Concepts
The Concepts page introduces the intellectual framework that underpins my book in progress, Spirituality for the Uninitiated. It is designed as a map for readers who are interested in contemporary spirituality but may be confused by overlapping terms such as spirituality, religion, SBNR, mystical experience, consciousness, the sacred, ethics and belief.
The page should be organised as a set of concept cards rather than a single linear essay. Each card begins with a question: what spirituality is, who is spiritual outside religion, how spirituality happens, what counts as a spiritual experience, how experiences are interpreted through belief, what spirituality does, how art functions spiritually, and how readers can participate in the spirituality survey.
1. What is spirituality?
Spirituality is not a single fixed thing. In my framework, it refers to experiences, practices and orientations through which people seek or encounter meaning, connection, self-transcendence and transformation beyond the ordinary ego-bound self. It may be religious or non-religious, theistic or secular, cultivated or spontaneous.
How is spirituality different from religion? Why has spirituality become separable from institutional religion? What is the subjective turn? What is the sacred? Can spirituality be secular or atheistic?
2. Who is spiritual outside religion?
An introduction to SBNR, nones, seekers, agnostics, atheists and other forms of spiritual identity beyond institutional religion.
What does "spiritual but not religious" mean?
Who are the "nones" and the unaffiliated?
Can atheists or agnostics be spiritual?
Is spirituality an identity, a worldview, a practice or an experience?
Why are more people seeking meaning outside inherited religion?
3. What practices and context support spirituality?
Spirituality may be cultivated through intentional practices, or it may emerge unexpectedly through powerful experiences. This section maps seven pathways: religion and ritual; nature and the cosmos; art, beauty and aesthetic experience; eros and intimate love; sport, dance and embodied intensity; community, care and agape; and disruption, suffering and transformation.
How do people encounter or cultivate spirituality?
What roles do ritual, nature, art, love, embodiment, community and crisis play?
What is the difference between a pathway, a trigger and a practice?
Can spiritual experience be intentional, spontaneous, or both?
How does disruption or suffering become transformative?
4. What is a spiritual experience?
A guide to mystical, aesthetic, numinous, awakening, transformative and anomalous experiences — and why interpretation matters.
5. What do we believe happened?
A look at spirituality as a source of meaning, connection, resilience, mental health, ethical orientation and transformation.
6. What does spirituality do?
An introduction to art as spiritual technology: how images, performance, beauty and aesthetic experience can alter perception and create meaning.
-
TEXT
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Item description
7. What can art do?
-
TEXT
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Item description
An exploration of belief, consciousness, ontology and the different lenses through which spiritual experiences are interpreted after the event.
Contribute to my research on contemporary spirituality and unlock the emerging survey results after completing your response.
8. Take the spirituality survey
-
TEXT
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Item description
-
Item description