Mapping the Landscape of Non-Religious Meaning-Making
The decline of traditional religious affiliation in many Western societies has created what philosopher Charles Taylor (2007) calls a “secular age”—not an era without religion, but one in which belief is merely one option among many, and non-belief has become a viable default position. This transformation has generated a profound challenge:
How do individuals who cannot or will not embrace religious frameworks address the universal human need for meaning, purpose, and connection to something larger than themselves?
While religion offers one pathway and mysticism another, an increasing number of people seek secular approaches to spirituality—frameworks that acknowledge the spiritual dimension of human experience without requiring supernatural beliefs or mystical experiences.
Secular spirituality is not monolithic. Rather, it encompasses multiple distinct approaches, each with its own epistemological foundations, practices, and criteria for success. Understanding these different pathways is essential for individuals navigating the contemporary meaning crisis and for scholars seeking to map the evolving landscape of human spirituality. This article examines five major approaches to secular spirituality:
- Intellectual-philosophical approach
- Experiential-contemplative approach
- Naturalistic-scientific approach
- Existential-humanistic approach
- Aesthetic-romantic approach
Offers unique strengths and faces particular challenges, and each may appeal to different individuals based on their cognitive styles, values, and life circumstances.
Before examining these secular approaches in detail, it’s worth briefly situating them in relation to the alternatives of religion and mysticism, which represent the traditional pathways to spiritual fulfillment.
The Traditional Alternatives: Religion and Mysticism
Religion represents the most historically prevalent approach to spirituality, offering comprehensive frameworks that claim to reveal ultimate truth about the nature of reality, the purpose of existence, and the proper way to live. Religious traditions provide not just beliefs but entire meaning systems—narratives, practices, communities, and moral codes that address every dimension of human experience. As Geertz (1973) notes, religion synthesizes a worldview (conception of reality) with an ethos (way of life), making each seem to validate the other. The power of religion lies in its certainty and comprehensiveness: it offers definitive answers to existential questions and embeds individuals within communities of shared belief and practice.
However, religion requires acceptance of supernatural claims and doctrinal authority that many contemporary individuals find intellectually untenable. The cognitive dissonance between scientific understanding and religious cosmology, the problem of religious pluralism (if one religion is true, what of the others?), and the association of religion with dogmatism and social control have led many to seek alternatives.
Mysticism represents a different pathway, emphasizing direct experiential encounter with ultimate reality rather than doctrinal belief. Mystical traditions exist within religious contexts (Christian mysticism, Sufism, Kabbalah, Hindu yoga) but also in secular forms (certain interpretations of meditation, psychedelic experiences, nature mysticism). Mysticism claims to transcend the limitations of conceptual thought, offering unmediated access to truth through altered states of consciousness, contemplative practice, or spontaneous revelation. As William James (1902/1985) noted in his classic study, mystical experiences share common characteristics: ineffability, noetic quality (sense of profound insight), transiency, and passivity.
Yet mysticism faces its own challenges. The ineffability of mystical experience makes it difficult to communicate or verify, raising questions about whether different mystics access the same reality or simply interpret similar neurological states through different cultural lenses. The emphasis on non-conceptual awareness may seem anti-intellectual, and the pursuit of altered states can become a form of spiritual materialism—seeking experiences as ends in themselves rather than as means to wisdom or ethical transformation.
For those who find religion too dogmatic and mysticism too ineffable, secular spirituality offers alternative pathways that acknowledge the human need for meaning while maintaining commitment to reason, evidence, and critical inquiry. These approaches vary significantly in their methods and emphases, as the following sections explore.
1. The Intellectual-Philosophical Approach
The intellectual-philosophical approach to secular spirituality is characterized by its commitment to evidence-based reasoning, critical self-reflection, and systematic integration of insights from multiple disciplines—particularly cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology. This approach treats spirituality as a legitimate domain of human experience worthy of rigorous investigation while maintaining epistemic humility about ultimate questions.
Core Principles
The intellectual approach rests on several foundational principles:
Epistemic humility: Recognition that we cannot access reality directly but only through the filters of perception, cognition, and culture. As Kant (1781/1998) argued, we can know only phenomena (things as they appear to us), never noumena (things as they are in themselves). This perspective is reinforced by contemporary neuroscience, which demonstrates that perception is “controlled hallucination”—our brains generate predictions about reality rather than passively receiving objective information (Seth, 2017).
Functional pragmatism: Following William James (1902/1985), this approach evaluates spiritual frameworks based on their practical consequences rather than their metaphysical truth claims. The key question is not “Is this belief true?” but “Does this framework support human flourishing?” Research in positive psychology demonstrates that spiritual engagement correlates with better mental health outcomes regardless of specific belief content (Koenig, 2012), suggesting that the psychological function of spirituality may be more important than its theological accuracy.
Meta-cognitive awareness: Explicit recognition that all spiritual frameworks, including secular ones, are constructed interpretations shaped by cognitive architecture and cultural context. This reflexive quality distinguishes the intellectual approach from both religious certainty and naive realism.
Interdisciplinary integration: Rather than privileging a single domain (philosophy, science, or subjective experience), this approach synthesizes insights from multiple fields to develop comprehensive understanding of spiritual phenomena.
Methods and Practices
The intellectual approach emphasizes several key practices:
Critical examination of beliefs: Regularly questioning one’s assumptions, examining the sources of one’s beliefs, and considering alternative perspectives. This practice draws on philosophical traditions of Socratic inquiry and skepticism while incorporating insights from cognitive science about confirmation bias and motivated reasoning.
Study and reflection: Engaging with philosophical, scientific, and psychological literature on meaning, consciousness, and human nature. This might include reading philosophy, studying cognitive science, or participating in discussion groups that explore existential questions.
Narrative construction: Consciously developing coherent life narratives that provide meaning and direction. Research on narrative identity (McAdams, 2001) shows that humans construct “life stories” that integrate past experiences, present circumstances, and future aspirations into meaningful wholes. The intellectual approach makes this process explicit and intentional.
Ethical reasoning: Developing moral frameworks based on reason, empathy, and consideration of consequences rather than divine command or tradition. This might draw on philosophical ethics (utilitarianism, virtue ethics, Kantian deontology) or evolutionary accounts of moral psychology.
Strengths
The intellectual approach offers several significant advantages:
- Intellectual integrity: It allows individuals to address spiritual needs without compromising commitment to reason and evidence
- Flexibility: It can incorporate new insights from science and philosophy without requiring wholesale revision of core beliefs
- Pluralism: It acknowledges that different frameworks may work for different individuals, avoiding dogmatic claims to exclusive truth
- Transparency: Its explicit recognition of limitations and biases promotes honest self-understanding
Limitations
Critics identify several potential weaknesses:
- Cerebral emphasis: May be too analytical, potentially alienating those who seek emotional depth and experiential immediacy
- Accessibility: Requires education and intellectual capacity that may not be available to all
- Motivational deficit: Epistemic humility and functional pragmatism may lack the psychological power of absolute conviction
- Experiential poverty: Critical distance may prevent access to profound subjective states central to spiritual life
Who It Serves
The intellectual approach particularly appeals to individuals who:
- Value reason and evidence highly
- Find intellectual understanding intrinsically satisfying
- Are comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity
- Have philosophical or scientific temperaments
- Seek coherence between their spiritual and intellectual lives
2. The Experiential-Contemplative Approach
The experiential-contemplative approach emphasizes direct subjective experience over analytical understanding, prioritizing meditation, mindfulness, and other contemplative practices as pathways to spiritual insight. While often associated with Eastern religious traditions (Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism), this approach has been increasingly secularized in Western contexts through mindfulness-based interventions and secular meditation movements.
Core Principles
Primacy of direct experience: The conviction that intellectual analysis can obstruct spiritual understanding by creating conceptual barriers between the individual and immediate reality. As Zen Buddhism emphasizes, truth cannot be grasped through concepts but only through direct seeing.
Non-conceptual awareness: Cultivation of present-moment attention without the mediating filter of language and thought. This involves observing experience as it arises without judgment, interpretation, or identification.
Embodied understanding: Recognition that wisdom resides not just in the intellect but in the body and in the quality of attention we bring to experience. Contemplative practices aim to integrate mind and body, thought and feeling.
Transformative practice: The belief that regular contemplative practice can fundamentally alter consciousness, perception, and one’s relationship to experience. This transformation is understood not as acquiring new beliefs but as developing new capacities for awareness and presence.
Methods and Practices
The experiential-contemplative approach centers on specific practices:
Meditation: Various forms including focused attention (concentrating on breath or a single object), open monitoring (observing whatever arises in awareness), and loving-kindness meditation (cultivating compassion). Research demonstrates that regular meditation practice produces measurable changes in brain structure and function, including increased gray matter density in regions associated with attention and emotional regulation (Tang et al., 2015).
Mindfulness: Bringing non-judgmental awareness to present-moment experience in daily life, not just during formal practice. Mindfulness-based interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression (Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Khoury et al., 2013).
Contemplative inquiry: Using meditation as a tool for investigating the nature of mind, self, and experience. This might involve examining the arising and passing of thoughts, exploring the sense of self, or investigating the relationship between awareness and its contents.
Body-based practices: Yoga, tai chi, qigong, and other practices that integrate physical movement with contemplative awareness, recognizing that embodied practice can access dimensions of experience unavailable through purely mental approaches.
Strengths
The experiential-contemplative approach offers distinctive benefits:
- Direct accessibility: Practices can be learned and applied without extensive intellectual preparation
- Empirical validation: Substantial research supports the psychological and physiological benefits of meditation and mindfulness
- Experiential depth: Provides access to profound subjective states—peace, clarity, interconnection—that many consider central to spiritual life
- Present-moment focus: Addresses the tendency to live in conceptual abstraction rather than immediate experience
- Non-dogmatic: Can be practiced without accepting specific metaphysical beliefs
Limitations
Critics note several potential weaknesses:
- Theoretical underdevelopment: May lack conceptual framework for understanding and integrating experiences
- Interpretation challenges: Subjective experiences require interpretation, and without critical framework, practitioners may draw unwarranted metaphysical conclusions
- Spiritual bypassing: Risk of using practice to avoid rather than address psychological issues or ethical responsibilities
- Cultural appropriation: Secular adoption of practices from religious traditions may strip them of essential context and meaning
- Narcissistic focus: Emphasis on personal experience may neglect social and ethical dimensions of spirituality
Who It Serves
The experiential-contemplative approach particularly appeals to individuals who:
- Are drawn to direct experience over intellectual analysis
- Find analytical thinking limiting or exhausting
- Seek practical tools for managing stress and cultivating well-being
- Are comfortable with ambiguity in interpretation
- Value present-moment awareness and embodied experience
3. The Naturalistic-Scientific Approach
The naturalistic-scientific approach treats spirituality as a natural phenomenon to be explained through evolutionary biology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and anthropology. Exemplified by thinkers like Daniel Dennett (2006), Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris, this approach seeks to understand religious and spiritual experiences through scientific investigation while often advocating for secular alternatives to traditional religion.
Core Principles
Methodological naturalism: Commitment to explaining phenomena through natural causes without invoking supernatural entities or forces. Spiritual experiences, from this perspective, arise from brain activity, evolved cognitive mechanisms, and cultural transmission—not from contact with transcendent reality.
Evolutionary perspective: Understanding spirituality as a product of evolutionary processes. Cognitive mechanisms that generate religious beliefs—such as hyperactive agency detection (Barrett, 2000), intuitive dualism (Bloom, 2004), and teleological thinking—evolved because they provided adaptive advantages, not because they reveal truth about ultimate reality.
Empirical validation: Privileging scientific evidence over subjective experience, tradition, or philosophical argument. Claims about spiritual reality should be testable through observation and experiment.
Demystification: Seeking to explain away the mysterious or supernatural through scientific understanding. Once we understand the natural origins of spiritual experience, its power should diminish—what Dennett calls “breaking the spell.”
Methods and Practices
The naturalistic-scientific approach emphasizes:
Scientific literacy: Understanding evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and cognitive science as foundations for secular worldview. This might involve reading popular science, following scientific research, or engaging with science communication.
Critical thinking: Developing skills for evaluating claims, identifying logical fallacies, and distinguishing evidence from anecdote. Organizations like the Center for Inquiry and the Skeptics Society promote these skills.
Rational community: Participating in communities organized around shared commitment to reason and evidence—humanist groups, skeptics societies, or online rationalist communities.
Secular ethics: Developing moral frameworks based on human well-being, empathy, and reason rather than divine command. This might draw on utilitarian ethics, evolutionary accounts of morality, or social contract theory.
Wonder and awe: Cultivating appreciation for the natural world as revealed by science. Carl Sagan exemplified this approach, finding profound meaning in scientific understanding of the cosmos without requiring supernatural beliefs.
Strengths
The naturalistic-scientific approach offers important advantages:
- Intellectual rigor: Grounded in best available scientific evidence
- Consistency: Avoids cognitive dissonance between scientific and spiritual worldviews
- Demystification: Reduces fear and confusion by explaining phenomena through natural causes
- Progressive values: Often associated with support for science education, secular governance, and evidence-based policy
- Cosmic perspective: Science reveals the vastness and complexity of the universe, providing secular sources of awe
Limitations
Critics identify several concerns:
- Reductionism: May reduce spirituality to “nothing but” neurological activity, missing its subjective significance and psychological function
- Eliminativism: Tendency to dismiss spiritual experience as illusory rather than acknowledging its legitimate role in human life
- Scientism: Risk of treating science as the only valid form of knowledge, neglecting insights from philosophy, arts, and humanities
- Meaning deficit: Scientific understanding alone may not provide sufficient meaning and purpose for many individuals
- Emotional coldness: Emphasis on rationality may seem to neglect emotional and relational dimensions of human experience
Who It Serves
The naturalistic-scientific approach particularly appeals to individuals who:
- Have strong scientific backgrounds or interests
- Value rationality and skepticism highly
- Find meaning in scientific understanding of nature
- Are motivated by debunking supernatural claims
- Seek consistency between worldview and scientific knowledge
4. The Existential-Humanistic Approach
The existential-humanistic approach, rooted in the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Viktor Frankl, and others, emphasizes individual freedom, authentic self-determination, and the creation of meaning in an inherently meaningless universe. This approach celebrates human agency and the courage to live meaningfully despite the absence of cosmic purpose.
Core Principles
Radical freedom: Recognition that humans are fundamentally free to choose their values, commitments, and life directions. As Sartre famously argued, “existence precedes essence”—we are not created with predetermined purposes but must create our own meanings through our choices.
Authentic existence: The imperative to live according to one’s own values and choices rather than conforming to social expectations or inherited beliefs. Authenticity requires confronting existential anxiety—the dread that arises from recognizing our freedom and mortality—and choosing to create meaning despite it.
Responsibility: With freedom comes responsibility. We cannot blame God, fate, or circumstances for our lives but must take ownership of our choices and their consequences. This responsibility extends to creating not just personal meaning but also contributing to collective human flourishing.
Confronting absurdity: Recognition that the universe is indifferent to human concerns and that the search for cosmic meaning is futile. As Camus argued in The Myth of Sisyphus, the appropriate response is neither suicide nor philosophical suicide (accepting comforting illusions) but revolt—living fully and creating meaning despite absurdity.
Meaning through engagement: Purpose emerges not from abstract contemplation but from concrete engagement with life—through work, relationships, creative expression, and commitment to causes larger than oneself.
Methods and Practices
The existential-humanistic approach emphasizes:
Existential reflection: Regular examination of one’s values, choices, and life direction. This might involve journaling, therapy, or philosophical contemplation focused on questions like “What matters most to me?” and “Am I living according to my deepest values?”
Authentic choice: Making decisions based on personal values rather than social pressure or inherited beliefsand taking responsibility for the consequences. This involves courage to face uncertainty and the possibility of failure.
Commitment to values: Identifying core values (such as compassion, integrity, creativity, or justice) and living in alignment with them. This commitment provides direction and purpose even in the absence of cosmic guarantees.
Engagement with life: Finding meaning through active participation in meaningful activities—work that contributes to the common good, relationships that foster mutual growth, creative pursuits that express the self, and service to others.
Confronting mortality: Regularly reflecting on one’s own mortality as a way to clarify what truly matters. As Frankl (1946/2006) observed, those who could find meaning in suffering were more likely to survive, suggesting that purpose is not merely a philosophical luxury but a psychological necessity.
Therapeutic application: Existential therapy, as developed by Frankl and others, helps individuals confront the challenges of meaninglessness, guilt, and anxiety by focusing on responsibility, freedom, and the search for purpose.
Strengths
The existential-humanistic approach offers several significant advantages:
- Empowerment: It places individuals in the driver’s seat of their own meaning-making, emphasizing agency and responsibility.
- Authenticity: It encourages living in alignment with one’s true values rather than conforming to external expectations.
- Resilience: By confronting the reality of meaninglessness, it can foster psychological strength and courage.
- Ethical grounding: It provides a framework for moral decision-making based on personal values rather than divine command or social convention.
- Relevance to modern life: It addresses the challenges of secularization, individualism, and the loss of traditional community structures.
Limitations
Critics identify several potential weaknesses:
- Emotional burden: The emphasis on radical freedom and responsibility may feel overwhelming or anxiety-inducing, particularly for individuals who prefer structure and guidance.
- Isolation: The focus on individual choice may neglect the importance of community, shared values, and social support in meaning-making.
- Cognitive dissonance: For those who have relied on religious frameworks, the shift to self-created meaning may feel like a loss of security and certainty.
- Social critique: The approach may be seen as individualistic and neglect the structural and systemic factors that limit freedom and constrain choices.
- Lack of practical tools: While it provides a powerful philosophical framework, it may not offer concrete practices for cultivating meaning.
Who It Serves
The existential-humanistic approach particularly appeals to individuals who:
- Value personal freedom and autonomy highly
- Are comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity
- Seek to live authentically rather than conform to external expectations
- Are motivated by ethical and moral considerations
- Have experienced the limitations of traditional religious frameworks
- Are drawn to philosophical inquiry and existential questions
5. The Aesthetic-Romantic Approach
The aesthetic-romantic approach locates spiritual experience in encounters with beauty, nature, art, and the sublime—experiences that evoke awe, wonder, and a sense of connection to something larger than oneself. This approach, influenced by Romantic philosophers and poets, emphasizes emotional and aesthetic responses as pathways to transcendence.
Core Principles
Awe and wonder: Recognition that certain experiences—such as gazing at the night sky, witnessing natural phenomena, or encountering great works of art—can produce profound emotional and cognitive shifts. These experiences often involve a sense of smallness in the face of vastness, a dissolution of the ego, and a feeling of interconnectedness.
Beauty as transcendent: The conviction that beauty—whether in nature, music, literature, or human relationships—can reveal deeper truths and connect individuals to something greater than themselves.
Emotional resonance: The belief that spiritual insight often arises through emotional engagement rather than intellectual analysis. The heart, not the head, is the primary pathway to understanding.
Transcendence through experience: The idea that certain experiences can momentarily dissolve the boundaries between self and world, creating a sense of unity and peace.
Cultural appreciation: Recognition that beauty and awe are shaped by cultural context, but that the emotional response to them is universal.
Methods and Practices
The aesthetic-romantic approach emphasizes:
Nature immersion: Spending time in natural settings—forests, mountains, oceans, deserts—where the scale and complexity of the natural world can evoke awe and wonder.
Artistic engagement: Experiencing great music, literature, visual art, or performance that evokes deep emotional responses and a sense of connection to something larger.
Contemplation of the sublime: Reflecting on experiences that transcend ordinary perception—such as the vastness of space, the complexity of biological systems, or the power of natural forces.
Appreciation of human creativity: Recognizing that human creativity—through music, poetry, dance, and other forms—can be a source of spiritual insight and connection.
Mindful appreciation: Bringing full attention and presence to experiences of beauty, allowing them to be fully felt rather than merely observed.
Strengths
The aesthetic-romantic approach offers several significant advantages:
- Emotional accessibility: Awe and beauty are experiences that can be accessed by most people without requiring special training or beliefs.
- Universality: While cultural expressions of beauty vary, the emotional response to awe and wonder appears to be universal.
- Non-dogmatic: It does not require adherence to specific beliefs or doctrines.
- Experiential richness: Provides access to profound subjective states that many consider central to spiritual life.
- Integration with science: The sense of awe in scientific understanding—such as the vastness of the cosmos or the complexity of life—can be a powerful source of spiritual experience.
Limitations
Critics identify several potential weaknesses:
- Subjective variability: Not everyone responds to beauty or awe in the same way, and some may find these experiences emotionally flat or unengaging.
- Cultural bias: The aesthetic framework may privilege certain forms of beauty (Western classical art, certain natural landscapes) over others.
- Lack of structure: While it can be deeply moving, it may lack the framework for sustained meaning-making or ethical guidance.
- Risk of escapism: The focus on aesthetic experiences may lead to avoidance of difficult realities or responsibilities.
- Metaphysical ambiguity: It may not provide clear answers to existential questions about the nature of reality or the purpose of existence.
Who It Serves
The aesthetic-romantic approach particularly appeals to individuals who:
- Are drawn to emotional and sensory experiences
- Find beauty and wonder in the natural world and human creativity
- Value aesthetic experiences as sources of meaning and transcendence
- Are comfortable with ambiguity and mystery
- Seek experiences that evoke a sense of connection and unity
Conclusion: A Pluralistic Landscape of Secular Spirituality
The landscape of secular spirituality is rich and diverse, offering multiple pathways for individuals who seek meaning, purpose, and connection without religious or mystical frameworks. Each approach—intellectual-philosophical, experiential-contemplative, naturalistic-scientific, existential-humanistic, and aesthetic-romantic—addresses different aspects of the human spiritual need and appeals to different cognitive styles, values, and life circumstances.
The intellectual-philosophical approach provides epistemic integrity and functional pragmatism, grounding meaning-making in reason, evidence, and critical self-reflection. It is particularly suited to individuals who value intellectual coherence and want to understand the mechanisms of spiritual experience.
The experiential-contemplative approach offers direct access to subjective states of peace, clarity, and interconnectedness, appealing to those who seek emotional depth and transformative practices. It emphasizes the importance of present-moment awareness and embodied experience.
The naturalistic-scientific approach provides intellectual rigor and consistency with scientific understanding, appealing to those who prioritize rationality and evidence-based reasoning. It demystifies spiritual phenomena while offering a framework for understanding the natural world.
The existential-humanistic approach empowers individuals to take responsibility for their own meaning-making, emphasizing authenticity, freedom, and courage. It is particularly relevant in a secular age where traditional sources of meaning have diminished.
The aesthetic-romantic approach provides emotional richness and connection to beauty, offering a pathway to transcendence through experiences of awe and wonder. It recognizes that spiritual insight often arises through emotional engagement rather than intellectual analysis.
These approaches are not mutually exclusive. Many individuals draw on multiple frameworks simultaneously, recognizing that different aspects of the human experience may require different types of understanding and practice. For example, one might use the intellectual approach to understand the cognitive mechanisms of spiritual experience, the experiential approach to cultivate mindfulness, the existential approach to clarify personal values, the aesthetic approach to appreciate beauty, and the naturalistic approach to maintain scientific integrity.
The future of secular spirituality lies in integration—not in choosing one approach over others, but in recognizing that different individuals may need different pathways, and that mature spiritual understanding often requires multiple dimensions. As the field continues to evolve, research in cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy will provide deeper insights into how these different approaches work, how they can be combined effectively, and how they can support human flourishing in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.
Ultimately, the diversity of secular spiritual approaches reflects the complexity of human nature itself. We are beings who must have answers, yet we possess limited tools for finding them. We need meaning and purpose, yet we can never be entirely certain our foundations are solid. As philosopher Karl Jaspers (1932/1970) wrote, humans exist in a state of “ultimate situations” where we confront the boundaries of our existence and understanding. Perhaps this uncertainty is itself part of the human condition—part of what makes the spiritual quest both necessary and perpetual. We continue seeking, questioning, and believing because that is what our nature demands, even knowing that complete, unfiltered understanding may forever remain beyond our grasp.
References
Vervaeke, J., & de Quincey, A. (2017). The meaning crisis: A conversation with Dr. John Vervaeke. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kZ40d0d5cM
Barrett, J. L. (2000). Exploring the natural foundations of religion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(1), 29–34.
Bloom, P. (2004). Descartes’ baby: How the science of child development explains what makes us human. Basic Books.
Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. Basic Books.
Dennett, D. C. (2006). Breaking the spell: Religion as a natural phenomenon. Viking.
Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man’s search for meaning (50th anniversary ed.). Beacon Press. (Original work published 1946)
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. Basic Books.
James, W. (1985). The varieties of religious experience. Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1902)
Kant, I. (1998). Critique of pure reason (P. Guyer & A. W. Wood, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1781)
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. Delta.
Khoury, B., Sharma, M., Rush, S. E., & Fournier, C. (2013). Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive review. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69(8), 847–875.
McAdams, D. P. (2001). The redemptive self: Stories of transformation and meaning. Oxford University Press.
Newberg, A. B., & Waldman, M. R. (2009). How God changes your brain: Breakthrough findings from the science of belief. Ballantine Books.
Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, and applications. Guilford Press.
Park, C. L. (2010). Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative model of meaning making and its outcomes in the face of potentially negative life experiences. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(1), 10–30.
Seth, A. K. (2017). Being you: A new science of consciousness. Oxford University Press.
Shweder, R. A. (1991). Thinking through cultures: Expeditions in ethnographic imagination. Harvard University Press.
Tang, Y. Y., Ma, Y., Wang, J., Fan, Y., Feng, S., Lu, Q., … & Posner, M. I. (2015). The effect of mindfulness meditation on cognitive functions: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 141(6), 1110–1129.
Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Harvard University Press.
Vervaeke, J. (2017). Awakening from the meaning crisis [Video series]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLND1JCRq8Vuh3f0P5qjrSdb5eC1ZfZwWJ
Note: This article was written using AI with little or no verification on my part. Please independently verify the information before you use or rely on it. Follow this link for more information on how I use AI tools on this site.