As religious affiliation declines in the United States, a UC Santa Barbara religious studies professor has been awarded a major grant to explore a pressing question: What are people turning towards?
Joseph Blankholm, an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies, and collaborator Matthew Harris of the University of Chicago have received a $1.55 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The grant will fund their three-year project, “Metaphysical Spirituality and the Future of Religion: From the Margins to the Mainstream.”
Charting a new spiritual landscape
Their work will map the growing landscape of modern spirituality. The project moves beyond the narrative of religious decline to document the beliefs and practices of those who identify as “spiritual but not religious.”
The research aims to show that for many, modern spirituality is not a new phenomenon but a continuation of a coherent tradition with its own ethics and values.
“We have a lot of research on why people are leaving religion,” Blankholm explained. “We’re doing this kind of odd thing where we’re exploring an absence. We can see that there’s more there — that there’s a really rich set of spiritual traditions that are growing in importance.”
The project extends the inquiry from Blankholm’s first book, “The Secular Paradox: On the Religiosity of the Not Religious,” which is based on years of fieldwork and explains why being secular can sometimes feel religious. The new award also builds on a previous Templeton-funded project Blankholm co-led that explored the relationship between spirituality and prosocial values.
Project goals and impact
“This is a project about spirituality and how it matters more than ever when religion is declining,” Blankholm added. “We’re trying to understand the history and tradition of spirituality. We want to know what certain kinds of spirituality really are.”
The collaboration with Harris, a graduate of the doctoral program in religious studies at UCSB, has four primary goals: to document the variety of beliefs among spiritual people, legitimize the academic study of spirituality, foster dialogue among scholars and create a respectful, two-way conversation between academics and the public.
Blankholm argues that as this spiritual population grows, understanding their system of beliefs and values, and recognizing its coherence, is essential for comprehending the cultural and social influence of this significant demographic.
The grant will support several key publications, including new books by Blankholm and Harris, an edited volume featuring contributions from more than a dozen international scholars, and will fund a series of public events and dialogues on campus and in the community.
Stay updated
This major grant cements UC Santa Barbara’s role as a key center for this emerging field of study. Those interested in receiving updates on the project’s findings and future events are invited to join a mailing list by emailing metaphysical@religion.ucsb.edu.
This project was made possible through the support of grant #202563627 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.