{"title":"The Role of ‘Spirituality’ in Religion-secular Relational Discourse: The Case of Yoga in Britain","authors":"L. Vollmer","doi":"10.1163/18748929-13040002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\nThis article examines the ‘relational etymology’ of the term ‘secular’ relative to ‘religion’ and the role of the concept ‘spirituality’ in discursive change. Employing a relational methodology to the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse analysis, concept formation and transformation of these terms is considered as a specific matter of how the terms are positioned relative to one another in the discourse. It is found that while ‘spirituality’ first worked on the side of ‘religion’ to differentiate it from the ‘secular,’ it was later differentiated from ‘religion’ and placed in ‘secular’ discourse. This is exemplified with the case of yoga in Britain. Implications for the religion-secular relationship and the secularization thesis are explored.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"13 1","pages":"325-350"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Religion in Europe","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-13040002","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article examines the ‘relational etymology’ of the term ‘secular’ relative to ‘religion’ and the role of the concept ‘spirituality’ in discursive change. Employing a relational methodology to the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse analysis, concept formation and transformation of these terms is considered as a specific matter of how the terms are positioned relative to one another in the discourse. It is found that while ‘spirituality’ first worked on the side of ‘religion’ to differentiate it from the ‘secular,’ it was later differentiated from ‘religion’ and placed in ‘secular’ discourse. This is exemplified with the case of yoga in Britain. Implications for the religion-secular relationship and the secularization thesis are explored.
期刊介绍:
The peer-reviewed Journal of Religion in Europe (JRE) provides a forum for multi-disciplinary research into the complex dynamics of religious discourses and practices in Europe, both historically and contemporary. The Journal’s underlying idea is that religion in Europe is characterized by a variety of pluralisms. There is a pluralism of religious communities that actively engage with one another; there exists a pluralism of societal systems, such as nation, law, politics, economy, science, and art, all of them interacting with religious systems; finally, in a pluralism of scholarly discourses religious studies, legal studies, history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and psychology are addressing the religious dynamics involved.