The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity

The Spiritual Turn challenges misconceptions about the spiritual turn in Western modernity, showing it to be the rise of an enduring cultural structure rather than religious decline. It traces the religion of the heart to the 1960s and presents case studies of its institutionalization in a Twelve Step group, a neo-Pentecostal church, and a Toastmasters public speaking club. The book concludes that while critics may have reason to disparage both spirituality and romantic liberal modernity, the reality is more complex and less hopeless.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 10 May 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The growing trend among North Americans and Western Europeans of identifying as spiritual but not religious has sparked considerable interest and debate. While some scholars argue that this signifies a decline in religious participation, others suggest that it reflects a shift towards a more individualized and personal approach to spirituality. In this book, we explore the concept of spirituality and its implications for twenty-first-century liberal democracies.

Secularization theorists argue that spirituality lacks the institutional support and shared tradition found in traditional religions, leading to a decline in religious participation. However, critical commentators argue that the spiritual turn embodies all of the ills of post-1960s liberal democracies. This book challenges these misconceptions by combining cultural sociology, intellectual history, and political philosophy. Drawing from first-hand interview and fieldwork data, as well as discourse analysis of popular books, the book demonstrates that rather than reflecting religious decline, the spiritual turn marks the rise of an enduring cultural structure in Western modernity: the religion of the heart.

Tracing the religion of the heart to the 1960s, The Spiritual Turn illuminates its elective affinities with the romantic liberal social imaginary that crystallized in popular consciousness during this era. It explores how the religion of the heart transformed the institutional spheres of Western liberal democracies, ultimately giving birth to a new social order: romantic liberal modernity. Inspired by the Durkheimian tradition, the book presents case studies of three sites where the religion of the heart is institutionalized in a specific discursive form: a Twelve Step group, a neo-Pentecostal church, and a Toastmasters public speaking club.

Through these case studies, the book demonstrates that while critics may have reason to disparage both spirituality and romantic liberal modernity more generally, the reality is far more complex than their criticisms suggest. It highlights the ways in which individuals and communities are using spiritual practices and beliefs to address social and personal challenges, and to create meaning and purpose in their lives. The book concludes that while there are certainly challenges facing liberal democracies in the twenty-first century, the spiritual turn offers a potential source of hope and renewal. It suggests that by embracing the religion of the heart, individuals and communities can find new ways to connect with each other and with the broader world, and to build more inclusive and sustainable societies.

Weight: 558g
Dimension: 164 x 243 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192859839