The Shape of Spirituality - by Dick Houtman & Galen Watts

About the Book

The Shape of Spirituality brings together leading sociologists to challenge common notions that spirituality is individualistic, privatized, and apolitical--and to make the definitive case for its social and political significance.

Book Synopsis

Around 20 percent of Americans fall into the category of "spiritual but not religious." Yoga has become a ubiquitous pastime for middle-class Westerners. Mindfulness is increasingly incorporated into school curricula, sports programs, and even corporate culture. Hollywood icons and Silicon Valley trendsetters tout the benefits of a "spiritual" life. These developments reflect a widespread turn away from "religion" toward "spirituality." Yet the nature of this spiritual turn is still poorly understood, and its consequences sorely underappreciated.

The Shape of Spirituality brings together leading sociologists to challenge common notions that spirituality is individualistic, privatized, and apolitical--and to make the definitive case for its social and political significance. Contributors examine the sweeping influence of spirituality on a variety of realms, including health care and therapeutic practice, popular culture, civic engagement, public protest, conspiracy culture, and progressive politics. Leveraging cutting-edge quantitative and qualitative data, this authoritative book makes clear that, far from being marginal and inconsequential, spirituality holds profound public importance today.

Review Quotes

This collection of essays pushes back against the dominant trend in the sociology of religion to dismiss spirituality as merely private and individual, lacking public and political significance. ...From reframing the study of spirituality to discussing the integration of spirituality with business, health, technology, and politics, this is essential reading in the sociology of religion and sociology more generally.-- "Choice"

Challenging conventional accounts of secularization, Houtman and Watts assemble essays by many of the leading scholars of contemporary spirituality, showing that Western spirituality is far more coherent and influential than the received wisdom suggests.--Philip Gorski, coauthor of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

This fascinating collection makes a powerful case for contemporary spirituality as a new religious movement. The Shape of Spirituality offers radical new analyses showing that it is real religion and that it has, almost unnoticed, become integral to schools and doctors' offices, Silicon Valley technovisions, and civic and social-justice activism. Taking spirituality seriously, this volume shows, is essential for understanding religion's significant current role in our collective life.--Ann Swidler, coeditor of Challenging Modernity

This collection demonstrates the growing public significance of holistic spiritualities, making a powerful case that the shift from religion to spirituality signals a profound reconfiguration as important as the one that is shaking the political sphere in this age of populism. Lifting the blinders that the secularization paradigm continues to pull over our understanding of the spiritual turn, this book reveals an epochal shift away from Christianity in the West.--François Gauthier, author of Religion, Modernity, Globalisation: Nation-State to Market

About the Author

Dick Houtman is professor of sociology of culture and religion at the Center for Sociological Research, University of Leuven. He is the author or editor of many books, most recently Science Under Siege: Contesting the Secular Religion of Scientism (2021).

Galen Watts is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity (2022).