Awe tout court: Neither Religious Nor Spiritual

This article argues that awe is not inherently a religious or spiritual emotion. Drawing on psychological research, it adopts Keltner and Haidt’s two-component model of awe as a response to perceived vastness that triggers a need for cognitive accommodation. The article argues that the categorization of an awe experience as religious or non-religious, spiritual or non-spiritual entirely depends on the cognitive resources used by the awestruck subject in attempting to accommodate awe. To distinguish between religious, spiritual, and neither religious nor spiritual variants of awe, the article introduces working definitions of religion and spirituality. Religious awe involves reference to supernatural transcendence; spiritual awe emphasizes personal meaning and authenticity. In contrast, the expression “awe tout court” is introduced to refer to awe experiences that do not involve appeals to supernatural transcendence or subjective self-expression.