Religion vs. Spirituality

1
Religion vs. Spirituality
2
The Rise of Spirituality

• Despite the decline of traditional forms of
  religious practice 52 of Canadians said yes to
  the question Do you have spiritual needs?
  (2005)
• More than half (53 per cent) described
  spirituality in conventional terms (God,
  prayer, religion, and a power beyond) 47
  per cent, meanwhile, expressed less conventional
  ideas (inner self, oneness, force, and
  soul)

3
Spirituality Vs. Religion

• Researchers for McGill program for Integrated
  Whole Person Care (Bio-Psycho-Social paradigm)
  note that an increasing number of participants in
  their studies of the impact of religion on health
  are uncomfortable using the term religion
• Many participants equated the term religious
  with close involvement in a highly organized
  group
• Many participants lack such involvement
• Many used the term spiritual instead to
  describe their outlook on questions of religion

4
Spirituality and Health Developing a Shared
Vocabulary

• The McGill group (and increasing of other
  people) recommends the use of the term
  spiritual to refer to the human capacity to
  respond to the sacred in the search for meaning
  in life.
• Feel this term can avoid the problems resulting
  from the common equation of the term religion
  with participation in an organized community with
  a well-defined system of beliefs about
  supernatural realities
• In short, its thought to be a more inclusive
  term for referring to the issues traditionally
  referred to by the term religion

5
The Religion vs. SpiritualityDebate

• In 20th century religious studies scholars,
  social scientists, and theologians have argued
  for people in Western civilizations to broaden
  their definition of the term religion
• the feelings, acts and experiences of
  individuals in their solitudes, so far as they
  apprehend themselves to stand in relation to
  whatever they may consider divine (William
  James)
• any kind of focus that allows individuals to
  integrate their lives (A. C. Bouquet)

6
Why broaden our Western definition of Religion?

• Term religion and the distinction between
  religion and philosophy only exists in the
  Western world
• The equation of religion with the highly
  organized forms of theism only exists in the
  Western world
• This popular understanding is perhaps due to the
  fact that Western European societies have been
• largely uniform in religion (Christianity)
• dominated by state Churches that equated
  non-membership with irreligion or even
  atheism
• Eastern societies have always had many competing
  religions and philosophies and allowed for
  expression of many individual ways (term
  typically used to translate Western term
  religion)

7
Origins of the word Religion

• The word does not appear in the Hebrew Bible or
  New Testament
• From ancient Latin root, about which there is
  much debate (Either leg to count or observe or
  lig to gather or bind together)
• Lig is considered to be the more likely origin
  (related to word ligature as in to bind)
• Re-ligare (Lit to re-bind)

8
Origins of the Term Spirituality

• Spirituality is derived from the Christian
  religious concept of spirit via the latin term
  spiritus
• First used to translate the Hebrew term ruach
  which denotes the breath of God mentioned in
  the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (Old
  Testament) breathed into Adam (and other animals)
  to make a living being (nephesh soul)
• In Christian New Testament the term spirit is
  often used along with and sometimes contrasted
  with the terms body, mind and soul
• Spiritus Sanctus (Holy spirit is the 3rd person
  of the Christian trinity)

9
Non-Spiritual Religions?

• Theravada Buddhism rejects idea that there is any
  God who created the worldthe ultimate source is
  an impersonal state of existence called
  Nirvanaand the goal in life is to maintain
  mindfulness some Buddhist writings only
  distinguish between body and mind (lack category
  of soul or spirit)
• Classical Judaism lacks a clear notion of soul
  and even an afterlife (all people go to Sheol,
  which simply means the grave and the ruach or
  vivifying breath of God simply returns to God)

10
Scholarly Concerns With Spirituality?

• Tends to narrow religion to European religious
  categories of spirit and deity, which may
  not be relevant to non-theistic philosophies and
  religions, such Buddhism
• Often seems to carry an implicit positive value
  judgment about types of religious practice
  focused on the individual and his/her internal
  mental life, and a negative value judgment about
  types of religious practice focused on group
  adherence and external practice, such as
  classical Judaism
• Assumes that the common experience of people in
  the Western world of religions that are
  exclusivist (only members can achieve salvation)
  can be generalized to the rest of the world

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Reportive vs. Essential Definitions

• Dictionaries only provide reports about the
  different ways people actually use words (i.e.
  the multiple meanings words actually
  have)reportive definitions
• Philosophers and other scholars in the humanities
  try to get at the real meaning of words, i.e.
  the essential definitions
• This debate is about the essential definition of
  religion