This article discusses contemporary spiritualities, focusing in particular on the recent growth of practices attending to "mind, body, and sprit" and centered on the goal of "holistic well-being." We argue that the growing popularity of such "holistic spirituality" since the 1980s can be greatly illuminated by reference to Charles Taylor's account of the expressive mode of modern selfhood. Taylor's account is limited, however, by its inability to explain why women are disproportionately active within the sphere of holistic spirituality. By paying closer attention to gender, we seek to refine Taylor's approach and to advance our understanding of contemporary spirituality. Drawing on findings from two qualitative studies of holistic spirituality and health carried out in the United Kingdom, this article offers an analysis of what the "subjective turn" may mean for women. We argue that holistic spiritualities align with traditional spheres and representations of femininity, while simultaneously supporting and encouraging a move away from selfless to expressive selfhood. By endorsing and sanctioning "living life for others" and "living life for oneself," holistic spiritualities offer a way of negotiating dilemmas of selfhood that face many womenand some men-in late modern contexts.

Este artigo trabalha com a crescente influência dos estudos de gênero na Sociologia da Religião e faz uma síntese das principais publicações sobre o tema na literatura de língua inglesa. Mostra que a introdução de uma perspectiva de gênero tem efeitos essenciais, entre os quais podemos citar o questionamento do conceito de religião e as formas de religiosidade valorizadas, sobretudo aquelas nas quais os homens tem maior visibilidade e dispõem de um poder maior. Mas isto também implica uma adaptação dos métodos e o questionamento das teorias dominantes, como a da secularização. Graças a essa abordagem, a História religiosa das sociedades ocidentais podem ser reanalisadas em função das transformações nas relações de gênero, estabelecendo, deste modo, uma ligação entre gênero e religião. O artigo propõe, ainda, um novo contexto de análise, de modo a articular gênero e religião, esclarecendo, assim, a maneira segunda a qual as relações de poder opõemse ou complementam-se em ambos os campos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE:Teorias da Religião. Práticas religiosas e gênero. Religião e abordagens de gênero.Comparada às várias outras disciplinas, a Sociologia da Religião demorou a considerar seriamente a questão de gênero. Os estudos etnográficos realizados em pequena escala souberam reconhecer melhor sua devida importância, mas o

By 2015 those who said they had "no religion" when asked about religion on surveys and censuses had become an absolute majority in Britain. Drawing on surveys and interviews carried out in Great Britain between 2013 and 2015 this lecture offers a portrait of the "nones" and attempts to explain their rise to become a cultural majority.

This paper reviews new and existing evidence which shows that ‘no religion’ has risen steadily to rival ‘Christian’ as the preferred self-designation of British people. Drawing on recent survey research by the author, it probes the category of ‘no religion’ and offers a characterisation of the ‘nones’ which reveals, amongst other things, that most are not straightforwardly secular. It compares the British situation with that of comparable countries, asking why Britain has become one of the few no-religion countries in the world today. An explanation is offered that highlights the importance not only of cultural pluralisation and ethical liberalisation in Britain, but of the churches’ opposite direction of travel. The paper ends by reflecting on the extent to which ‘no religion’ has become the new cultural norm, showing why Britain is most accurately described as between Christian and ‘no religion’.

The author argues that our understanding of secularization can be greatly enhanced by taking gender differences seriously. Whilst existing theories of secularization do a good job of explaining why men disaffiliated from Christianity after the onset of industrialization, they ignore the experience of women-whose experience of modernization was significantly different. Whilst men have been responsible for paid work outside the home, women have been engaged in unpaid care work within the home. Their entrance into the paid labour force since the 1960s has not relieved them of traditional duties of care. It is suggested that we can best understand contemporary women's patterns of religious affiliation and disaffiliation in relation to their working lives, whether embracing domestic employment, or seeking a balance between both forms of labour.

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