What is to be seen. Spirituality production instruments, methodologies and devices as a health factor

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze a context of relation between health and spirituality still underestimated by social scientist of religion, I refer to a heterogeneous set of actors that involves: international networks of researchers from the health Science mainstream, the World Health Organization, research promotion agencies and public managers, all committed to inscribing spirituality as a factor of health promotion, as a dimension of human health or, as an element of necessary clinical attention. The text is organized into two main parts. In the first section, I present the way I use the notion of spirituality, insisting that it is a methodological rather than a nominalistic  one. In the second part I explore the empirical dimensions of the process of legitimizing spirituality, dedicating a section to the political dimension, another section for clinical and a final one for medical research. I conclude by indicating that, despite differences in the ways of instituting spirituality, these formulations are stabilized in the consideration that spirituality is a health issue.