The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in Spirituality and Contemplative Studies provides the first authoritative overview of methodology in this growing field. Against the background of the pandemic and other global challenges, spirituality is expanding as an agreed term with which to discuss the efforts people make to be fully present to deeper, invisible dimensions of their personal identity and external reality, but until now there have been few resources exploring the different methodological approaches researchers take.
This book explores the primary methodologies emerging: First Person, Second Person, and Third Person, and provides a systematisation of spirituality research in applied contexts for the first time. Comprising 33 chapters by a team of international contributors, the book is divided into 7 parts:
- Foundations
- Approaches to Contemplative Research
- Contemplative Research in Education
- Contemplative Research in Work and Leadership
- Contemplative Research in Science, Health, and Healing
- Contemplative Research in Social Sciences
- Contemplative Research and the Way Forward
The Handbook provides readers, practitioners, and policy makers with methods and approaches which can facilitate a spiritual and contemplative stance in research activities. It is an essential resource for researchers and students of Religion, Spirituality, and Research Methods.
This Handbook provides readers, practitioners, and policy makers methods and approaches which can facilitate a spiritual and contemplative stance in research activities, and is an essential resource for researchers and students of Religion, Spirituality, and Research Methods.
List of Contributors Preface Jane Dalton Acknowledgements Part 1:
Foundations
1. The Research Revolution: Emerging Discourses in Spirituality
Studies Bernadette Flanagan
2. Discovering Spirituality through Critical
Reflection and Autoethnography Cheryl Hunt
3. Spiritual Autobiography as a
Prelude to Contemplative Research Inquiry Noelia Molina Part 2: Approaches to
Contemplative Research
4. Heuristic Inquiry as Contemplative Practice Nevine
Sultan
5. Organic Inquiry as a Contemplative Method Larisa Bardsley
6.
Embodied Spiritual Inquiry: A Participatory Research Method for Spiritual and
Contemplative Studies Olga R. Sohmer and Jorge Noguera Ferrer
7.
Contemplative Science: Expanding the Scope of Empiricism to Increase the
Convergence of Evidence Nicholas J. Matiasz and B. Alan Wallace
8. Critical
Hermeneutical Inquiry: Participatory Spirituality, Buddhist Modernism, and
Secularized Buddhism in North America Sabine Grunwald
9. Experimental
Phenomenology in Research on Spirituality Lars-Gunnar Lundh
10. The
Contribution of Felt Sensing and Focusing to Contemplative Research Greg
Walkerden
11. From Frustration to Freedom: A Spiritual Diary as Inspiration
for Diary Research Christopher Staab Part 3: Contemplative Research in
Education
12. Contemplative Inquiry as Research and Pedagogic Method Heesoon
Bai, Heather Williams, Renata Cueto de Souza, Allen Yee, Charles Scott and
Avraham Cohen
13. Contemplative Research as Arational Inquiry in an
Irrational World Barbara Bickel
14. Narrative and the Paradoxical Ethos of
Contemplative Inquiry Giovanni Rossini
15. Cooperative Inquiry: An
Experiential and Participatory Research Method in Spirituality and
Contemplative Studies Olga R. Sohmer
16. Spiritual Quilting: How
Contemplative Practices Can Deepen and Humanise Understanding(s) of Global
Citizenship Education Maureen Hall and Mary Ellen Lynch Part 4: Contemplative
Research in Work and Leadership
17. Action Research in the Christian
Spirituality of Action David Coghlan
18. Turning Within: The Spirit of
Contemplative Research Elmor Van Staden Part 5: Contemplative Research in
Science, Health and Healing
19. Bringing Compassion to Research:
Contemplative Perspectives Natasha Huang
20. Compassion-Informed Inquiry and
the Transformative Power of Compassion in Research Aizaiah G. Yong
21.
Delving into Deeper Consciousness in Person-Centred Practice and Research:
The Value of Non-dual Self-Inquiry Maria Kefalogianni and George Fragakis
22.
Body, Spirit, and Wonder in the Research Journey with Women in Recovery from
Eating Disorders Tara Travers
23. Power and Privilege in the Study of
Near-Death Experiences Natasha Tassell-Matamua Part 6: Contemplative Research
in Social Sciences
24. Transformative Phenomenology Valerie Malhotra Bentz
and James Marlatt
25. Contemplation in Ethnographic Fieldwork Deborah C.
Breede
26. Contemplative Methodologies and Methods in Sociology and Social
Research Vincenzo M.B. Giorgino
27. Advances in Contemplative Social
Research. Inspirations from Phenomenology, Hatha Yoga, and Meditation
Practice Krzysztof T. Konecki Part 7: Contemplative Research and the Way
Forward
28. Mictlįn and Xibalbį: Our Shared Home: Indigenous Contemplative
Sciences through Rituals of Remembrance Yuria Celidwen
29. Spiritual
Exchange: A Methodology of Relationality Vicki Bouvier and Jennifer MacDonald
30. The Impact of Contemplative Studies on Research Paradigms Louis Komjathy
31. Contemplative Practices and Artificial Intelligence Systems:
Consciousness, Ethics, and Bias Daniel Barbezat
32. Taking the Design Stance
towards Spiritual Cognition John Vervaeke
33. Towards a Convergence of
Contemplative and Scientific Methods for Social Sciences and Public Policy
Naresh Singh and Sudip Patra Index
Bernadette Flanagan leads the research group Spirituality in Society and the Professions (SpirSoP) at South East Technological University, Waterford Campus, Ireland. Her research covers such themes as indigeneity (Celtic), engaged spiritual practices, inner development goals for SDGs, and pilgrimage.
Kerri Clough is an Honorary Research Fellow and member of the Spirituality in Society and the Professions (SpirSoP) research group at South East Technological University, Waterford Campus, Ireland. She has researched across areas of public health, ageing, human health, well-being, and spirituality.
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