Home shrines in Britain and associated spiritual values

Abstract

In a quantitative survey of religious attitudes and practices in a multi‐religious sample of 369 school pupils aged between 13 and 15 in London, the presence of a home shrine was found widespread in 11% of adolescents spanning several religious affiliations and ethnicities – especially Buddhists, Hindus and those of Indian, Chinese and ‘Other Asian’ ethnicity. Having a home shrine correlated significantly with spiritual attitudes such as agreement with filial piety, the Eightfold Path, subjectivity of happiness, meditation, Sikh festivals, reincarnation and opening Gurdwaras to all. It is suggested that teachers and the social services should be aware of the importance of shrines to many religious communities and recognise their potential as a spiritual asset and manifestation of religion outside the congregational place of worship.

Keywords:

• home shrines
• adolescents
• spiritual attitudes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Mandy Robbins (Senior Research Fellow at Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit) who supervised the original research. Special thanks are also due to Revd. Prof. Leslie J. Francis for encouraging publication of the present author’s dissertation findings.