essay about religious but not spiritual

What It Means To Be Spiritual But Not Religious

One in five Americans reject organized religion, but maintain some kind of faith.

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A growing contingent of Americans— particularly young Americans—identify as “spiritual but not religious.” Masthead member Joy wanted to understand why. On our call with Emma Green, The Atlantic ’s religion writer, Joy asked, “What are they looking for?” Because the term “spiritual” can be interpreted in so many different ways, it’s a tough question to answer. I talked to people who have spent a lot of time mulling it over, and came away with some important context for the major shift happening in American faith.

(If you missed our call with Emma Green, you can find the transcript and recording here .)

Americans Who Want Faith, Not a Church

Kern Beare, a Masthead member from Mountain View, California, believes in God and studies the teachings of Jesus. But does he identify with a particular religion? “Never,” he told me. The structure and rigidity of a church, Beare believes, is antithetical to everything Jesus represents. Instead of attending services, he meditates every morning.

Americans are leaving organized religion in droves: they disagree with their churches on political issues; they feel restricted by dogma; they’re deserting formal organizations of all kinds. Instead of atheism, however, they’re moving toward an identity captured by the term “spirituality.” Approximately sixty-four million Americans— one in five —identify as “spiritual but not religious,” or SBNR. They, like Beare, reject organized religion but maintain a belief in something larger than themselves. That “something” can range from Jesus to art, music, and poetry. There is often yoga involved.

“The word ‘church’ means you need to put on uncomfortable shoes, sit up straight, and listen to boring, old-fashioned hymns,” said Matthew Hedstrom, a professor of religion at the University of Virginia. “Spirituality is seen as a larger, freer arena to explore big questions.”  

Because over 92 percent of religiously-affiliated Americans currently identify as Christian, most “spiritual-but-not-religious” people come from that tradition. The term SBNR took off in the early 2000s, when online dating first became popular. “You had to identify by religion, you had to check a box,” Hedstrom told me. “‘Spiritual-but-not-religious’ became a nice category that said, ‘I’m not some kind of cold-hearted atheist, but I’m not some kind of moralizing, prudish person, either. I’m nice, friendly, and spiritual—but not religious.’”

Religion—often entirely determined by your parents—can be central to how others see you, and how you see yourself. Imagine, Hedstrom proffered, if from the time you were born, your parents told you that you were an Italian-Catholic, living in the Italian-Catholic neighborhood in Philadelphia. “You wouldn’t wake up every morning wondering, who am I, and what should I believe?” That would have already been decided. Young people today, Emma said on our call, “are selecting the kinds of communities that fit their values,” rather than adhering to their parent’s choices.

“Spiritual is also a term that people like to use,” said Kenneth Pargament, a professor who studies the psychology of religion at Bowling Green State University. “It has all of these positive connotations of having a life with meaning, a life with some sacredness to it—you have some depth to who you are as a human being.” As a spiritual person, you’re not blindly accepting a faith passed down from your parents, but you’re also not completely rejecting the possibility of a higher power. Because the term “spiritual,” encompasses so much, it can sometimes be adopted by people most would consider atheists. While the stigma around atheism is generally less intense than it used to be, in certain communities, Hedstrom told me, “to say you’re an atheist is still to say you hate puppies.” It’s a taboo that can understandably put atheists, many of whom see their views as warm and open-minded, on the defensive. “Spiritual” doesn’t come with that kind of baggage.

For people who have struggled with faith, embracing the word “spiritual” might also leave a crucial door open. Masthead member Hugh calls himself “spiritual,” but sees the designation as more of a hope or a wish than a true faith. “I hope there is more to this wonderful world than random chemistry... Nonetheless, I do see all of that as an illusion...That does not stop me from seeking something as close to what I wish for as I am able to find.” In his class, “Spirituality in America,” Hedstrom tells his students that the “spiritual-but-not-religious” designation is about “seeking,” rather than “dwelling:” searching for something you believe in, rather than accepting something that, while comfortable and familiar, doesn’t feel quite right. In the process of traveling around, reading books, and experimenting with new rituals, he says, “you can find your identity out there.”

Today’s Wrap Up

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Spirituality is a broad and subjective concept that encompasses a sense of connection to something greater than oneself. It often involves exploring questions about the meaning of life, the nature of existence, and the purpose of our existence.

Different cultures, belief systems, and philosophies have their own interpretations of spirituality. For some, it is linked to organized religion and faith in a higher power or deity. For others, it may be more secular, focusing on inner peace, mindfulness, and a sense of interconnectedness with the universe.

Hello, I have a similar line of thought. I am atheist but things fell into place about all this a few months ago I did not need to throw away the idea of the all-powerful after all. It is not God. It is greater than all Gods and religions. Some religions believe almost the same thing. The “all powerful all” is simply the totality of what is. It had no mind or beingness at first. It was what we call the big bang. Life evolved with no designer or God. This totality still is all and still has all power. Sentients is within it. We serve the all powerful and its servant. This is a very big very old universe. I speculate very advanced extremely advanced beings are here and can be connected to with prayer and mediation. Of course they agree with spiritual atheism. They also know about the all powerful all. It is where they came from just like us. please check out my website www/thewayoffairness.com.

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Examining the Growth of the ‘Spiritual but Not Religious’

By Mark Oppenheimer

• July 18, 2014

“Spiritual but not religious.” So many Americans describe their belief system this way that pollsters now give the phrase its own category on questionnaires. In the 2012 survey by the Pew Religion and Public Life Project , nearly a fifth of those polled said that they were not religiously affiliated — and nearly 37 percent of that group said they were “spiritual” but not “religious.” It was 7 percent of all Americans, a bigger group than atheists, and way bigger than Jews, Muslims or Episcopalians.

Unsurprisingly, the S.B.N.R.s, as this growing group is often called, are attracting a lot of attention. Four recent books offer perspectives on these Americans who seem to want some connection to the divine, but who don’t feel affiliated with traditional religion. There’s the minister who wants to woo them, two scholars who want to understand them and the psychotherapist who wants to help them.

The Rev. Lillian Daniel’s book “When ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’ Is Not Enough” (Jericho, 2013) began as a short essay for The Huffington Post, in which she voiced her exasperation with the predictability that she found in spiritual but not religious people.

“On airplanes,” Ms. Daniel wrote in the essay , in 2011, “I dread the conversation with the person who finds out I am a minister and wants to use the flight time to explain to me that he is ‘spiritual but not religious.’ Such a person will always share this as if it is some kind of daring insight, unique to him, bold in its rebellion against the religious status quo.” Before you know it, “he’s telling me that he finds God in the sunsets.”

“These people always find God in the sunsets,” Ms. Daniel said. “And in walks on the beach.”

The essay spread online, with thousands of Facebook “likes” and reposts. Ms. Daniel heard from so many people that she decided to expand her essay. In the book, Ms. Daniel, a Congregationalist preacher who is pastor at a church near Chicago, argues that spirituality fits too snugly with complacency, even hedonism — after all, who doesn’t like walks in nature? — whereas religion is better at challenging people to face death, fight poverty and oppose injustice. Religion, by bringing people together, in community, at regular intervals, facilitates an ongoing conversation about matters outside the self.

“The book is kind of for the person who in some ways is half in and half out of religion,” Ms. Daniel said in a recent interview. “They know it might be meaningful, but they don’t know how to make a case for it, or tell a story about the religious life that does not sound obnoxious or judgmental.”

Ms. Daniel, by contrast, makes the case forcefully, seemingly unworried about those she might offend.

“Being privately spiritual but not religious just doesn’t interest me,” she writes. “There is nothing challenging about having deep thoughts all by oneself. What is interesting is doing this work in community, where other people might call you on stuff or, heaven forbid, disagree with you. Where life with God gets rich and provocative is when you dig into a tradition that you did not invent all for yourself.”

But Linda A. Mercadante, who teaches at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio contests that description of the spiritual but not religious. In “Beliefs Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but Not Religious” (Oxford), published in March, she makes the case that spiritual people can be quite deep theologically.

An ordained Presbyterian minister whose father was Catholic and whose mother was Jewish, Dr. Mercadante went through a spiritual but not religious period of her own — although she now attends a Mennonite church. For her project, she interviewed 85 S.B.N.R.s, then used computer programs to help analyze transcripts of those interviews. She found that these spiritual people also thought about death, the afterlife and other profound subjects.

For example, “they reject heaven and hell, but they do believe in an afterlife,” Dr. Mercadante said recently. “In some ways, they would fit O.K. in a progressive Christian context.” Because they dislike institutions, the spiritual but not religious also recoil from the deities such institutions are built around. “They may like Jesus, he might be their guru, he might be one of their many bodhisattvas, but Jesus as God is not on their radar screen,” Dr. Mercadante said.

When Courtney Bender, now teaching at Columbia, went looking for spiritual but not religious people in Cambridge, Mass., where she was then living, she found them not on solitary nature walks but in all sorts of groups — which complicates the stereotype of them as anti-institutional loners. She described her findings in “The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination” (Chicago, 2010).

They “participated in everything from mystical discussion groups to drumming circles to yoga classes,” Dr. Bender said in an interview. And her finding that spirituality “is not sui generis,” but rather learned in communities that persist over time, actually runs contrary to spiritual people’s conceptions of themselves, she said. “There is something in the theology of spiritual groups that actually refocuses their practitioners from thinking about how they fit into a long continuous spirituality.”

In other words, their self-image “makes them think, ‘I don’t need history, I don’t need the past,’ ” Dr. Bender said, adding that they think, “I am not religious, which is about the past — I am spiritual, about the present.”

Yet people who call themselves spiritual are actually embedded in communal practices, albeit not churches or religious denominations. Dr. Bender found them in “alternative and complementary medicine,” for example. “So people would encounter this stuff in the shiatsu massage clinic, or going to an acupuncturist,” she said.

“Another one that is very important is the arts,” she added. “People involved in everything from painting and dance” would also end up discussing their conception of the divine.

So is spirituality solitary or communal? Is it theologically engaged or just focused on “nature” and “gratitude,” as Ms. Daniel worries? To judge from “A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World” (Gotham, 2014), by Thomas Moore, whose “Care of the Soul” is one of the best-selling self-help books ever, spirituality can be whatever one makes it. In his guide to developing a custom spirituality, he encourages people to draw on religion, antireligion — whatever works for them.

“Every day I add another piece to the religion that is my own,” Dr. Moore writes. “It’s built on years of meditation, chanting, theological study and the practice of therapy — to me a sacred activity.”

At the very least, we might conclude that “spiritual but not religious” isn’t necessarily vague or wishy-washy. It’s not nothing, although it may risk being everything.

[email protected] Twitter: @markopp1

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Spirituality Among Americans

5. who are ‘spiritual but not religious’ americans, table of contents.

• Is spirituality increasing?
• Americans’ beliefs about spirits and the afterlife
• Spiritual experiences and practices
• How many Americans are spiritual?
• What do ‘spiritual but not religious’ people believe?
• Who says they are spiritual or religious?
• What does ‘spiritual’ mean?
• Belief that people have a soul or spirit
• Belief in God or a higher power
• Belief in other spirits or unseen forces
• Beliefs about the afterlife
• Spiritual and religious communities
• Having things for spiritual purposes
• Activities that create connection
• Regular experiences of wonder or connection
• Sudden encounters with the spiritual realm
• Demographic characteristics
• Spiritual beliefs and practices
• Spiritual experiences
• Change in personal spirituality over time
• Religion and society
• Acknowledgments
• Defining spiritual and religious categories

This chapter focuses on three groups of U.S. adults, based on their answers to the following four questions: Do you think of yourself as spiritual? Do you think of yourself as religious? How important is spirituality in your life? How important is religion in your life?

The three groups are:

• 22% of Americans who are categorized as spiritual but not religious (SBNR) because they say they think of themselves as spiritual or they consider spirituality very important in their lives, but they neither think of themselves as religious nor say religion is very important in their lives.
• 58% of Americans who fall into an overall or “NET” Religious category because they say they think of themselves as religious or they consider religion very important in their lives. This group can be subdivided into U.S. adults who are both religious and spiritual (48%) and those who are religious but not spiritual (10%)
• 21% of Americans who are categorized as neither spiritual nor religious because they don’t think of themselves as spiritual, don’t think of themselves as religious, don’t consider spirituality very important in their lives and don’t consider religion very important in their lives.

Most of the comparisons in this chapter are between the SBNR and the NET Religious categories. Compared with religious Americans, SBNRs tend to be younger, more likely to identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents and less likely to affiliate with a religion. SBNRs also differ from religious Americans on some key measures of belief and practice analyzed in this report. For example, SBNRs are far more likely than religious adults to say they believe that spirits or spiritual energies can be contained in animals other than humans (78% vs. 54%) or in parts of nature like mountains, rivers or trees (71% vs. 45%).

On the other hand, SBNRs are less likely than religious adults to believe in God as described in the Bible (20% vs. 82%), pray daily (21% vs. 64%) or attend religious services at least once a week (2% vs. 36%.)

Still, SBNRs hold many beliefs in common with religious Americans. For example, most people in both groups believe that there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it (88% of SBNRs and 92% of the religious) and that human beings have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body (89% and 92%, respectively).

This chapter discusses these findings in more detail and shows how SBNR Americans and religious Americans differ on some measures presented in previous chapters.

Compared with religious adults, SBNRs are relatively young (58% of adult SBNRs are under age 50, compared with 45% of religious Americans) and more likely to identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents (60% vs. 39%). SBNRs and religious Americans are similar in their gender composition, with women accounting for a slight majority in each group. Demographically, Americans who are neither spiritual nor religious stand out for being comprised predominantly of men (60%).

When it comes to religious identification, SBNR Americans are divided between affiliating with a religion (45%) and not affiliating with one (54%).

By contrast, the vast majority of religious Americans identify with a religion (92%), while most adults who are neither spiritual nor religious are religiously unaffiliated (72%).

The most common response that SBNR Americans give when asked to select a religious identity is “nothing in particular” (38%). About one-fifth of SBNRs identify as Protestant, and 12% identify as Catholic.

Some spiritual beliefs are widely shared by SBNRs and religious U.S. adults. For example, large shares of both SBNRs (89%) and religious Americans (92%) say they believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body. Most people in both groups also say that there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it (88% and 92%) and that spirits or unseen spiritual forces exist (72% and 74%).

However, SBNRs are somewhat less likely than religious Americans to say there are some things that science cannot possibly explain (74% vs. 85%).

Beliefs on where spirits reside

SBNRs are far less likely than religious Americans to believe in God as described in the Bible (20% vs. 82%). Instead, they are much more likely to say they believe there is “some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe” (73% vs. 16%).

Also, SBNR Americans are more likely than religious Americans to say that animals, memorial sites, parts of nature or certain objects can have spirits or spiritual energies. For example, 78% of SBNR Americans say that spirits or spiritual energies can reside in animals other than humans, compared with 54% of religious adults. And 71% of SBNR adults say spirits can reside in parts of nature like mountains, rivers or trees, compared with 45% of religious adults who hold this view.   Fewer SBNRs say that objects like crystals, jewels or stones can have spirits or spiritual energies (42%). But that share is still larger than among religious Americans (24%).

SBNR Americans are much less likely than religious Americans to say they believe in heaven (54% vs. 93%) or hell (40% vs. 83%). But SBNRs are much more likely than Americans who are neither spiritual nor religious to believe in heaven and hell.

SBNRs also stand out for their beliefs about reincarnation: 43% say it is definitely or probably true that people who have died can be reborn again in this world, compared with 24% of religious Americans who express the same view. And there are some differences on other questions about the afterlife. For example, SBNRs are less likely than religious Americans to say that after people die, they definitely or probably can be reunited with loved ones who have already died (56% vs. 69%.)

But both SBNRs and religious Americans are much more likely than those who are neither spiritual nor religious to say that people who have died can be aware of things going on among the living, can communicate with the living and can help or harm the living.

Spiritual practices

Nearly six-in-ten “spiritual but not religious” Americans (58%) say they spend time looking inward or centering themselves at least a few times a month mainly for connection, including 43% who do so primarily to connect with their “true self.” Fewer religious Americans and those who are neither spiritual nor religious say the same.

SBNRs are also more likely than religious Americans and those who are neither spiritual nor religious to report that they spend time in nature at least a few times a month for connection, especially in order to connect with something bigger than themselves.

But SBNRs are as likely as religious-and-spiritual Americans to say they meditate at least a few times a month primarily to foster connections (28% each).

The new survey also asked whether people have a variety of things for spiritual purposes. SBNRs are notably less likely than religious Americans to say they have a cross (21% vs. 51%). But SBNRs are much more likely to say they own crystals (25% vs. 9%) and somewhat more likely to have a tattoo or piercing for spiritual purposes (15% vs. 9%). SBNRs and religious Americans are about equally likely to have a shrine, altar or icon in their home or to have jewelry for spiritual purposes.

Involvement in communities

The survey asked respondents whether they are involved in three kinds of communities: a religious community “such as a church or religious congregation”; a spiritual community “such as a group that helps you find a connection with something bigger than yourself, nature or other people”; or a “nonreligious volunteer or community service group.” Respondents could indicate they belong to all, some or none of these kinds of communities.

SBNRs are much less likely than religious Americans to say they are involved in a religious community (11% vs. 62%). They are also slightly less likely to be involved in a spiritual community (13% vs. 18%), though that difference masks a split within the religious category: Americans who are both religious and spiritual are much more likely than those who are religious but not spiritual to say they are involved in a spiritual community (20% vs. 9%).

Meanwhile, the survey finds no significant difference between SBNRs and religious Americans, overall, in their propensity to be involved in a nonreligious volunteer or community service group.

SBNRs are more likely than religious Americans (and U.S. adults as a whole) to have had a strong feeling that someone who has passed away was communicating with them from beyond this world: 48% of SBNRs say they have ever had such an experience, compared with 41% of religious Americans and 21% of U.S. adults who are neither spiritual nor religious.

SBNRs are also slightly more likely than religious Americans to say they have ever had a sudden feeling of connection with “something from beyond this world” (55% vs. 49%), but there is a substantial divide within the religious category: 52% of Americans who are both religious and spiritual say they have had such an experience, compared with 32% of those who are religious but not spiritual.

The same patterns hold when comparing SBNRs with religious Americans on some other questions about experiences that might be considered spiritual. SBNRs are more likely than religious Americans (and much more likely than those who are religious but not spiritual) to say they feel a deep sense of wonder about the universe once a month or more often.

On the other hand, SBNRs are somewhat less likely than religious Americans (and much less likely than those who are both religious and spiritual) to say they feel a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being at least monthly.

( Chapter 4 shows the percentage of U.S. adults who report having these experiences at least a few times a year , rather than monthly or more often.)

Most SBNRs say they have become less religious over the course of their lifetimes (59%). At the same time, 49% say they have become more spiritual over the years and 28% say their spirituality has fluctuated, sometimes increasing and other times decreasing.

By contrast, religious Americans are more likely to say that during their lifetimes, they have become more religious (40%) than to say they have become less religious (14%). Many religious Americans say they have either stayed about the same religiously (19%) or gone back and forth, sometimes becoming more religious and sometimes less (26%).

And religious Americans are just as likely as SBNRs to say they have become more spiritual over their lifetimes: 50% of religious Americans and 49% of SBNRs say this about themselves, while much smaller shares of both groups say they have become less spiritual (5% of religious Americans, 6% of SBNRs).

Spiritual but not religious Americans, along with those who are neither spiritual nor religious, are more critical than religious adults of religion’s impact on society. On balance, 38% of SBNRs say religion does more harm than good, while just 7% of religious Americans share this view.

SBNRs are also more likely than religious Americans to say that the statement “religion causes division and intolerance” describes their views a great deal (42% vs. 11%).

And SBNR Americans are less likely than religious adults to take the position that “religion encourages people to do the right thing and treat people well” (13% vs. 54%) and that “religion helps society by giving people meaning and purpose in their lives” (15% vs. 53%).

This survey also asked respondents to say, in their own words, what the term “spiritual” means to them. We categorized their responses based on the types of beliefs, experiences or other concepts they mentioned.

• 14% of SBNRs give descriptions tied to organized religion , compared with 36% of religious adults.
• About one-in-ten SBNRs relate spirituality to things outside of organized religion , compared with 2% of religious Americans.
• 43% of SBNRs offer responses that mention beliefs in what we categorized as “something else,” such as belief in a higher power (18%) or belief in the unseen or otherworldly (9%). Among religious adults, 27% relate spirituality to beliefs in “something else.”
• A sizable share of SBNRs (27%) also explain the term “spiritual” by referring to connections , such as with God, nature, their inner self or humanity in general. And 15% say “spiritual” relates to understanding themselves or guiding their own behavior , such as being kind or respectful.

Essential elements of spirituality

To further gauge how Americans think about spirituality, the survey asked those who are spiritual whether each of 10 items are “essential,” “important, but not essential,” or “not an important part” to what being spiritual means to them. And a follow-up question asked whether there is anything else they consider essential to what being spiritual means to them (refer to the Topline for responses).

Most Americans who are spiritual but not religious say that “being connected with my true self” is essential to being spiritual (72%). Majorities also say “being open-minded” (66%), “being connected with something bigger than myself” (62%) and “being connected with nature” (59%) are essential. Religious-and-spiritual Americans, on the other hand, are most likely to say “being connected with God” is essential to being spiritual.

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5 Spiritual but Not Religious?

• Published: December 2012
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This chapter examines how and why millions of people describe themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious.’ To do so it describes the relation between ‘spirituality’ and ‘religion’ by exploring different senses of the concept of truth, the nature of belief, and the role of individuality and personal choice in spiritual life. As well, it describes some of the common criticisms “spiritual but not religious” people make of traditional religion. The basic thesis of the chapter is that the practice of spiritual virtues can coexist with a detached or metaphorical understanding of traditional religious claims; that religious belief is defined by the practice of virtue more than by intellectual acceptance; and that the common criticisms of orthodox religion (e.g., that it can be repressive and violent) are true, but apply equally to secular movements and ideologies as well.

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Spiritual, but not religious?: On the nature of spirituality and its relation to religion

• Published: 16 October 2017
• Volume 83 , pages 261–269, ( 2018 )

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Recent years have seen a rise in those who describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious”. At a popular level, there has been a lot of debate about this label and what it represents. But philosophers have in general paid little attention to the conceptual issues it raises. What is spirituality, exactly, and how does it relate to religion? Could there be a non-religious spirituality? In this paper, I try to give an outline account of the nature of spirituality and of religion, and then close with some thoughts on the prospects for a non-religious spirituality.

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What is Spirituality?

Santayana and Schopenhauer

• Spirituality

http://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise-religion/ . For a relatively early treatment of the history of this phrase and the outlook it represents, see (Fuller 2001 ).

Gottlieb, himself a defender of what he calls “eclectic” and “secular” spirituality, quotes those who have called “the very idea of spirituality…an ‘inconsequential dabbling that is doomed to disappear almost as quickly as it appeared’, ‘a new cultural addiction and a claimed panacea for the angst of modern living’…a form of ‘junk capitalism’…[and] a kind of lazy egotism avoiding the demands of God and serious religion” (Gottlieb 2013 , p. 21).

For some of the story of its evolution, see (Bregman Bregman 2014 , Introduction and Chapter 1).

Thus, I think the ethical thought of all developed spiritual traditions is virtue-theoretical; that is, agent-centered rather than act-centered.

Different traditions, however, differ on how to understand the problem of the self. On the Buddhist view, for example, it may seem as if the basic problem depends on the false belief that there is a substantial self, whereas on the Christian view the problem is rather one of egotism, of being overly pre-occupied with the self to the exclusion of real love for others.

I talk about some these similarities, with a focus on Stoic, Christian, and Buddhist sources in my “Dispassion as an Ethical Ideal”.

Some doubt may be felt that Epicureanism could count as a spiritual tradition, since (a) they were materialists of a rather strong sort, thinking reality was ultimately nothing but atoms in a void, and (b) they thought that the ultimate good was pleasure (Thanks to David McNaughton for this worry). However, for the Epicureans, atoms in the void were sufficient to ground a spirituality insofar as they believed that rightly understanding and living in the light of this fundamental truth required a sort of inner transformation which would in turn lead to more ethical behavior and a more worthwhile life. Likewise, their pursuit of pleasure was conditioned by their understanding of the cosmos and human nature. It required, among other things, support for just social institutions, pursuit of friendship, and moderating one's appetites (far from the modern misconception of the Epicurean as an insatiable gourmand, it was originally a quasi-ascetical community and Epicurus himself was a vegetarian!).

The quote is from Murdoch ( 1994 ), whose ethical thought to my mind is an almost perfect expression in contemporary philosophical terms of a basic insight of many spiritual traditions.

My account here does not play up the importance of spiritual or mystical experiences, which may seem like a flaw. On the one hand, I don’t think such experiences, as such, are important to all spiritualities. On the other, however, I do think the idea of an inner transformation is important and such experiences may often be the catalysts for such transformations, or the experience of the transformations themselves. Thanks to Harriet Baber for forcing me to think about this.

For a recent dialogue on the definition of religion, see (Devine 1986 ) and (Kapitan 1989 ). Devine focuses mostly on deity and dogma (with ritual being a “less central” criteria), whereas Kapitan focuses mostly on ethics, broadly speaking (for him, religion is primarily about solving a sort of “uneasiness” in our existential condition). Tellingly, the word “spirituality” doesn’t show up at all in either treatment.

One potential worry here is that this is too broad an understanding, for we can imagine an alien explorer to our planet thinking similar things about our own relationship to, say, professional sports. On the one hand, I’ll admit that as it stands perhaps what I say is too broad—there may be additional requirements for such communal rituals to be considered religious, for example some sort of self-conscious understanding of what is happening as in some way sacred or necessary. On the other, I don’t want to entirely rule out the claim that our entertainment culture is at least something very close to a surrogate religion.

(Woods and Ironson 1999 ).

Cf. (Zinnbauer and Pargament 2003 , pp. 27–29), who is responding inter alia to the studies just mentioned.

And of course in the developed religions, the rites have both a communal character, as in communal prayer and worship or veneration, and a more individually-directed spiritual character. In the Eucharist, for example, Christians both share a communal meal in remembrance of Christ, and are said to be individually transformed by a real encounter with him.

Alston, W. (2006). Religion. In D. M. Borchet (Ed.), The encyclopedia of philosophy , (2nd ed., Vol. 8). Thomson Gale.

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Murdoch, I. (1994). Metaphysics as a guide to morals . New York, NY: Penguin Books.

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Woods, T. E., & Ironson, G. H. (1999). Religion and spirituality in the face of illness: How cancer, cardiac, and HIV patients describe their spirituality/religiosity. Journal of Health Psychology, 4, 393–412.

Zinnbauer, B. J., & Pargament, K. I. (2003). Religiousness and spirituality. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality . New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

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Carey, J. Spiritual, but not religious?: On the nature of spirituality and its relation to religion. Int J Philos Relig 83 , 261–269 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-017-9648-8

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Issue Date : June 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-017-9648-8

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Controversy in Society: Spiritual But Not Religious Essay (Critical Writing)

Initially, the article highlights that a significant number of people today call themselves “spiritual but not religious,” a phrase that tends to spark controversy in society (Burkeman par. 1). One of the followers of this movement is Sam Harris, who refers to the fact that spirituality, along with the assistance of meditation, helps him become happy and feel that the world is a part of him (Burkeman par. 2).

The primary difference between spirituality and religion is the fact that spirituality does not have a set of principles and dogmas that one has to follow during his or her life (Burkeman par. 3). It gives an opportunity for atheists to be “present” and experience different forms of life without any fear. Thus, the author of the article claims that Harris’ ideas might be egocentric, as the majority of religious believers rely on practice and he was “baffled” by the question of whether God exists and was engaged in rituals to feel “present” (Burkeman par. 4).

As for me, I believe that spirituality does differ from religion. I completely agree with the fact that religion requires one to comply with set dogmas and principles. A particular figure of God is a role model that one has to follow. On the other hand, spirituality is a self-centered practice since it focuses on the inner world of individuals and gives them the right to become close to the “present.” In this case, Harris’ argument is logical, but I also believe that he should not criticize religion in public. Overall, spirituality is strongly related to religion and disrespecting religion questions one’s ability to admire the beliefs and values of other people. In this case, modern society should allow people to represent their own sense of religion and spirituality, as these concepts contribute to the development of tolerance and personal growth.

Burkeman, Oliver. “Spiritual but Not Religious? You Are Not Alone.” The Guardian. 2016.

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IvyPanda. (2020, August 25). Controversy in Society: Spiritual But Not Religious. https://ivypanda.com/essays/controversy-in-society-spiritual-but-not-religious/

"Controversy in Society: Spiritual But Not Religious." IvyPanda , 25 Aug. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/controversy-in-society-spiritual-but-not-religious/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Controversy in Society: Spiritual But Not Religious'. 25 August.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Controversy in Society: Spiritual But Not Religious." August 25, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/controversy-in-society-spiritual-but-not-religious/.

1. IvyPanda . "Controversy in Society: Spiritual But Not Religious." August 25, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/controversy-in-society-spiritual-but-not-religious/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Controversy in Society: Spiritual But Not Religious." August 25, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/controversy-in-society-spiritual-but-not-religious/.

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Can One Be Spiritual But Not Religious?

Roger Haight , St. John Fisher University Follow

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In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

"How many times have you heard the statement that "I am spiritual, but not religious." It is so common that it could easily qualify as a contemporary cliché. But what does it mean? In a former time to be spiritual was to be religious: they meant pretty much the same thing. Today, however, spirituality can refer to a hundred different things, from self-care to mysticism, from yoga to a psychological power of positive thinking. And the diversity of the different kinds of religion, from the recognized world religions to emergent communities, is staggering. So one cannot take for granted that we know what the self-description really means."

Recommended Citation

Haight, Roger (2009) "Can One Be Spiritual But Not Religious?," Verbum : Vol. 6: Iss. 2, Article 19. Available at: https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/verbum/vol6/iss2/19

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Apr 6, 2017

Meet the “Spiritual but Not Religious”

I’m spiritual but not religious.” You’ve heard it—maybe even said it—before. But what does it actually mean? Can you be one without the other? Once synonymous, “religious” and “spiritual” have now come to describe seemingly distinct (but sometimes overlapping) domains of human activity. The twin cultural trends of deinstitutionalization and individualism have, for many, moved spiritual practice away from the public rituals of institutional Christianity to the private experience of God within . In this conclusion of a two-part series on faith outside the church ( read the first part, on those who “love Jesus but not the church” ), Barna takes a close look at the segment of the American population who are “spiritual but not religious.” Who are they? What do they believe? How do they live out their spirituality daily?

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Two Types of Irreligious Spirituality To get at a sense of spirituality outside the context of institutional religion, Barna created two key groups that fit the “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) description. The first group (SBNR #1) are those who consider themselves “spiritual,” but say their religious faith is not very important in their life. Though some may self-identify as members of a religious faith (22% Christian, 15% Catholic, 2% Jewish, 2% Buddhist, 1% other faith), they are in many ways irreligious —particularly when we take a closer look at their religious practices. For instance, 93 percent haven’t been to a religious service in the past six months. This definition accounts for the unreliability of affiliation as a measure of religiosity.

A sizable majority of the SBNR #1 group do not identify with a religious faith at all (6% are atheist, 20% agnostic and 33% unaffiliated). In order to get a better sense of whether or not a faith affiliation (even if one is irreligious) might affect people’s views and practices, we created a second group of “spiritual but not religious,” which focuses only on those who do not claim any faith at all (SBNR #2). This group still says they are “spiritual,” but they identify as either atheist (12%), agnostic (30%) or unaffiliated (58%). For perspective, of all those who claim “no faith,” around one-third say they are “spiritual” (34%). This is a stricter definition of the “spiritual but not religious,” but as we’ll see, both groups share key qualities and reflect similar trends despite representing two different kinds of American adults—one more religiously literate than the other. In other words, it does not seem as if identifying with a religion affects the practices and beliefs of these groups. Even if you still affiliate with a religion, if you have discarded it as a central tenet of your life, it seems to hold little sway over your spiritual practices.

These two groups differ from the “love Jesus but not the church” crowd in significant ways. Those who Barna defined as loving Jesus but not the church still strongly identify with their faith (they say their religious faith is “very important in my life today”), they just don’t attend church. This group still holds very orthodox Christian views of God and maintains many of the Christian practices (albeit individual ones over corporate ones). As we’ll see below, though, the “spiritual but not religious” hold much looser ideas about God, spiritual practices and religion.

Demographic Trends: Southwestern and Liberal These two groups equally make up around 8 percent of the population (combined, they make up 11 percent of the population—as there is some overlap between the two). In terms of demographics, there aren’t a lot of surprises here. The groups include more women than men—who generally identify more with religion and spirituality than men—and are concentrated in the West Coast and the South. The former a likely result of the influence of Eastern religions and the latter a result of general religious inclinations. They are mostly Boomers and Gen-Xers, though the first group is slightly older and because fewer young people tend to affiliate with a religion, the second group is slightly younger.

But their political leanings are where it gets interesting: Both groups identify as liberal (50% and 54%) or moderate (33% or 35%), with only a fraction identifying as conservative (17% and 11%). Yes, conservatism and religiosity tend to go hand-in-hand, but this divide is unusually stark. It may be that left-leaning spiritual seekers feel they are without a spiritual home in the church, a place they likely view as hostile to their political attitudes, particularly around hot button—and often divisive—issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

Redefining “God” As one might expect—and in stark contrast to the “love Jesus but not the church” crowd—both groups of “spiritual but not religious” hold unorthodox views about God or diverge from traditional viewpoints. For instance, they are just as likely to believe that God represents a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach (32% and 22%) than an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator of the universe who rules the world today (20% and 30%). For context, only one in 10 (12%) American adults believe the former, and almost six out of 10 (57%) believe the latter. So these views are certainly out of the norm. The trend continues: They are just as likely to be polytheistic (51% and 52%) as monotheistic (both groups: 48% each), and significantly fewer agree that God is everywhere (41% and 42%) compared to either practicing Christians (92%) or evangelicals (98%). But straying from orthodoxy is not the story here. This feels expected. Sure, their God is more abstract than embodied, more likely to occupy minds than the heavens and the earth. But what’s noteworthy is that what counts as “God” for the spiritual but not religious is contested among them, and that’s probably just the way they like it. Valuing the freedom to define their own spirituality is what characterizes this segment.

Ambivalent Views of Religion By definition, the “spiritual but not religious” are religiously disinclined, and the data bears this out in a number of ways. Firstly, both groups are somewhat torn about the value of religion in general, holding ambivalent views (54% and 46% disagree, and 45% and 53% agree), especially compared to religious groups (i.e. practicing Christians: 85% disagree and evangelicals: 98% disagree). So why the ambivalence? It’s one thing to be disinclined , but it’s another to claim harm . The broader cultural resistance to institutions is a response to the view that they are oppressive, particularly in their attempts to define reality. Seeking autonomy from this kind of religious authority seems to be the central task of the “spiritual but not religious” and very likely the reason for their religious suspicion.

Secondly, as functional outsiders, their view of religious distinctiveness is much looser than their religious counterparts. A majority of both groups (65% and 73%) are convinced that all religions basically teach the same thing, particularly striking numbers compared to evangelicals (1%) and practicing Christians (32%). Again, the “spiritual but not religious” shirk definition. The boundary markers are non-existent, and that’s the point. For them, there is truth in all religions, and they refuse to believe any single religion has a monopoly on ultimate reality.

Spirituality That Looks Within As we’ve seen, to be religious is to be institutional—it is to practice one’s spirituality in accordance with an external authority. But to be spiritual but not religious is to possess a deeply personal and private spirituality. Religions point outside oneself to a higher power for wisdom and guidance, while a spirituality divorced from religion looks within . Only a fraction of the two spiritual but not religious groups (9% and 7%) talk often with their friends about spiritual matters. Almost half (48% each) say they rarely do it, and they are 12 (24%) to eight (17%) times more likely to never talk with their friends about spiritual matters than both practicing Christians and evangelicals (2% each).

Spiritually Nourished on Their Own—and Outdoors Like the “ I love Jesus but not the church ” group, the “spiritual but not religious” live out their spirituality in the absence of the institutional church. But they still take part in a set of spiritual practices, albeit a mish-mash of them. Somewhat unsurprisingly, they are very unlikely to take part in the most religious practices like scripture reading (4% and 10%), prayer (21% and 22%) and even groups or retreats (3% and 2%), particularly compared to the other religious groups. Their spiritual nourishment is found in more informal practices like yoga (15% and 22%), meditation (26% and 34%) and silence and / or solitude (26% and 32%). But their most common spiritual practice is spending time in nature for reflection (40% and 51%). And why not, considering the real sense of personal autonomy gained from time outside. Overall, it’s easy to see why this group, who make sense of their lives and the world outside religious categories, are inclined toward more informal and more individual modes of spiritual practice.

What the Research Means “In the recent study on those who ‘love Jesus but not the church’ , we explored what religious faith outside of institutional religion looks like. In this study, we are exploring what spirituality outside of religious faith looks like,” points out Roxanne Stone, editor in chief at Barna Group. “While this may seem like semantics or technical jargon, we found key differences between these groups. The first is disenchanted with the church; the second is disenchanted with religion. The former still hold tightly to Christian belief, they just do not find value in the church as a component of that belief. The latter have primarily rejected religion and prefer instead to define their own boundaries for spirituality—often mixing beliefs and practices from a variety of religions and traditions.

“They represent an equal percentage of the population,” says Stone. “And, by all indications, both groups are growing. Those who love Jesus but not the church are certainly more favorable toward religion and would likely be more receptive to re-joining the church. Yet, spiritual leaders should not discount this group of the ‘spiritual but not religious.’ They are distinct among their irreligious peers in their spiritual curiosity and openness. The majority of those who have rejected religious faith do not describe themselves as spiritual (65%), similarly two-thirds of those with no faith at all do not identify as spiritual. So those who do—this group of the spiritual but not religious—display an uncommon inclination to think beyond the material and to experience the transcendent. Such a desire can open the door to deep, spiritual conversations and, in time, perhaps a willingness to hear about Christian spirituality. The bent of those conversations necessarily must be different though than with those who love Jesus but not the church. The wounds and suspicions toward church will come from different places—as will their understanding of spirituality. But both groups represent people outside of church who have an internal leaning toward the spiritual side of life.”

Comment on this research and follow our work: Twitter:  @davidkinnaman  |  @roxyleestone  |  @barnagroup Facebook:  Barna Group

About the Research

Interviews with U.S. adults included 1281 web-based surveys conducted among a representative sample of adults over the age of 18 in each of the 50 United States. The survey was conducted in April and November of 2016. The sampling error for this study is plus or minus 3 percentage points, at the 95% confidence level. Minimal statistical weighting was used to calibrate the sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.

Millennials : Born between 1984 and 2002 Gen-Xers : Born between 1965 and 1983 Boomers : Born between 1946 and 1964 Elders : Born between 1945 or earlier

Practicing Christia n: Those who attend a religious service at least once a month, who say their faith is very important in their lives and self-identify as a Christian.

Evangelicals : meet nine specific theological criteria. They say they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today,” that their faith is very important in their life today; believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior; strongly believe they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; firmly believe that Satan exists; strongly believe that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; strong agree that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; strong assert that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent on church attendance, the denominational affiliation of the church attended or self-identification. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “evangelical.”

Love Jesus but Not the Church : Those who self-identify as Christian and who strongly agree that their religious faith is very important in their life, but are “dechurched” (have attended church in the past, but haven’t done so in the last six months or more). Spiritual but Not Religious #1 : Those who self-identify as spiritual but  say their faith is not very important in their lives. Spiritual but Not Religious #2 : Those who self-identify as spiritual but do not claim any faith (atheist, agnostic or unaffiliated).

© Barna Group, 2017.

About Barna

Since 1984, Barna Group has conducted more than two million interviews over the course of thousands of studies and has become a go-to source for insights about faith, culture, leadership, vocation and generations. Barna is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization.

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Religious but Not Spiritual

Gregory wolfe | issue 68.

F OR A NUMBER OF YEARS I’ve been saving up the fiction of Anthony Trollope as a sort of mid-life treat. At least I hoped it would be a treat. Trollope is the kind of author who is often ridiculed as a literary lightweight: a Victorian lacking the range and energy of Dickens; a drawing-room chronicler without Jane Austen’s tart irony or powers of observation. Even as I turned to the first page I was braced for disappointment.

So far I can report that Trollope—for all his gentle romantic farce and clerical satire—stands up quite well as a distinctive literary voice, capable of striking deep social and political resonances upon the gossamer strings of his comedy. While the pages go down easily, Trollope is not merely a fashioner of escapist fluff but a writer who summons issues as profound as those his more earnest contemporaries wrestled with.

I began with The Warden, the first in a sequence known as The Chronicles of Barsetshire (which includes most famously Barchester Towers ). The title refers to the novel’s protagonist, the Reverend Septimus Harding, a clergyman nearing sixty who lives in a sleepy English shire where time seems to pass more slowly than in the great metropolis of London. No one in the town of Barchester is more happily attuned to this timelessness and obscurity than the good reverend. But to his horror he suddenly finds himself at the center of national attention.

As precentor of Barchester Cathedral, Harding is also given the wardenship of Hiram’s Hospital, an almshouse for elderly or disabled working men. Like many such institutions, this almshouse was founded by a local worthy in the Middle Ages. The income from the donated properties has increased substantially over the centuries and is largely given to the warden. Thanks to the efforts of a well-intentioned, young, reform-minded doctor, John Bold (who happens to be in love with Harding’s daughter), the reverend Harding and Hiram’s Hospital become a cause célèbre, the subject of newspaper articles about social inequality and the power of the Church of England.

On one level The Warden is about the human toll inflicted on good people by crusading reformers intent on winning points on the political stage. The Reverend Harding, while never particularly guilty about the eight hundred pounds he received as warden, sees the point of the critique. Because Trollope always wanted to depict his characters as mixtures of good and bad he shows us a man who resigns his position (against the wishes of his clerical colleagues) as much because of an aversion to publicity as from a newly awakened conscience about social justice.

But if that was all the book was about I don’t think The Warden would be as beloved as it is. What makes the story special is that while Harding’s weaknesses are clear—he is an excessively shy, retiring person who may not act or think for himself as he should—nonetheless, he participates in an ancient, organic union of faith and community that stretches back into the medieval world that produced Hiram’s Hospital.

Trollope takes care to give the Reverend Harding a highly specific role within the church: he is a liturgist and choirmaster. Early in the novel we are given an economical introduction to Harding’s passions:

Mr. Harding’s warmest admirers cannot say that he was ever an industrious man; the circumstances of his life have not called on him to be so; and yet he can hardly be called an idler. Since his appointment to his precentorship, he has published, with all possible additions of vellum, typography, and gilding, a collection of our ancient church music, with some correct dissertations on Purcell, Crotch, and Nares. He has greatly improved the choir of Barchester, which, under his dominion, now rivals that of any cathedral in England. He has taken something more than his fair share in the cathedral services, and has played the violoncello daily to such audiences as he could collect, or, faute de mieux, to no audience at all.

The small touches here are delightful—and telling. That book of ancient church music is published so beautifully, it turns out, at Harding’s personal expense, much to the exasperation of his son-in-law, the Reverend Theophilus Grantly, the officious and money-conscious archdeacon of Barchester Cathedral. It is perhaps the warden’s only extravagance but it is clearly an extravagance of love and a celebration of beauty. Harding’s passion for the cello, which later in the novel is described as “that saddest of instruments,” is manifest whenever he is emotionally overwrought; at such times he is given to silently “bowing” a passage of music, much to the consternation of his interlocutors.

Harding’s faith is played out in the minutiae of liturgy and music rather than the grand thoughts of preaching and theological exposition. His other gift is simply that of friendship. Significantly, his two deepest relationships are with the bishop and the de facto leader of the Hiram’s Hospital community, a simple old soul named Bunce—two men who represent the top and bottom of the social order. Harding and his bishop love to spend companionable evenings by the fire. As for Bunce: “The precentor delighted to call him his sub-warden, and was not ashamed, occasionally, when no other guest was there, to bid him sit down by the same parlor fire, and drink the full glass of port which was placed near him. Bunce never went without the second glass, but no entreaty ever made him take a third.”

Trollope’s observations about his characters are generous but rarely sentimental, as that small detail of class consciousness (“when no other guest was there”) makes clear. Septimus Harding lives in what essentially remains a feudal world, and if that dispensation is both static and guilty of certain inequities, the new world of the reformers has little of its warmth and humanity, its rootedness in a historic community.

The high-minded idealism of activists like John Bold, for all its rhetoric of compassion and equality, does not grow out of direct contact with the poor. Its motives are thoroughly mixed. Good intentions shade into personal vanity; lofty (if vague) goals for the reform of allegedly corrupt institutions are quickly exploited by newspapers that profit from controversy. Neither the reformers nor the media have any real stake in the ongoing life of this community.

And a bewildered Septimus Harding is reduced to playing melancholy notes on his air-cello.

I read The Warden at a time when I was reflecting on the now ubiquitous contemporary phrase: “I’m spiritual but not religious.” I asked a friend about this phrase and he replied: “Many associate the word ‘religious’ with fanaticism, irrationality, intolerance, and closed-mindedness, while ‘spirituality’ suggests something more detached, thoughtful, tolerant, and open.” The “binding” ( re-ligare ) of religion is seen as overly constrictive.

No doubt this is an accurate assessment of a widespread feeling. And yet—call me contrary or misguided if you will—the Reverend Harding makes me think that I’m religious but not spiritual.

Communities, like families, can be healthy or toxic, but western individualism provides no true alternative. Ironically, the spiritual-but-not-religious embrace a consumerist mentality that in other contexts they harshly criticize. The irony is compounded when one realizes that these spiritual individualists—inheritors of an “I” culture—most often pluck items off the shelf of “we” cultures. Spiritual tourism offers the benefits of wisdom derived from those who submit to authority and discipline and tradition without having to do so oneself.

But spiritual tourists have no home to return to; they are always restlessly consuming new experiences. They can’t eat, pray, and love enough.

At the level of popular culture the tremendous longing we feel for the integrated life of a “we” culture is overwhelmingly clear. Take a film like Avatar, which presents us with a thinly veiled allegory of rapacious consumerism confronted by a seemingly primitive tribal culture that is grounded in taboos, strict social roles, and corporate worship. The bulldozers that plow through the jungle seek to rip out a precious piece of the whole and turn it into a commodity.

The mid-twentieth-century theologian Romano Guardini noted that his conversion experience began with the spiritual desire to “lose his life in order to find it.” At that moment he ran into a dilemma:

To give my soul away—but to whom? Who is in the position to require it from me? So to require it that, in the requiring, it would not again be I who lay hold of it? Not simply “God.” For whenever a person wants to deal only with God, then he says “God” but means himself. There must also be an objective authority, which can draw out my answer from self-assertion’s every refuge and hideout. But there is only one such entity: the…church in her authority and concreteness. The question of holding on or letting go is decided ultimately not before God, but before the church.

The word authority is another contemporary bugbear, I know, but in the end, authority as Guardini sees it is less about someone handing down judgments from on high upon hapless members and more about the force that compels us to stick together. God knows just how hard and messy that sticking can be.

How, I wonder, is it possible to learn tolerance outside of a community?

The older I get the more suspicious I am of spirituality as something ethereal, exotic, and otherworldly—something found elsewhere. The poet William Carlos Williams coined the phrase “No ideas but in things” to express a poetic that preferred concreteness to abstraction. By the same token, I know of no spirituality outside the relationships that constitute the daily life of my community.

This is where Trollope’s genius lies in The Warden . For in making Septimus Harding a liturgist he emphasizes that the quintessential activity of a religious community is not the purveying of doctrines and ideas but the worship of the presence that has called the community into being. In common prayer and song we lay aside the burden of self-consciousness; we recount the story of the encounter that brought us together. In worship we become participants, living members of a body, rather than observers and connoisseurs.

Liturgy is where art and community life meet. Where spirit is not thought but made flesh through hands, knees, and vocal chords. In worship the stuff of art is offered up in the name of the community, not the ego of the artist—or the clergy. Ingmar Bergman, one of the great film directors and an artist capable of rendering dysfunctional religious communities with unrelenting, devastating accuracy, nonetheless wrote late in his life: “Art lost its basic creative drive the moment it was separated from worship. It severed an umbilical cord and now lives its own sterile life, generating and degenerating itself. In former days the artist remained unknown and his work was to the glory of God.”

After Septimus Harding resigns his wardenship of Hiram’s Hospital he is assigned to the tiny church of Saint Cuthbert, “no bigger than an ordinary room.” “Here he performs afternoon service every Sunday, and administers the sacrament once in every three months. His audience is not large…but enough come to fill his six pews, and on the front seat of those devoted to the poor is always to be seen our old friend Mr. Bunce, decently arrayed in his bedesman’s gown.”

My kind of place.

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Tags: Anthony Trollope art and faith authority community editorial statement Gregory Wolfe religion spirituality

My position on this essay:

When a Christian believer refers to being spiritual solely based on Scripture (disregarding any tradition of the church whatsoever), it should be regarded: “not one´s spirit, but being spiritual”. An individual with or led by the power of the Holy Spirit here on earth and in the spiritual realms (immaterial, spiritual reality, unseen by human eyes). Even demons and angels are referred as spiritual beings, so it is good to say that a Christian is a spiritual individual and considers (views) things in a spiritual manner.

Read 1 Co 2:13–3:2.

But please bear in mind that the expression “spiritual realm” doesn´t mean mystical but it refers to a different metaphysical level, dimension, extent, dominion, region, range, extent, and place. That doesn´t mean at all that the spiritual realm is all mystical and figurative, but it could be very well be SPIRITUAL today and PHYSICAL, actual, straightforward, bodily, perceptual, substantial, LITERAL and real once it is fulfilled and revealed such as the apocalyptic promises and the coming kingdom on this earth since we were made this way, in the image and likeness of God, physical, corporal, tangible, straightforward, and literal.

As opposed to the word “religious” (deisidaimōn, thrēskos) found in Acts 17:22 and James 1:26, which is being used in a very critical, opposite, and worldly sense; the word and theme “spiritual” as being referred to an individual is openly and several times (spiritual drink, spiritual death, spiritual food, powers, songs, things, gifts) used by Paul in the NT.

Although not clearly stated in this Essay (which is erroneous), I think part of the point of this somewhat humanistic essay “Religious but Not Spiritual” is being made simply on the cultural context of the use of the words today.

Even if, nowadays, the word “spiritual” is focused on “I” and the word “religious” is focused on “we”, for Christians, it should be considered evangelicalism, the Protestant reformation, and “the solas” as a midpoint between the tradition of the church and an individual´s faith an access to God.

In a scriptural context and for a Christian believer it´s okay to use and to be “spiritual”, and not good when simply disregarded.

DBL Greek : “4461 πνευματικός (pneumatikos), ή (ē), όν (on): adj. [see πνευματικός (pneumatikos), οῦ (ou), ὁ (ho), just above]; ≡ Str 4152; TDNT 6.332—1. LN 12.21 from the Spirit, pertaining to the Spirit (1Co 2:13ab; 12:1); 2. LN 26.10 spiritual (Eph 1:3; Mk 16:15 v.r.; 1Co 12:9 v.r.); 3. LN 41.40 of spiritual conduct, a pattern of life controlled by spirit (1Co 3:1); 4. LN 79.3 not physical, not material (1Co 15:44); 5. LN 79.6 supernatural, with God as the source (1Co 10:4); 6. LN 12.44 supernatural powers (Eph 6:12) ”

(1) Logos Bible Software (2) Swanson, James. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.

This was a refreshing essay. Thank you:)

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Have you ever had a conversation with somebody that went a little like this?

You: “Do you go to Church?” Friend: “No, I mean… I’d probably consider myself more ‘spiritual’ than ‘religious.’ The whole world is my church. I can connect with God anywhere.”

I would honestly be shocked if you haven’t! A growing majority of Americans identify this way. More and more people are disaffiliating themselves from the Catholic Church and even more from the idea of “church” in general. But this hasn’t stopped people from seeking truth, beauty, and goodness elsewhere. Our culture is increasingly seeking to experience kinds of spirituality that are not rooted in religious tradition, and many people feel that they are able to connect with the transcendental through self-actualization and whatever means they use to get there. More on that later.

Simultaneously, though, we see a growing trend of Christians emphasizing religiosity over spirituality — so much so that their religion becomes devoid of spirituality altogether. In this blog, we’ll explore the two extremes in the hopes of illuminating the middle ground on which we are called to stand. As Catholics, we can learn how to glean the good from each side and live out our faith in a more, holistic, and balanced way.

Catchphrase of a Movement

What do people mean when they say they are “spiritual, but not religious”? Usually, when a person identifies this way, it means that they would rather dissociate themselves from any institution or group. In a world that places great emphasis on labels and categorizations of people, they would rather not label themselves as “religious” so as to avoid being linked to what they perceive to be an oppressive institution.

Spiritualization and Seeking Truth

The spiritual-but-not-religious recognize the deep longing of the human condition and are open to seeking the divine. The spiritual-but-not-religious thirst for authenticity and real relationships, they have the confidence to ask questions many people are afraid of or unwilling to ask, and they place great value on self-actualization, often by means of engaging in wellness motivations and mindfulness practices.

Humans are spiritual beings. We are naturally and intrinsically made for something greater than ourselves, and we will always be searching for that place of total fulfillment. As humans, we are created to be curious and seeking, and these good desires to know truth, behold beauty, and see goodness in all things are at the core of our being. These natural movements and desires of our souls can easily be recognized in all people, especially in many who self-identify as spiritual but not religious.

Humans, however, are also religious beings. On its most basic level, we can define religion as an organized worship of a thing. A spiritual-but-not-religious person, whether they realize it or not, is still engaging in a type of religion. Whether we associate with a church or not, it is in our nature as human beings to claim something as our god and worship it – whether that be a sports team, a hobby, an idea, nature, a political cause or stance, self-healing or self-reliance, wellness practices, a facet of the culture, or even ourselves.

On the Flip Side

While there is a majority of people who would claim to be “spiritual but not religious” there is also a trend toward religion devoid of “spirituality”: a strongly held belief system informed by religion but little spiritual investment or personal relationship with God.

These growing trends in the opposite trajectory are much more subtle. To the untrained eye, religious-but-not-spiritual are practically indistinguishable from any other “religious person.” In fact, from the outside, they look like they’re ticking all the boxes. You see them in Mass every Sunday. They read all the right devotionals. They pray for all the right prayers. Heck, they even look holy. But you and I both know that is not the exterior manifestation of devotion that makes someone holy. Jesus Himself warns us against inauthentic displays of piety in the Gospels all the time!

The religious-but-not-spiritual can be likened to the Pharisees praying out loud in the temple (see Luke 18), or really, they can be likened to anytime the Pharisees are mentioned in scripture. They might have a holier-than-thou attitude. They’re quick to point out the failings and shortcomings of others rather than taking on a posture of humility. They are too-heavy handed with justice and quickly forget mercy. They are obsessed with meticulously following rules and trying to “measure” their own holiness. They get caught up in details and are exceedingly rigid. They keep their focus on the Letter of the Law and forget the Love of the Law.

The religious-but-not-spiritual person is rooted in the Catholic faith tradition and understands it to be the source and summit of all truth. But they are misguided in their theology. Instead of building a relationship with a personal, tender, loving and merciful God, they find themselves leaving offerings at the statue of a distant, cold and rigid “god” for fear of being punished. The danger here is that they will be like Martha, doing all the “right things” but forgetting to sit and rest at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10). Or they will be like the Elder Son who did everything right – who never left home – but still lacked everything in that he still didn’t feel loved, celebrated or accepted by His Father (Luke 15). The religious-but-not-spiritual are governed by a Taskmaster, focused far too much on the structures and rules of religion. They are close to God in proximity, but not in heart.

So where do we stand?

On both sides, there can be a tendency toward self-healing and self-reliance or the idea that I need to do x, y, and z thing in order to achieve or earn the good: whether that be salvation, self-actualization, healing, or a feeling of total fulfillment. On both sides, there is a search for truth, beauty, and goodness in alignment with the natural tendencies we were designed with. In both experiences, the deepest questions of humanity are being grasped at. So we see that there is goodness to be found in the experience of a spiritual-but-not-religious person, as well as dangers. The same can be said about the religious-but-not-spiritual person. There needs to be a balance of the good found in both!

If you’re old like me – or if you just have an affinity for watching old commercials on YouTube – you might remember an old taco commercial which asked the hard questions: ¿ Porque no los dos ? Why can’t we have both? Well, good news, friends. We can!

We ARE called to BOTH religion and spirituality. We have the best of both worlds! As Catholic Christians, we can imagine ourselves at the intersection of the Religious and Spiritual. That is, we hold that it is possible (and if fact necessary) to grow in a personal, intimate relationship with the Divine and that each person embarks on their own quest to wholeness (for the betterment of themselves and others) but that one can only find the fullness of Truth within the folds of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. It is within the context of the Church, by her Wisdom and guided by her deeply rooted traditions, that a person can truly attain total self-fulfillment in union with God. In this union, we become who we are meant to be. We become whole and holy – the most vibrant version of ourselves.

“It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal…”

That is one of my favorite quotes of all time – and leave it to St. John Paul II to pretty much sums it all up in the most eloquent way possible! Whether you consider yourself religious or not, we are all on the journey together. Human beings are created with a deep, longing desire for fulfillment and spend our whole lives searching, questioning, and yearning for completeness. The fullness of healing and wholeness is only found in the person of Jesus Christ, who brings restoration and reconciles all things to Himself. What we seek – the fulfillment of our greatest and deepest desires – is found in the One who created us.

Laurie Medina

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Spring 2021: "Spiritual But Not Religious": Spirituality in America — RELG 2660

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Spiritual but not religious, does it make sense to reject religion while maintaining spirituality.

Posted October 28, 2016 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

Many people today (on dating sites, for example) describe themselves as " spiritual but not religious ." I always say that I am not spiritual because I don't believe in spirits and other supernatural agents. But contemporary advocates of SBNR seem to have a looser idea of what spirituality amounts to that deserves scrutiny.

First, we can look at what the rejection of religion involves. There is no agreed-upon definition of religion, but the concept can be captured by a 3-analysis that looks at standard examples, typical features, and explanations.

Exemplars of religion include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc. Part of what people are saying when they describe themselves as "not religious" is that their views are not those of any of the standard religions.

More specifically, people are rejecting typical features of religion, including organized churches accompanied by rituals and social norms, along with supernatural agents such as the Christian God and Allah. In addition, people may be rejecting some of the standard explanations that religion is used for, such as the existence of the universe and the establishment of morality .

But what makes someone who is spiritual different from an atheist or agnostic who also rejects religion?

Spirituality for some people seems to mean merely that they believe in ethical values such as caring about other people. But there are many ethical views that operate on rational principles and empathy without invoking spirituality. Values are emotional attitudes that can be objective if they are based on human needs, as I argue here .

Spirituality sometimes goes with a set of practices that may be reassuring and possibly healthy. Activities such as yoga and tai chi are good forms of exercise that make sense, independent of any spiritual justification.

Sometimes spirituality fits with rejection of modern medicine, which despite its limitations is far more likely to cure people than weird ideas about quantum healing and ineffable mind-body interactions. Evidence-based medicine is better than fuzzy wishful thinking.

Perhaps the most common basis of modern spirituality is just a mystical sense that the universe is somehow meaningful and benign, as captured in the slogan that everything happens for a reason, criticized here .

In the absence of evidence for such meaningfulness, the most plausible explanation for why people are spiritual in this way is motivated inference : These beliefs contribute toward goals such as being emotionally secure. The universe is indeed a scary place, with more than a trillion stars that make our little planet and its inhabitants seem inconsequential. Religion provides reassurance that we are not as cosmically insignificant as science suggests. Moreover, benign gods such as the Christian Father appealingly offer a being looking out for us in the face of everyday difficulties such as disappointment, disease, disaster, and death. Disaffection with organized religion shifts people’s attention toward more amorphous kinds of reassurance that mystical spirituality seems to support.

However, under close scrutiny, spirituality is no better than religion at making sense of the world in ways consistent with evidence and argument. There are effective secular ways of dealing with the world and issues from the medical to the psychotherapeutic to the cosmological. Motivated inference is hard to avoid, but people can realize that mystical spirituality is no more plausible than traditional religious views. If you don’t like religion, you shouldn’t be spiritual either.

Paul Thagard, Ph.D. , is a Canadian philosopher and cognitive scientist. His latest book, published by Columbia University Press, is Falsehoods Fly: Why Misinformation Spreads and How to Stop It.

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The Problem With “Spiritual But Not Religious”

Let’s talk about “spiritual but not religious.” Certainly you are free to call yourself that, but to me the classification comes with some red flags. For example, in the universe of social media memes there is a large sub-genre I’ve come to call “religion drools, spirituality rules” that claims the superiority of spirituality over religion. Spiritual people, according to memes, are smarter, more open minded, more inclusive, more compassionate, more virtuous, and possibly better looking than religious people. Well, okay, maybe not better looking. But definitely all those other things.

I say these memes are classic examples of logical fallacy . Over the years I have known many conventionally religious people as well as many people dedicated to a do-it-themselves spiritual searching, and I can’t say one group is more or less anything than the other group. Many deeply religous people are sincere, inclusive, open minded, and the rest of the good stuff. And the freelancers I’ve known seem no more or less susceptible to self-delusions, tribalism, and flimflam as anybody else.

Spiritual But Not Religions: Why Is This Happening?

Religion is a vast range of diverse things. Most of the time when I’ve drilled down into the objections that SBNR people hold against religion, those objections apply to a particular slice of contemporary Christianity, and possibly some parts of Judaism and Islam as well, but not really religion per se . In my experience SBNR folks tend to have limited experience with religion  beyond what they grew up with and what they’ve seen on the teevee. In fact, the world’s traditions that get classified as religion are so diverse that the religious studies branch of academia can’t settle on a definition of what religion is; see Defining Religion, And Why That’s So Hard . English language dictionaries will tell you religion is about belief in and worship of gods or other supernatural powers, but many Asian traditions — Buddhism is a prime example — don’t fit that definition.

The rise of “spiritual but not religious” seems to parallel the rise of the “nones” the sharp increase in the U.S. population of people with no religious affiliation. As recently as 1972 polls found that about 90 percent of U.S. citizens identified as Christian. Today, according to Pew Research, about 63 percent of Americans identify as Christian. Not all nones call themselves “spiritual but not religious,” but many do. It’s possible that what we’re seeing here is a growing alienation from Christian institutions, but determining that would require more data gathering and other research than I’ve seen. And there may be other social and cultural factors we’re not seeing. But let’s talk about red flags.

Spiritual But Not Religious: Take This Meme, Please

The endless variety of “religion drools, spirituality rules” memes include images showing a fish in a fishbowl (religion) versus a fish in an ocean (spirituality). Memes claim religion is based on fear and restriction but spirituality is based on love and freedom. Religion teaches people to be afraid of hell, but spirituality teaches people to create heaven on earth. Religion divides people; spirituality brings them together. Really?  But this week one popped up on social media that was particularly egregious. It said, “A religious person will do what he is told … no matter what is right … whereas a spiritual person will do what is right … no matter what he is told.” This was followed by many “likes” and comments expressing agreement.

Hogwash. Who told the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King to lead a march cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge ? Who told the Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer , a Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany, to stand up to Hitler? And exactly how is one group claiming superiority over another “uniting” people? Further,  it’s likely every human atrocity throughout history began with the thought “ my people are better than those other people .” Those patting themselves on the back for being one of the cool spiritual kids are falling into the same divisiveness and exclusivity that allegedly makes religion “bad.” So much for superiority.

Of course, it’s also true that some religious people are jerks, and religious institutions are as corruptible as any other institutions. Most of the world’s religions are many centuries, if not millennia, old. They have long and messy histories, full of both dark and light, wisdom and ignorance. The concept of “spiritual but not religious” hasn’t been around long enough to have a track record. It may prove to be a positive thing. But first we need to clarify what it is.

Defining Terms

Until relatively recently the words religion and spirituality have been near synonyms, often used interchangeably to mean the same thing. I’ve been trying to track down exactly when the two terms began to split apart. I’m not sure anyone knows, but many fingers point to the counterculture of the 1960s. That’s entirely possible, given the counterculture’s antipathy to anything “establishment.”

Academic works discussing “spiritual but not religious” nearly always cite a 1997 anthropoligical study titled “Religion and Spirituality: Unfuzzying the Fuzzy,” from Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , 36, 549-564. by Brian J. Zinnbauer, Kenneth I. Pargament, Brenda Cole, Mark S. Rye, Eric M. Butfer, Timothy G. Belavich, Kathleen Hipp, Allie B. Scott, and Jill L. Kadar. A link on this page will let you download a PDF. If this subject interests you, it’s worth reading.

“Historically, spirituality was not distinguished from religiousness until the rise of secularism in this century,” say the authors. “As spirituality has become differentiated from religiousness, however, it has taken with it some of the elements formally included within religiousness. Therefore, recent definitions of religiousness have become more narrow and less inclusive.”  In particular, spirituality is now associated with “personal experiences of the transcendent,” while religion is seen as a hindrance to such experiences. And my suspicions are that this speaks to something lacking in contemprary religious institutions.

Some Things Can’t Be Separated

As I wrote in my earlier post on defining religion , one of relgion’s Latin roots, religio , refers to conscientiousness, faithfulness, and sincerity. It was about action and conduct more than belief. Some scholars say the word religion has another Latin root,  religare, which connotes binding, especially binding something that has been severed —  such as humans severed from the transcendent, for example. The word spirituality is from the Latin spiritus , meaning breath . Spirituality is about life. It’s also about spirit . It makes sense to associate spirituality with transcendent experience.

My concern is that religion and spirituality need each other. Religion without spirituality is a kind of weird intellectual exercise, with lots of rules. But spirituality without some kind of doctrinal context and the direction provided by tradition could easily turn into an empty quest for transcendent “fixes.” I say that as a long-time student of Zen Buddhism , which is all about direct experience, not belief. The path is full of dead ends and rabbit holes, and we could all use the guidance provided by those who have gone before.

But, we’ll see. This is a huge subject that will probably need revisiting.

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The number of religious ‘nones’ has soared, but not the number of atheists – and as social scientists, we wanted to know why

Associate Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University

Disclosure statement

Christopher P. Scheitle receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. The research presented here was supported in part by the Explaining Atheism project at Queen's University Belfast.

Katie Corcoran receives or has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Presbyterian Health Foundation, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, International Research Network for the Study of Belief and Science, and West Virginia University Humanities Center.

West Virginia University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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The number of individuals in the United States who do not identify as being part of any religion has grown dramatically in recent years, and “the nones” are now larger than any single religious group . According to the General Social Survey, religiously unaffiliated people represented only about 5% of the U.S. population in the 1970s. This percentage began to increase in the 1990s and is around 30% today.

At first glance, some might assume this means nearly 1 in 3 Americans are atheists, but that’s far from true. Indeed, only about 4% of U.S. adults identify as an atheist .

As sociologists who study religion in the U.S., we wanted to find out more about the gap between these percentages and why some individuals identify as an atheist while other unaffiliated individuals do not.

Many shades of ‘none’

The religiously unaffiliated are a diverse group. Some still attend services, say that they are at least somewhat religious, and express some level of belief in God – although they tend to do these things at a lower rate than individuals who do identify with a religion .

There is even diversity in how religiously unaffiliated individuals identify themselves. When asked their religion on surveys, unaffiliated responses include “agnostic,” “no religion,” “nothing in particular,” “none” and so on.

Only about 17% of religiously unaffiliated people explicitly identify as “atheist” on surveys . For the most part, atheists more actively reject religion and religious concepts than other religiously unaffiliated individuals.

Our recent research examines two questions related to atheism. First, what makes an individual more or less likely to identify as an atheist ? Second, what makes someone more or less likely to adopt an atheistic worldview over time?

Beyond belief – and disbelief

Consider the first question: Who’s likely to identify as an atheist. To answer that, we also need to think about what atheism means in the first place.

Not all religious traditions emphasize belief in a deity . In the U.S. context, however, particularly within traditions such as Christianity, atheism is often equated with saying that someone does not believe in God. Yet in one of our surveys we found that among U.S. adults who say “I do not believe in God,” only about half will select “atheist ” when asked their religious identity.

In other words, rejecting a belief in God is by no means a sufficient condition for identifying as an atheist. So why do some individuals who do not believe in God identify as an atheist while others do not?

Our study found that there are a number of other social forces associated with the likelihood of an individual identifying as an atheist, above and beyond their disbelief in God – particularly stigma.

Many Americans eye atheists with suspicion and distaste . Notably, some social science surveys in the U.S. include questions asking about how much tolerance people have for atheists alongside questions about tolerance of racists and communists .

This stigma means that being an atheist comes with potential social costs, especially in certain communities. We see this dynamic play out in our data.

Political conservatives, for instance, are less likely to identify as an atheist even if they do not believe in God. Just under 39% of individuals identifying as “extremely conservative” who say they do not believe in God identify as an atheist . This compares with 72% of individuals identifying as “extremely liberal” who say they do not believe in God.

We argue that this likely is a function of greater negative views of atheists in politically conservative circles .

Adopting atheism

Stating that one does not believe in God, however, is the strongest predictor of identifying as an atheist. This leads to our second research question : What factors make someone more or less likely to lose their belief over time?

In a second survey-based study , from a different representative sample of nearly 10,000 U.S. adults, we found that about 6% of individuals who stated that they had some level of belief in God at age 16 moved to saying “I do not believe in God” as an adult.

Who falls into this group is not random.

Our analysis finds, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the stronger an individual’s belief in God was at age 16, the less likely they are to have adopted an atheistic worldview as an adult. For instance, fewer than 2% of individuals who said that “I knew God really existed and I had no doubts about it” as a teenager adopted an atheistic worldview later on. This compares with over 20% of those who said that “I didn’t know whether there was a God and I didn’t believe there was any way to find out” when they were 16.

However, our analysis reveals that several other factors make one more or less likely to adopt an atheistic worldview.

Regardless of how strong their teenage belief was, for instance, Black, Asian and Hispanic Americans were less likely to later identify as an atheist than white individuals. All else being equal, the odds of individuals in these groups adopting an atheistic worldview was about 50% to 75% less than the odds for white individuals. In part, this could be a product of groups that already face stigma related to their race or ethnicity being less able or willing to take on the additional social costs of being an atheist .

On the other hand, we find that adults with more income – regardless of how strong their belief was at 16 – are more likely to adopt the stance that they do not believe in God . Each increase from one income level to another on an 11-point scale increases the odds of adopting an atheistic worldview by about 5%.

This could be a function of income providing a buffer against any stigma associated with holding an atheistic worldview. Having a higher income, for instance, may give an individual the resources needed to avoid social circles and situations where being an atheist might be treated negatively.

However, there may be another explanation. Some social scientists have suggested that both wealth and faith can provide existential security – the confidence that you are not going to face tragedy at any moment – and therefore a higher income reduces the need to believe in supernatural forces in the first place.

Such findings are a powerful reminder that our beliefs, behaviors and identities are not entirely our own, but often shaped by situations and cultures in which we find ourselves.

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