Being Spiritual but Not Religious

William B. Parsons is Professor of Religion at Rice University. His publications include The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling (1999), Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (2001), Teaching Mysticism (2010), Mourning Religion (2008), Freud and Augustine in Dialogue: Psychoanalysis, Mysticism, and the Culture of Modern Spirituality (2013), and dozens of articles in multiple journals and edited books. He has served as Chair of the Department of Religion and Director of the Humanities Research Center at Rice University, Editor (the psychology of religion section) with Religious Studies Review, and has been a Fellow at the Martin Marty Center of the University of Chicago and at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at Hebrew University.

• Introduction: Framing the Volume, William B. Parsons Part One: Roots 1 Spiritual but Not Religious: A Brief Introduction, Robert C. Fuller and William B. Parsons 2 The Triumph of the Therapeutic and Being SBNR, Sean Fitzpatrick and William B. Parsons 3 "Is God Dead?" Christian Atheism and the Rise of the SBNR Sensibility, Leigh E. Schmidt 4 Buddhist Fulfillment of a Protestant Dream: Mindfulness as Scientific Spirituality, Matthew S. Hedstrom 5 Plurals, Hybrids and Nomads: Spirituality and Religious Practice at the Intersections, Joy R. Bostic Part Two: Circumscriptions 6 Minds of Their Own: Psychological Substrates of the SBNR Sensibility, Robert C. Fuller 7 Belief without Borders: Examining Anew the Minds of the Spiritual but Not Religious, Linda Mercadante 8 Consuming Spirituality: SBNR and Neoliberal Logic in Queer Communities, Melissa M. Wilcox 9 Yogi Superman, Master Capitalist: Bikram Choudhury and the Religion of Commercial Spirituality, Andrea R. Jain 10 Global Spirituality Among Scientists, Elaine Howard Ecklund and Di Di Part Three: Future(s) 11 Rogue Mystics: The Ecology of Cosmic Consciousness, Jason James Kelly 12 Toward a Metamodern Reading of Spiritual but Not Religious Mysticisms, Linda Ceriello 13 Transpersonal Psychology and the Spiritual but Not Religious Movement: Beyond Spiritual Narcissism in a Postsecular Age, Jorge N. Ferrer and William Z. Vickery 14 Being Spiritual but Not Hierarchical, Chad J. Pevateaux 15 "Comparison Gets You Nowhere!" The Comparative Study of Religion and the Spiritual but Not Religious, Jeffrey J. Kripal

"This book makes a substantial contribution to the complexities and particularities of the penumbras of religion that are only apparently new. SBNR is here to stay as long as some define themselves or others in opposition to “religion.” That this is a major phenomenon of western culture does not mean that it is universal nor that its significance is thereby diminished. We definitely need more nuanced studies of SBNR, for which this collection of essays is a provocative prolegomenon."- Ralph W. Hood Jr., University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Nova Religio 23