Religion and Spirituality: History, Discourse, Measurement

The recent spate of attention that funders, administrators and researchers have given to undergraduates' religious and spiritual lives has led to new questions and ideas about the ways that religious identities and understandings influence campus life. It is likely, given this attention, that these studies will prompt new initiatives on numerous campuses that acknowledge and address students' religious engagements in novel ways. Before moving too far into conversations about how students' identities and proclivities impact campus life, and how college programs and curricula might be sensitive to these aspects of students' lives, it is important to take a close look at what these terms mean, and more specifically, how recent social scientific surveys of religion on campus define and shape our perceptions of religious and spiritual engagements.