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Humanities
Spirituality in Society and the Professions Research Group

The members of the Spirituality in Society and the Professions (SpirSoP) Research Group examine how to bring the academic study of spirituality into engagement with social and professional contexts through first / second / third person methods of enquiry.. 'Spirituality' is used in a broad range of contexts including established religions and wisdom traditions; professional settings such as education, medicine, health and social care; leadership, management and workplace studies; as well as in healing therapies, life-coaching, and personal and professional development.

In the context of this exponential interest in Spirituality the SpirSoP Research Group will focus on activities in a number of key dimensions of this emerging field of studies where applied research and practice contribute to social and cultural developments in the South East and also contribute to the enhancement of national policies in areas of health, ecology, wellbeing, leadership, tourism and education. In line with SETU Waterford Research Strategy 2020-2023 the aim is to create a substantial centre of excellence “for world-class research in which individual scholars……are given maximum freedom to pursue their investigations"

The SpirSoP Research Group provides a unique opportunity for a trans-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary exploration of diverse contemporary expressions of spirituality. The research therefore has great potential for meaningful impact in society.

Areas for Research Postgraduate Students at MA or PhD Level can include such themes as:

  • Greening the Practice of Spiritual Direction
  • Exploring Spirituality Programmes which transform an Addiction Journey
  • Investigating the contribution of Contemplative Arts – Presencing, Attentiveness, Awareness, Silence to the Practice of Leadership
  • Developing Discernment Procedures for corporate / not-for-profit decision making.
  • Designing models for Spiritual Autobiography
  • Delineating Soul Pain and Soul Care in diverse contexts
  • Creating models of Meditation for various stages of the LifeCycle
  • Implementing Visio Divina in the Art / Sculpture / Architecture / Cinema
  • Examine spirituality expressions in contemporary pilgrimage

Contact:  Dr. Bernadette Flanagan   Email: [email protected]

Spirituality Institute

The members of SpirSoP and Associated Research expertise:

THREE YEAR PLAN 2021 – 2024 (in collaboration with SpIRE www.spiritualityinstitute.ie)

1. To host annual research international event in one of the Substantive Areas of Research of the Research Group; in collaboration with a cognate international network, where possible.

2. To build collaborative research links across schools across Schools in SETU Waterford

3. To cultivate a network of relationships with communities and agencies associated with research taking place in the Research Group e.g HSE National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders & BodyWhys - the national support group for people with eating disorders

4. To maintain the research-informed teaching in the of modules of the MA in Applied Spirituality, and provide modules from the MA for the structured doctorate.

5. To recruit a balance of research MA / PhD students – both self-funded and scholarship-funded.

6. To provide master classes in discipline-specific research methodologies.

7. To advance the international expertise of group members in the field of Spirituality as an academic discipline through promoting research and publications, in the form of monographs, edited volumes, journal articles and reports.

8. To Identify and win cognate grants

9. To host international speaker events for the key research themes

Recent Spirituality publications include

Paul Clogher

The Space Between: Pasolini’s Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo and the Mediation of Scripture.” Biblical Interpretation (forthcoming, 2021).  

The Cinema of Contemplation: Paul Schrader’s First Reformed,” Reality November 2019.

The Sacred within the Profane: Cinema and Christian Identity,' Psycho-Logik: Jahrbuch für Psychotherapie, Philosophie und Kultur vol. 13. (Freiburg/München: Verlag Karl Abler, 2018).

Re-writing the Gospel: Cinema and Scripture in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.' In The Cultural Reception of the Bible: Explorations in Theology, Literature and the Arts (Festschrift), eds. Salvador Ryan and Liam Tracey OSM (Dublin: Four Courts, 2018). 

Moving Texts: A Hermeneutics of the Gospel according to Hollywood,' Harvard Theological Review 111, no. 3 (2018).   

Through a Lens, Darkly: Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror,' Reality, October 2017.

(with Tom Boland) 'A Genealogy of Critique: From Parrhesia to Prophecy,' Critical Research on Religion 5, no. 2 (2017). 

Bernadette Flanagan

The New Monasticism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism, ed. B.M. Kaczynski. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020 .

&Pilgrimage: Spirituality on the Move."  Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, vol. 19 no. 2, 2019, p. 181-198

Research as Spiritual Practice”. Mysterion: Rivista di Ricerca in Teologia Spirituale 12/2 (2019): 397- 402

Co-Editor: The Routledge International Handbook of Spirituality in Society and the Professions (London: Routledge, 2019)  Co-editor with Laszlo Zsolani.

The Renewal of Contemplative Traditions: New Monasticism and Quotidian Practices.” In Mystical Theology and Contemporary Spiritual Practice, ed. C.C.H. Cook, et. al., London: Routledge, 2018.

The phenomenon of presence in spiritual care: a tapestry of themes. Spiritual Care, 7(2)/ 2018, pp. 169-179 .doi:10.1515/spircare-2016-0203.  Co-authored with Martina Corrigan

Developing Agreed and Accepted Understandings of Spirituality and Spiritual Care Concepts among Members of an Innovative Spirituality Interest Group in the Republic of Ireland: Case Report”. Religions 7/1 (2016), 1-19 Co-author with Fiona Timmins, Maryanne Murphy, Sílvia Caldeira, et al.

Spirituality in Contemporary Ireland: Manifesting Indigeneity.” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality (Spring 2016): 55-73. Co-Author with Michael O’Sullivan.

Serenity Spirituality Sessions: A Descriptive Qualitative Exploration of a Christian Resource Designed to Foster Spiritual Well-Being among Older People in Nursing Homes in Ireland.” Religions 6/2 (2015): 299-316. Link: Co-author with Fiona Timmins, Suzanne Kelly, Mary Threadgold, and Michael O’Sullivan.

Noelia Molina

Spirituality, Motherhood and Culture. Routledge Publishers. March 2019.

Molina, Noelia. “Blending Organic and Intuitive Research Methods: Spiritual Transformation”. Mysterion: Rivista di Ricerca in Teologia Spirituale 12/2 (2019): 403 – 410.

Integrating Choices: ‘Being there for my Children’ and ‘Being a Citizen Worker’: Irish Survey on Stay-at-Home Mothers, in Stay-at-Home Mothers: Dialogues and Debates, Demeter Press, 2015

Religious Vocations in Ireland: Challenges and Opportunities. A research project carried out on behalf of Vocations Ireland organization, Dublin and funded by the Hilton Group. 2017.

Michael O’Sullivan

 "Reflexive and Transformative Subjectivity: Authentic Spirituality and a Journey with Incest.” In Sources of Transformation: Revitalising Christian Spirituality, edited by Edward Howells and Peter Tyler, 173-82. London and New York: Continuum, 2010.

"Authentic Spirituality and Spiritual Capital." In Sacrality and Materiality, edited by Rebecca Giselbrecht and Ralph Kunz, 45-53. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015.Authentic Spirituality and Spiritual Capital." In Sacrality and Materiality, edited by Rebecca Giselbrecht and Ralph Kunz, 45-53. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015.

"Authentic Subjectivity as a Methodology for Studying Spirituality”. Mysterion: Rivista di Ricerca in Teologia Spirituale 12/2 (2019): 271 - 278

"Authentic Subjectivity and Social Transformation”. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 72(4), a3452, http://dx.doi. org/10.4102/hts.v72i4.3452.

"Jesus' Spirituality of Authentic Subjectivity and COVID-19's Shadow Pandemic". Spiritus (Spring 2021): 80-107