2025/06/11 by Anna Halafoff, Samantha Hauw, Tyson Yunkaporta · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Media, Religion, Digital Communication #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices #Religious Tourism and Spaces
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13617672.2025.2501594
openalex publication_date 2025/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/22
Since the turn of the twenty-first century, scholars of religion have focused considerable attention on the rise of religious diversity and the non-religious, particularly in Western secular societies. More recently, two parallel worldview trends have been increasingly observable and attracting significant scholarly attention. More people are identifying as spiritual, be they religious or not, and reporting a strong connection with nature, which may or may not be spiritual. Both phenomena are certainly evident in Australia and deeply linked to personal and planetary wellbeing. This article applies Indigenous studies and sociological theories of ‘relationality’ and ‘spiritual complexity’, to a case study of four contestants – one Indigenous, one Christian, one ‘buddhish’ and one ‘spiritual but not religious’ – in the reality TV survival programme Alone Australia, set in lutruwita [Tasmania]. This analysis provides further evidence of the spiritual diversity – Indigenous, religious and holistic – and strong nature connection among Australians. It also finds that being alone in nature, is actually deeply social and relational. In so doing, it contributes new insights to recent decolonising and multispecies turns in studies of religion, through expanding taxonomies of religion and spirituality to include more emphases on relational nature connection, non-action, and responsibility.