The Necessity of a Civilizational Perspective on the Notion of Spirituality

The notion of 'spirituality' is ambiguous. In this paper I am concerned with the question why proposed definitions of spirituality are ambiguous, and why each approach demands a different notion of this term. I claim that the reason is that extant approaches have overlooked a civilizational perspective on spirituality. I will make a distinction between lexicological and approach-based definitions of spirituality, showing how spirituality is viewed from the standpoints of different paradigms of social sciences and academic traditions. Finally, I mentions some critiques of proposed approaches, and then introduce a genealogical approach to spirituality that has taken civilizational aspects of the phenomenon into account. It will be helpful to consider its capacities for a civilizational perspective on the notion of spirituality. I will mention, however, that there are weaknesses in this approach as well.