Abstract
Identity is complex; the cultural milieu of possible worldviews, and accompanying identifying terminology said to represent such a worldview, even more so. Just as this book demonstrates, a simple term such as “spirituality” can refer to a multiplicity of understandings, which may even wholly contradict one another. In our present study, Brian C. has found comfort “experimenting with ideologies,” and identity tinkering over the course of his life. As his case will demonstrate, the process of identity formation is exemplified by its disunity. To this point, Brian identifies as an atheist Zen Buddhist , who is not only “spiritual,” but also “religious.” Raised in a religion (Christianity) he identified with until adolescence, Brian had been a practicing Buddhist for several years at the time of the interview.
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- 1.
Jerry Falwell was an American evangelical Southern Baptist pastor, appearing on TV regularly, with rather conservative views. He was known for making extreme and inflammatory remarks towards any viewpoint or ideology that did not align with his own.
- 2.
In Chalmers’ view, consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe very much like the postulation of space and time. This is, however, and for example, not to say that rocks are conscious, only that the physical material that constitutes the rock has the potential to exhibit the properties of consciousness in certain configurations such as the higher primates.
- 3.
The current project has taken a thoroughly emic approach (see Chap. 9 and the chapters in Part Two).
- 4.
Taves’ “ascriptive” approach shifts the scholars’ focus from the problematic nature of defining “religion,” and places the foci on who, what, and why something is being deemed as “religious”, or being marked as something “special.” Here, many (most?) religious things are special, but not all “special things” are religious, or equal “religion.” Taves’s methodological framework is ripe for utilization in nonbelieving populations.
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Coleman, T.J., Swhajor-Biesemann, A., Giamundo, D., Vance, C., Hood, R.W., Silver, C.F. (2016). “Experimenting with Ideologies…”—A “More Spiritual Than Religious” Zen Buddhist. In: Streib, H., Hood, Jr., R. (eds) Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21245-6_21
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