‘I Am Spiritual but Not Religious’ Expanding Non-Religious Identities through Digital Kinship
Main Article Content
Keywords
digital kinship, digital non-religion, Spiritual but not Religious (SBNR), religion and communality, religion and digital transformation
Abstract
In the post-COVID context, religious identities and practices have undergone transformation. While existing research has focused on religious institutions, there is a gap in understanding nuanced expressions of non-religious identities in the Kenyan context. In other research, Ndereba (2023b; 2024) has provided an analysis of non-religious identities, including atheism, in the Kenyan context. Grounded in an exploratory research perspective, this paper argues that digital kinship is providing a sense of identity, belonging, and expression for non-religious African youth, including those identifying as ‘spiritual but not religious’ (SBNR). The paper moves beyond traditional kinship structures to show how digital networks facilitate a cross-pollination of both religious and non-religious ideas in the pluralistic religious context of Africa. This research also shows that social media influencers provide a sense of ‘virtual communalism’ for those in a religious minority context of young Kenyans navigating the contemporary African (Kenyan) religious context. Digital kinship is foregrounded due to the capacity of social media to valorize religious and non-religious identities in societies, and it merits fresh analyses from religious scholars, theologians, and social scientists, especially those studying religion and non-religion among Africa’s digital natives.
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References
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Davari-Torshizi, Mehdi. 2025. “Is the Spiritual Not Religious? Some Caveats Concerning Religious Diversity.” Social Compass 72 (1): 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/00377686241296795.
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———. 2023. “Britain’s First Atheist Age: Atheism in Sociology, Public Life and Public Discourse.” Paper presented at British Sociological Association Annual Conference: Sociological Voices in Public Discourse, University of Manchester, 12–14 April, 2023.
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Nash, David. 2022. “From Campaign and Dispute to ‘Public Service Broad/Narrowcasting’: Secularist and Atheist Media Strategies in Britain and America – A Contextual History.” In Global Sceptical Publics: From Non-Religious Print Media To ‘Digital Atheism’, edited by Copeman, J., and M. Schulz. University College London.
Ndereba, Kevin M. 2023a. “Faith Science and Non-Religious Identity Formation among Male Kenyan Atheists.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 58 (1): 45–62.
———. 2023b. “Digital Ecclesiology and Africa’s Digital Natives: Prospects and Challenges.” Acta theologica 43 (1): 98–111.
———. 2024. “Atheism in Africa”. In Apologetics in Africa: An Introduction, edited by Kevin M. Ndereba. Langham Publishing.
NCPD. 2017. “Youth Bulge in Kenya: A Blessing or a Curse” Policy Brief of the National Council for Population and Development. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://ncpd.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Brief-56-YOUTH-BULGE-IN-KENYA-A-BLEESING-OF-A-CURSE.pdf.
Odimegwu, Clifford O., Nicole De Wet, Sunday A. Adedini, and Sathiyasusuman Appunni. 2020. “Family Demography in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Review of Family Research.” In Family Demography and Post-2015 Development Agenda in Africa, edited by Clifford O. Odimegwu. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14887-4.
Oucho, John. 2021. Undercurrents of Ethnic Conflict in Kenya. Brill.
Parsons, William B. 2018. Being Spiritual but Not Religious: Past, Present, Future. Routledge.
Patel, Shivangi. 2024. “Digital Kinship: The Future Calling.” Anthropology & Aging 45 (2): 75–81.
Pew Research Center. 2023. “Spirituality Among Americans”. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/PR_2023.12.7_spirituality
_REPORT.pdf.
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald, and Daryll Forde. 2015. African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. Routledge.
Richter, Lena. 2022. “From ‘Talking among’ to ‘Talking Back’? Online Voices of Young Nonbelievers in Morocco and the Moroccan Diaspora.” In Global Sceptical Publics: From Non-Religious Print Media to ‘Digital Atheism’, edited by Copeman, J. and M. Schulz. University College London.
Stockland, Katharine. 2022. African Pentecostalism in Britain. 1st ed. Routledge.
Strhan, Anna, Lois Lee, and Rachael Shillitoe. 2024. “Becoming Humanist: Worldview Formation and the Emergence of Atheist Britain.” Sociology of Religion 85 (4): 454–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad050.
Van Mulukom, Valerie, Hugh Turpin, Roosa Haimila, Benjamin Grant Purzycki, Theiss Bendixen, Eva Kundtová Klocová, Dan Řezníček, et al. 2023. “What Do Nonreligious Nonbelievers Believe in? Secular Worldviews Around the World.” Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 15 (1): 143–56.
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Wangila, Mary Nyangweso. 2023. “Religion and the Cultures of Kenya.” In The Palgrave handbook of contemporary Kenya, edited by Nasong’o, Wanjala S., Amutabi, Maurice N., and Toyin Falola. Springer International Publishing.
Zuckerman, Phil, Luke W. Galen, and Frank L. Pasquale. 2016. The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies. Oxford University Press.
Akaranga, Stephen I., and Jude J. Ongong’a. 2013. “The Dynamics of Religiosity and Spirituality in Kenyan Public Universities.” International Journal of Education and Research 1 (6): 18 pages.
Ammerman, Nancy T. 2013. “Spiritual but not Religious? Beyond Binary Choices in the Study of Religion.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 52 (2): 258–78.
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. 2015. “‘We are on the Internet’: Contemporary Pentecostalism in Africa and the New Culture of Online Religion.” In New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa, edited by R. Hackett and B. Soares. Indiana University Press.
Belmonte, Martina, Alessandra Conte, Daniela Ghio, Sona Kalantaryan, and Simon McMahon. 2020. Youth and Migration: An Overview. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/625356, JRC122402.
Bernal, Victoria. 2020. “African Digital Diasporas: Technologies, Tactics, and Trends: Introduction.” African Diaspora 12 (1/2): 1–10.
Boyer, Mark G. 2022. Monthly Entries for the Spiritual but Not Religious through the Year: Texts, Reflections, Journal/Meditations, and Prayers for the Spiritual but Not Religious. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Bullivant, Stephen, Miguel Farias, Jonathan Lanman, and Lois Lee. 2019. Understanding Unbelief: Atheists and Agnostics around the World: Interim Findings from 2019 Research in Brazil, China, Denmark, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://research.kent.ac.uk/understandingunbelief/wp-content/uploads/sites/1816/2019/05/
UUReportRome.pdf.
Carey, Jeremiah. 2018. “Spiritual, but not Religious?: On the Nature of Spirituality and its Relation to Religion.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 83 (3): 261–9.
Clarke, Peter. ed. 2009. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. Oxford University Press.
Copeman, Jacob, and Mascha Schulz. 2022. “Introduction: Non-religion, Atheism and Sceptical Publicity.” In Global Sceptical Publics: From Non-Religious Print Media To ‘Digital Atheism’, edited by Copeman, J., and M. Schulz. University College London.
Creighton, Theodore B. 2018. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Digital Learners: An International Empirical Integrative Review of the Literature.” Education Leadership Review 19 (1): 132–40.
Davari-Torshizi, Mehdi. 2025. “Is the Spiritual Not Religious? Some Caveats Concerning Religious Diversity.” Social Compass 72 (1): 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/00377686241296795.
Ecklund, Elaine Howard, and David R. Johnson. 2021. Varieties of Atheism in Science. Oxford University Press.
Fuller, Robert C. 2001. Spiritual, but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America. Oxford University Press.
Hjorth, Larissa, Kana Ohashi, Jolynna Sinanan, Heather Horst, and Sarah Pink. 2020. Digital Media Practices in Households: Kinship through Data. Amsterdam University Press.
Jong, Jonathan. 2015. “On (Not) Defining (Non) Religion.” Science, Religion and Culture 2 (3): 15–24.
Kiamu, Boye Nelson, and Bala A. Musa. 2021. “Theorizing the Communication of Digital Religion as Popular Culture in Africa: The Case for Alternative Epistemological Models.” Howard Journal of Communications 32 (2): 139–55.
King’oro, Sellah Nasimiyu. 2023. “The Youth and Socio-Economic Development in Kenya.” In The Palgrave handbook of contemporary Kenya, edited by Nasong’o, Wanjala S., Amutabi, Maurice N., and Toyin Falola. Springer International Publishing.
KNBS. 2019. Population and Housing Census: Volume IV. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
KYDP. 2019. “Kenya Youth Development Policy.” Accessed November 20, 2025. https://youth.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kenya-Youth-Development-Policy-2019-Popular-version.pdf.
Layefa, Goodluck, Ngozi Ezenagu, and Julianah Esoso-Agbor. 2022. “Revisiting Kinship in Contemporary West African Societies: The Case of Role-Relationship.” F1000Research 11: 965.
Lee, Loise. 2015. Recognizing the Non-Religious: Reimagining the Secular. Oxford University Press.
———. 2023. “Britain’s First Atheist Age: Atheism in Sociology, Public Life and Public Discourse.” Paper presented at British Sociological Association Annual Conference: Sociological Voices in Public Discourse, University of Manchester, 12–14 April, 2023.
Magesa, Laurenti. 1997. African Religion: The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life. Paulines Publications.
Mercadante, Linda. 2020. “Spiritual Struggles of Nones and ‘Spiritual but Not Religious’ (SBNRs).” Religions 11 (10): 513. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11100513.
Mbiti, John S. 1989. African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann Educational Books.
Nash, David. 2022. “From Campaign and Dispute to ‘Public Service Broad/Narrowcasting’: Secularist and Atheist Media Strategies in Britain and America – A Contextual History.” In Global Sceptical Publics: From Non-Religious Print Media To ‘Digital Atheism’, edited by Copeman, J., and M. Schulz. University College London.
Ndereba, Kevin M. 2023a. “Faith Science and Non-Religious Identity Formation among Male Kenyan Atheists.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 58 (1): 45–62.
———. 2023b. “Digital Ecclesiology and Africa’s Digital Natives: Prospects and Challenges.” Acta theologica 43 (1): 98–111.
———. 2024. “Atheism in Africa”. In Apologetics in Africa: An Introduction, edited by Kevin M. Ndereba. Langham Publishing.
NCPD. 2017. “Youth Bulge in Kenya: A Blessing or a Curse” Policy Brief of the National Council for Population and Development. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://ncpd.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Brief-56-YOUTH-BULGE-IN-KENYA-A-BLEESING-OF-A-CURSE.pdf.
Odimegwu, Clifford O., Nicole De Wet, Sunday A. Adedini, and Sathiyasusuman Appunni. 2020. “Family Demography in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Review of Family Research.” In Family Demography and Post-2015 Development Agenda in Africa, edited by Clifford O. Odimegwu. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14887-4.
Oucho, John. 2021. Undercurrents of Ethnic Conflict in Kenya. Brill.
Parsons, William B. 2018. Being Spiritual but Not Religious: Past, Present, Future. Routledge.
Patel, Shivangi. 2024. “Digital Kinship: The Future Calling.” Anthropology & Aging 45 (2): 75–81.
Pew Research Center. 2023. “Spirituality Among Americans”. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/PR_2023.12.7_spirituality
_REPORT.pdf.
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald, and Daryll Forde. 2015. African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. Routledge.
Richter, Lena. 2022. “From ‘Talking among’ to ‘Talking Back’? Online Voices of Young Nonbelievers in Morocco and the Moroccan Diaspora.” In Global Sceptical Publics: From Non-Religious Print Media to ‘Digital Atheism’, edited by Copeman, J. and M. Schulz. University College London.
Stockland, Katharine. 2022. African Pentecostalism in Britain. 1st ed. Routledge.
Strhan, Anna, Lois Lee, and Rachael Shillitoe. 2024. “Becoming Humanist: Worldview Formation and the Emergence of Atheist Britain.” Sociology of Religion 85 (4): 454–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad050.
Van Mulukom, Valerie, Hugh Turpin, Roosa Haimila, Benjamin Grant Purzycki, Theiss Bendixen, Eva Kundtová Klocová, Dan Řezníček, et al. 2023. “What Do Nonreligious Nonbelievers Believe in? Secular Worldviews Around the World.” Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 15 (1): 143–56.
World Bank. 2023. “Africa Human Capital: Key Messages Heads of State Summit.” Africa Human Capital Technical Briefs Series Africa’s Moment: The Promise of a Demographic Dividend. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/6e828910dabf285651ff47d684276df7-0010012023/original/002-Africas-Moment-The-Promise-of-Demographic-Dividend.pdf.
Wangila, Mary Nyangweso. 2023. “Religion and the Cultures of Kenya.” In The Palgrave handbook of contemporary Kenya, edited by Nasong’o, Wanjala S., Amutabi, Maurice N., and Toyin Falola. Springer International Publishing.
Zuckerman, Phil, Luke W. Galen, and Frank L. Pasquale. 2016. The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies. Oxford University Press.
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Dec 3, 2025
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‘I Am Spiritual but Not Religious’: Expanding Non-Religious Identities through Digital Kinship. (2025). Utambuzi: Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and Its Diaspora, 8(2), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.36615/5hk1v519
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How to Cite
‘I Am Spiritual but Not Religious’: Expanding Non-Religious Identities through Digital Kinship. (2025). Utambuzi: Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and Its Diaspora, 8(2), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.36615/5hk1v519
