Abstract
This study examines the multidimensionality of spirituality by comparing the applicability of two models—the five-dimensional model of religiosity by Huber that we have extended with a sixth dimension of ethics and the three-dimensional spirituality model by Bucher. This qualitative study applied a semi-structured interview guideline of spirituality to a stratified sample of N = 48 secular individuals in Switzerland. To test these two models, frequency, valence, and contingency analysis of Mayring’s qualitative content analysis were used. It could be shown that Bucher’s three-dimensional model covers only about half of the spirituality codes in the interviews; it is especially applicable for implicit and salient spiritual aspects in general, as well as for spiritual experience in specific. In contrast, the extended six-dimensional model by Huber could be applied to almost all of the spirituality-relevant codes. Therefore, in principle, the scope of this six-dimensional model can be expanded to spirituality. The results are discussed in the context of future development of a multidimensional spirituality scale that is based on Huber’s Centrality of Religiosity by extending the religiosity concept to spirituality without mutually excluding these concepts from each other.
Highlights
The term ‘spirituality’ and individuals’ self-description as ‘spiritual’ have found growing popularity in public discourse during the last few years, inspiring the social-scientific research of religion and religiosity
With specific attention to the findings that spirituality is becoming increasingly implicit (Luckmann 1967; Schnell 2009; Vincett and Woodhead 2016) we want to focus on a sample of seculars—i.e., individuals who consider themselves non-religious or atheists—and apply an interview to them that asks about spirituality directly or indirectly
According to significant researchers in that field, qualitative methods are the method of choice when it comes to examining multidimensionality (Barton and Lazarsfeld 1979), especially of spirituality (e.g., Hood et al 2009; Miller and Worthington 2013)
Summary
The term ‘spirituality’ and individuals’ self-description as ‘spiritual’ have found growing popularity in public discourse during the last few years, inspiring the social-scientific research of religion and religiosity . Later approaches conceptualize religiosity and spirituality as overlapping constructs without pitting the constructs against each other (Yamane 1998; Zinnbauer et al 1997) This is especially due to the scientific result that most individuals identify themselves as “religious and spiritual” (Streib and Hood 2016). A critical objection against this latter approach is that a growing proportion of individuals consider themselves to be ‘spiritual, but not religious’ or to be ‘more spiritual than religious’ (Carey 2018; Stausberg 2015; Tong and Yang 2018) Such a self-description can express a protest against or a rejection of a religious tradition and can, take on a rebellious nature (Chandler 2008; Hackbarth-Johnson and Rötting 2019; Hood 2003; Vincett and Woodhead 2016)
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