2. Religion or Spirituality? Persistence of Religion World's Population by Continents WorldWorld = 6,790,062,216 Asia = 3,785,470,000 Africa = 841,628,000 Europe = 728,950,000 North America = 491,519,000 South America = 355,068,000 Oceania (incl. Australia) = 31,617,000 Antarctica = no permanent population Asia Africa Europe North America South America Oceania (incl. Australia) Overall, there are 268 nations Session 5

3. David B. Barrett et al., World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) 1900197020002025 Four major Religions Christians5,581 (34.5)12,364 (33.5)20,000 (33.0)26,167 (33.4) Muslims1,999 (12.3)5,535 (15.0)11,882 (19.6)17,849 (22.8) Hindus2,030 (12.5)4,626 (12.5)8,113 (13.4)10,492 (13.4) Buddhists1,217 (7.8)2,334 (6.3)3,600 (5.9)4,183 (5.3) Other religions5,283 (32.7)5,161 (13.8)7,912 (12.9)9,390 (11.9) Non-religious / atheists32 (0.2)6,975 (18.9)9,183 (15.2)10,346 (13.2) World’s population16,196 (100)36.961 (100)60,550 (100)78,237 (100) Trends in World Religious Population

4.  Religion has supplied humans with fundamental solutions to those existential predicaments, underlying the mass appeal of religion throughout most human civilizations. Why religion has so far persisted?  An antithetical to the religious secularization thesis which presumed the demise of religion? : Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Freud, etc.  Existential uncertainty and insecurity: Humans are cast in the space where their survival is uncertain and insecure. In such uncertain and insecure conditions: - a need for a sense of reassurance - a need for seeking answers to the meaning of life

5. Trend 1: - conventional secularization thesis  As those needs diminish by the human’s growing ability to control over the natural/human environments by means of science and technology, religious practices, values and beliefs tend to have become eroded.  To keep pace with the process of modernization which affected the level of healthcare, welfare, education and democratization, confidences in science and technology have been world-widely spread out until the end of 20c century.  In reality, statistics reveal that the most advanced industrial societies have showed the process of decline of traditional religion, e.g., the gradual decline of the number of regular church goers, well representing the assumption of “More modernization, more secularization”. Two trends:

6. Trend 2: - : With reference to “levels of existential security ”(healthcare, education, welfare, democratization, and so on, all of which are provided by the process of (post)modernization – industrialization, urbanization, intellectualization) All the world’s major religions provide people with reassurance that a higher power will ensure that things work out. Religious faith provides people with meaningful interpretations of realities, enabling them to reduce stress, shut out anxiety, and focus on coping with their difficulties and problems. => However, all the countries which have become modernized did not erode the role of traditional religions. Phenomenon A: in advanced industrial welfare societies where people are raised under conditions of relatively “higher level of existential security”, there is less need for the absolute and rigidly predictable rules that traditional religion provide. Two kinds of phenomena to be interpreted => The role of traditional religion in general erodes. => It echoes with the conventional secularization thesis. => But, this trend leads to the low fertility rate. => becoming a diminishing proportion of the world’s population, comparing with the growing demographic proportion of less developed countries with far higher fertility rates.

7. Phenomenon B: On the contrary, in the less developed countries where people tends to be raised under conditions of relatively lower level of existential security, strong needs for the absolute and rigidly predictable rules that traditional religion provides have remained unchanged. =>Why? It is due to the lower level of existential security system which can hardly substitute the role of traditional religion which has so far satisfied the need for a sense of certainty(reassurance) and for seeking answers to the meaning of life in such insecure and uncertain life circumstances. => Due to the relatively higher level of fertility rate, those less developed countries are containing a rising share of the world’ population as well as not becoming religiously secularized. Inglehart’s and Norris’ conclusion: Rich countries become irreligious, poor countries remain deeply religious. Taken together, world as a whole in demographic terms become more religious.

8. In 2006, 2007, and 2008, Gallup asked representative samples in 143 countries and territories whether (traditional and institutional forms of) religion was an important part of their daily lives. The map below is based on the results, and shows religiosity by country, ranging from the least religious to the most religious on a relative basis. World Values Survey 2004

9. ♣ Trend X: spirituality rather than traditional religion However, as Inglehart and Norris indicate, there has been emerging a new trend in religious pattern in the contexts of globalization since at least 1980s. This indicates that, while becoming less interested in traditional and institutional forms of religions, a growing number of people in the contemporary advanced societies are becoming more and more interested in “the spiritual dimension” of life which are indispensably bound up with such fundamental questions as the meaning and purpose of life, World Values Survey 2004

10. A Transformation from the Age of Religion to Spirituality? Searching “spirituality” on the Internet book shops, we can find out over 110,000 books on Amazon; 34,000, on Barnes & noble; 20,000, on Google Book. And over 100,000 video clips are available on U-tube. Besides, a variety of DVDs, multimedia contents are being sold. publication market, DVD can hit the jackpot in the market.

11. Sung-Gun Kim, 2006, Globalization and Spirituality, Seoul: Preaching Academy.  Kim notes the situation of ‘subjective turn’ as an existential feature of contemporary society characterized by globalization and postmodernity, suggesting that there have increasingly been widespread spiritual concerns. Kieran Flanagan and Peter C. Jupp(eds.), 2007, A Sociology of Spirituality, Hampshire: Ashgate.  Authors assess the significance of spirituality in the domain of sociology of religion. The authors explore the emerging thesis of spirituality in contemporary culture, but in the ways that mark important critical divisions: the relationship of spirituality to the visual, individualism, gender, identity politics, education and cultural capital. Gordon Lynch, 2007, The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first Century, London: I.B.Tauris.  Lynch suggests that we have recently been witnessing the rise of a new religious spirituality which reveres the natural world, connects religious faith with novel scientific theories, and has a forward-looking agenda for society's transformation. He regards the situation as the process of ‘spiritual movement’. Gordon Lynch, 2007, The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first Century, London: I.B.Tauris.  Lynch suggests that we have recently been witnessing the rise of a new religious spirituality which reveres the natural world, connects religious faith with novel scientific theories, and has a forward-looking agenda for society's transformation. He regards the situation as the process of ‘spiritual movement’. Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, 2005, The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality, Oxford: Blackwell.  Authors focus on the ‘subjective turn’ - a turn away from life lived as dutiful expectations and roles to subjective life. They regard it as a ‘spiritual revolution’. Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, 2005, The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality, Oxford: Blackwell.  Authors focus on the ‘subjective turn’ - a turn away from life lived as dutiful expectations and roles to subjective life. They regard it as a ‘spiritual revolution’. Grace Davie, Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead(eds.), 2003, Predicting Religion: Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures, Hampshire: Ashgate.  Authors suggest that we are witnessing not religious decline but transformation understood in different ways. They note the gradual shift : from ‘theism to pantheism’, from ‘outer to inner authority’, from ‘God to self-as-god’, and above all, from ‘religion to spirituality’. 1 Why Spirituality? Some examples of related studies Why Spirituality? Some examples of related studies

12. Globalization of the existential conditions of the Postmodern Society Fragmentation Plurality Uncertainty Ambiguity Risk: global endangerment Ethical Turn The modern self becomes a ‘disengaged’ self, who confronts alone the questions of identity, moral/ethical judgment and choice, and responsibility, but in a way that deals with them as an individual but one who is bereft of communal and traditional spirits.  moral subjectivism/naturalism : ‘self-ethic’.  Leading increasingly to the individual quest for spirituality. Cultural Turn a turn away from “mechanical-scientific” framework to “reflexive” one to interpretively understand symbolic, semiotic and spiritual dimensions of realities.  Incredulity towards ‘meta-narratives’ => an existential condition of ‘multiple language games’. Subjective Turn a turn away from “life-as”, i.e. life lived as dutiful expectations and roles to “subjective-life”  Increasing dependency on ‘inwardness’ and ‘knowledgeability’ of the self.  Possibility of ‘self-biographical narrative’.  Idea of ‘transcendental self’ => ‘disengaged self’.  Increase of the priority of ‘subjective-life’ over ‘objective truth’. Cultural Impact - Globalization and Postmodern societies - Cultural Turn Ethical Turn Subjective Turn

13. Religion and Spirituality- A Comparison ReligionSpirituality Traditional/ Modern Condition Traditionally, religion and spirituality were interchangeable. Spirituality was understood as man’s aspects for having relationship with the sacred. It was regarded as one of main resources of the religious life. Three essential elements : faith, ritual, and community (E. Durkheim) Christian spirituality: piety, silence, the devotional life, and the interior life of prayer for man’s quest for God (including, e.g. Pentecostal mystical experiences)  Oriental Spirituality: traditions of Hindu yoga, Islam Sufism, and Zen Buddhism, all of which have influenced the formation of Christian Spirituality since, particularly, the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Postmodern Condition Dualistic Distinction between ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ In the context of the 1990s, spirituality becomes a product or a kind of brand name for the meaning and purpose of life: widespread public acceptance of spiritual practices - yoga, meditation, alternative medicine, etc. ‘great transcendence’ (T. Luckmann) ‘shrinking transcendence’ ‘spirituality of dwelling’ (R. Wuthnow) ‘spirituality of seeking’ ‘life-as’ religion (P. Heelas) ‘subjective-life’ spirituality

14. A Shift from ‘Religion’ to ‘Spirituality’? Religion Faith CommunityRitual Spirituality The individual quest for spirituality signifies a form of religion which is bereft of ‘ritual’ and ‘community’ dimensions. => ‘believing without belonging’ (G. Davie), ‘religion without memory’(Hervieu-Leger), or ‘de- Christianization’ (R. Gill). Faith in ‘inwardness’ of the self

15. Spirituality: an alternative form of religion?  Generating a reflexive discussions about both secularization and de- secularization hypothesis. => leading consequently discussions either to ‘revision of the conventional concept of religion’, or to birth of the new concept of religion. Possibilities:  Understanding it as a form of religion which reflects the notion of religion as ‘cultural system’. => demanding a shift away from the concepts, assumptions, and methodologies of the ordinary sociology of religion.

16.  Higher probabilities of ‘capitalization of spirituality’  Commercialization of spirituality as a commodity package by the mind/body/spirit industry  “spiritual capital” Limits:  A form of the postmodern spirituality, i.e. ‘religious privatization’? => a temporal mutation? So it can never replace the conventional form of religion in the long run. From feng shui to holistic medicine, from aromatherapy candles to yoga weekends, from Christian mystics to New Age gurus, spirituality is big business. There has been an explosion of interest and popular literature on mind, body and spirit and ‘personal development.’ We now see the introduction of modes of ‘spirituality’ into educational curricula, bereavement and addiction counseling, pshchotherapy and nursing. Spirituality as a cultural trope has also been appropriated by corporate bodies and management consultants to promote efficiency, extend markets, and maintain a leading edge in a fast-moving information economy. For many people, spirituality has replaced religion as old allegiances and social identities are transformed by modernity. Carrette and King, Selling Spirituality (2005):