A Universal Basis for Religion and Spirituality

Abstract

Many scholars consider the academic study of religion to be an attempt by outsiders to understand a phenomenon to which they have no access. As a result, the study of religion is often treated as the study of history, sociology, or psychology rather than a unique field with a unique subject matter. This essay argues that, to the contrary, the academic study of religion and spirituality can be a field unto itself because at their root, religion and spirituality are about the pursuit of self-transcendence, which is a universal phenomenon. Therefore, if the academic study of religion were to focus on the universal pursuit of self-transcendence, the study would no longer be about cataloging the beliefs and practices of various cultures and traditions, or about reducing religious phenomena to other fields of study. Rather it would be a field of inquiry that begins with the experiences of religious and spiritual people themselves, and thus would have its own unique, and academic, subject matter.