S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 2 2 5 Gurpyari Bhatnagar Notes [1] The term anagogy generally relates to themes of divine beings and indicates a spiritual or mystical interpretation of statements and events. However, Northrop Frye provides a liberated view of anagogic criticism in the chapter Theory of Symbols of Anatomy of Criticism. He contends that though anagogic perspective is usually used to analyze works that directly relate to religion such as T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, where “the words of the poet are placed within the context of the incarnate Word,” the writings of Rilke are equally useful in this context, which are “explicitly not Christian and illustrate the independence of the anagogic perspective of the poet’s attempt to speak from the circumference instead of from the center of reality, from the acceptance of any specific religion” (Frye 1957, 122). [2] The terms, religion and spirituality have been used in view of how these have been explored in research. Contrary to the term spirituality, religion has been defined in a fairly consistent manner over the years. Lawton (1930, 45), for example, defines religion as not “merely a philosophy or theoretical faith”; he asserts it is a “practical one and requires an organization, officers, and services”. Durkheim (1995, 44) gives a similar definition when he asserts that religion is a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things” which “unite into one single moral community called a Church”. A recent study also emphasizes on institutional spaces, involving ritual practices, beliefs, and actions as the basis of religion (Smith 2019, 22). In the past, religion and spirituality were understood as one. However, in the contemporary scholarship, not many researchers view the two as interchangeable. Lederberg and Fitchett (1999, 375) for instance, consider spirituality as a “search for the sacred or divine” but not through an established institution. Hubert Knoblanch (2010, 24) also explains it as a “new form of religiosity’’, which poses an “alternative to religion”. Interestingly both the definitions are formulated vis-à-vis religiosity only. Additionally, the contemporary research on spirituality has been so diversified that the term is independently explored in view of “well-being” (Villani et al. 2019, 6), “quest for meaning” (Baker 2003, 52), “connectedness to oneself” (Kasapoğlu 2022, 767) and “connectedness to others” (Türkben 2021, 12) amongst others. Coelho too regards the subjects of spirituality and religion as two independent concepts. However, the author of the paper does not accept the compartmentalized division of the two; it instead endorses the views of Popp-Baier (2010, 59) and Streib and Hood (2011, 442), who have used the terms, “self-controlled religiosity” and “privatized experience-oriented religion” respectively in order to look at spirituality as part of religion. [3] Coelho recounts his experience of self-exploration during his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in The Pilgrimage (1987). Though not very successful, the book paved the way for the phenomenal success of his pivotal book, The Alchemist. A significant portion of The Zahir (2015) also describes his journey to self-discovery along the road to Santiago. Hippie (2019) is another spiritual road book where Santiago happens to be one of the stops. [4] It may be asserted that authoritarianism is not the attribute of an ideal religion or religious consciousness but the feature of established institutions of mainstream religions, their conventions, and rituals. This position is vehemently espoused in most of Coelho’s novels. For example, he reveals increased conservatism and decreased tolerance of priests of the church in Brida (2008), an idea which is elaborated in one of the following sections. [5] As we know, Joan of Arc was a simple peasant girl who was driven by the supernatural voices and visions to lead the French army and defeat the English: “The heavenly ladies, when they had told her their names, bade her help the king of France. This was a strange thing. She, a poor peasant maiden, humble and obscure, with no knowledge save of household matters and of tending sheep and cattle; what had she to do with kings?” (Richards 2014, 64).
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