Spirituality among African Americans

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.

Shifts in Spiritual and Religious Self-Perceptions in the First Year of College

This study draws on an original national and longitudinal survey to examine patterns and predictors of change in religious and spiritual self-perceptions among over seven thousand college students in their first year on campus. The chapter identifies the personal characteristics, institutional contexts, and collegiate experiences that shaped students’ perceptions of themselves in relation to religion and spirituality. Twenty-eight percent of first-year students changed their self-perception in the first year of college; a switch to “spiritual but not religious” was the most common type of change. The study illuminates parallel reactions to religious and spiritual descriptors among certain groups. For example, both atheists and evangelical Christians were less likely than mainline Protestants to adopt the “religious but not spiritual” and “spiritual but not religious” labels. Lived experiences in the first year of college made a notable impact on students’ self-perceptions of spirituality.

Elderhood in Protestant Religious Contexts: Stepping Stones in Religious Language

Elderhood is an emerging concept for making meaning in older age, often contextualized in spiritual but not religious traditions. But what kinds of frameworks for elderhood are woven into protestant religious contexts? This paper explores 943 texts written by Finnish older adults in study groups organized by a pensioners’ organization. A key finding is that religious language – known through religious songs and prayers learned by heart at school – offers a medium to explore and express their elderhood. The writers creatively use the rhythm and wordings of these textual patterns to position themselves as a group of older persons with a special contribution to make to society. These results will aid examining elderhood and its potential in various contexts where the concept might not be explicitly used. This examination potentially leads to new ways to support experiences of elderhood and thus to offer an alternative view to countering ageism.

Examining the Cultural Consensus on Beliefs about Mindfulness among US Early Adults

Objectives: Mindfulness programs are increasingly popular, yet little is known about how individuals perceive mindfulness: its origins, how it is learned, its functions, and practitioners. Using methods from Cultural Consensus Theory (CCT), the present study sought to examine whether a cultural consensus on mindfulness exists among early adults in the US, and what the content of that consensus might be.Methods: College-attending early adults aged 18-25 (Study 1 N = 275 – convenience sample; Study 2 N = 210 – nationally representative sample) completed questionnaires on beliefs about mindfulness, exposure to mindfulness, and demographics. Data were analyzed using a CCT-derived Bayesian cognitive psychometric model.Results: Early adults converged on a cultural consensus about mindfulness in both studies, and the content of this consensus was also replicated. Participants consensually agreed that mindfulness has Buddhist origins, is both spiritual (but not religious) and secular; takes patience to learn and a lifetime to master; is an antidote to suffering, but also gives one a competitive edge in the business world; is practiced more by women, and less by Conservatives. Prior exposure to mindfulness was related to greater knowledge of this cultural consensus.Conclusions: Early adults view mindfulness as a universal practice that people their age can learn, that serves both spiritual and instrumental functions, and that is not limited to wealthy or White people. Results provide useful information that can inform debates about mindfulness in the US, and guide practical efforts to increase inclusivity and participation in such programs for early adults in future.

Digital Stories as a Creative Assignment for Studying World Religions

The incorporation of creative assignments in the form of digital stories and artistic assignments in undergraduate and graduate World Religions courses has resulted in positive feedback from the students, and these courses were considered the favorite of the semester. They have given students, many of which identify as “spiritual but not religious”, or “non-practicing”, an opportunity to connect themes from various world religions to their own life stories, implicitly or explicitly. The purpose of this article is to encourage educators in both a secondary and a college/university/seminary setting to consider digital stories as a creative assignment that deepens their understanding of world religions within the context of a World Religions course, or other religion and religious education courses. This article will present the institutional support provided by Mercy College (Dobbs Ferry, New York) and the context for the World Religions class in which the digital stories are assigned. It will be followed by the process of making a digital story, the directions given to the students, the different platforms that students can choose to make the digital stories, and examples of digital stories created by the students. The paper will conclude with a summary of comments made by the students about the assignment and connections with additional articles on the benefits of digital stories to increase empathy and replace the dominant stories that cause oppression and injustice, like racism and white supremacy, with stories that offer resistance and counter the status quo of oppression and injustice.

Spiritual but not religious

In the past few decades, there has been a substantial increase in interest in scientific publications about the impact of religiosity/spirituality on health in general but also on mental health and well-being of patients. It would appear that some individuals are moving away from organized religion to a more spiritual dimension as reflected in so-called Western countries where people are increasingly describing themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’ (SBNR), thereby differentiating their beliefs and faiths from those proposed by religious organizations and from those people without religious beliefs. More pluralistic and opened views of religiosity and spirituality are understood as a sign of personality maturity and mental health. Otherwise, available evidence supports that religious affiliation and religious attendance seems to be a protective factor to mental health. Indeed, SBNR represents a very heterogeneous group of people and more research from different cultural backgrounds is required to recognize and understand SBNR individuals. An open-minded, interested, and respectful approach to SBNR individuals is essential for addressing their religiosity/spirituality needs in mental health practice, thereby increasing therapeutic engagement and adherence.

Religious, but Not Spiritual: A Constructive Proposal

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.

Being True

Turning to Karl Jaspers’s 1937 lectures, later published as Philosophy of Existence, this paper examines what might be meant by the colloquial expression “spiritual but not religious”. In doing so, it is argued that while Jaspers’s critique of organized religion mostly hits the mark, critiques of religion—as represented here by Jaspers’s Existenzphilosophie—fail to undermine a form of genuine spirituality grounded in a faith in the revealed Christ.

(Non)Religious Diversity and correlation of religious, spiritual and secular in the consciousness of modern man

Non-religious diversity is growing in the world nowadays. In the current context it is understood not as a diversity of faiths, religions, non-religions, etc., but as a variety of types of non-religious consciousness and categories of non-religious identity. The article covers only a few aspects of this vast topic. First, the theoretical prerequisites and substantiations for the change in the Western non-religious identity taking place during the transition from the Westphalian to the post-Westphalian system of religious governance and the emergence of a special type of pluralism that is formed in the process of dedifferentiation of religion, globalization and the transformation of the “religion of place and nation” into a transnational religion “without place and nation”, when the ratio of religious, spiritual and secular in the mind of a postmodern person changes. Second, the author analyses the origins and causes of this transformation of non-religious consciousness in the "long 1960s". Third, the author traces the evolution of such types of non-religious diversity as “spiritual but not religious”, “none” and “post-protestants” and the concept of “spirituality” that connects them. The category "spiritual but not religious", sometimes perceived as dubious and unconvincing, appearing in the context of countercultural spirituality, in the author´s opinion, is very important for understanding Western, especially American irreligiousness in general and the processes taking place today in particular. The processes that are associated with the growth of "none" and the proliferation of "post-Protestants" related to the Woke culture, who claim the role of "saviours of humanity", attaching more importance to the "new post-Protestant ethics" (rather than religion and tradition), seeking to politicise religion, to sacralise politics, race and gender relations. Rejecting the "old religion" and proclaiming a "new ethics", moving from the ideals of diversity, universal tolerance and political correctness to "militant moralism and cruel dogmatism”, they confirm the idea of "complex irreligiousness" in the era of "late modernity", that seems to be a sign of the times and requires close attention of scientists.