Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Social Ethic of Religiously Unaffiliated Spirituality
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Author's Introduction Historically, spirituality has almost always been embedded in religion, but in the years following the 1960s counterculture, spirituality has also forged an existence outside traditional theologies. It is now increasingly common for people to describe themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’, signalling their move away from traditional religious hierarchies towards an eclectic, self‐governing approach to existential meaning‐making. Spirituality today emerges from a complex socio‐religious matrix that is closely linked to the rise of individualism in affluent western nations. The social and religious implications of the cultural ethic of individualism have been much discussed. This essay adds another perspective by considering whether religiously unaffiliated spirituality contributes to the creation of an integrated society, and leads to the development of civically engaged and responsible citizens compared with organized religion. Online Materials 1. http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/indes.html?newsandcurrent#tapestry Tapestry is a CBC radio programme exploring spirituality and religion. Podcasts available for download. 2. http://www.thearda.com/ The Association of Religion Data Archives features high‐quality empirical data on the American religious landscape. See especially the learning modules to learn how to best use the data available on this website ( http://www.thearda.com/learningModules/ ) 3. http://www.givingandvolunteering.ca/pdf/CSGVP_Highlights_2004_en.pdf Caring Canadians Involved Canadians: Highlights from the 2004 Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating 4. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks TED talks (technology, entertainment and design) features video presentations (each about 20 min) by highly accomplished, and often high profile individuals. Geared to a sophisticated global audience, its speakers frequently epitomize a post‐materialist vision of how to build a better future. Sample Syllabus 1. Introduction to contemporary spirituality Albanese, C, ‘Introduction’, in American Spiritualities: A Reader , pp. 1–17 (Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 2001). Roof, WC, Chapter 1 ‘Varieties of Spiritual Quest’, in Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion , pp. 16–45 (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1999). 2. The sociology of spirituality1960–1980: the Counter‐culture and the New Age Movement Roof, WC, Chapter 2 ‘The Making of a Quest Culture’, in Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion , pp. 46–76 (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1999). Ferguson, M, Chapter 1, ‘The Conspiracy’, and Chapter 2, ‘Premonitions of Transformation’, in The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s , pp. 23–64 (Los Angeles, CA, J.P. Tarcher Inc.). Websites of interest: The New Age today http://www.newage‐journal.com/ http://www.fairycongress.com/fc2008/2008_links.htm http://www.aerious.org/index.html http://www.findhorn.org/ http://www.hollyhock.ca 3. Defining spirituality and religion Marler PL, & Hadaway, K, ‘“Being Religious” or “Being Spiritual” in America: A Zero‐Sum Proposition?’ Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , vol. 41, no. 2 (2002), pp. 289–300. Heelas, P, & Woodhead, L, ‘Introduction’, and Chapter 1, ‘Distinguishing religion and spirituality’, in Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality , pp. 1–32 (Oxford, Blackwell, 2005). 4. Broad‐based spirituality movement from 1980 onward (2 weeks) Roof, WC, Chapter 3 ‘The Spiritual Marketplace’, and Chapter 5, ‘A Quest for What?’ in Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion , pp. 77–110 (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1999). Roof, WC, Chapter 5 ‘A Quest for What?’ in Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion , pp. 145–179 (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1999). Heelas, P, & Woodhead, L, Chapter 4 ‘Bringing the Sacred to Life’, in Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality , pp. 77–110 (Oxford, UK, Blackwell, 2005). Roof, WC, Chapter 6 ‘Redrawing the Boundaries’, in Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion , pp. 180–216 (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1999). Websites and media of interest: The Templeton Foundation:
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.406 | 0.323 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".