Jenny and Erin

Are religion and spirituality the same thing? If so, why do so many people call themselves spiritual but bristle at being called religious? Why do the religious often discount the spirituality of others? Why are the stories in some sacred religious texts considered literally true but the stories in other religious texts considered myths by the exact same people?

Through long discussions, some research and much self reflection I have come to the conclusion that this confusion occurs because most of us do not understand that religion and spirituality play different roles in both society and one’s own life. It is possible to have one without the other.

Defining Religion

Religion begins with a person experiencing a direct revelation of the divine. For example, in the Judeo-Christian tradition this was when God talked directly to Moses. From such encounters and their resulting revelations come stories, or myths, of how the recipient was changed. These stories contain powerful messages about the human condition and are eventually written and collected as sacred texts. To share these messages, even with those who do not receive them directly, religions create common definitions, practices and theologies which serve to explain and lead believers towards personal experiences of the divine. These beliefs gradually become interwoven with social and cultural norms until they are nearly impossible to separate and over time solidify into rules about the correct way to live one’s life called doctrines and dogmas.

Religion is the belief in a conscious and all powerful God or gods. Its collection of myths are sifted, captured and passed down in sacred texts, such as the Bible. Religion gives its followers “truth” through the interpretation of these stories. It teaches unchanging, or at least slowly changing, rules and messages to its believers and is very hierarchal in nature. Further, its theologies tend to be written, shaped and enforced by members of the dominant culture.

Religions grow, are maintained and propagated to explain and contextualize personal spiritual experiences within the broader community. They are primarily communal in nature allowing societies to maintain social order in the face of often widely variable revelations about the divine (and remember revelations about the divine create the stories that tell us what a good life is). Comfortable borders are created around these revelations and pull outliers, individuals with deep spiritual revelations that are not the same as the religions, back into the communal whole in order to maintain social norms.

Defining Spirituality

Spirituality also begins with a personal and direct experience of the divine. For example a meditation practitioner experiencing an overwhelming interconnectedness of all living things. From this revelation also come stories, or myths, of how the individual was impacted. Similar to religion these “truths” are deeply meaningful and allow explanation of the troubling and beautiful aspects of the human condition. Although the stories are powerful, they typically are not immediately written, as the focus of spirituality tends to be on the experience not the dissemination of the experience. Instead, they are primarily passed on and adjusted as necessary through word of mouth or other informal methods of communication. Because spirituality tends to focus on the individual’s personal spiritual journey, rather than on a group of believers, the path to the divine is less clear and a formal language for communicating experiences of the divine has not been defined. Spirituality has loose or no theologies, doctrines or dogma, instead there is a reliance upon metaphors and symbols to help point seekers in a direction.

Spirituality may include the belief in a conscious God or gods, but it does not have to. Rather than claiming the truth spirituality claims one of many possible understandings of the truth. Often people who are spiritual in nature proclaim beliefs in things such as a vast energy responsible for creating all life and which can be tapped in and out of at will. Spirituality focuses on personal or small group experiences and passes down its understanding through myth, metaphor and symbolism. While it has some enduring aspects, they can change depending upon the time, culture and even the individual. It is not particularly hierarchal in nature and tends to be shaped primarily by the outsiders of a culture.

In summary, spirituality is culturally specific, it tends to pass down “shells” of its questions and insights, rather than the set-in-stone truths and social norms of religion. Both spirituality and religion are built upon stories, called myths. There are many myths that are common throughout time and place, such as stories about the origins of humanity. Although similar “shells” of most myths are observed worldwide they tend to adjust to the local culture and times. There are so many similarities in the myths seen worldwide that some people feel humans get these stories through a direct connection to the divine, or ‘the collective unconscious‘. In some cases the myths have been collected and are passed on directly from generation to generation adding the overtones of a culture with each generation making it problematic to figure out just where the spiritual truths end and cultural mandates begin.

Related Posts:
Understanding Religion and Spirituality
Picking Sides: Science or Spirituality

This entry was posted in Spirituality on Monday, June 25th, 2007 by Jenny Morman. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.