What Do Seculars Understand as ‘Spiritual’? A Replication of Eisenmann et al.’s Semantics of Spirituality

Abstract

Eisenmann et al. developed a system consisting of forty-four categories to code the definitions of spirituality in samples from the USA and Germany. We tested this category system in a sample of seculars in Switzerland. All original categories were applicable to the individual understandings of spirituality in our sample. Only two additional categories of marginal relevance were formed. This result confirms the validity of the category system. Furthermore, the German and the Swiss samples both stress an understanding of spirituality as transcending without emphasizing transcendence. This concept should be used to construct spirituality scales for quantitative studies.