The Spiritual Remainder: On Nonreligious Spiritual Yearning in the Twenty-First Century

This article responds to the demographic phenomenon of the growth of the so-called spiritual but not religious (SBNRs). We offer a philosophical analysis of the ways in which contemporary forms of nonreligious spirituality serve as avenues for fulfilling needs for sacredness, meaning, belonging, and/or transcendence. In the course of our argument, we critically engage with literature on the philosophy of spirituality; advance a phenomenological analysis of spiritual yearning, a key experience that we argue underwrites the drive toward nonreligious spirituality; and analyze different forms of nonreligious spiritual practice as expressions of what we call nonreligious spiritual yearning.