Spirituality Studies 9-2 Fall 2023 25 Sára Eszter Heidl 6 Conclusion On the one hand, the widespread use of approaches, terms, concepts, and typologies to describe contemporary alternative religious phenomena provides a colourful palette for the study of certain settings where the many possibilities offered may be useful and necessary. On the other hand, the multiplicity of concepts leads to confusion in academic circles and in everyday life. The term I propose may seem new, but its origin in the Hungarian language and similarly constructed terms with the suffix -esque show that it does indeed exist. Moreover, its use suggests that there was an undiscovered bridge above the “new” concepts (re-enchantment, quasi-religion, pseudo-religion, etc.) that sought to fill the gap between the concepts of “religion”, “spirituality”, and the “secular”. This term religionesque has, of course, its own limitations. It cannot override certain functions of pre-existing concepts, such as the categorisation offered by re-enchantment or the institutional frameworks of pseudo-religions and quasi-religions. Moreover, it is not a category of self-identification, which is a subjective choice of the individual. It is important to stress its usefulness in empirical research, its necessity in sociological, ethnographic, and cultural anthropological case studies and fieldwork. It can serve as an umbrella term for many concepts used by researchers and the research subjects (who have different understandings of such terms) to enable empirical analysis. It can provide a description of the phenomena that occur between the religious and the non-religious, the spiritual and the non-spiritual, where existing terms are inadequate. It can replace undefined or non-scientific terms such as religion-related and religion-like but should be used in conjunction with traditional concepts such as religion and spirituality, and with self-classification categories. Finally, the term religionesque experience offers a transient notion between resonant relationships and religious experiences. Notes [1] On this issue, especially in relation to religious experience, Ann Taves has very insightful ideas and observations (Taves 2009, section 3). [2] Focusing on the CEE region, the project The Re-Enchantment of Central-Eastern Europe at the Institut Sociologických Studií, Charles University, Prague, CZ, is currently working on the topic (2020–2023): iss.fsv.cuni.cz/en/research/funding/research-projects/re-enchantment-central-eastern-europe-reencheu. [3] I came across this problem at the Everness Festival in Hungary, where I conducted interviews and questionnaires on spirituality and related topics with several participants (2016–2021). [4] I used the term “religionesque” in the context of festival experiences and practices in a Hungarian setting (Heidl 2023), which I am currently writing about in detail in my forthcoming dissertation in English. Online access to the research project: https://www.uni-erfurt.de/ max-weber-kolleg/personen/vollmitglieder/doktorandinnen/heidl-sara-eszter. [5] In the figure above, the term “religious experience” is borrowed from William James (James 1982). He also uses the term “mystical experience” when describing it as something independent of religions. Therefore, this experience can be called religious, mystical, spiritual, etc., depending on what the experiencer calls it. In this model, I prefer to use the term religious, to emphasise the distinction between religious and religionesque experiences. Acknowledgements This research was carried out in the context of and funded by the DFG-funded International Graduate School Resonant SelfWorld Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices (GRK 2283) at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies and the University of Graz. Special thanks to my supervisors, Prof. Dr. Hartmut Rosa and Prof. DDr. Franz Winter, and my mentor, Prof. Dr. Karl Baier.
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