<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In line with socio-anthropological theories meant to deconstruct the secularization teleology (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_subbs-2016-0014_ref_001_w2aab2b8b4b1b7b1ab1b1b1Aa">Berger, 1997</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_subbs-2016-0014_ref_018_w2aab2b8b4b1b7b1ab1b1c18Aa">Luckmann, 1967</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_subbs-2016-0014_ref_023_w2aab2b8b4b1b7b1ab1b1c23Aa">Shah, 2015</xref>), this paper aims to document recent transformations in the field of Spirituality and Religion. Inheriting the analytical dichotomy between neo-liberal and anti-capitalist forms of spirituality, introduced by <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_subbs-2016-0014_ref_004_w2aab2b8b4b1b7b1ab1b1b4Aa">Carette and King (2005)</xref>, I aim to emphasize both the common points and the ruptures between the subjectification technologies used within transformative self-development and self-help programmes, on the one hand, and a form of alternative Neo-Pagan spirituality, which opposes the capitalist way of organizing social, economic, political and cultural life, on the other hand. The rupture between anti-capitalist and neo-liberal forms of spirituality rests on identifying the extent to which the spiritual domain is colonized by an economically mundane ideology, in which the subject is invited to look upon spirituality as an internal resource meant to satisfy all the tropes of the neo-liberal economic imagery: optimization, efficiency, amplified productivity, abundance and prosperity. In addition to the ethnographic justification of this theoretical construct that supports the existence of two opposed poles of constituting a spiritual self, I will adjoin the cultural relationship between spirituality and capitalism to the wider problem of secularization, by arguing that spirituality is a byproduct of late modernity and a leitmotif of the power technologies through which the neo-liberal subject is produced. <xref ref-type="fn" rid="j_subbs-2016-0014_fn_001_w2aab2b8b4b1b7b1ab1aaAa"><sup>2</sup></xref></p></abstract>

In line with socio-anthropological theories meant to deconstruct the secularization teleology (Berger, 1997; Luckmann, 1967; Shah, 2015), this paper aims to document recent transformations in the field of Spirituality and Religion. Inheriting the analytical dichotomy between neo-liberal and anti-capitalist forms of spirituality, introduced by Carette and King (2005), I aim to emphasize both the common points and the ruptures between the subjectification technologies used within transformative self-development and self-help programmes, on the one hand, and a form of alternative Neo-Pagan spirituality, which opposes the capitalist way of organizing social, economic, political and cultural life, on the other hand. The rupture between anti-capitalist and neo-liberal forms of spirituality rests on identifying the extent to which the spiritual domain is colonized by an economically mundane ideology, in which the subject is invited to look upon spirituality as an internal resource meant to satisfy all the tropes of the neo-liberal economic imagery: optimization, efficiency, amplified productivity, abundance and prosperity. In addition to the ethnographic justification of this theoretical construct that supports the existence of two opposed poles of constituting a spiritual self, I will adjoin the cultural relationship between spirituality and capitalism to the wider problem of secularization, by arguing that spirituality is a byproduct of late modernity and a leitmotif of the power technologies through which the neo-liberal subject is produced. 2

The Quest for the Spiritual Self: Anti-Capitalist and Neo-Liberal Forms of Spirituality in Contemporary Romania

PhD Candidate in Sociology at Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca

Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

In line with socio-anthropological theories meant to deconstruct the secularization teleology (Berger, 1997; Luckmann, 1967; Shah, 2015), this paper aims to...

The Quest for the Spiritual Self: Anti-Capitalist and Neo-Liberal Forms of Spirituality in Contemporary Romania

Published Online: Jan 27, 2017

Page range: 145 - 164

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/subbs-2016-0014

Keywords
modernity, secularization teleology, personal/spiritual development, Neo-Paganism, (anti)capitalist forms of spirituality

© 2016 Cristine Palaga, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Quest for the Spiritual Self: Anti-Capitalist and Neo-Liberal Forms of Spirituality in Contemporary Romania

Published Online: Jan 27, 2017

Page range: 145 - 164

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/subbs-2016-0014

Keywordsmodernity, secularization teleology, personal/spiritual development, Neo-Paganism, (anti)capitalist forms of spirituality

© 2016 Cristine Palaga, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
modernity, secularization teleology, personal/spiritual development, Neo-Paganism, (anti)capitalist forms of spirituality