instead reject a particular mode of “religion” that is grounded in an authoritative and insular social presence. Alternatively, the SBNR at least seem to affirm a notion of “spirituality” that is broadly consistent with the idea found in historical Christian traditions. After surveying the empirical data and offering a new phenomenological analysis of it, the essay concludes with a suggestion that we need a new category—“religious, but not spiritual” (RBNS)—in order best to make sense of how the SBNR signify in relation to specific hermeneutic contexts and sociopolitical frameworks.

Sharing the Burden

2014 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1014-1018
Author(s):  
Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp
Keyword(s):  
West Coast ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
The West ◽  
Spiritual But Not Religious ◽  
Church Building ◽  
The Church

Last week, sandwiched in between updates on Beyoncé's trip to the West Coast and sighting of the latest super moon, the Huffington Post featured an article by power preacher Lillian Daniels entitled “Spiritual But Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me.” Daniels lamented her situation on long plane flights, where she had to endure the stories of fellow travelers who, upon finding out she is a minister, confessed their rejection of religious institutions in favor of finding spirituality in sunsets and walks on the beach. Inevitably, they would present their experience to her as a revelation: “Like people who go to church don't see God in the sunset! Like we are these monastic little hermits who never leave the church building. How lucky we are to have these geniuses inform us that God is in nature.” Daniels' article represents a backlash coming from the institutional end of the spectrum, but her plea for loyalty to religion-in-community was met by many who found her (apparently, according to the comments section) insulting, condescending, and close-minded.

scholarly journals Spiritual But Not Religious? Evidence for Two Independent Dispositions

2006 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 1257-1292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Saucier ◽  
Katarzyna Skrzypińska
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual But Not Religious

Sleeper, Awake

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon V. Betcher
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
Advaita Vedānta ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
Spiritual But Not Religious ◽  
Catherine Keller

Setting out from the question “How do we live as/for a time being?,” Sharon Betcher observes that for many Western persons in the milieu of the “spiritual, but not religious,” the Christian promise of salvation as immortality of soul—a ballast for the anxiety of our transient passage—has become nonfunctional. She consequently considers the question by thinking with a contemporary guru that is often of first, popular resort—Deepak Chopra. While appreciating the ways in which teachers such as Chopra refresh interest in spiritual practice, Betcher notes a tendency toward uncritical appropriation of their presumably “perennial wisdom.” Further, she suspects these paths reduce soteriology to individual matters of health, itself a bit of an imperial conceit. Consequently, she holds Chopra in conversation with Anantanand Rambachan’s elucidation of Advaita Vedanta and a Christian theopoetics of Spirit, epitomized in the work of process theologian Catherine Keller. Amidst global economic fragility and given the onset of the Anthropocene, the question of soteriology here revolves around spiritual resilience to live in the midst of the mundane.

Spirituality among African Americans

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-176
Author(s):  
Jason E. Shelton
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
National Survey ◽  
African American Community ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Spiritual But Not Religious ◽  
Blacks And Whites

This chapter assesses the importance of spirituality among African Americans. More specifically, it examines the extent to which respondents in a large, multiyear national survey view themselves as a “spiritual person.” Four sets of comparative analysis are offered: (1) racial differences among black and white members of various evangelical Protestant traditions, (2) racial differences among black and white members of various mainline Protestant and Catholic traditions, (3) denominational differences specifically among African Americans, and (4) racial differences among blacks and whites who view themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” The findings reveal significant interracial and intraracial differences in how spirituality shapes one’s personal identity. Because organized religion has historically been so central to African American community life, the implications for the growth in noninstitutional spirituality are considered.

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