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Topic · Philosophy

Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices is a research topic within Philosophy. Science Explorer counts 16k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the intersection of occult beliefs, spiritual practices, and esoteric traditions with modernity. It delves into topics such as occultism, spiritualism, psychical research, neo-paganism, and theosophy, shedding light on the historical, cultural, and philosophical dimensions of these phenomena.

  • Occultism
  • Spiritualism
  • Esotericism
  • Psychical Research
  • Neo-Paganism
  • Religious Studies
  • Theosophy
  • Alchemy
  • Psychic Phenomena
  • New Religions
Research works
16k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+1%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

Which countries lead Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (787 and 302 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 787 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 302 works
  3. 3 Russia 267 works
  4. 4 China 156 works
  5. 5 Germany 115 works
  6. 6 Hungary 99 works
  7. 7 France 95 works
  8. 8 Canada 95 works
  9. 9 India 94 works
  10. 10 Australia 71 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 37.8%United Kingdom: 14.5%Russia: 12.8%China: 7.5%6 others listed: 27.4%38%largest
United States787 · 37.8%United Kingdom302 · 14.5%Russia267 · 12.8%China156 · 7.5%6 others listed570 · 27.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices research?

By volume in 2022-now, Russian Academy of Sciences publishes the most Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices research, followed by University of Oxford and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 66 works
  2. 2 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 23 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 22 works
  4. 4 University of ViennaAustria 20 works
  5. 5 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 19 works
  6. 6 Film IndependentUnited States 18 works
  7. 7 Weatherford CollegeUnited States 16 works
  8. 8 Hungarian Academy of SciencesHungary 14 works
  9. 9 St Petersburg UniversityRussia 13 works
  10. 10 Pázmány Péter Catholic UniversityHungary 12 works

Who are the leading researchers in Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices include Michel Foucault.

  1. 1 Michel Foucault France 208k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices?

The most cited paper in Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices is "Naturalistic inquiry" (Yvonna S. Lincoln, Egon G. Guba, Joseph J. Pilotta, 1985), with 36,480 citations. Next come "Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice" (3,370) and "The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality? Yes and No" (771).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Naturalistic inquiry Yvonna S. Lincoln, Egon G. Guba, Joseph J. Pilotta · International Journal of Intercultural Relations 1985 36,480
2 Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice James V. Spickard, Catherine Bell · Sociology of Religion 1993 3,370
3 The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality? Yes and No Kenneth I. Pargäment · International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 1999 771
4 The mommy myth the idealization of motherhood and how it has undermined all women Susan Jane Douglas, Meredith W. Michaels 2005 730
5 Spiritual But Not Religious? Beyond Binary Choices in the Study of Religion Nancy Tatom Ammerman · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Jun 2013 695
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices research done?

The largest centres of Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices research in 2022-now are Moscow (Russia), Budapest (Hungary), London (United Kingdom) and Paris (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Budapest.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 MoscowRussia 90 works
  2. 2 BudapestHungary 74 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 46 works
  4. 4 ParisFrance 39 works
  5. 5 Saint PetersburgRussia 38 works
  6. 6 New YorkUnited States 37 works
  7. 7 BeijingChina 35 works
  8. 8 OxfordUnited Kingdom 31 works
  9. 9 ViennaAustria 27 works
  10. 10 Los AngelesUnited States 26 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BudapestHU · 74.1 works13×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices than the world average.

See Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices on the map

Where is the best place to study Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices?

Among universities, judged by research, Universität Hamburg, University of Cambridge and University of Vienna score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 16.41%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Universität HamburgUniversity of Cambri…University of ViennaUniversity of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Universität HamburgGermany 72.835.2%5.9×11 +827.3%
2University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 72.415.3%6.0×19 +21.3%
3University of ViennaAustria 71.613.2%14.9×20 +134.9%
4University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 70.812.5%6.2×23 +4.8%
5University of AmsterdamNetherlands 59.212.8%7.2×11 +11.6%
6University of GroningenNetherlands 55.126.4%4.6×8 +10.9%
7Pázmány Péter Catholic UniversityHungary 50.915.7%97.4×12 +169.2%
8Weatherford CollegeUnited States 46.27.1%4.7×16 +37.4%
9Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamNetherlands 45.413.9%8.3×9 +91.4%
10University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 44.712.0%5.0×12 -7.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices, country by country

Is Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 1% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2020. The fastest-growing topics are Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.014% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices0.012% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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