This paper outlines a constructivist framework to describe spiritual thought. Western society at present is changing rapidly, and while this development is culturally pluralist globalisation and consumerism are dominant values. In this economic context the increase of flexible and short-term contract employment, with attendant job insecurity, raises important questions about social management of the quality of work experience (V. Gash, 2004). In the context of the quality of other life experiences, I initiated a conversation at this conference in 2002 (Gash and Thompson, 2002) to explore spirituality from a constructivist perspective. That paper focused mainly on spiritual moments concerned with personal transformation, for example the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Broadening my approach here, I consider spiritual moments as epiphanies that may arise when contemplating the gap between the known and the unknown: Moments when people perceive their lack of control over events – when faith may help overcome uncertainty. We close gaps, for better or for worse, at moments where we learn. Could it be that applying this partial model of the spiritual might help to prioritise such moments in art, culture, science and education?

Key words: spirituality, constructivism, tolerance, multiculturalism.

In order to obtain, as the author himself puts it, “a successful internalisation of the comparative metadiscourse” necessary for “the survival of comparative literature,” the author refers to constructivism by noticing crucial similarities between the two directions in terms of their historical development and character. The author does not agree with the accusation of the secondary status of comparative research in relation to other fields of science. He points to the fact that the existence of a rich comparative metadiscourse, which implies analogy with constructivism and accounts for the status of comparative studies as an important area of research, is omitted. Relevance: By means of referring to Niklas Luhman, the author identifies comparative studies with second-order observation, that is, focusing not on the objects of comparative studies (those seem to be as numerous and various as the reality surrounding the human being), but on the nature of the comparative process, in other words on the manner in which the comparison of the above mentioned objects is carried out.

Key words: Constructivism, crisis of comparative literature, metadiscourse, metatheory, Niklas Luhmann, multiculturalism