Duyurular

Although spirituality is described through spirit/spiritualism, popular meanings of spirituality are shaped by contemporary forms of the New Age movement named after an astrological prophecy. Thus, spirituality includes beliefs and practices such as astrology, fortune telling, yoga, reiki, natural stones, holistic healing, telekinesis, telepathy, channeling, family syntax, meditation, among others. Even though its origins and sources go back further, one can argue that this appearance of spirituality formed itself in the context of New Age around the 1960s. Its persistence is enabled by its ability to “reenchant” today's world, where reason and rationality prevail, and “all that is solid melts into air”.

Through their claims to fix the psyche and life, popular forms of spirituality are positioned within the therapeutic culture and industry of happiness. Thus, spirituality easily embedded itself in guides such as self-help books and seminars, and it has also been indirectly or directly utilized in the discourses by ordinary people and experts/influencers/gurus in television daytime programs or in various forms of social media. In addition to the forms discussed in Western-based academic literature, diversified and hybrid forms such as life coaches, prayer specialists, nur therapists, angel energy specialists, prayer and esma rituals frequently appear in Turkey. Even if judged as unscientific or irrational, as their continuity and persistence indicate, these forms and figures correspond to a social need, making a critical, more in-depth, closer understanding effort beyond judgment valuable and urgent.

The evolving international academic literature on spirituality has determined the outlines of a critical approach to the field: the commodification of spirituality, the erosion of collectivity through neoliberal individualism pumped by spirituality, the cultural appropriation of the countries colonized by the developed countries, the reproduction of the existing gender regimes, and the claims that spirituality is only possible for the privileged classes. On the other hand, as is the case with every aspect of popular culture, discussing whether spirituality bears the potential of resistance is significant. Therefore, analyzing different forms of power in everyday life and exploring what spirituality/spiritual practices mean for different social groups are believed to contribute to developing an in-depth approach.

Another conceptual and historical discussion on spirituality is based on various perspectives where spirituality is considered an alternative or a companion to religion and religiosity and is determined whether there is a religious-like sacralization of everyday life in contemporary forms of spirituality. Therefore, the discussion on the relationship between spirituality, religion, and/or sacredness can be enriched through further reflections and research in the fields such as the sociology of religion, philosophy, and anthropology.

For the Spirituality issue of Moment Journal, we look forward to receiving theoretical articles that aim to contribute to the existing discussions based on the international literature, methodological approaches and insights required to examine a phenomenon that belongs to both the private and public spheres, i.e., spirituality, and researches that seek to provide a critical understanding of the new or neglected original forms and conceptual relationships of spirituality in the academic field through specific cases. Although spirituality is a subject of various disciplines such as theology and philosophy, as a cultural studies journal, we limit our perspective to a sociocultural framework that prioritizes an interdisciplinary approach and aim to make significant contributions to the spirituality literature in Turkey.

We welcome papers that include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• definition of spirituality
• spirituality and methodology
• spirituality and popular culture
• spirituality and media-social media
• spirituality and personal development, industry of happiness
• spirituality, pseudoscience and conspiracy theories
• spirituality and gender
• spirituality and communities, online communities
• spirituality and cults
• spirituality and everyday experiences
• spirituality and faith/lessness, religion/religiousness, non-religiousness
• class manifestations and meanings of spirituality
• spirituality and capitalism
• spirituality and visual culture
• spirituality and body
• spirituality and health
• occultism, esotericism and politics, ideology(ies)

We expect full paper submissions to https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2305/submission/step/manuscript/new by September 15, 2023, Friday at 23.59. Unfortunately, we will not accept any papers outside the theme.

Theme Editors:
Gökçe Baydar Çavdar & Gülay Acar Göktepe