3 The Scope Of Religion:Some Contemporary Views

This chapter examines some basic issues concerning spirituality and the interchange with the religious behaviour of humanity. It explores current expressions of spirituality and the religious sense that falls outside approved religion. This focuses on the individuals emotional experience as an expression of a religious sense. The chapter also explores whether individual spirituality can be divorced from religion as expressed and experienced in communal settings. The discipline of religious studies has been busy for over a century researching all types of manifestations of this spiritual life. The study of religions has a strong tradition among many disciplines. One prominent and well-known example of contemporary spirituality is the New Age movement, of which many competent studies exist. The study of the communal nature of traditional religion, and its expression within culture, has provided much of interest.Keywords: contemporary spirituality; individual spirituality; New Age movement; traditional religion