Spirituality of Homo ludens urbanus
Doctor Pasi Mäenpää, University of Helsinki, FinlandThe globalising way of life of today is based on individual consumption in urban settings. Shopping can be approached as a significant practise of orienting oneself in society both materially, symbolically and socially. The world of consumables has extended to cover immaterial ‘goods’. According to my study shopping involves especially two types of mental activity: chance taking and mimicry. These are both basic elements of play and games, but they are not far from the main essence of religion, either. If our culture is filled with playfulness, what does it mean to religiousness? Is ‘New Age’ really about belief or is it about imagining as if? Empirically speaking, urbanity intertwines with consumption in phenomena such as prolonged youth, blurring of the public and the private, urban and global tolerance, sexuality as identity formation, live action role playing and ideology/business of ‘wellness’. All these involve individual ethics which has also a spiritual dimension. The discussion will conclude with Colin Campbell’s recent argument of ‘the Easternization of the West’. Has God moved from heaven to nature? Or inside me?