Eating Ethically: 'Spiritual' and 'Quasi-religious' Aspects of Vegetarianism (original) (raw)
2000, Journal of Contemporary Religion
Much contemporary belief and behaviour that is not ostensibly religious has yet been peceived to have religious overtones. A variety of terms such as 'invisibe religion', 'implicit religion' and 'quasi-religion' have been used to characterise them. This article examines vegetarianism and especially vegetarianism based upon ethical concerns in oder to ascertain the extent to which it can be said to exhibit religious or spiritual themes in its ideology and underlying its motives. A number of 'quasi-religious' themes including taboo and avoidance behaviour, reverence for life, the denial of death, reincarnation, observance of disciplines and the rejection of domination and oppression are found to characterise ethical vegetarianism. Support for these conclusions is found in the data from a survey of vegetarians carried out in the Reading area of South Eastern England some results of which are presented and discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the approriateness of using concepts such as 'quasi-religion'. It is argued that although such terms are currently useful they must in the longer term be replaced by concepts which do not imply that such behaviour is a form of religion nor which characterise it always in relation to religion but which recognise its own distinctive and essentially nonreligious character.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.