Reading as Spiritual Experience: Theological, Affective, and Cognitive Approaches

Literary reading can give rise to experiences that readers identify as spiritual, according to this theoretical and philosophical paper. Framed by William James's concept of mystical susceptibility and psychological models of spirituality as altered states of consciousness, the essay examines how engagement with narrative may occasion shifts in perception, affect, and cognition. Drawing on theologians like Teresa of Avila, affect theory from Rita Felski, and cognitive studies from Tanya Luhrmann on absorption, the article suggests that absorption—a psychological and aesthetic phenomenon—connects empirical studies of attention and transformation with theological and affective insights. Literature is proposed as a form of engagement capable of opening readers to spiritual insight measurable through qualitative means.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article explores the often-overlooked question of how literary reading might give rise to experiences that readers themselves identify as spiritual. Framed by William James’s account of “mystical susceptibility” and recent psychological models of spirituality as altered states of consciousness involving shifts in perception, affect, and cognition, the essay asks how engagement with narrative may occasion such states. Drawing from selected examples and critical traditions, it examines the conditions under which reading becomes spiritually resonant. Theologically, the piece considers the formation of attentiveness and imaginative receptivity in writers such as Teresa of Avila and Jessica Hooten Wilson. From affect theory, it engages Rita Felski’s language of enchantment; from cognitive studies, it draws on empirical approaches to literary studies and Tanya Luhrmann’s work on absorption and the cultivation of spiritual perception. By drawing attention to absorption as a psychological and aesthetic phenomenon, this article suggests a renewed interdisciplinary approach—one that connects empirical studies of attention and transformation with older theological and affective insights. In this way, literature may be examined not as a site of doctrinal meaning or subjective feeling alone, but as a form of engagement capable of opening readers to spiritual insight whose impact might be measured through qualitative means.