What do young people believe when they don’t believe? If the study of religious material culture posits objects as both windows into understanding traditions over time and also forces that actively shape traditions, what then of people who question and seek meaning outside of the bounds of religion? What do these spiritual but not religious people hold, quite literally hold in their hands as physical objects, as sacred or meaningful? By looking at such objects, we might better understand the nonbeliefs and beliefs of this growing population, and thus how to better support their spiritual lives.

 

Scholars are fascinated by the increasing population of individuals who identify with various categories of non-religiosity. On a demographic questionnaire about religion, these individuals often check “none” or "nothing in particular” but may also check "atheist" or “agnostic.” They also might still name their experience somewhat through the lens of their religious upbringing, perhaps due to cultural or familial ties. Regardless of the label used, this percentage of individuals that do not name affiliation with a specific religion or belief tradition is increasing. The most recent Pew Research Center religious landscape study highlights that “religious nones” are now the single largest category of religion reported when traditions are broken down by denomination; if the United States had 100 people, 29 of them would be religiously unaffiliated, versus 23 evangelical Protestants and 19 Catholics. Despite their non-religiosity, the majority of these individuals do maintain a significant spiritual life. Pew Research Center indicates that 49% of "nones” say that spirituality is very important to them, a perspective often referred to in the social sciences as Spiritual but Not Religious. Despite all of this qualitative research, there is little to no understanding of the frameworks, values, and experiences that make up the experiences of these “nones.”

 

Through the lens of material culture, Unbelievers displays a multitude of experiences within the category of Spiritual but Not Religious. Unbelievers features objects from students at Northwestern University who self-identified as spiritual outside of a formal religious tradition or belief system, students who articulated their spiritual framework in varying ways, for example “gray space,” “love in suffering,” and “growing.” The objects submitted by these students to Unbelievers point to a variety of meaning-making methods that are personalized by the individual as they journey through life, being shaped by and shaping their world. Many students submitted objects directly tied to their religious tradition of origin, with object usage or understanding transformed through their own agency. Some students mapped their values onto objects that appear daily and mundane, though others mapped them onto objects with significance across society. A repeated theme across many objects was a relationship to art-making for instance, writing, painting, and taking photos. The prominence of such objects feels central to understanding this population: Spiritual but not Religious individuals are creating their own ways of believing. The students in this exhibition are writing their own stories and their own definitions of spirituality, reclaiming and redefining preconceived ideas of religion, ritual, and practice to craft their own understanding.

 

There are a plethora of preconceived notions and critiques of the marker Spiritual but Not Religious. These include the judgement that without religion there is a lack of structure or a lack of accountability to a moral compass. One of the most significant critiques is that the non-religious seem to be experiencing an absence of something, specifically an absence of frameworks for finding meaning and purpose. Examining the material culture that students submitted to Unbelievers demonstrates a vibrancy that negates this critique, and points to for meaning-rich reflections and practices within this non-tradition.

These students whose objects are featured in Unbelievers are unraveling who they are and where they come from. These individuals are undefined by labels except they ones of their own invention. They are ‘unbelievers’ in that they are moving away from existing categories of belief. But these objects prove that though these individuals do not believe in the traditional sense, they hold belief in the meanings that they have made for themselves.