Limits to Knowledge with Existential Significance: An Outline for the Exploration of Post-secular Spirituality of Relevance to Qualitative Research

Abstract

This chapter is a truncated report on the second part of a three-part project I am currently working on. I am interested in post-secular frameworks for understanding spirituality, and its relevance to social research. By a post-secular understanding of spirituality, I mean an understanding of what is broadly referred to as spiritual in the West, but which emphasizes limits to knowledge and their existential significance. I do not mean anything having to do with metaphysics or religion or the idea of nonmaterial substances, beings, or entities aside from their importance as metaphors for what cannot be represented. I believe that this investigation has much relevance to social research, especially qualitative social research.