Spirituality Studies 9-2 Fall 2023 19 Sára Eszter Heidl Sára Eszter Heidl earned her BA in Sociology and her MA in Religious Studies at the University of Szeged, Hungary. She is currently a PhD researcher at the Max Weber Kolleg (Erfurt, Germany) and the University of Graz (Austria) in the interdisciplinary research programme International Graduate School: Resonant Self-World Relations. She is part of the research project Festival Religion (Fesztiválvallás) in Szeged and writes her dissertation on the topic Event Religion. Her email contact is sara.heidl@uni-erfurt.de. 1 Introduction This article is a conceptual analysis – based on the findings of empirical fieldwork –, that leads to the proposal of a new term, which I call “religionesque”. I introduce this term for use in (primarily) empirical research on alternative religion. In fieldwork, one can encounter the diversity of many different approaches to religion and spirituality, and alternative categories of religious self-identification, which can lead to confusion in the analysis of empirical findings. The many forms of non-religious spiritual, and religion-related beliefs and approaches suggest a gap between the religious, spiritual and secular understandings. Concepts such as pseudo-religion, quasi-religion, re-enchantment, and the notion of the sacred have been and are being used to bridge this gap, and they work in certain settings. However, my observations are that they are not always fully adequate. This study proposes an umbrella term that would help to overcome this problem and build a bridge between the religious/spiritual and the non-religious/non-spiritual categories. The first part of the study explains the limitations of empirical research on alternative forms of religion. The second part discusses the difficulties of defining religion, presents previously proposed and useful concepts for describing alternative religious forms, and describes complications with the term spirituality. The third part presents “religionesque” as an umbrella term and explains its creation process, usefulness and limitations. 2 The Limits of Empirical Research Many different approaches to traditional, institutionalised religion and everyday religion can be observed in empirical studies of contemporary religion in Hungary, and more generally in Western and Central-Eastern Europe. Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of new religious movements, New Age influenced movements, alternative religious forms, spirituality, neo-pagan movements, and gatherings (Heelas 1997; Shimazono 1999; Clarke 2008; Gecewicz 2018). The meaning and interpretation of terms such as religious, spiritual, and mystical are constantly changing, leading to misunderstandings in different contexts. People’s belief systems are strongly influenced by 1) traditional religious forms such as Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, 2) Eastern religions and philosophies such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and 3) so-called alternative lifestyles such as alternative medicine, ←← William James
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