Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates how Jerzy Grotowski’s theatre work provides a relevant practice and place for a non-reductive religious embodiment. It explores the general features of the New Age and a materialist embodiment. Interdisciplinary theologian Andrew Hass asserts that religion can best be defined in relation to its other areas of research and scholarship, at the intersection of religion and cultural studies. In order to emphasize the centrality of the body and religious thinking and how this will help to re-read religion and Grotowski, the book briefly explores the work of cultural theologian Thomas Beaudoin. There are obvious difficulties in defining the terms spiritual, theological and religious, and the field of religious studies has certainly tried to document this since its historical formation. The term spiritual needs to be clarified in its use as a reference to work of Grotowski, as identified by theatre scholars.