In this paper, I will discuss some interlinked processes of contemporary religious change which relate to globalization. To be especially focused in this paper is encounters between older religious traditions and new religions. In a globalized world, encounters are closer and more frequent, and new religions are also more numerous. The paper will discuss how processes of globalization affect these encounters and outcomes of encounters. The material derives from a local mapping project of religion and world view that I conduct in Sweden since the year 2008.[2] Dalarna is a local area in Sweden with about 270,000 inhabitants. All groups with religious social activities, or meetings with some kind of religious connotation in a broad sense (with two or more participants present) have been mapped, with special focus on activities outside traditional Christianity. Special attention has been given to traditional religious activities with “new” elements, and interviews have been conducted with a large number of religious actors from different backgrounds.
The focus of this paper is the concept of “spirituality” and its use and meaning in different contexts in contemporary Sweden. Themes highlighted are Identification with and/or relation to the terms spirituality and religion, conceived meaning of them and how “spirituality” is conceived of as expressing in daily life. Besides, an attempt is made to test Paul Heelas´ well-known thesis that a “spiritual revolution” is gradually taking place, as religion gives way to spirituality (Heelas 2002: 365). Three different kinds of material are used and combined for this study. The first one is a web based questionnaire distributed to a representative part of the Swedish population in 2008. The two other kinds of materials derive from a local mapping project of religion and world view that I conduct in Sweden together with Peter Åkerbäck since the year 2008. As part of this project, I have conducted two special studies which I will present in this paper. The first one is an interview study containing 11 interviews with well known religious actors/producers from different religious contexts in Dalarna. The second study derived from this project consists of a questionnaire distributed to one of the mapped groups, an evening yoga class group, with 18 respondents. Combining these three studies, a qualitative as well as a quantitative analysis was possible. I have conducted two special studies which I will presen An interesting fact is that three of these persons were also engaged and active in the Swedish Church. No representativity of anything has been searched – the interviews are considered as more or less random case studies. Among other questions, the interview persons were asked how they defined the concepts spirituality and religion, the relation between them and how they thought spirituality to express in daily life. The second study derived from this project consists of a questionnaire distributed to one of the mapped groups, an evening yoga class group, with 18 respondents. Among other questions, a question about self identity relating to being religious and/or spiritual was asked, as well as open-ended questions about how they defined the concepts spirituality and religion. Combining these three studies, a qualitative as well as a quantitative analysis was possible. In this study, I discuss the results of these studies in the light of recent academic discussions and research relating to the concept of spirituality.