ABSTRACT
The possible transition, referred to in Chapter 6, ‘from spiritual appreciations … to the recognition of the “sacred” in our understanding of the world’ is far from easy, although appreciation of how others may hold to such a vision and may experience such a feeling of sacredness could no doubt be developed through skilful teaching, dialogue and exposure to the experiences and way of life enjoyed by the adherents of a religious tradition. Indeed, as will be explained further in Chapter10, what Ninian Smart influentially argued for within the phenomenological tradition was an ‘attitude of informed empathy’ which ‘tries to bring out what religion means to religious actors’ (quoted in Gearon, 2014, p.107).
