Engaging Spirituality: A Conversation about Methods and Stakes

"This roundtable session will generate a conversation in thinking about the spiritual and spirituality. Composed of a panel of diverse scholars, this roundtable provides a needed and honest evaluation of the spiritual and spirituality in contemporary life. Specifically, the roundtable will focus on several methodological questions: What are the social conditions prompting a
spiritual emergence, forming a spiritual marketplace, and generational differences as it relates to spiritual and religious categories? Because of the individualized nature of spirituality in the United States, do studies of spirituality require interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approaches? What are the successes and problems encountered in studying spirituality? What does spirituality tell us about the current state of the United States? What theoretical, methodological, and empirical stakes are raised by the category and/or the concept of spirituality?"