A good starting point would be:

Principe, Walter. 1983. “Toward Defining Spirituality.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 12 (2): 127–41.

Another text I found useful was Ann Taves' Introduction to:

Bender, Courtney, and Ann Taves, eds. 2012. What Matters?: Ethnographies of Value in a Not So Secular Age. New York: Columbia University Press.

Obrigado, Andre. 

The Principe article is already a key part of my student's paper, and she is working with at least one other article by Bender, but the Taves essay you list looks helpful. 

Thanks again.

~ Dave

In the line with philosophy ,spirituality can only be experienced an i would not prefer to be merged in narrow definition .

A devotee with his total endrosement in his meditation ,worship ,prayer join within his silent tune of divinity within him ,if he is lucky enough his devotion he goes to transce the highest peak of spirituality & in this light he may join universal & global in such mode that not only he would receive an all time silent for quite good times & may have holy experience of rosy -sandal fragrance surrounding him with a visual shadow light of different colors .This is only my personal views .

Yes. You can read a Pierre Hadot point of view of 'philosiphy' (see bibliography of Pierre Hadot). Also the Hellenistic judaism calls his religion (judaism) philosophia.

I hope defining a universal concept within a framework of a philosophy needs firsthand experience of oneness of the universal omnipresent, omniscient life force and constant immerse into it - (Brahmagnanam), the real knowledge, Godly knowledge may yield its fruit as a philosophy. 

Much of my research and work has been in the area of exploring the parameters of religion and spirituality for older adults from the standpoint of the mental health professions.  The first article from my dissertation discussed what I considered to be a practical philosophies orientation from a sample of 79 older people that also included explicit religious and/or spiritual views.  I have attached a copy of this article here. However, this particular article approaches the topic from the viewpoint of older people rather than practitioners. I have many other articles that include professional definitions. Hope it helps.

Simply put, Spirituality is the approach to the Spirit. The shedding of matter voluntarily to arrive at the Spirit.

Regards

Thanks, Holly. Your piece, and its references, look to be distinctly helpful for this project.  ~ Dave

One might question whether "personal" or "practical" philosophy is something different from the academic notion of philosophy as a rational analysis of the basic "truths" that are subject of enduring debate and/or difference among people and peoples. If "philosophy" means "belief" and this is a universal activity of meaning making, value-finding, and action-commitments, then religious spirituality and philosophical spirituality are on the surface different words for the same phenomenon. Religion, of course, has the common meaning associated with the those institutions which are named "religions" (world religions and the off shoots that mimic them in some fashion or other).

As human beings are not born into this world as a tabula rasa, a purely a-religious spirituality is hardly possible, except by reason of "yes, but"--e.g. a person does not invent ex nihilo his or her ideas about the ultimate reality from which he or she draws strength, meaning, purpose; but tries to differentiate oneself from the traditional beliefs and communities that are the source of their notions and aspirations.

As a Roman Catholic I still like Karl Rahner's description of spirituality: Spirituality always relates to THE living God, who revealed God-self in human history, and who is the condition of possibility of human life, thought and purpose. The reality of this God (not of an idea humans project in order to create meaning) is the reality of the world. Spirituality thus is surrendering to what IS, rather than constructing what OUGHT to be.

Key points are the historical dimension of this view. Spirituality is not so much about discovering a "wordless" dimension of the self, as it is about worshipping the incompressible God in Spirit and Truth. One does not have to be a Christian to be spiritual, but from a Christian theological perspective the meaning of spirituality is most fully grasped in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Please note that all thoughts conceptions and idea of external or internal world is self generated . Our brain cannot see light or hear sound, it is the sensory organs connection to thalamus via cortico-thalamic processing that interprets our inner reality .WE exist in an intra-personal space ( seemingly limitless dark space )  that provides us the illusion that we are interacting with spirituality or philosophy and our thoughts are  based upon our mind body response . 

Sprituality is above religion, personal and independent from the collective

 I would say that the hylemorphic Aristotle's and Aquinas' conception of the human being leaves room for spirituality, as the most human dimension. If you want, tell her to contact me and I will provide her with more literature on this. 

Kindly read this paper on Kundalini Gnanam: the mystical way of South Indian Siddhars. Hope this will be useful

- Maniram 

Conference Paper KUNDALINI GNANAM: The Mystic Path Revealed

I suggest the book by Harald Walach, "Secular Spirituality"

I believe philosophy and spirituality are linked in the sense that they focus on the core or essence of a phenomenon.

check out anything by Pierre Hadot

Spirituality is total practical field. In simple words, it is science of using of those human brains characteristic or qualities which are used in sleep when human is awake.

In general, we are only taught to use our brain on one dimension but there are other dimensions are as well. Some people are gifted with these and some activate through other means like meditation.

Philosophy is a way of our life ,helping us & to generate inner development of our MIND,& BRAIN with our faith & will power.This helps us to teach us a moral code of our life which depend on the environment of our family & surrounding to prepare us for the living of our life in action .

Philosophy is a our thinking process ,our attitude of our mind which direct us to take the action of our day to day working of our life.Our life is very much interesting a gift of our creator but as we all have the resulting fruits of our action positive & negative of our previous lives ,this make us to live in the way whether positive or negative with the tune of our conscious & sub conscious mind.

For this we have to carry out our own introspection & whether we have selected the right path of our thinking ,of our working,of our message,in a right manner.

This is very much important & the way to our life help us to process the mode of spirituality .Spirituality may be different in a thinking & intellectual power of individual concern who has with them the family background,the approach of religion ,method & system as he should not forget that all religion speak regarding the GOD & GOD is every where including in our life with the divinity energy force within us .

It is in this way to view the philosophical outlook of an individual culminating in spirituality of his inherent & subsequent his life behavior of his action .

This is my personal opinion 

Yes, I believe that spiritual views are often lived out in what become one's practical philosophy.  My qualitative and quantitative research with older adults led to a paper on spiritual definitions or practical philosophies. There were 79 people of varying ethnicity in the sample and rich discussion of both spiritual and religious views. The overall question for the larger study was about distinguishing between spirituality and religion and whether and if so, how, older people relied on related strategies for coping.  I will attach the paper here.

Basically there are two dominating philosophical perspectives: (1) materialism, mechanism, determinism, empiricism, phenomenalism, behaviorism, and the current neurosciences versus (2) dualism, rationalism, idealism, freedom, phenomenology, and existentialism. Under category (2), it splits "spiritualism" between e. g. theistic religion (Christianity) and humanism, which is non-religious. For example, existentialism has both theistic (Kierkegaard) and atheistic (Nietzsche) branches. Ben Mijuskovic, Consciousness and Loneliness: Theoria and Praxis (Brill)

Dear David,

In the ancient world , according to Pierre Hadot, philosophy was a essentially a spiritual practice. It was a cultural therapeutic practice. See What is ancient philosophy? by Pierre Hadot.

''When philosophy was reborn in the Christian world, or had gone through the Islamic world, it had been separated off from therapeutic and spiritual concerns, which were carefully guarded by religious authorities in both traditions. And after philosophy threw off religion in early modern period, in many senses it seemed to shy away from the need to deal with these issues. Psychoanalysis emerged as a separate discipline, likely symptomatically in response to this. Marxism in it’s own way as well can be seen as a secular, social therapeutics. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Sartre, Levinas, these thinkers tried to deal with these issues. But these concerns still remain distant from mainstream philosophy.

Is it possible to imagine philosophy as an attempt to guide life as lived praxis again? ''

Answering you question in term of a modern philosophical mindset that have forgot what philosophy was, so much so that it is so amnesic that it can even ask the question of what spirituality is without even remembering it was philosophy.

Regards.

- Louis