Overview
Around 20 percent of Americans fall into the category of ""spiritual but not religious."" Yoga has become a ubiquitous pastime for middle-class Westerners. Mindfulness is increasingly incorporated into school curricula, sports programs, and even corporate culture. Hollywood icons and Silicon Valley trendsetters tout the benefits of a ""spiritual"" life. These developments reflect a widespread turn away from ""religion"" toward ""spirituality."" Yet the nature of this spiritual turn is still poorly understood, and its consequences sorely underappreciated. The Shape of Spirituality brings together leading sociologists to challenge common notions that spirituality is individualistic, privatized, and apolitical-and to make the definitive case for its social and political significance. Contributors examine the sweeping influence of spirituality on a variety of realms, including health care and therapeutic practice, popular culture, civic engagement, public protest, conspiracy culture, and progressive politics. Leveraging cutting-edge quantitative and qualitative data, this authoritative book makes clear that, far from being marginal and inconsequential, spirituality holds profound public importance today.
Full Product Details
Author: Dick Houtman ,
Galen Watts
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231216852
ISBN 10: 0231216858
Pages: 376
Publication Date: 15 October 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
This fascinating collection makes a powerful case for contemporary spirituality as a new religious movement. The Shape of Spirituality offers radical new analyses showing that it is real religion and that it has, almost unnoticed, become integral to schools and doctors’ offices, Silicon Valley technovisions, and civic and social-justice activism. Taking spirituality seriously, this volume shows, is essential for understanding religion’s significant current role in our collective life. -- Ann Swidler, co-editor of <i>Challenging Modernity</i>
Author Information
Dick Houtman is professor of sociology of culture and religion at the Center for Sociological Research, University of Leuven. He is the author or editor of many books, most recently Science Under Siege: Contesting the Secular Religion of Scientism (2021). Galen Watts is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity (2022).
