Arts and Spirituality: Methodological Reflections from a Local Enquiry on Interreligious Dialogue

The paper aims at discussing methodological issues emerging in a mapping of local initiatives of interreligious dialogue. In Brescia (Nothern Italy), a medium size industrial city with around 18% of residents with an immigrant background, we found an innovative project of bottom-up interreligious dialogue through artistic and performative languages implemented in public live events, with the participation of civil society, institutions, associations, faith communities, religious and cultural centers, artists and single citizens. The use of artistic-performance languages as a medium for dialogue harks back to the concept of performance (Schechner, 1988; Alexander, 2003) and it was chosen by the promoters (in 2016-17) for the help they supposed to receive in dealing with such a delicate and hyperpoliticised matter. Arts can: 1) facilitate overcoming reciprocal prejudices; 2) communicate deeply the universal religious comprehension (beyond nationalisms and cultural clashes); represent authentic opinions, state of mind and social positions of the immigrant population (Martiniello, 2022); 4) stimulate single social actors to join the creative process (especially second generation immigrants) (Anderson, 2021). After describing the case-study and the methods employed to deepen the relation between this project and its outcomes in terms of dialogue development, the paper will question: how the art-spirituality link can be used, from a sociological viewpoint, to refer about the state of multireligiosity and conviviality at a local level (Pusztai, Bocsi, 2021)? Apart from being a research object, can art-based methods become a mean to implement social research on this topic? In which conditions can them be validated? On the base of firsthand empirical experimentation, the author will show pros and cons of this methodological “switch”. Sections of the paper: a) art-spirituality link; b) sociological study of interreligious dialogue; c) the Brescia-case study; d) switching the study object in study tool: objectives, knowledge conditions , researcher’s position in the field