Religion, spirituality and the social sciences

JUAN MARCO VAGGIONE

International Journal of Social Research Methodology

Routledge

Año: 2010 vol. 13 p. 376 - 379

1464-5300

Indexada en Ebscohost; Criminal Justice Abstracts, entre otros. The book Religion, Spirituality and the Social Sciences is an emergent of this turn in the academic agenda. Once religion is reincorporated and secularization theory is critically revised, a set of theoretical and methodological challenges emerges, as these articles compiled by Basia Spalek and Alia Imtoual testify. The common thread of these 14 articles is precisely the need to examine different dimensions of religion and spirituality by moving away from traditional readings very much influenced by secularism. In doing so, the authors consider some conceptual and methodological challenges that the social sciences need to face in order to be better equipped for understanding contemporary sociopolitical dynamics where religion and spirituality are core factors. Affirming that secularization theory provides an incomplete or even an inaccurate understanding of religion and spirituality is just a first step; the next one, which this book deals with, is to consider the challenges and criticisms social science research needs to face in order to contribute to a post-secular understanding in contemporary dynamics. In a context where religious and spiritual identities are strong, as Spalek and Imtoual affirm, social science researchers must engage with the implications of a religious´s spiritual identity on social science methodologies that arise from a largely secularist intellectual tradition.