Spirituality A Very Short Introduction by Philip Sheldrake
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Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction
(The Oxford Very Short Introductions Series)
by Philip Sheldrake
Uploaded byAlejandro Rivas Alva
Date uploaded
on Oct 09, 2020
Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction
(The Oxford Very Short Introductions Series)
by Philip Sheldrake
3.46 · Rating details · 89 ratings · 14 reviews
It is a striking aspect of contemporary western culture that, alongside a decline in traditional religious affiliations, there has been a growing interest in spirituality and the use of the word in a variety of contexts. Indeed, spirituality is sometimes contrasted favorably with religion, which many people see (for good or ill) as an off-putting amalgam of dogma, moralism, institutions, buildings, and hierarchies. This Very Short Introduction, written by one of the most eminent scholars and writers on spirituality, explores the historical foundations of spirituality and considers how it came to have the significance it has today. The notion of spirituality, Philip Sheldrake notes, expresses the fact that many people are driven by goals that concern more than material satisfaction. Broadly, it refers to the deepest values and sense of meaning by which people seek to live. Sometimes these values are conventionally religious. Sometimes they are associated with what is understood as "the sacred" in a broader sense--that is, of ultimate rather than merely instrumental importance. Looking at spirituality in religion, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology, Sheldrake sheds light on the concept of the spiritual "experience" and considers the impact and transformation it can have on individuals and on society. (less)
Paperback, 152 pages
Published December 14th 2012 by Oxford University Press, USA (first published November 29th 2012)
Apr 07, 2013Paul Bryant rated it did not like it
Shelves: godreads
Philip Dryasdust Sheldrake writes like a person drives if there’s a live bomb perching on the bonnet of their car or if they don’t want to wake granny who’s just nodded off in the back seat. We could call Philip Sheldrake “Dr Tedium” except that having a cool nickname would be far too exciting. He would have to take the day off to stare at a small crack in the corner of his garden shed to help him calm down. No, I didn’t care for this book. It was so dull I had to keep jabbing myself with an apple corer to stay awake. This was happening three times per page. He repeats things. It’s like he’s in a trance. He has absolutely no sense of humour. He has his spiritual categories – the ascetical type, the mystical type, the active-practical type and the prophetic-critical type (guess which one I am – yeah, critical, that’s right) and he cycles through the three monotheistic religions then Buddhism then Hinduism then secularism and then cycles again through these various diffuse aspects of life – spirituality as experience, spirituality as a way of life, spirituality in society, spirituality in 1950s doo wop – no, not really, that would be too interesting – and it’s like eating flavourless candyfloss. I always pick up these Very Short Introductions in the hope I might learn something, like you do, otherwise what are they for, but in this case I know less than I did when I began it. Philip Sheldrake’s favourite breakfast : reduced-sugar Alpen and one boiled egg with the yolk removed and no salt. (less)
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Feb 22, 2013Bojan Tunguz rated it liked it
Spirituality is one of those things that everyone has some idea of what it is but it’s prohibitively hard to define. Leading a spiritually fulfilling life is arguably one of the overarching goals for most people, whether they acknowledge or accept it as such or not. In recent years there has been a trend, particularly in the west, for the term spiritual to designate people who have abandoned most affiliation with organized religion, yet don’t consider themselves to be strictly speaking “atheists.” On the other hand there is a trend even among the atheists for a more systematic approach to the transcendental questions and aspirations in life that don’t fall under the officially recognized secular practices.
This short introduction aims to explain spirituality and introduce the reader to various spiritual practices. It is an interesting overview of many different “spiritualties,” from those that derive from organized religions to those that seem much more contemporary and at first divorced from any spiritual concepts.
Even though this book is a nice introductory overview, it leaves a lot to be desired. For one, after reading it I don’t understand any better what spirituality as such is than before. It leaves me feeling that spirituality is a very vague notion to begin with, and almost infinitely malleable. A few attempts to systematize variety of spiritual approaches leave some of the most prominent aspects out – ritual observance, prayer, and theological study. Granted, some of these are mentioned in the book, but more as an afterthought and in passing. Furthermore, the author subtly and not-too-subtly characterizes various spiritual practices with value judgment that are obviously tainted by his own intellectual and moral persuasions – those of a post-modern European academic intellectual, with all of the secular pieties that this entails. From this perspective spirituality seems like little more than a way of imbuing the prevailing western liberal ideology with some deeper transcendental meaning.
If you want just a basic overview of some main spiritual approaches that are relevant today, then this book has some value. However, it’s neither a very critical nor probing look at the subject of spirituality.
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Mar 20, 2022Nicole rated it really liked it · review of another edition
“Spirituality” sometimes appears to me as an utterly vague term or concept. Something that can happen to bother me because I see myself as a thoroughly spiritual person; someone who appreciates and explores the deeper meaning of existence since more than 20 years. Mr. Sheldrake’s introduction has helped me well to get a better grip on the complexity but also “simpleness” of what the idea of spirituality represents.
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Mar 13, 2021Nei rated it it was ok
Shelves: very-short-introductions, religion-and-philosophy
My rating is based on my personal enjoyment of the book, not the quality of its contents. I can't really comment on the quality of its contents because although it felt like a well-structured, well-written book, it was so dull I struggled for ages to get through it. I feel like I learned nothing. Most likely my failing but that's my experience and my reason for the rating (which probably still reflects more enjoyment than it actually gave me). Disappointing, as I was particularly looking forward to this one. (less)
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May 29, 2013Daniel Wright rated it it was ok
Shelves: vsi, religion, general-religion
Interesting and wide-ranging, but too broad to be particularly deep or detailed. It seems to me that this subject is best engaged with from the inside and directly than in so dry and academic a style.
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Dec 02, 2021Bill Johnston rated it really liked it
Shelves: religion-philosophy, non-fiction
There are a lot of ways in which these book succeeds, and a few in which it fails.
First, it does a very good job of explaining forms of religious spirituality, especially historical religious spirituality. Along the way Sheldrake shows a deep understanding of various religions. He does not fall into the usual strawman descriptions of religions that a lot of books on religion do.
His one religious limitation is in Buddhism. He only wants to consider non-theistic Buddhism such as Theravada and the non-theistic forms of Zen. He ignores the theistic, and even devotional, forms in Mahayama Buddhism such as the Pure Land sect.
My other concern, which seems to be shared by some of the other reviews, is that even after finishing the book I don't know what non-religious spirituality is. I can see what practices it causes, but I don't understand the beliefs underpinning it or the spiritual linkage between those beliefs and practices any better than when I started. His best attempt at explaining this is at the start of the last chapter, but it peters out and he reverts to explaining interreligious spirituality before he gives us enough of the basis of non-religious spirituality to know what's going on.
I will re-read this book sometime, and perhaps get more out of it. But first I will read other books on the subject. I want to understand spiritual-but-not-religious people better than (apparently) Sheldrake does. (less)
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Jun 04, 2018Daniel Coburn rated it liked it
Shelves: spirituality, spiritual-therapy
This is a broad introduction to spirituality. The author examines religious, esoteric, and secular spiritualities, and provides a typology of four distinct forms (ascetical, mystical, practical-active, and prophetic-critical) that he uses throughout the book. There's also some useful material of what spirituality is, given the difficulties involved in defining it, and how spirituality relates to organized religion. (less)
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Sep 19, 2017Gregory Strong rated it liked it
Covering a wide range of perspectives about spirituality (from those rooted in religious tradition to the more idiosyncratic and eclectic), Philip Sheldrake clearly and helpfully surveys key ideas, movements, practices, and issues regarding spirituality; and he does so in a very economical book (one among many "very short introductions" published by Oxford University Press). (less)
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Dec 13, 2020Taylor Swift Scholar rated it liked it
I'm not sure I learned much new from this book, but it does a good job cataloging different approaches to spirituality across different religions and secular practices. Sheldrake also critiques the full separation of "religion" and "spirituality." (less)
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Jan 10, 2017Tracey Hewett rated it really liked it
Picked this up at train station. I found it a concise overview of what spirituality is for the Big 5 and in contemporary society. It has provided a good grounding for further reading
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Jun 09, 2013Roberta Morris added it
This little book is packed with insight, historical information, and a terrific basis for interfaith dialogues, so I'm using it as the recommended text for my Belief Systems course at the Art Institute this summer.
Thanks, Philip Sheldrake. You've made a huge contribution to dialogue on spirituality. ...more
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Mar 29, 2013Blair Hodges rated it really liked it
The author has clearly spent much time dialoging with people of different faith traditions (primarily Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism), as this book respectfully engages in their differences and similarities when it comes to the idea of spirituality.
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Jan 03, 2016Marilyn May added it
Covers many different spiritualties, very thorough.
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Sep 15, 2015Robin Schoehuijs rated it really liked it
Difficult book to read if you are allergic to religion like me. But it does give a reasonable idea of what spirituality, even outside of religion, is
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Top reviews from the United States
Julia Stoddard
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, clearly written, exploration of a tough topic
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2020
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Read and reread it to absorb the points. The more I looked at it the more I saw the work that went into this. To me, it's a tough topic and I found the writing to be thoughtful, clear, and interesting.
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Hattan
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2019
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As a person who knows nothing about this subject, this book has offered me great insights and grounds for further research
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Roberta Morris
5.0 out of 5 stars Completely refreshing look at ancient beliefs
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2013
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Oxford is to be congratulated, as well as Philip Sheldrake, for even trying to put together such a vast topic in a mere 140 pages, but Sheldrake alone deserves credit doing it so well. This gives a great overview, and also offers deep insight into ancient traditions and the challenges facing people and people's faith in the 21st century.
Thanks so much. I will be using it as a textbook for a World's Religions course I teach.
Roberta Morris, M.Div, PhD
[...]
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R. Adams
5.0 out of 5 stars A great, short overview of the move toward spirituality and ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2014
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A great, short overview of the move toward spirituality and away from organized religion that many religions and cultures are experiencing.
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David Tonghou
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2018
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Excellent
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Eclectic Hermit
5.0 out of 5 stars Right on!
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2015
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I enjoy this book immensely. It is concise and to the point.
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Yanis
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2013
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I think this short introduction provides one with a very comprehensive view of spirituality. This work sets spirituality in perspective and invites one to a more deeper engagement.
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Keith L. Collins
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2016
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Excellent
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J. Mann
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent demonstration of the diversity of spirituality
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2012
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This book shows how vibrant and diverse spirituality is in the twenty-first century.
While organised religion may be on the decline, spirituality is very much in the ascendant, although it isn't really fair to make such a direct contrast between the two as this book explains.
To use a Malcolm X example, there are the "house believers" and the "field believers" - the house believers are those in the establishment who want to hang on to their own wealth and privilege, and who support reactionary and backward looking values. But the field believers are the vast majority who have a lot more creativity, imagination and basic ethics - look at how damaging and basically evil is the Catholic church teaching on contraception, but look at how many (Western) Catholics take any notice of it. So there are plenty of "good" believers who want nothing to do with the anti-women, homophobic, anti-science talk of fundamentalists.
Yet spirituality isn't just to do with religion - there are plenty of those outside organised religion who find they thrive and grow through having a spiritual dimension to their lives. This book looks at all the different aspects of spirituality - secular, prophetic/political, ascetic, mystical - it is astonishing all the area of life it affects - sport, diet, food, exercise, architecture, art, literature, music, poetry, science it seems like the list is endless.
The way I would characterise it is to see the spiritual as somehow accessing something beyond the immediate here and now. So science looks at the objective and the general, art looks at the subjective and particular, but through engaging with either or both of these we can glimpse the spiritual which is beyond both. This isn't to characterise the spiritual as the supernatural, but rather that which gives us meaning, purpose, value and identity. Looking up in awe at the stars or studying the amazing world of nature, or engaging with a painting, a film or a play are all ways we get glimpses of the spiritual.
In any training or exercise - diet, physical training, training for sport etc - we give ourselves identity and purpose that link through to the ascetic notion of training and controlling ourselves.
This is why - as the book explains - academic studies in spirituality aren't just linked to religion, but increasingly are spirituality and health, spirituality and architecture, spirituality and education, spirituality and psychology, spirituality and design, spirituality and business and so on. It affects so many aspects of our lives that getting a sense of what is out there - through reading this book - will be especially valuable whatever your background, hobbies or interests.
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Raza Chaudhry
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2019
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Nice introductory book on the topic of spirituality.
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Jen
4.0 out of 5 stars I would recommend this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2015
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A short and concise overview on Spirituality. I would recommend this book, especially for those who are studying theology.
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Anne
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 6, 2014
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helpful summary
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Geoff Crocker
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, readable, informative, interesting, and relevant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2014
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This is an excellent introduction to, and call for, spirituality. Our consumer society and reductionist philosophy have left us with a materialist rationalist physical world with no account of our metaphysical being, whether intellectual, emotional, or spiritual.
Philip Sheldrake presents overviews of religious and secular spirituality, offering a useful typology of ascetic, mystical, activist and prophetic spirituality. We are more spiritually aware in childhood, than we are later in life (p61). Spirituality is holistic, transformative, meaningful, coherent, heuristic, creative, individual and communal. It examines self, develops self, but transcends self. It invokes the sacred. It is a discipline. It gives us identity. Its hallmark is virtue.
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https://youtu.be/cAx_eE1SpNQ
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Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction | Philip Sheldrake
Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press)
https://youtu.be/cAx_eE1SpNQ
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3:51
Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction | Philip Sheldrake
Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press)
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