Spiritualise is a tenacious inquiry into the philosophical coherence, scientific grounding and cultural relevance of spiritual perspectives, experiences and practices.
The first edition was the culmination of a two-year project at the RSA in London involving over three hundred participants including atheists, agnostics, and people of various faiths. You can download that here.
This second edition includes an extended new preface and an additional chapter focussed on the relationship between spiritual sensibility and political imagination.
Spiritualise is written by Dr Jonathan Rowson, formerly Director of the Social Brain Centre at the RSA, and now Director of Perspectiva – a new research institute that examines the relationship between complex global challenges and the inner lives of human beings.
— Jonathan Rowson in Spiritualise
“Invites readers as participants to imagine and create radical futures around a new conception of being and becoming human.”
– Professor Indy Johar, Founder of Dark Matter Labs
– Matthew Taylor, FAcSS, RSA Chief Executive and former advisor to the UK Prime Minister.
“One of the most sensible and sincere documents ever written in the field.”
– Professor David Tacey, author of The Spirituality Revolution (2004) and Religion as Metaphor (2015)
Jonathan Rowson is a Scottish chess grandmaster, applied philosopher, and civil society leader who transitioned from competitive chess to tackling complex global challenges. His current work focuses extensively on the intersection of systems thinking, human development, and planetary crises.
After winning the British Chess Championship three consecutive times, Rowson shifted his focus toward academia and public policy. He earned degrees from Oxford and Harvard, followed by a PhD from Bristol focused on the concept of wisdom, and eventually served as the Director of the Social Brain Centre at the RSA.
Rowson is currently the co-founder and Chief Executive of Perspectiva, a London-based research institute established in 2016. The organization explores the critical relationships between “systems, souls, and society” to develop an applied philosophy of education capable of averting societal collapse. His work emphasises that credible hope for a new civilisation requires cultivating advanced epistemic capacities alongside deeper spiritual sensibilities.
A major focus of Rowson’s current intellectual output is the “meta-crisis,” a framework he uses to describe the underlying socio-emotional and spiritual roots of modern predicaments. In his influential essay Tasting the Pickle, he breaks down planetary collapse into distinct categories, arguing that ecological and political emergencies are fundamentally crises of meaning and civilisational purpose.
Rowson actively bridges rigorous academic research with accessible meaning-making across multiple disciplines. He authored the 2019 book The Moves that Matter, which extracts philosophical insights from his chess career, and he continues to write extensively about climate change and metamodernity.
