paul heelas

Followers

318

Following

181

Public Views

Anthropologist/sociologist of spirituality/religion, with special reference to modernity, self-understanding

less

Uploads

Papers by paul heelas

Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion

Contemporary Sociology, 1986

The relationship between everyday experience and culture - seen as a set of ideas, values, or sym... more

The sacralization of life and the future of well-being spirituality

The Holistic Milieu and Spirituality: Reflections on Voas and Bruce

... With this low increase, to 41 per cent, the implication is that the 80 per cent figure is at ... more ... With this low increase, to 41 per cent, the implication is that the 80 per cent figure is at least partly due to people already having a'pre-existing orientation towards spirituality'(as Hasselle-Newcombe 2005: 312) puts it in her study of lyengar Yoga-a study which provides similar ...

Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion Volume Three: New Methods in the Sociology of Religion

in: Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion Volume Three: New Methods in the Sociology of Reli... more

format_quoteLarge survey programs focus more on Christian religiosity, neglecting New Age spirituality's increasing significance in societal trends.format_quote

Download

Studying Spirituality: Critiquing Tusting and Woodhead's Contribution

Studying Spirituality: Critquing Tusting and Wooodhead's Contribution, 2024

A robust critique of Tusting and Woodhead's 'Kendal Revisited: the Study of Spirituality Then and... more

Download

The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Mar 1, 1998

Download

Implicit religion : ineffability

On transgressing the secular: spiritualities of life, idealism, vitalism

The limits of consumption and the post-modern ‘religion’ of the New Age

The Authority of the Consumer, 2003

Twenty Years On: The Spiritual Revolution Thesis and the Fate of Practices

Twenty Years On: The Spiritual Revolution Thesis and the Fate of Practices, 2023

The Spiritual Revolution volume studied the fortunes of the associational practices of the congre... more

Download

Expressing the inexpressible: don Juan and the limits formal analysis

Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 1972

Spiritualities of Life

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2009

PHOn Transgressing The Secular

The Dawning of a Secular Age? The Fortunes of Christianity, Islam and 'New Age' Spirituality

The following is inspired by Charles Taylor's Secular Age (2007), the most significant study of r... more The following is inspired by Charles Taylor's Secular Age (2007), the most significant study of religion and spirituality of recent decades. As Taylor is acutely aware, possibly for the first time in human history, certainly for the first time in the much briefer history of modernity, it could very well be the case that certain societies are entering-or have entered-a secular age. On first sight, the collapse of Christianity in a great deal of northern Europe does not bode well for the sociologist of religion. It seems that the advent of a secular condition means that there is little left to study. On second sight, the collapse provides a marvellous opportunity to test two venerable schools of thought. One school, developed by the secular wing of the Enlightenment, holds that the secular is self-sufficient. Once countries like Britain (focussed on in this essay) enter the secular condition, the age of the secular is set to run for the foreseeable future. It is self-sustaining. For people like Richard Dawkins (2006), it is perfectly possible, indeed highly desirable, to live a worthwhile, fulfilling life without Christianity, or any other form of religion or spirituality. The second school of thought holds that the secular condition is insufficient. There is something about the human condition which means that the secular, alone, is not enough. In Britain, the collapse of Christianity means that the secular holds greater sway. There are ever more people to have experiences, apprehensions, comprehensions, or outlooks that transgress the secular condition itself. In measure, the very imperfection of the secular condition generates reaction. To a degree, the secular is self-defeating. <a> Secularization: From Christianity to Secularity An increasing number of sociologists of religion are directing their attention to whether a secular age has dawned, or whether some kind of post-secular condition is emerging. In northern Europe, secularization has been in evidence for a considerable time. In 1914, Durkheim observed, 'The old ideals and the divine figures that embodied them are in the process of dying' (Christiano 2007: 50). In 1917, Simmel noted, 'In our present context the essential fact is the existence of large social groups who, in pursuit of their religious needs, are turning away from Christianity', and referred to 'the widespread rejection of any fixed from of religious life' (: 258-9). In 1904, Max Weber (1985 [1902]) bemoaned the disappearance of religion from the workplace in no uncertain terms. The demise of the Protestant 'spirit of capitalism' had turned the workplace into a spiritless 'iron cage'; the home of 'specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart'; in ironic tone, the home of a 'nullity' that 'imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved' (: 182). Since these early days, sociologists of religion have used a battery of gauges to chart what has been happening to Christianity. There is now a formidable amount of data. The website, 'British Religion in Numbers' (www.brin.ac.uk) is an invaluable resource. The three outstanding researchers today, Callum Brown, Steve Bruce and David Voas, are based in Britain. To set the scene, Bruce (1996) states, 'in so far as we can measure any aspect of religious interest, belief or action and can compare 1995 with 1895, the only description of change between the two points is "decline"' (: 273). <b> Evidence of collapse <c> Church attendance Tracking change from the middle of the nineteenth century Britain, Alasdair Crockett and David Voas (2006) demonstrate 'a relentless fall in church attendance since the 1851 Census of Religious Worship' (: 567). Dwelling on decline in England during recent decades, Christian Research (2005) reports that 11.7 per cent of the population

The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality - By Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead

The British Journal of Sociology, 2007

format_quoteFieldwork data from 6 disabled people's organizations revealed low participation despite invitations, highlighting barriers to research engagement.format_quote

Download