An Adult Educator’s Hard Look at a Not-So-Soft Space

Abstract

Spirituality has become an important area of study and practice for those interested in adult education. Yet, the interest of scholars and practitioners is often confined to the positive aspects of the topic and is often devoid of questions, challenges and criticality. This essay carefully examines the notion of spirituality and argues that a robust, critical and engaged understanding of the topic needs to incorporate insights from religion and the critical social sciences, insights that are necessarily difficult to manage and negotiate. The author offers cases of the intersection of spirituality and gender, race and conflict, as a way to highlight the complexity of spirituality, and to argue for continuous engagement with its contradictions and challenges.