Notes on categorization of SBNRs into various types by L. Mercadante in her book Belief Without Boarders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious”
Linda A. Mercadante points out in her book Belief Without Boarders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious that people unaffiliated with organized religion are an understudied group. There have been several attempts to arrange them into categories, as, for example, Robert Fuller who proposed in his Spiritual but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America to divide the unchurched group into the totally indifferent, those with ambiguous relationship with organized religion, and the actual spiritual but not religious. Mercadante, though, looked even closer into the SBNR group and drew the distinctive categories within it.
Understanding that there are several different types of people who identify themselves as spiritual but not religious (SBNR) may be useful in avoiding the pitfalls of stereotypical views on the SBNR community in general. I deliberately permit myself a rough comparison, with the emphasis on one particular side: in some way understanding different types of SBNR is similar to understanding that Hinduism includes different currents, such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Smartism, and a variety of sub-currents; in the same way as Christianity includes Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Lutheran, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and a variety of other denominations.
If we look at Hinduism or Christianity as a whole, we recognize major concepts of the belief that are shared by all the currents and denominations within it, and yet each denomination has something unique for their particular spiritual group. I see the categories of SBNR in a somewhat similar light. While all SBNR would agree to the same major concepts, such as prioritizing of personal growth over group identity, a relocation of authority from external to internal, a belief that all religions teach the same things, and repulsion towards the judgmentalism, dogmatism, and exclusivism of organized religions, each of the types characterized by Mercadante has their own goals and approach to their spiritual path.
After interviewing a large number of adults from various backgrounds and age groups Mercadante proposed dividing them into five types: Dissenters, Casuals, Explorers, Seekers, and Immigrants. Those, who mostly stayed away from institutional religion due to some bad experience or theological differences she names Dissenters. These people usually had some religious background and a history of drifting away from it.
Another group of SBNR approached the spiritual and religious practices mostly on an “as-needed” basis and discarded them when no longer necessary. Spirituality for these people was never central in their lives, and Mercadante named this type Casuals. People from this group usually had little or no religious exposure in their lives.
A very similar group of SBNR was named Explorers. The main difference between them and the Casuals is that spirituality is central in their lives. At the same time, they don’t expect to settle down permanently within one particular type of spirituality, continuously trying something new, acting more like tourists.
The group that was actually looking for some type of spirituality within which they could settle permanently, were named Seekers. This group of SBNR longs to belong to some spiritual group, but have not found the right one yet and usually feel quite frustrated by the search. Finally, the last group identified by Mercadante was named the Immigrants. These are the interviewees who had “immigrated” from one spiritual group to another. Usually they were trying to adjust to a new approach to spirituality and often experienced some difficulties.
The above descriptions show how different SBNR people are. Probably, there are even more than five types and even more sub-categories within those types. The point here is that understanding these types can help dissolve the stereotypes and common assumption about this community.
For example, while the stereotype holds that most of the SBNR people had had some terrible experience with organized religion, Mercadante found that the type that had such experience, the Dissenters, made up a fairly small percentage of the total of the interviewees. A very large percentage of the interviewees, in fact, was made up of the Casuals type, the group who had little or no exposure to religion in their lives.
Another regular assumption is that SBNR are all in search of a permanent spiritual home. The research shows that the percentage of the type that Mercadante called Seekers, who actually are looking for a spiritual community that they could join, is really very small.
Probably, the only stereotypical assumption that proved to be right was that the Immigrants type, the ones who “moved” from one religious group to another, made up the smallest percentage of the interviewees.
Thus, as always, when digging into a large group and exploring its different sub-groups, we are able to grasp at least superficially the complexity of the movement that is happening in the spiritual field of the US and the World. Mercadante’s research made it evident that many mistakes are made by both the religious and non-religious people in their assumptions about SBNR people. This is why breaking down the large group into smaller sub-groups is a useful exercise to, if not learn precisely what each group does and wants, at least expand the general idea about the larger group and overcome the common stereotypes.
Mercadante proposes, that based on her research religious people can stop thinking that all of the SBNR have been hurt by religion in some way and discontinue the search for the right “improvements” to their practice that would attract these “nones”.
Another important stereotype that has been broken down by Mercadante’s research is the assumption that all SBNR don’t take religion seriously. The interviews showed that most of the SBNR people respected religious teachings, and the primary reason for them to “leave” religion was theological.
Finally, the most important conclusion that can be drawn from Mercadante’s categorization of the SBNR community is the confirmation of the variety of thoughts and experiences within it, which should help the readers avoid future generalizations.