Where Does Spirituality Come From?: Using Conversation and Art to Explore Experience

Given that young Americans are disaffiliating from religion faster than any other generation, we share creative grassroots strategies for engaging college students on their spiritual journeys, such as using open-ended questions: “Where does spirituality come from?” and “What counts as spiritual experience?” By asking these questions in conversational settings, we create disarming contexts for honest discovery and belonging. From these conversations, students are poised to further explore questions of spirituality through art creation that is showcased in a communal exhibit. In this session, we share the specifics of how this organic approach emerged at the University of Southern California, one of the most religiously and spiritually diverse campuses in the country. We also provide group brainstorming space to co-create engagement strategies for participants’ unique contexts.