Making sense of the study of spirituality: late modernity on trial

Watts, Galen

doi:10.1080/0048721x.2020.1758229

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…From a historical perspective, spirituality and religion have always been important concepts in the psychosocial analysis of human ways of being (e.g., Parsons, 2010 ; Říčan, 2004 ; Valsiner et al, 2016 ). Many have tried to clarify both concepts and their relationships from a theoretical, empirical, and meta-analytical standpoint (Bauer & Johnson, 2018 ; Demmrich & Huber, 2019 ; Gall et al, 2011 ; Jastrzębski, 2020 ; Schwab, 2013 ), often to prevent them from being reduced to catch-all terms (Rose, 2001 ) or cultural buzzwords (Watts, 2020 ). For example, Richardson ( 2013 ) rejected notions of religion or spirituality that frame the self as an encapsulated entity that must withdraw from the modern world in order to achieve enlightenment or sanctity.…”

Section: Spirituality and Health: Meaning-making As Transcendent Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In another seminal work, Pargament ( 1997 ) argued that spirituality, or the search for the sacred, exceeds the notion of higher powers. Furthering this distinction, Watts ( 2020 ) drew a conceptual boundary between the study of spirituality and the study for spirituality and identified three common assumptions associated with the word “spirituality”: a semantic shift from religiosity to spirituality, a deep cultural affinity with Romanticism, and historical roots in the 1960s. Westerink ( 2012 ) asserted that the term “spirituality” is perceived as vague because it arises in areas where different intellectual, religious, and cultural values coexist; thus, spirituality is more than a fashionable or trending concept—it is a broad category that encompasses different religious contents and theological projects.…”

Section: Spirituality and Health: Meaning-making As Transcendent Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A “Viral Epistolary” and Psychosocial Spirituality: Restoring Transcendental Meaning During COVID-19 Through a Digital Community Letter-Writing Project

et al. 2022

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This article outlines the results of a three-month-long community letter-writing and letter-sharing project called “Viral Epistolary” (VE), which we completed online in Italy during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns. In it, we collected 340 digital letters from all over the country and connected thousands of people through epistolary exchanges. We used the genre of letters as a mediating, meaning-making, and (auto)biographical tool whereby people could share their experiences of domestic isolation and physical distancing, thus creating a community of support. Based on a well-documented understanding of meaning-making as a core human endeavor, especially in times of social disruption and personal crisis, this article frames sense-making as a transcendental and even spiritual process that yields broad principles for organizing life. Thus, the research adopts a psychosocial perspective on spirituality and applies thematic analysis to qualitatively analyze written narratives. The results reveal that many respondents underwent a three-part, not-necessarily-sequential process of collapsing, self-distancing, and transcending during lockdown, which allowed them to rearrange themselves according to the new total social fact of the pandemic. Through this process, respondents negotiated themes of semiotic crisis, striving for meaning, and beyond meaning (the essential). Finally, the article discusses the role of meaning as a transcendental component of psychosocial meaning-making coping processes and tries to highlight how shared writing experiences can stimulate personal and communal healing processes in the wake of social crises.

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Section: Spirituality and Health: Meaning-making As Transcendent Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spirituality and Health: Meaning-making As Transcendent Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A “Viral Epistolary” and Psychosocial Spirituality: Restoring Transcendental Meaning During COVID-19 Through a Digital Community Letter-Writing Project

et al. 2022

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“…While Max Weber's Protestant Ethic (2005[1920) stressed rationality, efficiency, and success as fuelling the Spirit of Capitalism, Gauthier (2020) argues, drawing on Colin Campbell (2005Campbell ( [1987, 2007), that a parallel Romantic and Sentimentalist ethic, based on emotion, style, and self-expression, drove the Spirit of Consumerism. Many studies of spirituality also stress its origins can be found within Romanticism, particularly an emphasis on personal/individual feelings/ emotions, experiences, expressions, and authenticity (Bellah et al, 1985;Campbell, 2007;Heelas, 1996;Houtman and Aupers, 2007;Taylor, 2007;Watts, 2020Watts, , 2022.…”

Section: The Spiritual Marketplace?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiritual complexity in Australia: Wellbeing and risks

2023

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The turn of the twenty-first century was characterised by ‘spiritual revolution’, with claims that interest in New Age spirituality was eclipsing religion and would continue to do so in the future. Since then, scholars of religion have been more focused on religious diversity and the rise of the non-religious. While interest in spirituality, uptake of spiritual practices, and identification as ‘spiritual but not religious’ have continued to grow, spirituality is typically not taken as seriously as religion, at least in political spheres or by academia. This article examines the history and contemporary dynamics of spiritual complexity in Australia, drawing on the findings of two Australian Research Council–funded studies ‘The Worldviews of Australia’s Generation Z’ and ‘Religious Diversity in Australia’ and on a recent project ‘(Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19 in Australia’. It argues that it is certainly time for spirituality to be taken more seriously in this country and globally, given spirituality’s concern with personal and planetary wellbeing, and also the potential risks spirituality can pose due to its association with dis/misinformation, neoliberalism, and violence.

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“…At this time, a new spirituality movement began to rise and build a mass mobilization in society. The existence of religious institutions and values has now begun to be deconstructed by the vortex of the times, marginalized, and no longer a reference or way of life for mankind in pursuing a hard, dry, and empty ‚world.‛ That's when humans are infected with ‚spiritual thirst‛ (lack of spirituality) in a massive and fast-moving current of modernization in navigating human life (Watts, 2020).…”

Section: Psychological Factors Of the Emergence Of The Lia Eden Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lia Eden Community and the New Religious Movement: Analysis of Social Psychology and Rational Choice Theory

Takdir¹,

Khair²

2022

FITRAH

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This study aims to explain the emergence of the Lia Eden community as a new religious movement in Indonesia. This study also revealed the motivation of people to join the Lia Eden community, which was mostly attended by urban and educated people. This study used qualitative methods to answer the psychological symptoms of the emergence of the Lia Eden community. This study uses a case study on one of the contemporary religious movements in Indonesia, namely the Lia Eden movement. This type of study is in the form of literature or library research by tracing various studies in the form of books, journals, and research reports that are directly related to the emergence of Lia Eden and people’s interest in this movement. The approach used in this research is social psychology and the rational choice theory. This research shows that the emergence of the Lia Eden community is due to the disappointment of the organized religion existence which is considered unable to overcome the modern humanity crisis. From the disappointment was culminated in the organized religion existence, the Lia Eden community influenced everyone to follow this community. They want to achieve peace, harmony, and to treat the spiritual crisis that plagued their lives

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Making sense of the study of spirituality: late modernity on trial

Cited by 8 publications

References 100 publications

A “Viral Epistolary” and Psychosocial Spirituality: Restoring Transcendental Meaning During COVID-19 Through a Digital Community Letter-Writing Project

A “Viral Epistolary” and Psychosocial Spirituality: Restoring Transcendental Meaning During COVID-19 Through a Digital Community Letter-Writing Project

Spiritual complexity in Australia: Wellbeing and risks

Lia Eden Community and the New Religious Movement: Analysis of Social Psychology and Rational Choice Theory

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