By Lianne Kolirin
One hundred and sixty people from countries as far flung as Slovakia, Nigeria and Australia flocked to Ireland last week for a conference on spirituality in an “uncertain world”.
Delegates checked in to the South East Technological University (Setu) in Waterford from 25 countries and five continents for the three-day event organised by the International Network for the Study of Spirituality.
The organisation, a registered charity, describes itself as a “unique international network for people interested in bringing the study of spirituality to life through research, scholarship, education and practice”.
The group started in 2010 as the British Association for the Study of Spirituality but broadened its remit a decade later with a more “inclusive” name, says the Rev Michael O’Sullivan, the conference chairman.
That, he told the Religion Media Centre, is part of the reason that this year’s conference — the seventh of the charity’s biennial events — attracted almost double the number of previous attendees. Many were academics engaged in the growth area of the study of spirituality, understanding it as a phenomenon of human experience and how it is aligned to professions such as medicine and education.
The signature note at the bottom of Dr O’Sullivan’s email is longer than most, listing the many hats he wears. Besides his role as conference organiser and board member of the charity, he is a Jesuit priest, founding programme leader of the MA in applied spirituality at Setu and co-founder of the Dublin-based Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE), among others. So how does he define spirituality?
“For me it’s about people’s desire for meaning, purpose and value in life. What is life all about? Where are we coming from? Where are we going? Why are we here? Is there anything after death? I see spirituality as being very linked to these kinds of very deep ultimate questions of meaning and value for life and the world,” he says.
What spirituality is not is a byword for religion, he explained. “Some people, in living a spiritual life, will find that to do so satisfactorily requires them to move into a religious affiliation of some kind, but not everybody would see it that way,” he says.
“You can be spiritual but not religious, but you can also certainly be spiritual and religious.” Leading a secular life, or being one of the growing number of people who identify as being of “no religion”, does not therefore preclude the individual from experiencing spirituality.
The key is to keep an open mind, according to Dr O’Sullivan.
“You can be concerned about human dignity and human wellbeing and not necessarily attach any religious labels or significance to it,” he says.
However, for those who want to explore the subject at greater depth, it is worth considering “what religious traditions have offered about these questions and these issues and at least be open to considering them and then seek whether or not they have value”.
“If you were secular but closed to this possibility of looking at religious traditions, I don’t think that would be consistent with the nature of the human spirit and what it seeks. It wants to get to truth, goodness and love and will consider any and all resources that offer possibilities about how to answer those questions and those issues. That would include looking at religious resources.”
The conference featured five keynote speeches on topics as varied as Celtic spirituality and the story of the universe, and was the first in-person conference since the pandemic.
The feedback has been “consistently wonderful”, says Dr O’Sullivan, and there was a very “welcoming atmosphere”. Part of its success may have been down to the theme, he believes.
“It was about spirituality studies in an uncertain world and the whole atmosphere of uncertainty that Covid and the war in Ukraine and the issues about ecology and the future of the earth … It made people ask ‘where is our world going? Where are we going with all of this uncertainty?’ So it all contributed to a desire … to come together and look at these matters.”
Dr O’Sullivan says: “Spirituality is now a developing phenomenon across the world and many people are finding it to be a hospitable place for exploring the meaning of life and the purpose of life.
“You have more people now studying for degrees in this area. As I often say to my own students, there was a time when psychology and sociology did not exist as university disciplines and there were no people practising those professions, but now they are completely taken for granted and I believe that’s the way spirituality is going.”
He first identified spirituality as an academic discipline in 2008, but said the most striking development now is the rapidly growing phenomenon of “spirituality and …”
The growth in interest in spirituality among the professions has met a growth in academic research on how it relates to medicine, social work, nursing and education.
Healthcare, for example, cannot be confined to medical care, but must embrace the significance of the person. Teachers speak about the need to awaken awe and wonder in students — spiritual attributes facilitating learning.
There are lecturers in “spirituality and” at many UK universities, including Exeter, Staffordshire, City, University of London, Sheffield, Huddersfield, South Wales, York St John, and St Andrews.
In the academic study of the phenomenon of spirituality, Dr O’Sullivan suggests common features are emerging, identifying common human impulses such as a desire for authenticity; an orientation towards beauty, truth and goodness; and the way fidelity or infidelity lies at the heart of relationships, approach to texts and traditions.
He also points to challenges around critical thinking and the difficulty of being objective about an experience which is subjective. Always, research should be framed in ways that include everyone, whether within a religious tradition or not.
The conference took well over a year to plan, which means organisers must soon start considering the follow-up in 2025. Several destinations have been floated, including Malta, Finland and Britain.
Organisers of the conference, which was run in collaboration with the Spirituality Institute for Research and Education at the university, are confident that the interest in this field is only likely to increase.
