Celebrating ten years of the Journal for the Study of Spirituality

The British Association for the Study of Spirituality (BASS) was launched in January 2010 in the splendid surroundings of the Charterhouse in London, a building that ‘has been living the nation’s history since 1348’.¹ The launch may have been a very small step in that history but, as Bailey (2011, 10–12) records, for the ‘small ad hoc group of volunteers’ who, for more than two years, ‘with no designated funding and no permanent meeting place’ had been exploring ‘what might be possible in terms of creating a network of academics, scholars and practitioners interested in the study of spirituality’, it represented a giant ‘leap of faith’. A decade later, it gives me great pleasure, as one of those original volunteers, to see the energy of that leap continuing to flow through the work of BASS and this journal.

The volunteer group had come together in the hope of forging links between various professional and disciplinary ‘silos’ in which separate discussions and studies of spirituality were taking place, but rarely engaging with each other. One of our key aspirations for BASS was to: ‘Encourage and facilitate scholarship and research in spirituality through the development of a journal, joint collaborative research projects, and a biennial conference’.

In June of this year, 2020, the tenth anniversary of the Journal for the Study of Spirituality (JSS) will coincide with the Sixth International BASS Conference in York.² The conference title, ‘Spirituality in Research, Professional Practice and Education’, reflects the three primary interests that have guided the development of both BASS and JSS.

This anniversary issue of JSS is intended as a celebration of the 10-year journey from Charterhouse to York, and the milestones that have been passed along the way. In the lead article, John Swinton revisits and further develops the substance of the inaugural address he gave at Charterhouse. He notes that the launch of BASS was the product of ‘multiple minds, much passion and many invaluable gifts of time’. So, too, is this journal. It would not exist without the work of its contributors, editorial board, guest reviewers, and production teams, past and present. It is my privilege to have worked alongside them all.

There have been times over the past decade when the future of JSS has looked bleak. Indeed, it almost did not come into being at all. The original proposal for a yet-to-be-named journal which would focus on the study of spirituality was written in 2008. It was subsequently rejected by several publishers on the grounds of financial viability and the nature of the field. Feedback included:

• ‘cross- or inter-disciplinary appeal does not tend to lend itself to widespread adoption by the library market.’

• ‘It’s certainly an enormous area of popular culture, but personally I’d have my doubts about its richness as a field of rigorous academic study (that is, apart from being an object of study and criticism in fields and journals that are already well represented).’

• ‘ … I tend to feel that the occasional paper is all that the market would take at the moment.’

By the time of the BASS launch, discussions with a small independent publisher were looking positive – until the publisher was unexpectedly taken over by a company with different interests, and plans for the journal were scrapped. It owes its existence to Janet Joyce at Equinox Publishing who made a rapid decision not only to publish the journal but to announce it and issue an initial call for papers at the first BASS conference in May 2010. The journal’s title (so simple yet arrived at only after much debate); the cover (representing the colour of water and its life-sustaining properties); and the logo (what does it evoke for you?) were all determined at that point. An international editorial board was also established, comprising 25 well-known researchers and scholars in the field who had agreed to be named in the original proposal (more than half of whom continue to serve as members of the current board). Issue 1.1. was published in 2011. And the rest, as they say, is history, albeit a somewhat chequered one. Because of mergers and take-overs, Taylor & Francis is the fourth company to publish the journal and each transition has inevitably involved disruptive changes in personnel, production systems and page layout.

Almost 130 peer-reviewed articles have now been published in JSS, including more than 20 in the Forum section. Introduced in volume 2, this invites the submission of forms of writing other than a full-length academic journal article which raise new issues and questions relating to spirituality and/or outline plans and ideas for new research. Over 80 books have also been reviewed.

In issue 1.1, all the articles were from the UK. Issue 1.2 included articles from Canada and Sweden. The international reach of the journal has continued to expand with published contributions from: Argentina; Australia; Canada, including francophone Canada; Denmark; France; Germany; India; Ireland; Italy; Malaysia; Malta; the Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; and the U.S.A. Approximately 55% of the articles published to date have come from the UK, with more than 10% from Canada and Australia, respectively, and the U.S.A. close behind. Since 2017, the proportion of international articles to those from the UK has shown a marked increase.

Our hope that the journal, like BASS conferences, would not only become international but also a space where studies of spirituality might be brought together regardless of disciplinary or professional boundaries has clearly been realised. Within the pages of JSS, spirituality has been considered in relation to art; autism; compassion; dementia; ecology; endurance running; the European Union; forgiveness and reconciliation; funerals; happiness; mathematics; music; the natural environment; near-death experiences; organisations; pilgrimage; politics; retreats; ritual practices; and science. It has been examined in the professional contexts of chaplaincy; creative therapies; education; leadership; medicine; mental health; nursing and midwifery; palliative care; several professions allied to medicine; social work; spiritual direction; and voluntary work. Consideration has also been given to spirituality in the specific contexts of atheism and the ‘New Atheists’; the work of the Brahma Kumaris; Celtic traditions; indigenous communities; the Salvation Army; the Shaker movement; and Sufism.

Genealogies of the term ‘spirituality’ have been traced and conceptual confusions addressed, including links between spirituality and consciousness; existentialism; paranormal and exceptional human experiences; religion and new religious movements; secularism; silence; and wisdom. Questions have been raised about how spirituality is experienced by different age-groups; by those dealing with bereavement or serious illness; and by those for whom their social context makes the expression of personal feelings and beliefs difficult. Spirituality in the lives of historical figures such as Bede Griffiths, Thomas Merton and Evelyn Underhill has been discussed.

Contributions to the journal have come from established scholars; new researchers; doctoral students; and practitioners working with spirituality in different ways and contexts. Articles have included findings from large-scale surveys, small phenomenological studies, comparative studies, case studies, and historical research; some have presented new models. Various styles of writing have been represented, including autoethnographic, critically reflective, and narrative.

It is an eclectic and impressive mix that is not only representative of, but is helping to define, the field of spirituality; clearly, the ‘doubts about its richness as a field of rigorous academic study’ voiced by the journal’s erstwhile reviewer were unfounded. Nevertheless, other serious concerns remain. Despite the fact that, as Wilfred McSherry and his colleagues point out in this issue, ‘most Governments recognise the importance of the spiritual part of life for the health and wellbeing of their citizens’, the busy-ness, pressures and materialism that characterise much of contemporary society are not conducive to the study of spirituality, including its implications for professional practices. Spirituality does not fit easily into an audit culture. In academia, for example, discussing and studying spirituality is certainly not widely encouraged; indeed, as Elizabeth Tisdell notes in this issue ‘a focus on spirituality can be a career-limiting move in the secular spaces of academia’.

How can further research within the field be stimulated and sustained in such a climate? And how might we influence the way in which such research is viewed and evaluated within an outcomes-driven culture? Such questions relate to reviewers’ initial concerns about the place of a ‘cross- or inter-disciplinary’ journal in ‘the market’ since academics are having to make increasingly difficult choices about where to publish their work for maximum impact; and constraints on what libraries are able to purchase are even more stringent now than they were a decade ago.

20/20 is a term used to denote clear vision. As we enter the 2020s, we need to be clear about our vision for the field of spirituality studies in general, including its place in academia and the professions, and for this journal in particular. JSS has much still to do, not only in securing its position in the market but in encouraging submissions that focus on forms and understandings of spirituality, and from parts of the world, that are currently under-represented in its pages. You are warmly invited to share your thoughts on these and other matters by contributing to JSS and/or BASS meetings and conferences.

But that is for the future. Right now, I hope you will enjoy this tenth anniversary issue of JSS. It was difficult to decide how to celebrate within a single issue all that JSS has encompassed over the past decade, and it is almost impossible to illustrate how the field of spirituality studies has changed and expanded in that time.³ However, in acknowledgement of the wide range of academic subjects for which the study of spirituality has implications and may provide new insights, two articles focus, respectively, on the contrasting disciplines of science and music. The important role of spirituality within professional practices is exemplified by articles focussing on mental health, nursing and midwifery, and social work. Two articles draw attention to the peculiar nature of researching spirituality, including its potentially transformative properties. Finally, a book review is included, partly in recognition of the contribution to the field made by the authors and reviewers of the books that have been featured in JSS, and partly because the book itself contains a comprehensive account of current thinking and research on ‘Spirituality in Society and the Professions’.

Several authors of these anniversary articles have been involved in BASS/JSS since its inception, others are new contributors; all have long-standing interests and experience in the study of spirituality. In keeping with the journal’s policy of inviting a range of methodological approaches and writing styles, authors were invited to present a perspective on key issues, concerns and/or developments in the study of spirituality over the past decade (or more) from within their own discipline or profession, and to do so in whatever form seemed most appropriate.

Oliver Robinson addresses the nature of spirituality and science and, coincidentally, echoes one of the concerns that gave rise to BASS and JSS. He acknowledges that, although the values of modernity ‘achieved much by separating human knowledge into discrete domains of expertise …  that silo-based approach is reaching the end of its tenure.’ He presents a model which he has developed as ‘a dialectical way of comprehending the complementary relationship between science and spirituality’. It points to a ‘fundamental “head-heart” duality in human knowing’ but suggests that there is ‘an interface space’ in which science and spirituality overlap and interact.

Writing about the possibility of ‘re-enchanting the world’ through music, June Boyce-Tillman discusses the history of music in worship and its relationship to the sacred, including the idea that spirituality is ‘the universal language of music’. She, too, presents a model as a way of exploring the nuances of spirituality in relation to her chosen field. Both models contain elements that lend themselves to further inquiry about spirituality in other fields.

Larkin Kao, John Peteet and Christopher Cook also take a long view of their subject: mental health. They point out that, although religious groups may once have been ‘the primary providers of mental health care’, in the first half of the twentieth century (when silo-based thinking was particularly rife) ‘mental health and religion/spirituality were often viewed …  as separate and antithetical.’ Their article takes the form of a narrative review of ways in which mental health has been, and is now, understood in the context of religion/spirituality, and with what implications for professional practice in mental health care.

Recognising the need to put ‘the person and what is most important to them at the heart of care delivery’, Wilfred McSherry, Linda Ross and their colleagues point to the ‘emerging body of evidence affirming the importance of spirituality in promoting the health and wellbeing of individuals’. They chart how their own extensive European programme of research has evolved over the past decade. Designed to explore undergraduate nurses’ and midwives’ perceptions of spirituality and perceived competence in providing spiritual care, it is an exemplar of collaborative research and how this can impact positively on professional education and practice.

Drawing on her experiences of social work education and practice in Australia, Fiona Gardner notes that twenty years ago, ‘spirituality/religion was minimally expressed in the curriculum and there was little literature or related research’. She reflects on how/why this has changed and points to some of the challenges of, and opportunities for, including spirituality/religion in social work. She argues that many of these can be better understood by ‘taking critically reflective approaches to understanding self and other’.

Elizabeth Tisdell provides illustration of such an approach in an autoethnographic exploration of what she learned from participants in her earlier studies on spiritualty and culture in the U.S.A., and from engaging in pilgrimage experiences. She discusses the transformative nature of these experiences and their implications for ‘living life as pilgrimage’ and seeking answers to the ‘Big Questions’ of life and death.

It is the potentially transformative properties of research and education in the field of spirituality that help to define its peculiar nature, particularly when the ‘self’ of the researcher/learner is an integral part of the process. In this regard, it has a great deal in common with work in transpersonal psychology; each field has much to offer the other. In the final article in this special issue, Rosemarie Anderson provides an overview of the development of transpersonal research methods which she has pioneered over two decades. She says of them: ‘These methods invite researchers studying spiritual topics to bring their full humanity and personal creativity to the fore in the conduct of research, and to enact research as a journey of personal and cultural transformation’.

Acceptance of that invitation may, to borrow a phrase from Tisdell’s title, result in ‘living the answer’ to a question Ursula King (2011) posed a decade ago at the inaugural BASS conference, and subsequently in the very first issue of JSS: ‘Can spirituality transform our world?’ Amidst today’s political and environmental uncertainties and polarised views there can be few more vital questions.

As JSS enters its second decade, I trust that it will continue to provide a forum for the many forms of scholarship and research that ask questions and seek understanding about the nature, function and implications of spirituality.

A pause for celebration in York, and a new phase in the journey begins … 

Notes

1 See: http://www.thecharterhouse.org/ [Accessed 12 February 2020].

2 Details at: yorksj.ac.uk/BASS2020 [Accessed 12 February 2020].

3 Although not a measure of study in the field, the explosion of popular interest in spirituality is evident in a rise of the number of references to the term on Google from 56,800,000 when the original proposal for JSS was written to 1,060,000,000 today.