User:Michellerow/sandbox

Dec 3rd

Going forward how to tackle SBNR--look at SBNR in other places ie. the workplace, media

What about gender? Mainly women

talk about how spirituality as a concept is not universal

Nov 8th

Article edits

WIKI EDITS: SBNR Spirituality in Religion (Subheading)

What is spirituality?

There have been sociocultural trends towards deinstitutionalization, individualization, and globalization has led authors such as Pargament, to explain the increased attention to ‘spirituality’ (Being Religious). People are critical of religion because they see it as rigid and pushy, leading people to use terms such as atheist, agnostic (Betwixt). SBNR is not just about rejecting religion outright, but not wanting to be restricted by it (Betwixt). Those who identify as SBNR feel a tension between their personal spirituality and membership in a conventional religious organization. Most of them value curiosity, intellectual freedom, and an experimental approach to religion. Many go as far to view organized religion as the major enemy of authentic spirituality. Spirituality is private reflection and private experience—not public ritual (Whats in a name 5). To appreciate the “god within” is not a twentieth century notion linked to the 1960s counterculture with its eastern-mystical or hippie drug scene or even the 1980s New Age movement for that matter (Chandler). Spirituality is made up of three parts: nature, divine wisdom from a high power, and the self (Chandler).

Religion vs spirituality?

To be religious conveys an institutional connotation: to attend worship services, to say Mass, to light Hanukkah candles. To be spiritual in contrast, is more personal and empowering and has to do with the deepest motivations of life (Whats in a name 5). As a result in cultures that are deeply suspicious of institutional structures and that place a high value on individual freedom and autonomy, spirituality has come to have largely positive connotations, while religion ca be viewed more negatively (Whats in a name 5). Abrahamic traditions emphasize that one’s best bet is to look outside to a higher power that can guide and correct your corporeal misjudgements. In these traditions, God above is the source of wisdom and illumination (Chandler). Spirituality is about much more than going to church and agreeing or disagreeing with church doctrines. Spirituality is the shorthand term we use in our society to talk about a person’s relationship with God (Wuthnow). For many people, how they think about it is certainly guided by what they see and do in their congregations (Wuthnow). At a deeper level, it involves a person’s self-identity—feeling loved by God, and these feelings can wax and wane (Wuthnow). The concept of religion is a social construct, since in other eras, religion, culture, and even national identity were often inseparable. And as for spirituality, this is an old concept with a new usage (Mercandante). Previous to today’s era, what people today call spirituality was often called piety (Mercandante). Religion is seen as a complex adaptive network of myths, symbols, rituals and concepts that simultaneously figure patterns of feeling, thinking, and acting and disrupt stable structures of meaning and purpose (Mercandante). When understood in that way, religion not only involves ideas and practices that are manifestly religious but also includes a broad range of cultural phenomenon not ordinarily associated with religion. (Mercandante). Many people use spirituality to refer to their interior life of faith and religion to mean the necessary communal and/or organizational part (Mercandante). Both spirituality and religion consist of four basic components: beliefs, desire, rituals, and behavioural expectations (Mercandante). When Mercandante have spoken with SBNRs, they take a decidedly anti-dogmatic stance against religious belief in general. They claim not only that belief is non-essential, but that it is potentially harmful or at least a hindrance to spirituality. (Mercandante)

Supernatural

What both religion and spirituality have in common is a sense of the supernatural. In Colonial America, those who today would identify as “spiritual but not religious” had a supernatural curiosity that was often combined with free-thinking rationalism advocated by intellectuals such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson (Fuller 11). The SBNR phenomenon is a mix of intellectual progressivism and mystical hunger, impatient with the piety of established churches (Fuller 12). In the colonial era

Sept 22, 2015

Mindfulness[edit source | edit]

Main article: Mindfulness

As a result of the popularity in participation of mindfulness, conferences such as Wisdom 2.0 have arisen. Conferences like Wisdom 2.0 work with "individuals and groups to get them to live with greater mindfulness and purpose in a technology rich age." Wisdom 2.0 looks into how people feel a disconnect with their technology and others and uses mindfulness as a method to do so. Mindfulness has entered the secular world in many ways allowing to to reach many different groups of people.