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Integral [+] Facticity

Last entry 2 November 2026

Podcast1 h 19 min

Robert Bellah & the Spiritual Turn w/ Galen Watts

Integral [+] Facticity, episode 13 of 21, with Galen Watts

First published on Acast, 15 October 2022, with show notes on Medium. All 21 episodes

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Episode details
Date
Length
1 h 19 min
Type
PodcastIntegral [+] Facticity, episode 13 of 21
People
Contents
  1. Overview
  2. Description
  3. Original episode
  4. References & Further Reading
Listen to episode 13, 1 h 19 min. The recording is served by Acast.

Overview

A sociological examination of contemporary spirituality and its relationship to liberal modernity, drawing on Galen Watts’s The Spiritual Turn. The conversation explores Robert Bellah, romantic liberalism, disenchantment, civil religion and the religion of the heart. Further themes include field research in Alcoholics Anonymous, multicultural recognition and the liberal–communitarian debate.

Description

The contemporary language of spirituality often seems individual and private. Galen Watts asks us to look more closely at the social and historical world behind it. A Canadian cultural sociologist who studied under Will Kymlicka, Galen joins me to discuss The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity. He recounts personal difficulties during his philosophy studies at Queen's, his encounter with Robert Bellah's Habits of the Heart, and the influence of Max Weber, Charles Taylor and Jason Josephson Storm on debates about disenchantment.

Why call this development “romantic liberalism” rather than postmodernity? We explore Galen's distinction between the private religion of the heart and Bellah's civil religion, along with what a year of fieldwork in an Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship revealed about spirituality. The conversation closes with recognition, multiculturalism, the liberal–communitarian debate, transcendence and Matteo Bortolini's biography of Bellah.

Original episode

Title as published
Robert Bellah & the Spiritual Turn w/ Galen Watts
Published
Length
1 h 19 min
Guest
Galen Watts
Series
Integral [+] Facticity, episode 13 of 21

References & Further Reading