From Salvation to Spirituality: The Contemporary Transformation of Religions Viewed from East Asia

In the contemporary world there is a trend to restore a religious world view against the dominant secularist view. Three aspects can be observed: 1. a return to traditional religions; 2. the rise of spirituality; and 3. an increase in religiosity within the modern institutional sphere. In this artic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religious studies in Japan
Main Author: Shimazono, Susumu 1948- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Japanese Association for Religious Studies 2012
In: Religious studies in Japan
Further subjects:B Spirituality
B religious resurgence
B New Spirituality
B salvation religion
B spiritual world
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:In the contemporary world there is a trend to restore a religious world view against the dominant secularist view. Three aspects can be observed: 1. a return to traditional religions; 2. the rise of spirituality; and 3. an increase in religiosity within the modern institutional sphere. In this article the main focus is on the rise of spirituality. The author examines the historical process through which a new spirituality, mainly in economically advanced countries, has emerged and spread. The author proposes that this phenomena is related to skepticism against people’s faith in salvation. In economically advanced countries, a contemporary transformation of the world view can be seen as "from religion to spirituality," but it may be more appropriate to call this transformation "from salvation to spirituality." There is continuity between "new spirituality," which develops outside the traditional religions, and an emphasis on spirituality which develops within the traditional religions. In order to understand the relationship between religion and spirituality, provisional definitions of religion and spirituality are proposed. Although there is a tension between religion and new spirituality, from another viewpoint religion and new spirituality are complementary. The understanding of this complement proposed here reflects an East Asian perspective of religious history.
ISSN:2186-9952
Contains:Enthalten in: Religious studies in Japan