Abstract
At first glance, the postmodern spiritual �scene� appears �sociologically messy, experiential, multifaceted, ecological, provisional and collective� (Petrolle 2007) and of uncertain epistemic provenance. Here, I ask: can Roland Benedikter�s (2005) conception of postmodern dialectic and spiritual turn, help us understand postmodern spirituality and can it assist in a construction of a postmodern epistemology of spirituality? The current argument constitutes a meta-theoretical exploration of:� Deconstruction and neo-essentialism as representing the significant dialectic in philosophical postmodernism. Deconstruction is presented as an apophatic moment in Western thought about �knowing� and �being� whilst postmodern neo-essentialism, though contextualised by antirealism and ambiguity, palpably suggests itself. � Postmodern trends which derive from the dialectic. � How these epistemic trends influence methodology in the study of spirituality. � How a trans-traditional (anthropological) spirituality might incorporate insights about transformation from a complex of epistemologies in which, theories of �self� abound.In the conclusion an attempt is made to describe how postmodern spirituality expresses itself in society.�
Highlights
Postmodern epistemic trends no universal agreement and no monolithic Postmodern Epistemology exist, Benedikter (2005) suggests the primary dialectic lies between deconstructionism and a later constructivist neo-essentialism from 2001 onwards
With the publication of Thomas Kuhn’s (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Modernism’s pride in Physical Science as its chosen and privileged epistemology came under devastating scrutiny
Post structural neo-essentialism poses a sense of human growth, felt to be organic and fluid
Summary
Postmodern spiritual turn as the epistemic context for postmodern spirituality If spirituality is at all times embedded in its time and place in the world and takes its language of meaning ascription from context (Lesniak 2005:7; Corkery 2005:26), how might postmodern insight enrich a contemporary understanding of spirituality across the ‘three worlds’ of knowledge (Mouton 2011:137), namely meta, epistemic and lay? Might postmodern philosophy be said to exhibit rational parallels to dynamics within trans-traditional spirituality? What experience of truth are we to speak of and how are we to speak of it? How might postmodern discourse on knowledge inform us about the experiential inward path of knowing characteristic of mysticism (McGinn 2005:19)? Thinking about spirituality, as do Schneiders (2005:1) and Sheldrake (2005:38), implicates us in contemporary myth, epistemology and general science. How a trans-traditional (anthropological) spirituality might incorporate insights about transformation from a complex of epistemologies in which, theories of ‘self’ abound. Might postmodern philosophy be said to exhibit rational parallels to dynamics within trans-traditional spirituality?
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