Introductory notes for readers of this thesis - Theses - Flinders ...

inability or unwillingness of the established religions to recognise the validity of the newexpressions of spiritual impulse on the other, put the culture at risk.Tacey is particularly concerned that, without proper guidance and support, the spiritualimpulse will express itself destructively when it resurfaces after long decades ofrepression under the ascendency of scientific rationalism and positive secular liberalism.Fascism, and other kinds of fanatical behaviour, including religiousfundamentalism, racism and cults, are to be expected if spiritual energy is nottransformed by culture, or guided into humane forms by tradition. If notrecognized by culture, it will be taken by dangerous ‘subcultures’, who willexploit the spiritual vitality for power, corruption and domination 42 .Essentially, Tacey is calling for the culture as a whole to recognise the re-emergentspiritual impulse, to care about its meaning, to make a place for it at the centre, and torediscover a new public language to express the relationship to the sacred. He is alsocalling the Christian community (of which he himself is a member) and other faithcommunities to get on board, sharing the resources of their respective traditions andexpertise rather than judging a spirituality that does not fit their pre-determinedtheological constructs from a distance.More recently, Tacey’s view of a ‘spirituality revolution’ has been criticised by theresearch team who conducted the ‘spirituality of generation Y’ project (2003–07) 43 asbeing overly optimistic about young people’s interest in spirituality. However, comparingthe findings of the research 44 and the questionnaire designs 45 with Tacey’s own critiqueof general religious survey questioning techniques 46 suggests the issue is more one ofapproach and interpretation than of actual differences in substance. The Gen Yresearchers tend to conclude that the spiritual impulse is over-rated by Tacey becausetheir own findings show that very few Australian young people are actually involved in42 Ibid, 28.43 See P. Hughes, Putting life together—findings from Australian youth spirituality Research (Fairfield,Vic: Fairfield Press, 2007) and M. Mason , A. Singleton & R. Webber, The spirit of generation Y—youngpeople’s spirituality in a changing Australia, (Melbourne : John Garratt Publishing, 2007).44 See http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/ccls/sppub/sppub.htm for a summary of the key findings (linkvalid at time of writing, 6.01.09).45 See list of tables in Mason et al.46 See Spirituality revolution, 13-14.196