The 'Protean' spirit of Jeff Lewis

In a recent contribution to this journal, Jeff Lewis has criticised the vie ws of both Nigel Blake and myself on spiritual education. In particular he has taken exception to my own claim that concepts of spirituality are index ed to particular religious or other traditions raising difficulties for any common programme of spiritual education. Lewis claims that my own concepti on of spirituality is mistakenly 'reductionist' and seeks to base a general conception of spiritual education on a more 'holistic' approach. By way of response, I argue (amongst other points): first, that Lewis does not consi stently adhere to this 'holistic' conception and that his account of spirit ual life is ultimately no less 'reductionist' than mine; second, that his a ttempt to ground a perspective-neutral conception of spiritual life in the claims of cognitive science is deeply misconceived; third, that his argumen ts have seriously problematic socio-political implications.