Exploring Sexuality and Spirituality : An Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Field

In July of 2016 a diverse group of scholars met at Mansfield College, Oxford University (UK), to discuss ideas concerning sexuality and spirituality. Coming from six different continents — Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America — the scholars shared their research and exchanged observations about their papers in a deliberately interdisciplinary collective effort.

The following book represents a selection of the papers presented at Oxford University, as part of the conference ‘Exploring Sexuality and Spirituality’. Furthermore, this collection is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of study of sexuality and spirituality. The authors specialize in, and also interact within various disciplines, including Religious Studies, Theology, Anthropology, Sociology, Queer Studies, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, Architecture, and ancient spiritual practices such as Buddhism and Tantra, among others. This inaugural conference, ‘Exploring Sexuality and Spirituality’, was hosted by the team of InterDisciplinary.net — now known as Progressive Connexions. Brill presents this peer-reviewed collection which significantly contributes to augmenting diverse views, eliciting scholarly discourse, and promoting further interdisciplinary exploration.

As you will see the topics are wide and diverse, but all share a concern about exploring the two, arguably, most notable experiences of humankind: sexuality and spirituality. Our hope is that this text will serve as a beginning point for much more research and exploration.