Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan: Beyond Religion? (Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies)

It goes without saying that without the cooperation of the therapists whose lives I discuss in this monograph, especially those with whom I have managed to keep in contact for more than ten years now, nothing could have really been written, no matter how much funding I had at my disposal. Finally, this book is a Covid-19 'baby' . It came out of two six-month sabbaticals that I was granted by my employer, Chiba University, in the autumns of 2020 and 2021. During that same period, we also welcomed a real baby, our second son, Zenon, who we named after the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy. Both babies were miracles, although my family, who had to listen to my constant complaints about the slow progress of my manuscript in the midst of a global health crisis, probably hates the first as much as they love the second. This monograph is un-stoically dedicated to them. ## Note on naming conventions All Japanese names are given in the order of surname first, followed by forename(s), with a few exceptions where a scholar's primary language of publication is English and they have adopted the Anglophone naming convention of forename(s) first, followed by surname. These conventions are followed throughout the main text, notes and references section of this book. xiv This book critically analyses the creation and effects of spirituality as both discourse and practice in Japan. It shows how the value of spirituality has been sustained by scholars who have wished for a more civic role for religion; by the publishing industry whose exponential growth in the 1980s fashioned those who later identified as the representatives of this "new spirituality culture"; by "spiritual therapists" who have sought to eke out a livelihood in an increasingly professionalized and regulated therapeutic field; and by the cruel optimism of an increasingly precarious workforce placing its hopes in the imagined alternative that the supirichuaru represents. Ioannis Gaitanidis offers a new transdisciplinary conceptualisation of 'alternativity' that can be applied across and beyond the disciplines of religious studies, media studies, popular culture studies and the anthropology/sociology of medicine. This book critically analyses the creation and effects of spirituality as both discourse and practice in Japan. It shows how the value of spirituality has been sustained by scholars who have wished for a more civic role for religion; by the publishing industry whose exponential growth in the 1980s fashioned those who later identified as the representatives of this "new spirituality culture"; by "spiritual therapists" who have sought to eke out a livelihood in an increasingly professionalized and regulated therapeutic field; and by the cruel optimism of an increasingly precarious workforce placing its hopes in the imagined alternative that the supirichuaru represents.0Ioannis Gaitanidis offers a new transdisciplinary conceptualisation of 'alternativity' that can be applied across and beyond the disciplines of religious studies, media studies, popular culture studies and the anthropology/sociology of medicine "This monograph critically analyses the creation of spirituality as both discourse and practice in Japan, and its effects. It shows how the value of spirituality has been sustained by scholars who have wished for a more civic role for religion; by the publishing industry whose exponential growth in the 1980s fashioned a public later identified as the representatives of this "new spirituality culture"; by "spiritual therapists" who have sought to eke out a livelihood in an increasingly professionalized and regulated therapeutic field; and by the cruel optimism of an increasingly precarious workforce placing its hopes in the imagined alternative that the supirichuaru represents."-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents Figures Graphs Acknowledgements Note on naming conventions Introduction 1 Spiritual therapists 2 Spiritual academia 3 Print spirituality 4 Alternative therapies in the age of attention 5 Precarities in the spiritual business 6 Spirituality on trial Conclusion: Spirituality and the ‘alternative’ Japanese terms and names Notes Introduction 1 Spiritual therapists 2 Spiritual academia 3 Print spirituality 4 Alternative therapies in the age of attention 5 Precarities in the spiritual business 6 Spirituality on trial References Index