Reflexive Spirituality and Metanoia in High Modernity

Abstract

This paper explores a significant recent departure in the sociology of religion, the theory of 'reflexive spirituality'. This notion addresses problems of meaninglessness arising from the domination of rationality in modern society, where overarching systems of belief are fractured and fundamental trust and a sense of ontological security are threatened. Reflexive spirituality is a suggestive and fertile conception that suggests many avenues of analysis into contemporary spirituality. However, it also has weaknesses, which this paper addresses, principally by introducing the notion of metanoia and emphasizing the crucial role that it has to play in spiritual experience and the implications this has for the expert-systems within which religion and spirituality are increasingly appropriated in high modernity.