Ensaio de espiritualidade não religiosa: um estudo a partir de indivíduos sem religião em Belo Horizonte.

The number of people unhappy with the usual practice of religious institutions has increased significantly in Brazil, throughout recent decades. In the Brazilian religious scenario, the Christian churches are those that feel the impact of this phenomenon most strongly. Along with this discontentment, the disaffiliations occur. More and more people abandon traditional religious institutions and experiences and seek, in one way or another, to regularize their religiosity or spirituality. Some of these people may be viewed as without institution, some as without religion. This thesis intends to listen to some of these people and to understand at what extent a non-religious spirituality is forming in the pilgrimage of the current Brazilian society. Due to the relevance of these characters in the Brazilian religious context, the phenomenon of non-religion is the object of study of the present research, and the theme developed is non-religious spirituality. That being said, the purpose of this study is to analyze and interpret the phenomenon of non-religion in Brazil, through a representative sample of the universe, in order to build an essay on non-religious spirituality in contemporary times. To accomplish this goal, the thesis is developed through three methodological procedures. Initially, we analyze quantitative data about the demographic profile of the nonreligious in Brazil. Then, data collected from a field research entitled The Word of the Unreligious are examined and interpreted. Subsequently, the study enters a more theoretical path, which uses authors congruent to the thematic of nonreligious spirituality. Because it encompasses three research techniques, the method chosen for the development of the present thesis is a mixed method approach, notably an explanatory sequential project. The essay culminates with the idea that from the experience of Brazilians who claim to have no religion, a nonreligious spirituality is forming, albeit quite incipiently. However, in order not to be restricted to the result of the analysis and interpretation of field data, the present study concludes with three conceptions of non-religious spirituality, in order to stimulate not the end, but the continuity of reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]