Dr Chris Baker – William Temple Foundation and University of Chester

1. Dr Chris Baker – William Temple Foundation and University of Chester New Forms of Public Religion ConferenceUniversity of Cambridge5th – 7th September 2012‘Belonging, becoming and participation – how lived materialities of religion grow the public sphere’

2. Putnam and Campbell – American Grace – How Religion Unites and Divides Us (2010) • Concept of Moral Freighting • ‘…. tends to evoke peer pressure for you to do good deeds as well’ (p.477) • Although we lack the systematic information about what is exactly discussed in religious networks it is possible that religious friends are more likely to raise moral issues, principles and obligations than friends from a non-religious context and thus to heighten your attentiveness to such concerns (p.478)

3. Modalities of Belonging, Becoming and Participation (BBP) • ‘ …. a cumulative journey (or dialectic) between three elements – a sense of belonging that engenders a sense of becoming that in turn can lead to a variety of technologies and performances of participation in the wider community’ (Baker, 2012)

4. Two Questions • ‘What benefits do you derive from being a member of this religious/spiritual group?’ • ‘Are these benefits shared within the wider community, and if so, how?’

5. BBP grid – Buddhist type • Q1 What benefits from being a member of this religious or spiritual group • Belonging • Huge sense of friendship • Sense of community – I feel warmhearted • A sense of belonging, but also being able to feel an individual • Becoming/development • Improve my compassion • Insight into my own behaviour • Helps me to act more critically • I learn key practical skills such as patience, openness and different perspectives • Opens up a different perspective • Making contact with your heart • Helping others helps me develop my full potential • ‘Moral Freighting ‘ • Gives meaning and values but in the context of the huge support of friendship • A strong sense of shared commitments and an ethical framework that challenges you and each other • When we fall out we do know that we are all committed to the five precepts • Before and after – in the past I was less open and wouldn’t have engaged – now I am less judgemental and more open • Through my spiritual practice I get a sense of social resp. Q2 Are these benefits shared in the wider community – and if so, how? Participation • Living out a life of radical difference • Gaining skills that you can take out and use • A model of being for others • Ways of speech that avoid judgemental words • I teach jobseekers in Manchester and am involved in climate change issues • Environmental issues • Guide leader • I can show how belief links to citizenship concepts and social issues • I see this building makes a contribution to Manchester’s civil life • By taking responsibility for becoming wiser, I want to be less part of the problem • My influence is mainly my family and extended family - a ripple effect • FIGURE 1 • BUDDHIST MEDITATION/SANGHA GROUP BBP GRID

6. Belonging 1 – What benefits from being a member of this R/S Group • Belonging • Huge sense of friendship • Sense of community – I feel warmhearted • A sense of belonging, but also being able to feel an individual

7. Becoming Becoming/development • Improve my compassion • Insight into my own behaviour • Helps me to act more critically . • I learn key practical skills such as patience, openness and different perspectives • Opens up a different perspective • Making contact with your heart • Helping others helps me develop my full potential

8. Moral Freighting ‘Moral Freighting ‘ • Gives meaning and values but in the context of the huge support of friendship • A strong sense of shared commitments and an ethical framework that challenges you and each other • When we fall out we do know that we are all committed to the five precepts • Before and after – in the past I was less open and wouldn’t have engaged – now I am less judgemental and more open • Through my spiritual practice I get a sense of social responsibility

9. Participation • Participation • Living out a life of radical difference • Gaining skills that you can take out and use • A model of being for others • Ways of speech that avoid judgemental words • I teach jobseekers in Manchester and am involved in climate change issues • Environmental issues • Guide leader • I can show how belief links to citizenship concepts and social issues • I see this building makes a contribution to Manchester’s civil life • By taking responsibility for becoming wiser, I want to be less part of the problem • My influence is mainly my family and extended family - a ripple effect

10. Public Deportment – aka the Ripple Effect • ‘…. a vocation to ‘being mindful’ in the public space, as well as ‘doing good’. • ‘It is a low-key, unobtrusive presence which nevertheless seeks to add to the wellbeing of the social fabric by living out the virtues of responsible citizenship’. (Baker, 2012)

11. The Ripple Effect • ‘…the notion of a ‘ripple effect’ that emanates slowly, quietly and unobtrusively from the individual, through their immediate family and religious group and thence onwards in ever-widening circles into society as a whole’.(Baker, 2012)

12. ‘Moral Freighting’ – UK perspectives • Moral freighting as BBP – more dialectical, not linear (affective as well as rational) • Moral freighting as public deportment – hyper-mundane – taken for granted social stabilities/civilities rooted and emerge from religious socialities • Spiritually rooted as well as religiously rooted (i.e a non Protestant civic religion paradigm)