With churches getting emptier with the passing of time and the decline of religious affiliations, thoughts on where spirituality is heading are recurrent. Yet, no extensive study has been done onto whether people are dismissing religion, together with their beliefs, or if they in fact remain ‘believers’ of spirituality, and just not attending the established religious institutions. A similar trend seem to be happening as the year passes by, in which elderly people are perceived as being more religious and younger people as not.
Thoughts about the meaning and role of spirituality on people’s lives in the actual times brought me to the following question: “How is spirituality perceived and experienced in Brazil and Denmark?” To be able to complement and assist the process of this research, the following sub question was formulated: “Is there a common trend for spirituality in both countries?”.
This research will follow a cross-sectional design, by which an online self-administrated questionnaire was used the method of data collection, using the countries of origin and the different generations as variables for comparison and investigation of the generalized data. The analysis will be done using the coding method, in which the codes were predetermined by the chosen theories, following a generational structure.
The research is supported by main four theories, as the first starts by understanding of the origins of spirituality while also defining its concept; the second theory defines the concept of culture, also presenting specific information of the Danish and Brazilian cultures; the third theory explains the general concept of a generation, following by a description of each generation to be studied in this thesis; while the fourth theory explains and define the concept of globalization, followed by a the reflection of globalization applied to culture.
The final discussion of the analysis compares key answers of both cultures, making it possible to identify bigger or minor generational trends in relation to spirituality. The most expressive trend identified in the findings indicates that people prefer to not fixate themselves under an established religious institution or labels; the biggest trend is to either reject any kind of classification or to attach themselves to groups or ideas that are more fluid, providing them the room for mobility.