ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on interviews with hundreds of people who self-identified as Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR) about what they believed and how they lived it out. These conversations focused on the “big questions” many humans ponder, including “Is there any transcendent power greater than myself?” “What does it mean to be human?” “Does community help or hinder spiritual growth?” and “Is there an afterlife?” These questions also translate into the issues of transcendence/immanence (God), theological anthropology, ecclesiology and eschatology. The interviewee responses analyzed in this research add surprising features to the information gathered by various social science surveys over the years. The answers from interviewees challenge the assumptions many have that typical American religious beliefs remain in some form. Also surprising, however, is the consistency in many of SBNR interviewee answers. Although it is risky to overgeneralize, we might be witnessing a new spiritual consensus on “the big questions.” Once such an analysis is performed, questions abound: Are we seeing the birth of a new American “religion”? If so, is it a religion of immanence? And how might such a religion dialogue with the rich theological and philosophical resources contained in the history of Christianity?
