In the psychology of religion, spirituality is becoming more and more the object of scientific research: the scientific discipline seems to be moving towards a psychology of spirituality. In this article the complexity of the spirituality concept is analyzed and described. The apparent vagueness and broadness of the unifying concept of spirituality mirrors, firstly, the fact that spirituality denotes a field defined by various intellectual traditions. Secondly, the concept is treated with ambivalence in the psychology of religion itself. On the one hand the psychology of religion has emancipated itself from theological discourse and theological institutions, embracing spirituality as its new secular object of research "after religion". And yet on the other hand the psychology of religion also, by strongly focusing on the positive and integrative functions of religion/spirituality for example, is still an (involuntary?) advocate of what we may identify as a modern theological project with which the psychology of religion is historically intertwined, the project namely of founding true and healthy religious world views in a province in the mind after the collapse of church authority and dogmas. Any discourse on spirituality as systematic worldview or meaning system is in a sense also the continuation of the modern theologian's dream of anchoring religion in individual inner faith experiences or feelings.

Enthalten in:
Glaube und Lernen; 2011/2 Theologie interdisziplinär und praktisch (2011)

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Serie / Reihe: Glaube und Lernen

Personen: Westerink, Herman

Schlagwörter: Spiritualität Religionspsychologie