‘I try not to save my soul, but to understand it’

Young adults from Finland, Poland and Russia on a spiritual quest

Authors

• Polina Vrublevskaya Åbo Akademi University; St Tikhon's Orthodox University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7005-9591

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.111048

Keywords:

spiritual quest, individualization, post-Christendom, self-actualization, seekership habitus, young adults

Abstract

This article presents a comparative study of the experiences of young adults on a spiritual quest in cultural and religious contexts where they have not yet been properly studied, that is Lutheran Finland, Roman Catholic Poland and Orthodox Russia. The study seeks to contribute to the further refinement of the concept of spiritual quest in order to enhance its utility and applicability across different cultural and religious contexts. The analysis revealed several aspects inherent in spiritual quest but which can be variously experienced and manifested in different constellations. This article shows that although each individual might deliver their own logic of ‘being on a quest’, separate cases can be compared on the basis of the concept of the seekership habitus, as presented in this study. The chosen framework of individualization on the one hand and the concept of seekership habitus on the other helps to reveal the duality of the phenomenon of spiritual quest, which is somewhat overlooked in scholarly debates on the topic.