ABSTRACT
As a classic social institution, religion has been of interest to sociology since its origins, but as religion gives way to spirituality, part of what Charles Taylor called “the massive subjective turn of modern culture,” sociology has sought to describe and explain that social change. Though sociology has characterized spirituality and differentiated it from religion, it has struggled to define spirituality, especially considering its presence both within and outside religious traditions. Nevertheless, the turn from religion to spirituality is well documented and frequently attributed to the post-modern turn of Western culture. As they assess its magnitude, meaning, and consequences, some Christian perspectives of cultural change view the turn as regressive, others as progressive, but the resurgent Christian spirituality of the past few decades is more a re-discovery of classic Christian spiritual texts, practices, and lifestyles than a new vision and experience of Christian spirituality. Though the multiple branches and traditions of Christian faith each perceive and promote their own understandings of spirituality, in essence, Christian spirituality is the transformed self in a relationship of desire for the holy, Wholly Other, and is ultimately built on the negative theology of Christian mysticism.
