A growing number of people today, including spiritual-but-not-religious individuals (SBNRs), find it difficult to hold explicit beliefs in claims with robust religious/spiritual import. Yet, this leaves open many possibilities for cognitive attitudes they might take toward such claims which could enable sincere and meaningful spiritual engagement. For example, they might hold implicit beliefs, beliefless credences, assumptions, pretences, or conditional attitudes toward such claims, thereby facilitating spiritual practices. Some previous research suggests that beliefless forms of spirituality may be significantly related to human flourishing, although this hypothesis has not been explored thoroughly. This project brings together an international, interdisciplinary team to investigate the many possibilities for such beliefless spiritual engagement and their importance for human flourishing.
Our key questions are: What are the unique possibilities for beliefless spirituality among SBNRs? How do different forms of beliefless spirituality relate to different dimensions of flourishing? How can different forms of beliefless spirituality be investigated via empirical study?
A team of 9 investigators and 4 advisors will undertake individual/joint and group research projects, facilitated by an in-person initial project workshop, a capstone conference, and bimonthly online meetings. Individual/joint research projects will focus on assessing specific forms of beliefless spirituality, while group research will focus on establishing guidelines and providing an illustrative example for how to conduct scientific study of beliefless spirituality. Intended outputs include 3 books, 17 journal articles or book chapters, 25-27 academic presentations, 28 team meetings, 2 book proposals, 1 grant application, 1 call for abstracts, and 5 media pitches. The project will systematize philosophical research on the topic while initiating an agenda for future scientific research.
