Spirituality of Everyday Life: Lived Experience of the Search for Meaning

“Spirituality of Everyday Life: Lived Experience of The Search for Meaning”

In his investigation, Meath Conlan examines the significance and meaning of people who claim to have spiritual experiences within the context of the involvement in daily life. He approaches this very important yet delicate topic by first examining his own life experiences. The thesis represents one researcher’s journey to find and portray a  conceptual language that is often thought of as ineffable. He grounds his inquiry in the interpretive tradition, following its core principles. This includes the assumption that the world is constructed by each knower/observer in terms of the subjective and inter-subjective dialogic exchanges. Symbolic meanings are important, as well as various forms of representation that assist in the deeper understanding of the phenomenon under study. In this tradition it is imperative that Meath Conlan situate himself in the text. In his “self-as-researcher” role he demonstrates a unique depth of analysis and interpretation as well as a keen sense of significant insight throughout the document. It is this rhetorical ability that allows him to seamlessly weave the theoretic discourses with the experiential portrayals, reminding readers often of the significant insights he has discovered. His interpretations are rich with conceptual and aesthetic understandings about spiritual aspects of everyday life.  Most important, his interpretations and analysis of the stories provide the verité for his interpretivist truth claims.

- Professor Noreen Garman, University of Pittsburgh

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Overall this is an excellent … sound and original work of scholarship. There are as yet few theses that use the heuristic methodology and whilst there are many theses that cover the topic of spirituality this work is unique in its focus on the lived experience of a number of Australian men and women.

A heuristic thesis places a huge demand on the resources of the researcher in insisting that they explore, draw on, and make explicit their own lived experience as well as that of their co-researchers. Meath Conlan’s success in presenting his own experiences of lived spirituality in such a clear and academic way is a key strength of this thesis.

- Dr William West, University of Manchester, UK

Note: This book will be available generally in 2010