Contemporary Spirituality Research Articles

Transforming Lives and Businesses

This article explores the aspirational marketing modalities promoted by “spiritual marketing coaches” (SMC) that target freelancers in the well-being and yoga sector. It focuses on the narratives of success applied in what is essentially a “marketing of marketing,” analysing the semiotic qualities, functions, and implications of these promotional strategies. Specifically, it investigates how SMCs engage in meaning-making and religion-making through aspirational narrations while using inbound marketing to promote the use of the same. I argue that “spiritual marketing” incorporates a semiotic shift towards language and narrations commonly used in contemporary spirituality. This has introduced modalities that combine marketing tools with spiritual and esoteric doctrines via algorithmic processes, the spiritual exercise of bringing forward a business idea with purpose, and inner transformation for the sake of signalling authenticity. Promoting the esoteric paradigm that thought controls matter, “spiritual marketing” inadvertently relies on the appeasement of online marketing algorithms to attract more clients.

Korean Buddhism in the Era of ‘Spiritual, but Not Religious’: Adapting to Contemporary Society

The shift toward modernity has come with many changes that affect religion. This article investigates some of those changes with the aim of showing how Korean Buddhism is adjusting to contemporary spirituality. The article begins with a consideration of the term ‘spiritual, but not religious’ (SBNR), a relatively new designation that indicates the shift a growing number of people are taking away from organized religious institutes towards beliefs and practices that they find more relevant and meaningful. To better understand SBNRs, the research of Mercadante is emphasized. The second half of this article aims to consider Korean Buddhism in the context of modern spirituality. Using Mercadante’s framework, which distinguishes between five types of SBNRs (dissenters, causals, explorers, seekers, and immigrants), an inquiry is carried out into each of these categories to show some of the ways in which Korean Buddhism is engaging with the spiritual and emotional concerns of modern, secular society. Thus, this work aims to show the direction Korean Buddhism is headed in and how it is relevant to modern, spiritual inclinations.

Between Soul and Spirit: Rohr’s Transformational Spirituality in Pastoral Work

In this paper some typical features of the spirituality of Richard Rohr, one of popular authors who represents one of the dis-tinctive currents of contemporary Catholic spirituality, are described. I focus on several distinctive characteristics that we find captured in his spiritual texts. These include an emphasis on orthopraxy, on the trans-formative nature of spirituality, on contemplation, and on the embod-ied nature of spirituality. Understanding these basic characteristics, also helps to understand the more general tendency of contemporary spirituality, especially that which consciously straddles the boundary between traditional religious offerings and non-traditional forms of spirituality in non-religious settings.

The Neurotheology of Contemporary Spirituality

The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives, by David B. Yaden and Andrew B. Newberg. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. x + 430 pages, £26.49. ISBN: 9780190665678

The Contemporary Spirit of "Bacon Casting Soul" Revolutionary Dance Drama

The Contemporary Spirit of "Bacon Casting Soul" Revolutionary Dance Drama

The Politics of Menstruation

Menstrual blood is still regarded as embarrassing and taboo in many places all over the world. This article focuses on the study of the Red Tent as an example of feminist-spiritual menstrual activism established in 2007 in the US because it represents an important form of breaking the menstrual taboo. Although contemporary spiritualities present themselves as nonhierarchical and gender equal, spirituality and well-being in the women's circles is predominantly practiced by cisgender, heterosexual, and white middle-class women, excluding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and others (LGBTQ+). Constructs around the sacredness of female experiences (menstruation, menopause) are problematic for transgender women who do not share these experiences, and a lack of diversity may perpetuate systematic inequities and discrimination. This article discusses whether the Red Tent in Slovenia is open to include transgender and nonbinary people. By creating alternative domains of representation in which nonnormative bodies can exist, we disrupt the sex/gender system and dismantle normative femininity and masculinity. The article argues that in this way the Red Tent has the potential to subvert the dominant ideology of gender binary construction by providing alternative models for the embodiment of gender to challenge traditional conservative gender essentialisms in society. The methodology employed consists of ethnographic fieldwork, which was performed in the Red Tent gatherings and semistructured in-depth interviews with participants who host or participate in them. Because a part of the scope of the research “lives” in the cyber world, the ethnographic research methodology was integrated with the phenomena and data obtained from the internet in the form of netnography.

Traceability and Reflection: Contemporary Revelations of Li Ruiqing’s Art Education Thought

Li Ruiqing is an essential founder of higher art education in modern China. He advocated a new style of education for a better country. He founded the Drawing and Handicrafts Section, the first teacher-training art department in the country at that time, at the Two Rivers Normal School. It pioneered the opening of art specialties in Chinese higher education and trained a large number of art education talents for Chinese art education. Its spirit of education to develop the country, dare to be the first, and the courage to take responsibility for modern art education thought has an essential impact on the innovation of modern art education thought and the formation of the contemporary spirit of the times of courage to take responsibility for the critical impact.

Letting ‘soft vengeance’ in when harm is ‘unforgivable’: on reading Stephen Cherry

This article draws on research in Bosnia and Rwanda and my own lived experience of ecclesiastical abuse. It reflects on, and develops, Stephen Cherry’s argument that some harms are Unforgivable (2024), and that the modern Christian Church has got ‘forgiveness’ wrong. Contra Cherry, though, it suggests that because comparatively little work has been undertaken on the contemporary spirituality of forgiveness, we have missed the potential healing power of ‘vengeance’ – but a particular kind of vengeance, as a Christian strategy to protect the future dignity, agency and flourishing of survivors of severe abuse and trauma.

Hop-on Hop-off Spirituality

In contemporary spirituality-related thought and behaviour in Estonia (as well as in a number of other regions), a phenomenon can be observed that I call hop-on hop-off spirituality. This means testing and tasting of various forms of contemporary spirituality (via techniques, courses, lectures, books, etc.) out of curiosity or for fun or just because a friend said that this or that teaching has changed their life. Such experimenting can sometimes result in deeper spiritual involvement or change in worldview but often doesn’t bring along anything that could be defined as deeper spiritual or religious commitment or belonging. Based on interviews, questionnaire responses and written life-history narratives from Estonia from the 1990s to 2020s, I will analyse how the suggested term fits into the context of already existing definitions and terms related to “spirituality”, and how such “hop-on hop-off” participation can be still seen as a learning process that influences one’s values, meaning-making, coping models, and lifestyle.

Dialectical thinking in contemporary spirituality: Reconciling contradictory beliefs through metamodern oscillations between two ways of thinking

Psychologists are paying increasing attention to a distinction between two ways of thinking. Cognitive psychologists discern between non-reflective “intuitive” and critical reflective “analytic” thinking. Cultural psychologists discern between context-focused “holistic” and object-focused “analytic” thinking. Both find the former strongly correlated with religious beliefs and Asian cultures, the latter with secular beliefs and Euro-American cultures. Yet, recent studies convincingly suggest: first, that analytic thinking does not just relate to secular beliefs but also to alternative beliefs that straddle the boundaries between secular and religious worldviews; second, that critical reflective thinking includes both the holistic context-focus of Asian religions and the analytic object-focus of European philosophies and sciences. This article supports these recent studies in the psychology of religion based on recent studies from the history and sociology of religion and a discourse analysis of interviews with members of a small-scale twenty-first-century spiritual group, as an example. We show that people who identify as spiritual in a metamodern context use both holistic and analytic thinking in creating alternative worldviews, which dialectically reconcile beliefs that many within modern western cultures would consider contradictory. We conclude that this both/and logic challenges theories and stereotypes about “secular versus religious” and “eastern versus western” thinking.

Carolingian After-Images: Hariulf’s History of St Riquier and Its Context

ABSTRACT Hariulf’s History of St Riquier is usually consulted for detail on liturgical, architectural and political history, but is rarely considered in its entirety. It was written in the changing and competitive world of the late eleventh century, when there were challenges for established communities, both in terms of innovative approaches to monasticism and the emergence of new political entities and potential patrons. In the past that Hariulf creates St Riquier had been the focal point of Ponthieu for generations and had stood the test of time as the conduit of royal patronage and liberality, symbolised by its great Carolingian church built by Abbot Angilbert. It remained, in Hariulf’s view, a centre of monastic excellence, whose abbots responded to and practised contemporary spirituality, and it had adopted strategies to strengthen its position, including care for its patrimony, securing new relics and memorialising its past.

TRI HITA KARANA: MODAL SPIRITUAL UNTUK MEWUJUDKAN PARIWISATA REGENERATIF DI BALI

Discussion on regenerative sustainability results from understanding that previous concepts of sustainability, the conventional and the contemporary sustainability, failed to achieve the sustainability agenda. The failure results from human behavior that considers themselves as having the right to use the environment to fulfill their needs. The urgency to satisfy their basic needs and, finally, their greed has resulted in an unsolvable problem: unsustainability. Sustainability is a behavioral matter, and behavior is a product of someone's understanding, attitude, value, beliefs, paradigm, or worldview. Therefore, to achieve sustainability, there should be a mindset change. As a form of contemporary spirituality, Tri Hita Karana can initiate change in the mindset concerning sustainability (inner-sustainability) through character education, so that regenerative sustainability and regenerative tourism in Bali can be achieved.

Contemporary spirituality: a comprehensive literature review and invitation to heartbreak and humility

This article is a literature review which explores the spiritual landscape within Gestalt therapy and the wider field of psychotherapy, examining definitional barriers, ideas of contemporary spirituality (as distinct from religion) and the ways in which Gestalt therapy can offer a ‘way out’ of the restrictive binaries of traditional either/or thinking. Key words Gestalt therapy, spirituality, epistemic humility, dialogue, presence, paradox, uncertainty

Modernization: Common Properties and Chinese Characteristics

ABSTRACT Modernization is the process of transformation and development from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society and information society. A necessary path and inevitable choice for human society in its development to an advanced stage, modernization represents the direction of progress and driving force of development for human civilization. At once a reflection and critique, a dialectical sublation, and an overall transcendence of traditional society, modernization is led by an advanced class that embodies the contemporary spirit. For its promotion, modernization relies principally on the three levers of science and technology, capital, and the market, and as its goal, it posits the realization of industrialization, urbanization, and informatization. Led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese path to modernization is socialist in its essence, and possesses not only the common properties of modernization, but also Chinese characteristics based on China’s particular national conditions. Specifically, this path embodies the people-centered concept of modernization, is committed to achieving all-round human development and social progress, surpasses the object-centered model of Western modernization guided by the logic of capital, and provides a new choice and development direction for humanity in achieving modernization.

Adaptive Reuse (AR) of Historical and Heritage Buildings Through Concepts of Addition and Expansion

With the emergence of significant changes occurring rapidly in all aspects of life, and their profound impact on job transformation and evolution, there is a necessity for adaptively reusing existing buildings (whether heritage, historical, or modern) to accommodate these new variables through the realization of expansion and addition concepts, whether horizontally or vertically, internally or externally. A set of global experiments has demonstrated various methods and strategies for adapting the reuse of different buildings, which were in urgent need of addition and expansion in various forms to meet the evolving requirements and emerging needs. These experiences can be studied and analyzed to derive key indicators that can be applied to future local experiments.The research adopts a descriptive and analytical approach by reviewing and analyzing previous studies first. It then studies the essential concepts related to the research (assumed building lifespan, expansion, addition, as well as adaptive reuse). Subsequently, a group of global experiments applying these concepts is studied and analyzed to extract essential indicators that can be applied to the local case study, represented by the historic Qishla building. The research concludes with a set of findings.Through the analysis of previous studies, the research identified the research problem as "the lack of knowledge and local studies and applications regarding adaptive reuse for historical and heritage buildings, even modern ones, through expansion and addition processes of all types used in them. The research emphasizes the importance of reassessing global experiences that practically achieved the concepts of addition and expansion and choosing successful strategies for future addition and expansion of local buildings in need of enhancement to meet new requirements and contemporary spirit. The study yielded several conclusions, among which is the acknowledgment that each building has an assumed lifespan (at the technical, functional, and economic levels) that requires adaptive reuse through horizontal and vertical expansion and addition, whether at the structural or spatial levels, above, inside, or adjacent to the building. The appropriate strategy should be selected for each building based on its function, chronological age, social significance, available space inside and around it, while preserving its value and style. This was observed during the analysis of the historic Qishla building in Baghdad. This study serves as a valuable resource for architects, urban development planners, and policymakers seeking to understand and implement adaptive reuse with thoughtful additions to buildings in their different contexts. The indicators derived from the research can also be applied to a range of Iraqi buildings in need of adaptive reuse.

Theoretical and Epistemological Questions for the Study of Contemporary Spirituality in Catholic Italy on Nature, Well-Being, and Mystery

In this article I present the main findings of an empirical study about contemporary spirituality in Italy begun in 2017 by reasoning about the analysis of twelve case studies which are particularly eloquent concerning the different spiritual worlds emerging in Catholic Italy. I argue that three main narratives—the spirituality of nature, wellbeing, and mystery—are useful to synthesize the heterogeneousness of groups, communities, festivals, and organizations engaged in the Italian “holistic milieu”. In order to address this reflection, firstly I will trace the international sociological debate that has accompanied the concept of contemporary spirituality and the relationship between spirituality and religion, a couple which I have named “frenemies”. Then, I will extend the analysis to the concept of the secular, examining the intertwining of the spiritual, religious, and secular spheres. After illustrating the landscape of contemporary spirituality in Catholic Italy more broadly, I shall focus on the case studies taken as examples of the spirituality of nature, the spirituality of health and wellbeing, and the spirituality of mystery. In the Discussion and Conclusion, I shall raise some fundamental questions that the study of contemporary spirituality poses for the sociology of religion with reference to secularisation, one of its most classic and yet contested paradigms. I shall claim that future research paths could further contribute to strengthening the idea, raised in this article, that secularisation can also be understood not only as an antithetical force to religion but as the process in Western history that has led to the emergence of a secular social space in dialogue with the religious sphere.

Analyzing the Opportunities of Art Trends Based on Contemporary Spiritual Needs

The art trend of thought should adapt to the contemporary art needs and promote the help and progress of art for the group. Modern art should help build the spiritual level of each person and heal the mental and spiritual health of the individual. By popularizing basic art education and providing entry points for art viewing, enhancing the personal empathy and tolerance of the general public is a new opportunity to adapt to the artistic trend of human development and needs. This paper provides an idea of one of the possibilities of artistic trend of thought. Artists leave traces of clues in artistic works to give viewers a breakable entrance, that is, the guiding function of artworks themselves is strengthened, so as to form a personalized private chemotherapy field among viewers, artists and artistic works.

Politicization of holistic spirituality, mistrust of science and public space in Argentina post COVID-19

As many analysts of contemporary spirituality have pointed out, the renewed public presence of alternative non-denominational spirituality, generally identified with those who define it as ‘spiritual, but not religious’, is a process that forces us to rethink the more classical relationships between religion, public sphere, and politics. In this article, the author discusses in detail the relationships between holistic lifestyles and spiritualities in relation to public distrust of COVID-19 in Argentina. The strong presence of discourses and practices related to therapeutic holism in the trajectories and arguments of distrust of official expert politics will lead to establish a relatively unanalyzed and quite unexpected relationship in studies on the politicization of contemporary spirituality.

Spirituality in debates: Politics, genealogy, and new movements. Introduction

Spirituality has recently taken on new importance on the religious landscape as well as in popular and secular discourse and in the field of social sciences. As a new religious expression, spirituality often intersects with contemporary concerns. What are the political implications of contemporary spirituality movements that are more than often framed under the guise of individualized and distanced religiosity? To what extend do these religious behaviors involve public and political demands? How can these overall changes – including religious expressions, organizations, and networks – affect our theoretical approaches to the notion of spirituality itself? While these questions have been inquired in some specific studies, no international or comparative perspectives have connected these multiple insights together. This is the aim of this special issue.

A feminism of the soul? Postfeminism, postsecular feminism and contemporary feminine spiritualities

Increasingly popular ‘feminine spiritualities’ urge women to foster personal transformation and social change through spiritual empowerment and healing of ‘the feminine’. However, in spite of feminist undertones, feminism is rarely explicitly evoked, and is often even rejected. Gender scholars have debated over the ambivalent feminism of contemporary spiritualities, which are readily seen as closer to postfeminist rather than feminist ideals, or framed as a form of old-fashioned cultural feminism. While some recent analyses do explore the feminist potential of feminine spiritualities in more positive terms, the debates often lack practitioner perspectives on feminism and deeper considerations of the practitioners’ own self-definitions. Based on ethnographic interview material across Finnish and Anglo-American contexts, this article explores how adherents of feminine spirituality imagine feminism, and whether they consider their spirituality to be feminist or not and why. I argue that while practitioners hold varying, often ambiguous positions in relation to feminism, the narratives iterate shared themes that render feminism and feminine spirituality as incompatible: an emphasis on femininity over feminism, and a focus on spirituality instead of politics. Furthermore, practitioners critique mainstream feminism for being too secular, while often simultaneously agreeing with feminist criticisms of both cultural feminist and postfeminist ideals. I suggest that failing to take the voices of spiritual women into account prevents constructive dialogue and solidarity among secular and spiritual feminists as well as non-feminist women, and offers little room for emerging postsecular feminist identities.