I will share preliminary findings from my research on the spiritual lives of the religiously unaffiliated—Nones—at the Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry, April 23-26 at Princeton Theological Seminary. Drawing on interviews and narrative surveys with self-identified Nones across the United States, I will discuss practices of meaning-making, self-realization, and self-transcendence that Nones describe as durably meaningful and how these practices shape complex, secularized religious constructs of spiritual identity. The lecture will highlight in particular my research on practices of prayer among Nones, as these suggest an emerging spiritual epistemology that speaks to wider shifts in American spirituality and religion.

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