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Inner space identity might at first appear to be similar to the individual type in that the religious or
spiritual identity is focused on the individual, but whereas in the previous type, individuals go
beyond themselves to find their religious identity, in this type, they go within themselves to realize
their ‘‘true self ’’. The inner location may be advocated by Eastern religions, especially Types of
Buddhism, as well as by mystical traditions within Christianity, Islam and Judaism. But there are
also the holistic and/or New Age spiritualities that have become increasingly popular in the West,
where the challenge to other religions can lie in a ‘‘subjectivization’’ of one’s world-view, where,
as with cosmic religions, there is a breakdown or denial of boundaries, rules and external
authority.
The Virtual Location
My final, virtual, type is the only genuinely new location. It provides the opportunity of an identity
that the individual can find or create in virtual space on the Worldwide Web. Here boundaries can
be utterly permeable; others may never locate the ‘‘real’’ person. One’s roles, status, age, gender,
race, nationality—and religion—are all negotiable. Boundaries cease to be socially constructed in
any direct sense and become instead constructs of the individual’s imagination.
Conclusion
Ideal types do not attempt to describe reality in and by themselves; they are tools that are
constructed in order to help us to recognize and compare different manifestations of reality and, as
such, are more or less useful rather than more or less true. It would, of course, be possible to
elaborate the types I have outlined, both by introducing new types altogether and by creating types
that straddle two or more of those that I have already suggested. Grace Davie has, for example,
suggested that there could be a‘‘regional’’ type, which would fall somewhere between the national
and local types.
Religion has long been used to create boundaries that include and exclude by offering identities
which distinguish ‘‘us’’ from ‘‘them’’—or attempt to dissolve distinctions between ‘‘us’’ and
‘‘them’’. One of the methods used to reinforce a particular way of belonging has been through use
of the concept of nationhood. But there are other locations for religious identities. In some
instances the boundaries between ‘‘them’’ and ‘‘us’’ would seem to be almost completely
impenetrable, yet these boundaries can be and are penetrated. In other situations it would seem as
though the boundaries have been dissolved, yet their very dissolution may give rise to alternative
boundaries that challenge both rigidity and fluidity. In locating religious identities, as with all
other aspects of life, we need to draw the line somewhere. But how and where it is drawn can lead
to very different consequences and to very different challenges for both ‘‘them’’ and ‘‘us’’.
Social Compass, 2006, 53
http://scp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/53/2/201
Papal visit scuppered by scholars
Sunday, January 20th, 2008
Tuesday, 15 January 2008