Dr. Wendy Dossett

Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Chester

Biography: Dr Wendy Dossett is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and Programme Director of the
MA Religious Studies at the University of Chester. She is a former Associate Director of the Alister
Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre. She has published in the fields of Buddhist Studies,
Religious Education and Recovery Spirituality, and her research seeks to expose the constructed and
intersecting nature of the categories ‘religion’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘the secular’. She is Principal
Investigator of The Higher Power Project; a large qualitative project exploring spirituality amongst
people in twelve-step recovery from addictions. Her most recent publication in this field is ‘Twelve
Step Mutual Aid: Spirituality, Vulnerability and Recovery.’ In S. Harvey, S. Steidinger, & J. Beckford
(Eds.), New Religious Movements and Counselling: Academic, Professional and Personal Perspectives,
New York; London: Routledge, 2018.

‘Non-religion & spirituality in Wales: Some Perspectives from the Addiction Recovery Movement
and Beyond’

Abstract: As elsewhere in Europe, the number of people in Wales identifying in surveys and censuses
as non-religious has grown. Surveys give the impression of a zero-sum game: gains to one group are
losses to another. This paper argues such a quantitative orientation provides an unproductive view of
the nature of the contemporary landscape of belief and meaning. The term ‘non-religion’ (Lee 2015)
disguises numerous styles of agnosticism and atheism, a range of intensity of engagement with or
against religion, as well as diverse forms of spirituality and existential meaning-making, some of
which, in this context, are distinctively Welsh in tone. This paper contends that qualitatively opposing
religious and non-religious forms of meaning-making (as both religious and non-religious people are
prone to do) may result in opportunities for dialogue being lost. The claim that religious meaning is
life-changing and liberative in ways that non-religious meaning-making cannot be is challenged by
reference to the contemporary spirituality of the addiction recovery movement. The paper argues
that ‘faith’ focused dialogue may miss more productive and inclusive ‘meaning’ focused
opportunities.

 

Here is her video presentation.