Spirituality Week 1-2 Lecture Notes - Google Docs PDF

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Download Spirituality Week 1-2 Lecture Notes - Google Docs PDF

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Lecture 1 - Introduction 1/13 “Spiritual but not religious” Rothko Church in Houston, Texas is a physical embodiment of this phrase “...but not religious” 1. Intellectual modernity: inherited religion is not credible 2. political/ethical concerns: religion is too political, racist. sexist, violent, etc 3. Individualism: desire for autonomy, freedom, finding one’s own path 4. Raised without: rise of the “nones” “Spiritual” 1. Existence is more than material: there’s something transcendent in us, the world, the universe 2. materialism/consumerism/civilization/modernity is empty 3. Provides vocab or framework for what one experiences in art, love, nature 4. Means of dealing with religious diversity or difference: universal religion Themes of the Class: ● individual/community ● Nature vs. civilization/modernity ● body/gender/sexuality ● therapeutic/wellbeing ● The arts/beauty ● psychology/mind ● Religious others: appropriations/authenticity ● Consumerism Lecture 2 - Setting the Scene: The State of American Spirituality 1/15 Thinking About Religion and Spirituality, Community and Individualism - Diana Butler Bass ● Talks about the big changes that have occured in religion since the 1970s ○ In the midst of a great religious change - great awakening/transformation ● Wants to preserve some form of Christianity Sheila Larson, from Robert Bellah Habits of the Heart ● “Sheilaism” ○ To believe to not necessarily practice in an organized form - individualism Walt Whitman and Emerson - Individualism, cosmopolitanism, eclecticism ● Take things that you like and use them as you like ● “Do I contradict myself, very well then I contradict myself.” ● Emerson on Consistency Younger Americans are less religious than older Americans ● Still believe in God but participate less in organized religion - still spiritual

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“Nones” people with no religious affiliations - aren’t looking to join organized religious communities Lecture 3 - Hearing from the Critics 1/22 Worldwide population is increasingly more religious - christianity is the most popular but Muslim/Islam is on the rise and will soon be the top Spirituality has made us better consumers and worst human beings Robert Wuthnow’s Models of Spirituality 1. Spirituality of Dwelling a. Traditional spirituality of inhabiting sacred places; metaphysic of being at home in the universe; knowing one’s place. Sharp boundaries b. What does it mean to take a part of congregation in a community 2. Spirituality of Seeking a. Negotiate among competing glimpses of the sacred; emphasis on partial knowledge and practical wisdom. Blurry boundaries b. Finding freedom in the open road ● With the rise of pop culture media, people began to separate and seclude themselves with one religion and are now pulling from different ideas and pieces like patchwork ● Dwelling is becoming less popular, people are more drawn to the idea of freedom and going to the open road - why? ○ Geographic mobility ○ Career mobility ○ People are not in permanent religious communities ○ From production to consumption economy (mass culture - consumption experiences) ■ Made more complex information age ○ United States doesn’t have a state religion unlike some other countries ■ Ex. road signs in the Middle East (Muslims only - Non-Muslims) so that non-religious people don’t enter the most religious city of Makkah ● Government pushed a certain religion Peter Berger - The Heretical Imperative ● Heresy: meaning to choose - in religious context, meaning to go against religion ● All we can do is choose - be religious consumers ○ No “sacred canopy” ● Choice weakens the hold/authority of any belief system, leads to more choosing ○ People have the ability to safely leave religion Where do we do our spiritual shopping? ● Our own tradition - “cafeteria Catholics” ○ Picking and choosing what you like 2

● Take other traditions, either whole or in parts ● Science and psychology Religious Critiques ● Carrette and King - Selling Spirituality ○ Spirituality reflects and supports social and economic policies geared toward neoliberal ideals of privatization and corporatization ■ Overt consumerism ● Partaking in Yoga, Religious Sponsored products ● Smith and Denton - Soul Searching ○ Spirituality is false/heresy ■ Moralistic Therapeutic Deism ■ People don’t feel as though they need to be a part of religious communities ● People believe in the beliefs of religious communities but are not doing the work needed to actually follow those beliefs attending/participating in the religious community ● Other Critiques ○ Narcism: all about the self ○ Scientific: is it true? ○ Individual rather than collective action Living with the Heretical Imperative ● Liberation or the paralysis of choice ● Self-realization or hedonism ● Autonomy or anarchy ● Resistance to the dominant powers Jerry Rubin ● A spiritual leader and activist in the United States ○ Went from being a hippie spiritualist to being an investor whose spirituality moved towards “living a better life” Living with the Heretical Imperative - Philip Reiff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic 1966 ● Too much choice is not good - we should be able to just settle down into tradition

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