Interior Disciplines and a Revitalized Phenomenology of Religion

In an essay slated for publication in a journal devoted to the study of spirituality, it seems particularly important to note that Robert Orsi does not pursue his work under that rubric. Orsi positions himself within religious studies and critiques what he views as religious studies' historical emphasis on "good" or "true" religion. "It is the challenge of the discipline of religious studies not to stop at the border of human practices done in the name of the gods that we scholars find disturbing, dangerous, or even morally repugnant, but rather to enter into the otherness of religious practices in search of an understanding of their human ground" (191). While religious studies, according to Orsi, should embrace the study of religion in all its forms, Orsi understands "spirituality" as "a term crafted in this culture to designate the opposite of 'bad religion'" and, thus, constructed in order to exclude (187). While I would agree that this is the obvious cultural meaning of "I'm spiritual but not religious," this is not necessarily the self-evident meaning of the term as employed by self-identified scholars of spirituality. Among such scholars, there is a widespread consensus that spirituality should be defined in relation to "lived experience." Generic definitions specify this experience in relation to a "religious ideal" (Principe) or to the "spiritual life" (Schneiders). Christian definitions typically specify the object of study as, for example, "lived Christian faith" (Schneiders) or "the lived experience of life in the Spirit" (Principe) or "the lived experience of Christian belief" (McGinn).¹

The need to specify "lived experience" in relation to religious ideals or theological concepts, rather than (say) in relation to "culturally postulated superhuman beings" following Melford Spiro, does suggest that Orsi is right to claim that "spirituality" today has tacitly carried the burden of good or true religion. A paper entitled the "spirituality of Timothy McVeigh" sounds incongruous, whereas a paper on the "religion of Timothy McVeigh" is quite conceivable. Orsi offers an important critique of "spirituality" and one that proponents of a distinct discipline of spirituality studies might want to ponder. In so far as scholars of spirituality want to limit the study of spirituality to the positive, true, or good, it is more appropriately situated, in my view, within the theological disciplines rather than religious studies. In so far as proponents want to include the good, the bad, and the ugly, I don't see why "religion" or "lived religion" isn't adequate.

Despite Orsi's legitimate difficulties with the term "spirituality," he nonetheless makes two moves that some might associate with the study of spirituality: (1) he blurs the boundaries between the scholar and his/her subjects, advocating the adoption of a scholarly stance "located at the intersection of self and other" (198) and (2) he attempts to engage with the practices he is studying. Both moves can be understood, I will argue, as extensions and refinements of the traditional goal of the phenomenologist of religion, that is, to re-present as fully as possible the experience of another. Both can also be understood as involving interior disciplines that are analogous in some ways to spiritual disciplines. Finally, Orsi positions the approach he advocates as a "third way," that is, as an alternative to theological reflection, on the one hand, and secular explanation, on the other, suggesting in doing so that the approaches are mutually exclusive. I will argue that if we consider these as postures or roles, we can cultivate the ability to move between them as best suits our aims in particular situations.

The "third way" that Orsi advocates is discussed in his infamous "Snakes Alive" essay, chapter six in the book, and his experiment in entering into the devotion to St. Jude in chapter five. Although he does not relate them explicitly in terms of an overall methodology, I think that his experiment in entering into the devotion to St. Jude...