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.

Phenomenology and Ritual Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-70
Author(s):  
Christina M. Gschwandtner
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Phenomenology Of Religion ◽  
Michel Henry ◽  
Continental Philosophy Of Religion

Abstract This paper highlights several problems in the contemporary phenomenological analysis of religious experience in Continental philosophy of religion, especially in its French iteration, as manifested in such thinkers as Jean-Luc Marion, Michel Henry, Jean-Yves Lacoste, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Emmanuel Falque, and others. After laying out the main issues, the paper proposes a fuller investigation of religious practices, such as liturgy or ritual, as a fruitful way to address some of the identified limitations. The final section of the paper assesses what questions remain and how one might draw on existing resources in these thinkers to push a phenomenological analysis of religious practices further in ways that broaden phenomenology of religion beyond its current somewhat narrow strictures and commitments.

scholarly journals POLA KEBERAGAMAAN MASYARAKAT MARGINAL

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-156
Author(s):  
Ahmad Muttaqin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
The One ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

This is a research on sociology of religion, focusing on the issue of religious practices in a local community. Kampung Laut was chosen as the setting of this research for two reasons. First, the rituals of religion practices in the region are different from mainstream practices, which result in label and justification that their religiosity is not a part of or only a fragment of the mainstream religion and tend to be the target of correction. Second, this region raises conflicts among government institutions in relation to the rights of natural resources possession and utilization. The bad image built through this marginalization has formed Kampung Laut community as the one that is resistant and latent. This research used descriptive qualitative method with sociological approach. Rituals of religious practices that are different from the mainstream are explained on the basis of Weber’s theory of behavior categorized into value-oriented rationality. This kind of practices is considered to be more beneficial in the context of struggling for identity among the practices of marginalization experienced by Kampung Laut community. This condition gives a description to public that Kampung Laut community receives unfair treatments for their natural resources. Religious issues is made an entry for its massive, communal, and related to transcendental values.

Habit, Practice, Grace

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Carlisle
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
Traditional Philosophy ◽  
Propositional Form

Traditional philosophy of religion is shaped by its focus on the cognitive aspects of religious life—beliefs and doctrines—which can easily be articulated in propositional form. But “lived religion” encompasses more than belief, and if philosophers of religion are to do justice to our subject-matter, we need to learn to think philosophically about practice in general, and about religious practices in particular. This chapter considers some of the methodological questions and challenges that come with this task, and looks at two recent attempts to develop a philosophy of religious practice. It then outlines a concept of practice which tries to take account of two features of religious practice: how practice uses repetition to generate change, or even transformation; and how practice gives form to desire.

Coastal Tourism in Saudi Arabia.An Exploratory Study of Half Moon Beach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farwa Alkhalaf ◽  
Mark B. Orams
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Coastal Tourism ◽  
Eastern Province ◽  
Negative Comments ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
Recreation And Tourism

Half Moon Beach is one of the most popular beaches in Saudi Arabia and is located on the Persian Gulf. Empirical data regarding Saudi marine and coastal recreation and tourism is very limited. This study used a self-reply questionnaire to investigate beach visitors’ (n=280) characteristics, motivations and activities. Results revealed that visitors were predominantly Saudis (95%) from the Eastern Province who visited Half Moon Beach for the purpose of enjoying the beauty of nature, the sea and sand and to relax. Visitors (39%) were mostly satisfied with the overall experience but many (23%) expressed negative comments about their beach visits. They were dissatisfied with the low level of cleanliness of the beach and facilities, a lack of services and facilities and the limited number of sea and beach-related activities. Visitors mostly (79%) supported more development of more activities at the beach. Furthermore, visitors (47%) suggested that activities should carefully target families and children and provide options that engage the whole family. Many visitors (37%) suggested that females are an important segment and should be targeted with activities that respect their cultural and religious practices and give them more chances to enjoy the beach visits.

Reflections on the Concept of Religion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack ◽  
Gergely Rosta
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

There is no definition of religion that is universally valid and generally accepted in religious studies. Increasing numbers of scholars of religion see the attempt to define religion as doomed to failure, and therefore do not even try. A concept of religion is, however, indispensable for staking out the subject area which the sociology of religion and religious studies are concerned with. Defining clearly what is meant by religion is necessary not only to determine the content of the object to be examined and to distinguish it from other objects, but also to detect changes in the field of study. After discussing different approaches that are taken to define religion, the chapter proposes a working definition that combines substantive and functional arguments. The different forms of religious meaning available to mediate between immanence and transcendence can be classified as religious identification, religious practices, and religious belief and experience.

Recherches empiriques concernant la religion en Allemagne fédérale, en Autriche et en Suisse allémanique

1980 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Lukatis ◽  
Hartmut Krebber
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Science Disciplines

In the seventies a lot of studies dealt with religious pheno mena. They were initiated by remarkable changes of the relations people had to churches and to religion in general. In many cases the churches themselves searched for empirical data to recognize these processes more precisely. This is why most of these studies are not primarily oriented on progress of theoretical knowledge in the field of sociology of religion but on facts " relevant for practitioners' work." Although they start with theoretical reflections in one or another way they often do this with the help of other social science disciplines. Most of them borrow their theoretical bases from general sociology or social psychology.

In the Absence of Priests: Young Women as Apostles to the Poor, Chile 1922–1932

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gertrude M. Yeager
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Urgent Problem ◽  
The Poor

The Roman Catholic Church in Chile first acknowledged its inability to pastor its flock in the 1920s because of an acute shortage of priests. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, SJ addressed the clerical crisis in a 1936 article,La Crisis Sacerdotal en Chile. When critics found his analysis “exaggerated,” he conducted a survey of Chilean religious practices and published the findings in a controversial essay entitledEs Chile un país católico?which is said to have earned him the wrath of the hierarchy because it called attention to the woeful neglect of pastoral duties especially among the rural and working class populations. This empirical data demonstrated that the Catholic Church in Chile had 1615 priests, of whom 780 were secular and 835 regular clergy; of the same 1615 priests 915 were Chilean and 700 were foreigners. There were 451 parishes, some of which contained several towns and villages scattered over a thousand square kilometers with 10,000 parishioners to be ministered to by a single priest. Hurtado's solution—a larger and better-educated clergy—was a long-term solution to an urgent problem that would never be achieved. Something had to be done immediately to keep the faith alive. In the gendered world of Chilean Catholicism, the task of preserving the faith fell to young laywomen.

scholarly journals Middeleeuse Studies, Mediëvalistiek en Mediëvalisme: Kritiese onderskeide en samehange

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Beukes
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Church History ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
East And West ◽  
Research Challenge ◽  
The Middle Ages

Medieval Studies, Medievalist Studies and Medievalism: Critical distinctions and intersections. The aim of this article is to clarify Medievalism (Mediëvalisme) as a research challenge in Medieval Studies, thereby contributing to the discipline’s methodological and contemporary-discursive development. In conjunction with the author’s recent analyses of three subject-internal problems in Medieval philosophy ([1]the calibration of periodisation; [2] latent Orientalism and the subsequent problem of ‘two registers’ [‘East’ and ‘West’]; as well as [3] the problem of the ‘canon’), Medievalism is presented as the idea-historical postulation of a Medieval ‘Other’ with the subtle intent to alleviate the notion of some contemporaneous ‘Self’; in other words, Medievalism points toward the apparent spontaneous acceptance of a disparity between a superior post-Medieval Self and an inferior Medieval Other. This includes the essentialising of a single aspect, or contingent aspects, of the Medieval Other, which results in conjectures of deeply caricaturised and quasi-comprehensive views of the Middle Ages. Medievalist Studies (translated for the sake of clarity, as Mediëvalistiek in Afrikaans to circumvent the curious and confusing overlapping of the terms ‘Medievalist Studies’ and ‘Medievalism’ in English), the discipline that studies the post-Medieval reception of the Middle Ages (in whatever form or genre), is presented as a legitimate supplementary tool for exposing Medievalism, particularly in non-specialised contexts. The article henceforth argues for the systematic employment of Mediëvalistiek in its countering of Mediëvalisme as an effective supplementary resource in Medieval Studies – especially within the context of the contemporary Neoconservative reception of the Middle Ages.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Dealing with a millennium-long variety of discourses, Medieval Studies functions in a Venn-diagrammatical relationship with Medieval philosophy, Medieval history, church history, patristics, philosophy of religion and sociology of religion. Whenever these proximate disciplines are impacted by specialist Medieval research, it may well have noteworthy implications. Such is the case in this critical distinction between and clarification of the intersections between Medieval Studies, Mediëvalisme (Medievalism) and Mediëvalistiek (Medievalist Studies).

Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the philosophy of religion

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
JACK WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Approach

Abstract This article proposes a new approach to employing Maurice Merleau-Ponty's philosophy in the philosophy of religion. Rather than finding a latent theology in Merleau-Ponty – as some interpreters do – this article argues that Merleau-Ponty's later ontology can provide the basis for a philosophical anthropology which can help us understand why human beings are drawn to religion and how this is expressed in affective and ritual practice. This ontology can help us to understand the notion of freedom as it applies to affective, embodied, and ritual religious practices and begins to sketch out how freedom might be understood in light of embodiment.

scholarly journals ‘Nones’ Belonging: Sunday Assemblies, Cathedrals and Quakers

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-241
Author(s):  
Ian Toombs ◽  
Rhiannon Grant
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Religious Participation ◽  
Society Of Friends ◽  
Spiritual But Not Religious ◽  
Spiritual Nature ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Religious Society Of Friends

This research note reports on observations of the Sunday Assembly and places this movement in the wider context of ‘secular spirituality’: those who do not hold traditional religious beliefs but engage in spiritual or religiously shaped practices. In particular, we argue that the group identified in the sociology of religion as ‘Nones’, or people who identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’, commonly engage in spiritual practices and have spiritual aspirations. Observations of Sunday Assemblies are compared with the situation of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and other church settings such as cathedral attendance to shed light on varied religious participation by ‘Nones’. As such, it suggests that researchers investigating nones or non-theists may need to better understand the spiritual nature of their engagement.

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