The religiosity of the secular: the case of self-help

ABSTRACT

Religious decline is an oft-repeated fact proposed by secularization-based studies. It stems from the preconceived notion that religion and the secular are against each other. A major problem with this binary is that the secular is considered to be devoid of any religiosity. This paper highlights the opposite avenue of research trodden by a few scholars who have disregarded the said binary and navigated the religiosity of the secular to which far too little attention has been paid. Particularly, this article focuses on the religiosity of self-help which is mostly considered as a secular movement. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there is only one study which has empirically examined this topic while it occupies a special place in our understanding of religion. The space in this paper does not allow for a full discussion of the issue. Therefore, it generally highlights the new path to understanding religion and potential points of departure for exploring self-help’s religiosity. Finally, the paper briefly discuses why this topic deserves serious attention.

KEYWORDS:

• Secularization
• religion
• self-help
• therapeutic culture
• spirituality
• new religious movements

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Ali b. Abi Talib was the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and his son-in-law and his legitimate successor as the first Shi’a Imam.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mehdi Davari-Torshizi

Mehdi Davari-Torshizi is now an independent researcher. He is a member of the International Academic Network on Therapeutic Cultures. His areas of interest are sociology of religion with a focus on therapeutic culture and self-help. He is the co-translator of many Sufi poems published by New Humanity Books in Australia.