Spirituality across Disciplines: Research and Practice:

351 Pages·2016·2.98 MB·English

by  Marian de Souza

Marian de Souza · Jane Bone
Jacqueline Watson Editors
Spirituality
across
Disciplines:
Research and
Practice
Spirituality across Disciplines: Research
and Practice

Marian de Souza • Jane Bone (cid:129) Jacqueline Watson
Editors
Spirituality across
Disciplines: Research
and Practice
123
Editors
MariandeSouza JaneBone
FederationUniversity FacultyofEducation
Ballarat,Australia MonashUniversity
Frankston,VIC,Australia
AustralianCatholicUniversity
Melbourne,Australia
JacquelineWatson
SchoolofEducationandLifelongLearning
UniversityofEastAnglia
Norwich,UK
ISBN978-3-319-31378-8 ISBN978-3-319-31380-1 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-31380-1
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016943186
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof
thematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,
broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation
storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology
nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication
doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant
protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthisbook
arebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublishernortheauthorsor
theeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforany
errorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.
Printedonacid-freepaper
ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature
TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAGSwitzerland
Preface
This volume, with its interdisciplinary focus, is a welcome addition to the
burgeoning literature in the field of spirituality, which is now a legitimate concern
in many disciplines. Spirituality has only made its mark in academic circles
comparatively recently. It was previously considered to be largely the legitimate
concernofthereligiousdomain.Sohowhasthischangecomeabout?Belowwegive
anumberofreasonsforitsnewlegitimacy.Allaretosomeextentinterconnected.
AcademicPublication
The first reason is that, until relatively recently, there was no place to publish
material on children’s spirituality or even spirituality generally; there was no
academic outlet. Spirituality, or the spiritual life, was subsumed under the genre
ofreligion,oftenwithitsowndogmatics.
TheInternationalJournalofChildren’sSpiritualitystarteditslifeinSeptember
1996.Itspurposewastostimulatedebateoverhowspiritualitycouldbeaddressed
in education and associated disciplines. The journal originated in the UK where
the importance of spirituality in schooling had been re-emphasised in the 1988
Education Reform Act. This was a development that was not interrogated with
any great seriousness initially; indeed, it could be understood as something of an
embarrassment since the main point of the Education Reform Act’s educational
initiativeswastoshowhoweducationalpracticeresultedinthedeliveryofspecific
outcomesbasedonempiricalmeasurement.Initially,educationpolicyandpractice
attemptedtosublimatespiritualitytothecontextofreligioninordertobothconfine
its purpose and enhance the aims of religious education – even, perhaps, to re-
theologise it for Christian purposes – but, to coin a phrase, the cat was out of
the bag, spirituality now had to be identified across the curriculum, along with
moral, social and cultural education. However, this created more confusion than
itdidliberation.Whatonearth,manywondered,didspiritualityhavetodowiththe
broadercurriculum?Whatwasitsconnectionwithothersubjectsanddisciplines?
v
vi Preface
RevisitingthefirstissueofIJCSinSeptemberof1996wefindthatmostofthe
articles published, in one form or another, addressed religion or the transcendent
in education. Two were more concerned with moral education. Only two out of
eight contributions came from beyond the United Kingdom. This was to change
asthejournaldevelopedandastheaccompanyingInternationalConferenceswere
created. As an example, by 2006, when the journal published three issues a
year,contributionscamefromAustralia,NewZealand,Finland,theUnitedStates,
Hong Kong, Canada, South Africa, Belgium and Israel, as well as the UK, and
the interdisciplinary aspect had also broadened considerably. Here it is worth
mentioningthelaterintroductionoftheJournalfortheStudyofSpiritualityasthis
demonstratesthegrowthofthewider,interdisciplinarydiscussionevenmore–and
thisbookisaboutthatwiderdebate.
Narrative
Thesecondreasonspiritualitywaslegitimatedwasthattherewasanacademicturn
towards the legitimacy of narrative. The most well-known example is in ethics
with the writings of Carol Gilligan, for example, In A Different Voice (Gilligan
1993) following those of Lawrence Kohlberg, for example, in, The Psychology
of Moral Development (Kohlberg 1984) and the tensions created in the academic
community by this turn. Narrative should be linked, also, to the influence of
feminism, including a demand for academic and moral space for subjectivity and
the suggestion that women’s moral judgements stem from the self, immersed in a
networkofrelationshipssustainedbynarrative.
The above argument for the importance of narrative in the formation and
projectionofidentitysuggeststhatitssignificanceshouldalsonotbeoverlookedin
children’sandyoungpeople’sdevelopment.OurChildrenandWorldviewsProject’s
researchintothisfieldofenquirywaspresentedinTheEducationoftheWholeChild
(Errickeretal.1997).Intheintroduction,wequotedKathleenCasey’sreferenceto
the importance of Mikhail Bakhtin’s linguistic theories for her research and the
analysisofherdata.Shewrote:
ThemostimportantcontributionofBakhtin’stheories,frommypointofview,istheway
inwhichtheymakepossiblethecombinationofaseriousintellectualanalysisofwomen
teachers’narrativeswithaprofoundrespectfortheirauthors.(Casey1993,p.21;Erricker
etal.1997,p.xi)
In our research, we set out to replicate Casey’s concern for respect for the
authors’ narratives and serious intellectual analysis when presenting children and
young peoples’ spiritual lives. We accessed children’s narratives, allowing them
to speak freely and at length about their experiences. We considered that as they
spoke,ornarrated,theywerenotonlytellinguswhathadhappenedbuttheywere
also making meaning. This was particularly clear when we allowed children to
speaktogether,withusmerelyfacilitatingtheconversation. Thisledtoadifferent
Preface vii
understanding of children’s spirituality as meaning making, of establishing what
was important to them, and understanding how they wished to and should react
to events in their lives. The children used narrative to construct and define their
relationships. It also meant that children’s spirituality, as we saw it, could include
a religious belief or not, depending on whether the children used religion in their
narrativeconstructs.
One of the difficulties people can have with children “speaking their mind”
or recounting their experiences is that this often reveals their own ignorance and
inabilitytorespondwithanswerstotheissuestheirnarrativesandquestionsraise.To
askquestionsabouttheworldandhumanexperienceisamatureandconfidentthing
forayoungpersontodo.Thus,perhaps,oneofthereasonswearereticenttolisten
towhattheyhavetosay,ontheirownterms,isbecauseitrevealsourownignorance
and inadequacy: we don’t have any simple answers. This is itself a spiritual issue
becauseifweignorechildren’svoices,concernsandnarratives,webelittlethemand
theirimportance.Also,itleadstoadultsconstructingchildren’ssupposedidentities
rather than children’s self-construction of their identities. As well, it is a political
issue because if narrative is not heard it is effectively silenced by omission. For
us,thepoliticalnatureofourworkbecameclearthroughtherealisationthatsome
schoolswouldnotworkwithusinsuchasensitiveareaand,that,whengivingtalks
onourresearchanditsresults,includingpresentingchildren’snarratives,responses
tendedtobeeitherveryenthusiasticornegativeandhostile.
Themajorityofresearchandpublicationonchildren’sandyoungpeople’sspir-
ituality, and spirituality across the board, has favoured qualitative methodologies,
withtheirfocusonnarrative.Thisisnottoignorequantitativeresearchthathasalso
contributedtothisfield,butrathertoshowhownarrativeapproacheshaveenhanced
thepossibilitiesoflegitimatingspiritualityasanareaofstudy.
ConstructionsofSpirituality
The third reason for the legitimacy of spirituality is that researchers and authors
began to see how it could be addressed beyond, as well as within, the religious
domain,asthisvolumetestifies.Initially,relievedofitsreligiousframework,noone
really knew what spirituality amounted to. But to dismiss spirituality as a concept
thatcanonlybeunderstoodinthecontextandlanguageofreligionmissesthepoint.
Wespeakofmanyotherthingsthatwevalueusingthefigurativelanguageofsimile
and metaphor and poetic devices without recourse to religion and these things are
meaningful to us because they relate to our experience. We also describe things
in such a way that they express our feelings and affective awareness; for example
in relation to love, taste, music and cultural difference. So, it might be better to
understandspiritualityorthespiritualasanattemptattranslationfromexperience
to language, rather than a definition of a tangible thing. If, instead, we attempt to
register the usefulness, or use-value, of spirituality we can ask if it does make a
positivecontributionand,ifso,inwhatways?
viii Preface
HelpfultoushereisanobservationoftheFrenchphilosopherDerrida.Derrida,
refers to the pharmakon (Derrida 1981), found in a passage of Plato’s Phaedrus
(Plato1973,pp.274b–75b).Heretheinventorgod,Theuth,exhibitshisinventions
to the Great God-King Thamus to consider their merits. When he presents him
withwriting,Theuthproclaimsitas“apharmakon(recipeorremedy)formemory
and wisdom”. But, as Derrida makes clear, pharmakon can have two opposite
meaningsinGreek:aremedyorcure,orapoison.Thamusperceivesitasapoison
becauseitwilldetractfrommemory.Derridaarguesthatwhatwehaveisacaseof
undecidabilityorundecidablesbecauseofthepharmakonicqualityentailed.Thisis
necessarilythecasebecausewehavenoideaoftheresultsthatwouldfollowitsuse.
So, we suggest that we have something of the same situation with spirituality?
We have to test it to know of its benefits or otherwise. We have to know its
use value. Some spiritualities coming from “alien” (non-western) traditions have
certainlybeentreatedinthiswayand,insomecases,perhapsquiterightly.Butthe
question is, as with Derrida’s undecidables, how would we know? When Swami
Prabhupada, the founder or reviver of the Krishna Consciousness movement, was
in New York, he was interviewed and asked whether his teaching and practice
amounted to brainwashing. His answer was that maybe Westerners needed their
brains washed. Similarly, the Dalai Lama has remarked on our desire to explore
outerspacebutobservedthatthereisagreatdealofexplorationofinnerspaceyet
tobedone.
What we are arguing for here is an openness to possibilities. Something like
the convivencia experienced in Cordoba in the nineth century and the society of
SicilyundertheNormanrulerRoger11inthefirsthalfofthetenthcentury.Itwas
openness to and sharing of ideas from different perspectives and a broad love of
learningfromoneanother(seeBrotton2012,pp.54–81).Thatsitswellwithabook
onspiritualityincorporatingdifferentdisciplinaryperspectives.
The Valueofthe Study ofSpiritualityin theFuture
In this volume, different authors link spirituality to wellbeing, lifeview, a quest
for unity (with others and the land), connectedness, mindfulness, aesthetics and
creativity,thecommunicationofmeaninganddevelopment:inthesenseofself,the
emotionsandmorals.Thepluralityofunderstandingofspiritualitydoesnotindicate
alackofdefinitionbutratheranexplorationofitsdiversefacetsandexpressionsas
itisapproachedinanumberofinter-disciplinaryways.
What is our future? What sort of world do we hope we are capable of
constructing?Whatqualitiesdowehopewewillpossessandbeabletouse?Writing
this in 2015, when our societies, especially western ones, are so obsessed with
economicgrowth,whatothersortsofgrowthdoweexpectwecandevelopinorder
toparticipateinandshapetheworldofthefuture?Perhapstolerance,compassion
andthecapacitytospeakoutagainstinjusticeanddeprivationmightbethree.Might
wenotregardtheseasspiritualqualities?Andiftheseareneglected,ineducation,
Preface ix
in our pursuit of knowledge, and in society generally, then what sort of future do
we expect will be constructed in the future? This all begs the question as to what
sortofsocietywewishtoconstructandwhatplacespiritualqualitieswillhaveinit.
Aswasremarked,earlierinreflectingonourownresearch,addressingspirituality
isahighlypoliticalendeavourbecauseithasmuchtodowithwhatwevalue,how
we understand ourselves and others, and to what use we wish to put our energies
andourcapital(whethereconomic,social,culturaloreducational).Weneedtotalk
aboutthenotionofspiritualcapitaltoraisetheprofileofitsvalue.
If we wanted to identify at least one aspect of spiritual capital we might start
with the term wellbeing. On a small scale, we could refer to Clive’s experience
of working in a foodbank in the UK. When “clients” come to the foodbank they
are often sent by jobcentres at which their benefits have been sanctioned and the
experience they have received has often been highly impersonal. Arriving at the
foodbank their sense of wellbeing, due to their economic impoverishment, can be
very low indeed. After all, if you don’t have money to buy your next meal or pay
your electricity bill then confidence is low and you are reliant on charity. Part of
the job of a foodbank is to reassure “clients” as well as give them food, but their
resources are limited, relying on donations and the time-availability of volunteer
staff.Itisfirst-aid.Thisishardlyarecipeforre-establishingwellbeingorfostering
arenewedsenseofself-esteem.Therefore,wecanobservetheconnectionbetween
what we might call spiritual capital and economic capital. To cast the net further
andonalargerscale,wemighttakethesituationinGreece.InGreecetheeconomic
situationhasledtosuicides,atworst,andformany,impoverishment,atleast.Ifwe
trytounderstandwhathasledtothiswehavetotakeaccountofapoliticalmodelof
neo-liberalisminformedbyaneconomictheoryofneo-classicalism.Thus,tospeak
ofspiritualcapital,oritslack,isnecessarilytoinvestigatewhatconnectionsthathas
withpoliticalandeconomiccapital.
Taking this analysis further we might observe the discourse of the military.
Following a recent United States attack, under NATO auspices, which resulted in
a hospital being bombed in Kunduz in Afghanistan, George Monbiot reported:
“The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility”.
This is how an anonymous NATO spokesperson described Saturday’s disaster in
Afghanistan. Let’s translate it into English. “We bombed a hospital, killing 22
people.” But “people”, “hospital” and “bomb”, let alone “we”: all such words are
bannedfromNATO’slexicon.Itspressofficersaretrainedtospeaknorecognisable
human language. The effort is to create distance: distance from responsibility,
distancefromconsequencesanddistanceaboveallfromthehumanityofthosewho
werekilled.Theydonotmeritevenaconcretenoun.Whateveryoudo,donotcreate
picturesinthemind(Monbiot2015).
Monbiot’scritiqueremindsusthatifspiritualityandtheideathathumanbeings
areinsomesensespiritualbeingsistobeaffirmedthenwemusttacklethesortof
discoursethatthisofficiallanguagepresents.
Itwouldbegoodtoseemoreinterdisciplinaryresearchfromtheperspectiveof
spiritualitythatanalysesthediscoursesandworthofthesepolitical,economicand
military perspectives. This volume is welcome because its contributions take it in