Losing My Religion

The subject of the present research presented in this book is the position of religion and spirituality in a culture characterised by individualism, more specifically expressive individualism, and the narcissism associated with it. On the one hand, it has been argued that, in an expressive-individualistic and narcissistic culture, there exists an aversion against institutions, also the religious ones; on the other hand, there are strong indications that people are adapting religion to individual designs. The emergence of spirituality is supposed to be an expression of this. Linked with this is the question what the position is of religious and spiritual coping, in particular in problems that are associated with the narcissistic habitus: boredom and anxiety. Is there, in managing this kind of problems, still a place for coping with a religious and spiritual character, or not? Losing my religion?