Special issue: Worlds beyond words: Lines of enquiry about language, politics and spirituality

Guest editors: Cristina Pennarola (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Francesca Ditifeci (Università degli Studi di Firenze)

Technological advances and scientific progress have ensured a high quality of life and an unparalleled level of comfort, especially in the Western world (OECD, 2024) to the extent that our contemporary society seems obsessed with material possessions and physical well-being. However, in contrast to the spread of a consumerist ethos and utilitarian philosophy of mind, recent scholarly studies have shown that new forms of spirituality are taking over, and people’s beliefs and sense of religious affiliation still bear considerable social and political significance (Norris & Inglehart, 2004; Pennarola, 2019 among many others). In contrast to a pyramidal view of politics shaping the world’s affairs, politics is here regarded as the action of common citizens, “which has the potential to touch everyday life in its most routine and intimate aspects: in shopping, in the finding and making of time, in the texture of conversations that take place around the kitchen table, (…) in the possibility of linking romanticism not just to small screens but to the real problems of an extraordinarily diverse world” (Ginsborg 2005: 196). Taking the cue from David Crystal’s advocacy of theolinguistics (1981,  2018) and Anna Wierzbicka’s insights into the culture-bound aspects of faith (Wierzbicka 2003, 2020), this collection of papers aims to shed light on the interrelationships between language, politics and spirituality, and explore how language both reflects and shapes one’s spiritual and/or religious identity in a never-ending quest for authenticity and meaningfulness at an individual and societal level.

Crystal, D. (1981) “Generating theological language”. In: J. P. van Noppen (ed.) Theolinguistics. Studiereeks Tijdschrift Vrije Universiteit, 265-281.

Crystal, D. (2018) “Whatever happened to theolinguistics?” In: P. Chilton – M. Kopytowska (eds.) Religion, Language, and the Human Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3-18.

Ditifeci, F. – I. E. D. Kantzas (2021) “Lost identity in the Bible”, Token: A Journal of English Linguistics 12, 209-230.

Ginsborg, P. (2005) The Politics of Everyday Life: Making Choices, Changing Lives. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Norris, P. – R. Inglehart (2004) Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

OECD 2024 How’s Life? 2024: Well-being and Resilience in Times of Crisis. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2024/11/how-s-life-2024_bdcf2f9f.html,  accessed March 2026.

Pennarola, C. (2019) “Tales of conversion in the British press: The body and soul paradigm”, European Journal of English Studies 23 (1), 73-96.

Wierzbicka, A. (2003) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Wierzbicka, A. (2020) “Addressing God in European languages: Different meanings, different cultural attitudes”, Russian Journal of Linguistics 24 (2), 259-293.