Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Based upon the analogous concept of emotional labor, this paper introduces the concept of “spiritual labor” as the organizational commodification, codification, and regulation of members’ spirituality.
Utilizing this construct of spiritual labor a qualitative study of parochial boarding schools illustrated how the spirituality of the faculty was marketed, as well as the nature of the formal/informal codification, and the official/unofficial regulation of that spirituality. How members cope with spiritual dissonance was also explored.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Based on data from ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, different uses of spiritual vocabulary uncover both the existence of a common and unifying linguistic ideology regarding spirituality as well as important places of contestation within that ideology. Acupuncture’s spiritual talk and the larger linguistic ideology of spirituality exist in part as a holistic critique of biomedical theory and biomedical practice/delivery. Spiritual vocabulary is used as a positive descriptor for aspects essential to health but not empirically or physically verifiable. However, some practitioners raised objections to the use of spiritual tags as a way of making unacceptable aspects of acupuncture seem more acceptable. This analysis of spirituality-focused ways of speaking reveals important cultural understandings of not only acupuncture, but also of health and health care more generally.

Publication Type: Presentation
Abstract: Judy Schavrien tells her own story as a case history. She was shot in the face and, through encounter in India with Kali, and through drawing on the archetype within of the dark laughing Goddess, moved from spiritual emergency to spiritual emergence. Stone Center and Kohutian theory track the shattering of self-structure and the reassembling into an expanded relational self.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In recent years, scholarship on American religion has described a fundamental transformation of American religious culture away from a focus on the authority of tradition, institutions, and community, toward a focus on the authority of the individual through consumer-oriented, individualistic, customized versions of religious faith, which I call the “great spiritual transformation” account. In this paper, I seek to review and empirically evaluate this emerging consensus about religious change in America. I examine the proportion of Americans who appear to embrace individualized, de- institutionalized religion. I discuss whether there is evidence of a growth in this type of religion over time, and I explore what kinds of people tend to be attracted to this type of faith. I argue that the evidence suggests that the “great spiritual transformation account” may need to be reexamined and that the transformation may not be as dramatic as it appears.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Prior research indicates that religion positively affects health, but this research consistently treats spirituality and religion as if they are one concept. The goal of this study is to separate the two and look at the effects of each on health. Using structural equation modeling, this study examines 837 respondents from the 1998 General Social Survey. The effects of strength of religiosity, religious beliefs, religious practices, and spirituality on health are compared. Findings reveal that spirituality positively affects health, while the effect of religious beliefs is negative. Race and age have positive effects; all other relationships are not significant. Findings from this study suggest that spirituality and religion are different concepts with different effects on health. While this study has its limitations, it fills a gap in prior research by disentangling spirituality from religion and comparing the effects of each on health.