Article: Spirituality & the Social: Some Reflections on the Basics, by Marc De Kesel

Central to this article’s discussion about the development of modern spirituality is the notion of “the social.” According to the article’s author, Marc De Kesel, a modern understanding of “social” emerged when the term “subject” became more identified with a human being than with the divine subiectum. Here is an excerpt from the opening paragraphs:

What then is ‘spirituality’? And why has it, despite its obvious connotation with religion and religiosity, a generally more appreciated place than religion? What grants spirituality, contrary to religion, such a positive fame within the social?

Instead of entering the question via a reflection on spirituality, this essay take a different, in some sense opposite direction and approaches spirituality via the problem of ‘the social’. What happened to the social that it reacts positively with respect to spirituality, but rather negatively with regard to religion? What happened to the social that made it so difficult for traditional religion to find its place in it, while spirituality seems to feel more at home there?

De Kesel, Marc. “Spirituality & the Social: Some Reflections on the Basics,” in Transforming Spirituality. Proceedings of the International Conference held at Soeterbeeck (the Netherlands) 6 and 7 May 2016, Studies in Spirituality 28 (2018): 65-81.