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Spiritual but not Religious

Illustration by Rachel Salomon. Cover design by  Point Five Design .

Winter/Spring 2010

By Amy Hollywood

Most of us who write, think, and talk about religion are by now used to hearing people say that they are spiritual, but not religious. With the phrase generally comes the presumption that religion has to do with doctrines, dogmas, and ritual practices, whereas spirituality has to do with the heart, feeling, and experience. The spiritual person has an immediate and spontaneous experience of the divine or of some higher power. She does not subscribe to beliefs handed to her by existing religious traditions, nor does she engage in the ritual life of any particular institution. At the heart of the distinction between religion and spirituality, then, lies the presumption that to think and act within an existing tradition—to practice religion—risks making one less spiritual. To be religious is to bow to the authority of another, to believe in doctrines determined for one in advance, to read ancient texts only as they are handed down through existing interpretative traditions, and blindly to perform formalized rituals. For the spiritual, religion is inert, arid, and dead; the practitioner of religion, whether consciously or not, is at best without feeling, at worst insincere. 1

You hear this kind of criticism of religious belief and practice not only among those who call themselves spiritual, but also within religious traditions. For centuries now, Christians have fought over the interplay between authority and tradition, on the one hand, and feeling, enthusiasm, and experience on the other. They have also fought over what kind of experience is properly spiritual or religious. What all sides in these debates share, and what they share with those who understand themselves as spiritual rather than religious, is the presumption that authority and tradition will kill—or, if you are on the other side of the debate, reign in or properly temper—experience. Whereas some American Protestants, for example, insist that one can best know, love, and be saved by God without extraordinary experiences of God’s presence—or with inward experiences rather than with those marked by bodily signs such as tears, shouts, convulsions, outcries, or visions—various revivalist, Holiness, and Pentecostal movements argue that without an intensely felt experience of God, one knows and feels nothing of the divine and so cannot be saved. 2

Modern theologians and scholars of religion from Friedrich Schleiermacher and Samuel Taylor Coleridge to William James and his many followers have understood religion itself in terms of experience—and they have also wrestled with the question of what precisely we mean when we talk about religious experience. Yet Wayne Proudfoot and others critical of the emphasis on religious experience in contemporary theology and religious studies argue that what is at stake for Schleiermacher, James, and their heirs is an attempt to identify an independent realm of experience that is irreducible to other forms of experience. This can serve either as a protectionist strategy, whereby the religious person is able to safeguard her religious experience from naturalistic explanations, or as an academic strategy, whereby a realm is posited over which only specialists in religious studies can claim authority. 3

Running like a thread throughout all these debates—theological, antitheological, historical, philosophical, and those pursued in the interdisciplinary study of religion—lies the attempt to distinguish true from false, sincere from insincere, supernaturally from naturally caused religious or spiritual experience (the terms may differ, but the general point remains the same). With these distinctions comes the recurrent presumption that genuine religious experience is immediate, spontaneous, personal, and affective and, as such, potentially at odds with religious institutions and their texts, beliefs, and rituals. As a number of scholars of religion—as well as Christian theologians—have recently shown, the danger in these discussions is that they miss the ways in which, for many religious traditions, ancient texts, beliefs, and rituals do not replace experience as the vital center of spiritual life, but instead provide the means for engendering it. At the same time, human experience is the realm within which truth can best be epistemologically and affectively (if we can even separate the two) demonstrated. 4

Here I will focus on Christianity, the tradition I know best, and in particular on Christianity in early and medieval Western Europe. Some of the most sophisticated writing about experience in the early and medieval Christian West occurs in works describing and prescribing the best way to live the life of Christian perfection. 5 The various forms of monastic life that emerge in the third and fourth centuries of the Common Era all claim to provide the space in which such perfection might be—if not fully attained—most effectively pursued. The monks and nuns who became the self-described spiritual elite of Christianity through at least the high Middle Ages lived under rules that told them what, when, why, where, and how to act. The most successful of these rules in Western Christianity, the sixth-century Rule of Benedict, is often praised for its flexibility and moderation, yet within it the daily lives of the monks are carefully ordered. Written by Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480–550) for his own community, the rule, and variants of it written for the use of women, became the centerpiece of monastic life in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. If ritual is the repeated and formalized practice of particular actions within carefully determined times and places, the moment in which what we believe ought to be the case and what is the case in the messy realm of everyday action come together, then the Benedictine’s life is one in which the monk or nun strives to make every action a ritual action. 6

Benedict described the monastery as a “school for the Lord’s service”; the Latin schola is a governing metaphor throughout the rule and was initially used with reference to military schools, ones in which the student is trained in the methods of battle. 7 Similarly, Benedict describes the monastery as a training ground for eternal life; the battle to be waged is against the weaknesses of the body and of the spirit. Victory lies in love. For Benedict, through obedience, stability, poverty, and humility—and through the fear, dread, sorrow, and compunction that accompany them—the monk will “quickly arrive at that perfect love of God which casts out fear (1 John 4:18).” Transformed in and into love, “all that [the monk] performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, with habit, no longer out of fear of hell, but out of love for Christ, good habit and delight in virtue.” 8

Central to the ritual life of the Benedictine are communal prayer, private reading and devotion, and physical labor. I want to focus here on the first pole of the monastic life, as it is the one that might seem most antithetical to contemporary conceptions of vital and living religious or spiritual experience. Benedict, following John Cassian (ca. 360–430) and other writers on early monasticism, argues that the monk seeks to attain a state of unceasing prayer. Benedict cites Psalm 119: “Seven times a day have I praised you” (verse 164) and “At midnight I arose to give you praise” (verse 62). He therefore calls on his monks to come together eight times a day for the communal recitation of the Psalms and other prayers and readings. Each of the Psalms was recited once a week, with many repeated once or more a day. Benedict provides a detailed schedule for his monks, one in which the biblical injunction always to have a prayer on one’s lips is enacted through the division of the day into the canonical hours.

To many modern ears the repetition of the Psalms—ancient Israelite prayers handed down by the Christian tradition in the context of particular, often Christological, interpretations—will likely sound rote and deadening. What of the immediacy of the monk’s relationship to God? What of his feelings in the face of the divine? What spontaneity can exist in the monk’s engagement with God within the context of such a regimented and uniform prayer life? If the monk is reciting another’s words rather than his own, how can the feelings engendered by these words be his own and so be sincere?

Yet, for Benedict, as for Cassian on whose work he liberally drew, the intensity and authenticity of one’s feeling for God is enabled through communal, ritualized prayer, as well as through private reading and devotion (itself carefully regulated). 9 Proper performance of “God’s work” in the liturgy requires that the monk not simply recite the Psalms. Instead, the monk was called on to feel what the psalmist felt, to learn to fear, desire, and love God in and through the words of the Psalms themselves. For Cassian, we know God, love God, and experience God when our experience and that of the Psalmist come together:

For divine Scripture is clearer and its inmost organs, so to speak, are revealed to us when our experience not only perceives but even anticipates its thought, and the meaning of the words are disclosed to us not by exegesis but by proof. When we have the same disposition in our heart with which each psalm was sung or written down, then we shall become like its author, grasping the significance beforehand rather than afterward. That is, we first take in the power of what is said, rather than the knowledge of it, recalling what has taken place or what does take place in us in daily assaults whenever we reflect on them. 10

When the monk can anticipate what words will follow in a Psalm, not because he has memorized them, but because his heart is so at one with the Psalmist that these words spontaneously come to his mind, then he knows and experiences God. 11

The word translated here as “disposition” is derived from the Latin affectus , from the verb afficio , to do something to someone, to exert an influence on another body or another person, to bring another into a particular state of mind. Affectus carries a range of meanings, from a state of mind or disposition produced in one by the influence of another, to that affection or mood itself. In many instances, affectus simply means love. At the center of ancient and medieval usages is the notion that love is brought into being in one person by the actions of another. Hence, for Cassian, as later for Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), our love for God is always engendered by God’s love for us. God acts ( affico ); humans are the recipients of God’s actions (so affectus , the noun, is derived from the passive participle of afficio ). Hence the acquisition of proper spiritual dispositions through habit is itself the operation of the freely given grace that is God’s love. There is no distinction here between mediation (through the words of scripture) and immediacy (that of God’s presence), between habit and spontaneity, or between feeling and knowledge.

Of course, the affects, moods, or dispositions engendered by God are not only those of love and desire. Fear, dread, shame, and sorrow, gratitude, joy, triumph, and ecstasy are all expressed in the Psalms and in the other songs found within scripture. According to Cassian, the Psalms lay out the full realm of human emotion, and by coming to know God in and through these affects, the monk comes to know both himself and the divine:

or we find all of these dispositions expressed in the psalms, so that we may see whatever occurs as in a very clear mirror and recognize it more effectively. Having been instructed in this way, with our dispositions for our teachers, we shall grasp this as something seen rather than heard, and from the inner disposition of the heart we shall bring forth not what has been committed to memory but what is inborn in the very nature of things. Thus we shall penetrate its meaning not through the written text but with experience leading the way.

Here, experience is physical, mental, and emotional: the monk is said both to have passed beyond the body and to let forth in his spirit “unutterable groans and sighs,” to feel “an unspeakable ecstasy of heart,” and “an insatiable gladness of spirit.” 12 The entire body and soul of the monk is affected; he is transformed by the words of the Psalms so that he lives them, and through this experience he comes to know, with heart and body and mind, that God is great and good.

The entire body and soul of the monk is affected; he is transformed by the words of the Psalms so that he lives them.

For Cassian, Christians attain the height of prayer and of the Christian life itself when

every love, every desire, every effort, every undertaking, every thought of ours, everything that we live, that we speak, that we breathe, will be God, and when that unity which the Father now has with the Son and which the Son has with the Father will be carried over into our understanding and our mind, so that, just as he loves us with a sincere and pure and indissoluble love, we too may be joined to him with a perpetual and inseparable love and so united with him that whatever we breathe, whatever we understand, whatever we speak, may be God. 13

Although the fullness of fruition in God will never occur in this life, the monk daily trains himself, through obedience, chastity, poverty, and most importantly prayer, to attain it.

Cassian’s understanding of the role of the Psalms in the monastic life lays the foundation for monastic thought and practice throughout the Middle Ages. Many of the most elegant and emotionally nuanced accounts of experience and its centrality to the religious life can be found in the commentary tradition, in which monks (and occasionally nuns) meditatively reflect on the multiple meanings of scriptural texts. 14 Among the masterworks of medieval commentary, Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs , opens with reference to the centrality of scriptural songs to monastic experience—not only the Psalms, but also the songs of Deborah (Judges 5:1), Judith (Judith 16:1), Samuel’s mother (1 Samuel 2:1), the authors of Lamentations and Job, and all of the other songs found throughout scripture. “If you consider your own experience,” Bernard writes, “surely it is in the victory by which your faith overcomes the world (1 John 5:4) and ‘in your leaving the lake of wretchedness and the filth of the marsh’ (Psalm 39:3) that you sing to the Lord himself a new song because he has done marvelous works (Psalm 97:1)?” 15 Using the language of the Psalms and other biblical texts, writings with which Bernard’s mind and heart is entirely imbued, he describes the path of the soul as sung with and in the words of scripture.

The Song of Songs is the preeminent of songs, the one through which one attains to the highest knowledge of God. “This sort of song,” Bernard explains, “only the touch of the Holy Spirit teaches (1 John 2:27), and it is learned by experience alone.” 16 He thereby calls on his listeners and readers to “read the book of experience” as they interpret the Song of Songs.

Today we read the book of experience. Let us turn to ourselves and let each of us search his own conscience about what is said. I want to investigate whether it has been given to any of you to say, “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth” (Song of Songs 1:1).

Here Bernard suggests that it is through attention to “the book of experience” that the monk can determine what he has of God and what he lacks. Again, the goal is to see the gap between one’s experience of God’s love and one’s love for God and then to meditate on, chew over, and digest the words of the Song so that one might come more fully to inhabit them. The soul should strive, Bernard insists, to be able to sing with the Bride of the Song, “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.” “Few,” Bernard goes on to write, “can say this wholeheartedly.” His sermons are an attempt to bring about in himself and his readers precisely this desire. Only in this way can the soul ever hope to experience the kiss itself and hence to speak with the Bride in her experience of union with the Bridegroom. 17

For Bernard, such experiences of union with the divine are only ever fleeting in this life. Moreover, he is interested in interior experience rather than in any outward expression of God’s presence. Claims to more extended experiences of the divine presence and of the marking of that presence on the mind and body of the believer—in visions, verbal outcries, trances, convulsions, and other extraordinary experiences—will shortly follow (and will be particularly important in texts by and about women). They will spread, moreover, outside of the monastery and convent, into the world of the new religious orders, the semireligious, and the laity. The questions asked in North America about what constitutes true religious experience and what is false or misleading, generated not by God but by the devil or by natural causes, has its origins in similar deliberations generated by such experiences as they came to prominence in the later Middle Ages.

Most important for our discussion is the way in which ritual engagement with ancient texts leads to, articulates, and enriches the spiritual experience of the practitioner. “Mere ritual,” within this context, would be ritual badly performed. True engagement in ritual and devotional practice, on the other hand, is the very condition for spiritual experience. There is a full recognition of the work involved in transforming one’s experience in this way. 18 Yet, at the same time, medieval monastic writers insist that this transformation can occur only through grace. As I suggested above, there is no more contradiction here than there is in the claim that spiritual experience is both mediated and immediate, ritualized and spontaneous. If God acts through scripture, then in reading, reciting, and meditating on scripture one allows oneself to be acted on by God. Work and grace are here thoroughly entwined through love.

To many contemporary readers, however, there might still seem to be something profoundly different between medieval conceptions of spiritual experience and their own. Even among the growing number of Americans who understand certain kinds of practice—meditation, prayer, and devotional reading among them—as essential to their spiritual experience, there is a suspicion of the particular form such practices take within Christianity and other religious traditions. I suspect that what is at issue here is the association of experience itself, and spiritual experience in particular, with what, for lack of a better word, I will call individualism.

A series of common questions seem to underlie many people’s conception of spiritual experience. How am I to have my own experience of the divine? How can I experience the divine personally , and isn’t such a desire rendered impossible within the framework of institutions that direct my understanding and experience of God? What happens to that aspect of my experience that is irreducible to anyone else’s? On the one hand, many who consider themselves spiritual understand their spirituality in terms of an attunement with nature or spirit—something that is bigger than and lies beyond the boundaries of themselves. Yet, on the other hand, there is a keen desire for this experience to be one’s own. What the medieval monk or nun whose ritual performances I have described here strives to attain is an experience of God that is in conformity with that of the Psalmist and other scriptural authors. The experience must become one’s own, and Bernard insists on the continued specificity of the individual soul. Yet, at the same time, to be a true Christian is to share in a common experience of God.

Or perhaps the concern that many have with the rich spirituality of Christian monasticism may be understood in a slightly different way. Perhaps the concern is with the extent to which Christian monastic life—and the forms of devotional life that stem from it—demands a radical submission to something external to oneself. What happens, then, to individual freedom? What happens to the individual responsibility—religious, ethical, and political—that is concomitant with that freedom? Perhaps we can read the contemporary spiritual seeker less as one who makes seemingly solipsistic demands for an experience particular to herself than as one concerned with handing herself over to another—be it the abbot or abbess to whom one promises absolute obedience, the Psalmist whose words one understands as that of God, or divine love itself—that monastic practice demands. 19

Isn’t the desire to constitute oneself as a spiritual person outside of larger communities illusory, in that we are always constituted in and through our interactions with others?

From this perspective, the debate between the “spiritual” and the “religious” (or between “true” and “false” religious experience) is less about their relative authenticity, sincerity, and spontaneity than about the conceptions of the person, God, and their relationship that underlie competing conceptions of spiritual or religious life. Must we hand ourselves completely over to God—and to the texts, institutions, and practices through which God putatively speaks—in order to experience God? Is this what established religious traditions or their “mainline” instantiations demand? How, if this is the case, are these injunctions best understood in relationship to claims to individual autonomy and responsibility? On the other hand, can we ever claim to be fully autonomous and free? Isn’t the desire to constitute oneself as a spiritual person outside of the framework of larger communities illusory, in that we are always constituted in and through our interactions with others and their texts, practices, and traditions? If, as many contemporary philosophers and theorists argue, we are always born into sets of practices, beliefs, and affective relationships that are essential to who we are and who we become, can we ever claim the kind of radical freedom that some contemporary spiritual seekers seem to demand? How might we reconceive our experience—spiritual or religious, whichever term one prefers—in ways that demand neither absolute submission nor resolute autonomy?

In a way, this is precisely what the medieval Christian monastic texts to which I attend here require. Submission must always be submission freely given. Without the will to submit, one’s practices are meaningless and empty. (And if one is forced, by external means, to submit, that too undermines the potential sacrality of one’s practices.) Yet, paradoxically, one’s freely given submission is engendered by God’s love, just as one receives God’s love—and the ever-deepening experience of that love—through engagement in human practices. Whether one accepts the theological claims of medieval Christian monastic writing, it opens up the vital interplay between practice and gift, submission and freedom, the experience of loving and being loved, that plays a continuing role in Western spirituality. Following Cassian, Benedict, and Bernard, I would suggest that it is only when we understand the way in which we are constituted as subjects through practice—all of us, spiritual, religious, and those who make claims to be neither—that we can begin to understand the real nature of our differences.

• For a wonderful study of the development of conceptions of spirituality in the United States, see Leigh Schmidt, Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality (HarperOne, 2006).
• See Ann Taves, Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience From Wesley to James (Princeton University Press, 1999); and David Hall, “What Is the Place of ‘Experience’ in Religious History?” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 13 (2002): 241–250.
• See Wayne Proudfoot, Religious Experience (University of California Press, 1987); Robert Scharf, “Experience,” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies , ed. Mark C. Taylor (University of Chicago Press, 2000), 94–116; Amy Hollywood, “Gender, Agency, and the Divine in Medieval Historiography,” Journal of Religion 84 (2004): 514–528; and Hall, “Place of ‘Experience,'” 247.
• See, for example, Thinking Through Rituals: Philosophical Perspectives , ed. Kevin Schilbrack (Routledge, 2004); and Robert Wuthnow, After Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 1950s (University of California Press, 1998).
• This despite the fact that historians and philosophers interested in the category of experience often suggest that there is nothing worthwhile said about it in the Middle Ages. See, most recently, Martin Jay, Songs of Experience: Modern American and European Variations on a Universal Theme (University of California Press, 2005).
• For this account of ritual, see Jonathan Z. Smith, “The Bare Facts of Ritual,” in his Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (University of Chicago Press, 1988), 53–65.
• Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict 1980 , ed. Timothy Frye, O.S.B. (The Liturgical Press, 1981), “Prologue,” 165.
• Ibid., chap. 7, pp. 201–203.
• The rule also calls on the monks to read, both in private and communally. Specially recommended are the Old and New Testaments, the writings of the Fathers, Cassian’s Conferences and his Institutes , and the Rule of Basil. According to Benedict, all of these works provide “tools for the cultivation of the virtues; but as for us, they make us blush for shame at being so slothful, so unobservant, so negligent. Are you hastening toward your heaving home?” Ibid., chap. 73, p. 297.
• John Cassian, Conferences, trans. Boniface Ramsey, O.P. (Newman Press, 1997), X, XI, p. 384.
• My account throughout is profoundly influenced by Jean Leclercq, O.S.B., The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture , trans. Catherine Misrahi (Fordham University Press, 1961). For a more recent analysis of monastic practice and the formation of the self, one deeply influenced by Leclercq as well, see Talal Asad, “On Discipline and Humility in Medieval Christian Monasticism,” in his Genealogies of Religions: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 125–167.
• Cassian, Conferences , X, XI, p. 385.
• Ibid., X, VII, pp. 375–376.
• In part because of prohibitions against women publicly interpreting scripture, their reflections on experience often take other forms, among them accounts of visions, auditions, and ecstatic experiences of God’s presence or of union with God and—here paralleling Bernard’s practice—commentaries on these experiences.
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs , in Selected Works , trans. G. R. Evans (Paulist Press, 1987), Sermon 1, V.9, p. 213.
• Ibid., Sermon 1, V.10–11, p. 214.
• Ibid., Sermon 3, I.1, p. 221.
• Here, I would take issue with the simplistic formulation of the relationship between belief and practice suggested by Louis Althusser. Althusser claims that Blaise Pascal said, “more or less: ‘Kneel down, move your lips in prayer, and you will believe.’ ” Althusser’s position is more complicated than these lines would suggest, but they have had an enormous purchase as indicators of an almost behavioralist account of the efficacy of religious (and other forms) of practice. Lost is the sense that mere repetition does little to transform the subject, but rather that one must look to one’s own experience, think, reflect, meditate, and feel the words of scripture, and work constantly to conform the former to the latter. See Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Towards an Investigation,” in Lenin and Philosophy, and Other Essays , trans. Ben Brewster (Monthly Review Press, 2001), 114.
• This is precisely the issue faced by Sarah Farmer, the founder in 1884 of the Greenacre community in Eliot, Maine. Farmer brought an eclectic mix of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century spiritual movements together at Greenacre, among them Transcendentalism, New Thought, Ethical Culture, and Theosophy, as well as vibrant interest in non-Western religious traditions. Yet when Farmer became a member of the Baha’i faith—despite that movement’s call for “religious unity, racial reconciliation, gender equality, and global peace,” the more “free-ranging seekers” among her cohort objected strongly to what they saw as her submission to a single religious authority, its texts, beliefs, and practices. On Farmer, see Schmidt, Restless Souls , 181–225. The phrases cited here are on page 186.

Amy Hollywood is the Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies at HDS.

Please follow our Commentary Guidelines when engaging in discussion on this site.

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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Spirituality

Religion vs. spirituality, which one enhances your mental health.

Posted December 11, 2019 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

There are several different religions around the world, many with their own profound spiritual texts. As a student of various world religions, one might be able to find things of great value in each of the religions.

The purpose of religion, in general, is to unite a group of people under the same values and principles and to facilitate their collective and individual communication with a Higher Power and/or philosophy . In other words, religion was meant to enhance spirituality .

That said, it must also be said that it is entirely possible to be a very religious person yet be totally out of touch with spirituality and its essential connection to an authentic Self. On the other hand, true spirituality unites a person with his or her authentic Self.

That is not said to separate the two, for it is also entirely possible to be both religious and spiritual. On the other hand, it is also possible to be so caught up in religion that one does not make room for the spirit (or Spirit) to express or become known at all.

Only if one is fully open to the spiritual element of religion will religion enhance one’s mental health. If one is religious but not spiritual, mental health is not enhanced—in fact it might be very disturbed.

Religion that teaches or encourages judgment of self and other is often very disturbing to the psyche. Spirituality, on the other hand, would encourage compassion for self and other. Judgment of self not only diminishes self-esteem and a sense of well-being, but it also often causes us to repress aspects of self that we might deem to be unworthy of approval. Judgment of others causes us to cut off relationships with those we deem to be less worthy and to fear their judgment of us.

In fact, in some religious communities, the suffering that naturally occurs in the lives of the members is worsened by the fear of judgment of others. For example, a church member might not ever tell others in her church that she is thinking of divorcing her husband because he is emotionally abusive to her, because she fears that they will judge her—say that she is sinful—for thinking of divorce. Therefore, her suffering is prolonged and she lacks vital support during one of the most difficult times in her life.

Or, a man who has lost his wife to cancer might not show his grief to others for fear that will judge him for not accepting God’s will for his wife. Or, a person who is unhappy in his job might not share his concerns with those in his meditation group for fear that they might tell him that he’s just being negative and he is drawing negative experiences into his life through the law of attraction by thinking these negative thoughts.

Religion that teaches us that we must rely completely on external advice or external books—as opposed to listening to the urging of one’s own soul—is a religion that is destructive to mental health. Certainly, external advice can be useful, but only in the case in which the person receiving that advice authentically agrees with that advice. Certainly, sacred texts are useful, but the interpretations of those texts should be processed through the mind, heart, and soul of each individual, rather than set down as final truth by an external authority.

When an external authority, be it a book, a person, or a religion, has final control over everything we do, say, and think, it is impossible for us to find and begin to live out of our own truest, deepest souls. We live oppressed by the external authority—this is definitely not good for mental health. It is the same as if a government came in and told us how to think, feel, believe, and act. The external authority has final and absolute control. Where, then, are our original thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and actions? Rather we must learn to find our own internal authority and come to trust its guidance—that is true spirituality.

Religion that teaches us how we are to think and feel about the world does not allow us room to grow into our own understanding of life and the world. For example, many religious authorities are currently teaching members of their community how they should view politics and how to vote. Rather than trusting and even encouraging the membership to educate themselves on the world and to search their own souls, they are telling them how to think and feel. And they are adding that to think and feel any other way is wrong, or sinful. And they are further adding unique and frightening prophecies about what it will mean for the world if the membership doesn’t vote as they instruct. This is not only oppression, but it is spiritual and religious abuse. Yet many followers of these external leaders are too afraid to even consider any other option.

Spirituality is a very personal and individual journey into the inner terrain of one’s own soul. The person on such a spiritual journey may use all manner of external tools to facilitate that journey—including attendance to a church, temple, or mosque, and/or reading of certain sacred texts, and/or joining and engaging with others in various spiritual practices, and/or spending time in one-on-one conversation or counseling by and with certain spiritual leaders. But the person on the journey is deciding on the direction of the journey; it is not being decided on for him by external authorities or texts.

Spirituality allows a person to come to terms with life on life’s terms. It allows one to process through difficult experiences and become stronger and wiser because one stayed conscious as one walked through the experience. Spirituality allows one to develop healthy self-esteem and to respect and appreciate the journey of others. Spirituality encourages one to walk through the deep recesses of the heart, mind, and soul and come to know one’s Self in deep communion with a Higher Power or philosophy of one’s choice. Spirituality enhances the quality of life of the individual practitioner.

So, unless religion is leading to a deeper spiritual experience, it is likely not enhancing mental health. It is possible to be religious without being spiritual, but it is not possible to be spiritual, truly spiritual, without enhancing one’s mental health.

Andrea Mathews, LPC, NCC , is a cognitive and transpersonal therapist, internet radio show host, and the author of Letting Go of Good: Dispel the Myth of Goodness to Find Your Genuine Self.

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What's the Difference Between Religion and Spirituality?

Is Religion Organized Spirituality? Is Spirituality Personalized Religion?

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One popular idea is that there exists a distinction between two different modes of relating with the divine or the sacred: religion and spirituality. Religion describes the social, the public, and the organized means by which people relate to the sacred and the divine, while spirituality describes such relations when they occur in private, personally, and even in ways.

Is such a distinction valid?

In answering this questions, it's important to remember that it presumes to describe two fundamentally different types of things. Even though I describe them as different ways of relating to the divine or the sacred, that's already introducing my own prejudices into the discussion. Many (if not most) of those who attempt to draw such a distinction don't describe them as two aspects of the same thing; instead, they're supposed to be two completely different animals.

It's popular, especially in America, to completely separate between spirituality and religion. It's true that there are differences, but there are also a number of problematic distinctions which people try to make. In particular, supporters of spirituality often argue that everything bad lies with religion while everything good can be found in spirituality. This is a self-serving distinction which masks the nature of religion and spirituality.

Religion vs. Spirituality

One clue that there's something fishy about this distinction comes when we look at the radically different ways people try to define and describe that distinction. Consider these three definitions drawn from the internet:

• Religion is an institution established by man for various reasons. Exert control, instill morality, stroke egos, or whatever it does. Organized, structured religions all but remove god from the equation. You confess your sins to a clergy member, go to elaborate churches to worship, are told what to pray and when to pray it. All those factors remove you from god. Spirituality is born in a person and develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all facets of a person's life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is often times forced. Being spiritual to me is more important and better than being religious.
• Religion can be anything that the person practicing it desires. Spirituality, on the other hand, is defined by God. Since religion is man defined, religion is a manifestation of the flesh. But spirituality, as defined by God, is a manifestation of His nature.
• True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.

These definitions aren't just different, they are incompatible! Two define spirituality in a way which makes it dependent upon the individual; it is something that develops in the person or is found deep within oneself. The other, however, defines spirituality as something which comes from God and is defined by God while religion is anything that the person desires. Is spirituality from God and religion from man, or is it the other way around? Why such divergent views?

Even worse, I've found the three above definitions copied onto numerous websites and blog posts in attempts to promote spirituality over religion. Those doing the copying ignore the source and disregard the fact that they are contradictory!

We can better understand why such incompatible definitions (each representative of how many, many others define the terms) appear by observing what unites them: the denigration of religion. Religion is bad. Religion is all about people controlling other people. Religion distances you from God and from the sacred. Spirituality, whatever it really is, is good. Spirituality is the true way to reach God and the sacred. Spirituality is the right thing to center your life on.

Problematic Distinctions Between Religion and Spirituality

One principal problem with attempts to separate religion from spirituality is that the former is saddled with everything negative while the latter is exalted with everything positive. This is a totally self-serving way of approaching the issue and something you only hear from those who describe themselves as spiritual. You never hear a self-professed religious person offer such definitions and it's disrespectful to religious people to suggest that they would remain in a system with no positive characteristics whatsoever.

Another problem with attempts to separate religion from spirituality is the curious fact that we don't see it outside America. Why are people in Europe either religious or irreligious but Americans have this third category called spiritual? Are Americans special? Or is it rather that distinction is really just a product of American culture?

In fact, that is exactly the case. The term itself came to be used frequently only after the 1960s, when there were widespread revolts against every form of organized authority, including organized religion. Every establishment and every system of authority was thought to be corrupt and evil, including those which were religious.

However, Americans weren't prepared to abandon religion entirely. Instead, they created a new category which was still religious, but which no longer included the same traditional authority figures.

They called it spirituality. Indeed, the creation of the category spiritual can be seen as just one more step in the long American process of privatizing and personalizing religion, something which has occurred constantly throughout American history.

It's no wonder that courts in the Americas have refused to acknowledge any substantive difference between religion and spirituality, concluding that spiritual programs are so much like religions that it would violate their rights to force people to attend them (as with Alcoholics Anonymous, for example). The religious beliefs of these spiritual groups do not necessarily lead people to the same conclusions as organized religions, but that doesn't make them less religious.

Valid Distinctions Between Religion and Spirituality

This is not to say that there is nothing at all valid in the concept of spirituality—just that the distinction between spirituality and religion in general is not valid. Spirituality is a form of religion, but a private and personal form of religion. Thus, the valid distinction is between spirituality and organized religion.

We can see this in how there is little (if anything) that people describe as characterizing spirituality but which has not also characterized aspects of traditional religion. Personal quests for God? Organized religions have made a great deal of room for such quests. Personal understandings of God? Organized religions have relied heavily upon the insights of mystics, although they have also sought to circumscribe their influence so as not to rock the boat too much and too quickly.

Moreover, some of the negative features commonly attributed to religion can also be found in so-called spiritual systems. Is religion dependent upon a book of rules? Alcoholics Anonymous describes itself as spiritual rather than religious and has such a book. Is religion dependent upon a set of written revelations from God rather than a personal communication? A Course in Miracles is a book of such revelations which people are expected to study and learn from.

It is important to note the fact that many of the negative things which people attribute to religions are, at best, features of some forms of some religions (usually Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but not of other religions (like Taoism or Buddhism). This is perhaps why so much of spirituality remains attached to traditional religions , like attempts to soften their harder edges. Thus, we have Jewish spirituality, Christian spirituality, and Muslim spirituality.

Religion is spiritual and spirituality is religious. One tends to be more personal and private while the other tends to incorporate public rituals and organized doctrines. The lines between one and the other are not clear and distinct—they are all points on the spectrum of belief systems known as religion. Neither religion nor spirituality is better or worse than the other; people who try to pretend that such a difference does exist are only fooling themselves.

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Religion vs. Spirituality: Finding the Difference Essay

Religion is a distinct body of organized ideas and behaviors that a group of people often embraces. Religion is a set of different traditions, dogmas, and ways of thinking that link spirituality and, at least, moral ideals to mankind. Numerous faiths use tales, rituals, practices, and holy narratives to describe the purpose of existence or the genesis of life and the world. Spirituality is mostly an individual activity with a feeling of calm and meaning. It is also associated with forming beliefs about the purpose of life and relationships with other people. Relationships with a higher entity and an ontological view of life, dying, and reality are central to spirituality (Loue, 2018). Religious beliefs involve praying, meditation, and interaction with other religious community members.

A critical distinction between Religion and spirituality is wanting to believe vs. being. Religion stresses the substance of adherents’ thoughts and the manner in which those ideas manifest in daily lives. On the other side, spirituality emphasizes the process of getting connected to the inner self. Spirituality is the unique connection with the Creator of a particular interpretation. Religion is a collection of individuals who serve the same Deity. Everyone shares the same concept of Religion, which is generally defined in historical theology or sacred literature. Spirituality is a solitary endeavor (Jenkins et al., 2018). Every encounter in our life affords us the opportunity to depart from or approach the reality of ourselves, a spirit living a human existence.

Spirituality is a concept people independently find and acquire, and there exist no guidelines for communicating with spirit. Spirituality is your identity since, at heart, a person becomes the spirit living a subjective existence. Spirituality is inclusive of many viewpoints and whichever viewpoint connects with a person becomes their reality. Regardless of the position that disturbs a person, it is not their reality. Spirituality emphasizes the significance of living in the present moment. Non-resistance to the immediate stage will only generate further hostility to it. By identifying with the current situation, one is reminded of their genuine power source and can connect with it. Spirituality revolves around present happiness, and this is because experiencing happiness is experiencing righteousness. Through emotions, my internal control system directs me to where I am required to go. This control explains the trick to creating a life exceeding my wildest imaginings to feel happy. Spirituality does not criticize anybody or any actions; someone can have a viewpoint on a subject, but that view does not have any emotional baggage. Thus, spirituality respects many viewpoints, so it is not necessary to advocate for a single truth. Spirituality and religion may coexist happily, and even though they are distinct from religion, spirituality does not need to protect itself from religion. The two may coexist because one complements the other.

Spirituality’s involvement in professional nursing includes satisfying the patient’s spiritual care requirements, which may contribute to physical healing, pain reduction, and personal development. To treat the patient’s comprehensive requirements, the physician must address physical and emotional requirements. Scholars concur that spiritual nursing care promotes spiritual health and well-being by establishing loving connections and connectivity between the physician and the patient. Spirituality, meditation, and prayers may help well-being via supportive behaviors, compassion, and fortitude, and it might even be therapeutic (Jenkins et al., 2018). Enhancing a patient’s spiritual health might not heal a health condition, but it might make the patient feel better. As a nurse, I understand that to offer efficacious spiritual care, I should be aware of the patient’s perceptions of life and death. In addition, I should be able to distinguish between religious and spiritual needs and identify the appropriate spiritual intervention strategies.

Jenkins W. Tucker M. E. & Grim J. (2018). Routledge handbook of religion and ecology . Routledge.

Loue S. (2018). Handbook of religion and spirituality in social work practice and research. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Puchalski, C. (2021). Spiritual care in health care: Guideline, models, spiritual assessment and the use of the ©FICA spiritual history tool . Spiritual Needs in Research and Practice , 27–45. Web.

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1. IvyPanda . "Religion vs. Spirituality: Finding the Difference." December 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religion-vs-spirituality-finding-the-difference/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Religion vs. Spirituality: Finding the Difference." December 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religion-vs-spirituality-finding-the-difference/.

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How Spirituality Can Benefit Your Health and Well-Being

Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Megan Monahan is a certified meditation instructor and has studied under Dr. Deepak Chopra. She is also the author of the book, Don't Hate, Meditate.

What Is Spirituality?

Spirituality vs. religion.

• How to Practice

Potential Pitfalls

Spirituality is the broad concept of a belief in something beyond the self. It strives to answer questions about the meaning of life, how people are connected to each other, truths about the universe, and other mysteries of human existence.

Spirituality offers a worldview that suggests there is more to life than just what people experience on a sensory and physical level. Instead, it suggests that there is something greater that connects all beings to each other and to the universe itself.

It may involve religious traditions centering on the belief in a higher power. It can also involve a holistic belief in an individual connection to others and the world as a whole.

Spirituality has been a source of comfort and relief from stress for multitudes of people. While people use many different paths to find God or a higher power, ​research has shown that those who are more religious or spiritual and use their spirituality to cope with challenges in life experience many benefits to their health and well-being.

Signs of Spirituality

Spirituality is not a single path or belief system. There are many ways to experience spirituality and the benefits of a spiritual experience. How you define spirituality will vary. For some people, it's the belief in a higher power or a specific religious practice.

For others, it may involve experiencing a sense of connection to a higher state or a sense of inter-connectedness with the rest of humanity and nature. Some signs of spirituality can include:

• Asking deep questions about topics such as suffering or what happens after death
• Deepening connections with other people
• Experiencing compassion and empathy for others
• Experiencing feelings of interconnectedness
• Feelings of awe and wonder
• Seeking happiness beyond material possessions or other external rewards
• Seeking meaning and purpose
• Wanting to make the world a better place

Not everyone experiences or expresses spirituality in the same way. Some people may seek spiritual experiences in every aspect of their lives, while others may be more likely to have these feelings under specific conditions or in certain locations.

For example, some people may be more likely to have spiritual experiences in churches or other religious temples, while others might have these feelings when they're out enjoying nature.

Types of Spirituality

There are many different types of spirituality. Some examples of how people get in touch with their own spirituality include:

• Meditation or quiet time
• New age spirituality
• Service to their community
• Spending time in nature
• Spiritual retreats

Other people express their spirituality through religious traditions such as:

• Christianity

It is important to remember that there are many other spiritual traditions that exist throughout the world, including traditional African and Indigenous spiritual practices. Such spiritual practices can be particularly important to groups of people who have been subjected to the effects of colonialism.

Though there can be a lot of overlap between people who are spiritual and people who are religious, below are some key points to help differentiate spirituality vs. religion.

Can be practiced individually

Doesn't have to adhere to a specific set of rules

Often focuses on a personal journey of discovering what is meaningful in life

Often practiced in a community

Usually based on a specific set of rules and customs

Often focuses on the belief in deities or gods, religious texts, and tradition

Uses for Spirituality

There are a number of different reasons why people may turn to spirituality, including but not limited to:

• To find purpose and meaning : Exploring spirituality can help people find answers to philosophical questions they have such as "What is the meaning of life?" and "What purpose does my life serve?"
• To cope with feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety : Spiritual experiences can be helpful when coping with the stresses of life. 
• To restore hope and optimism : Spirituality can help people develop a more hopeful outlook on life.
• To find a sense of community and support : Because spiritual traditions often involve organized religions or groups , becoming a part of such a group can serve as an important source of social support .

Impact of Spirituality

While specific spiritual views are a matter of faith, research has demonstrated some of the benefits of spirituality and spiritual activity. The results may surprise no one who has found comfort in their religious or spiritual views, but they are definitely noteworthy in that they demonstrate in a scientific way that these activities do have benefits for many people.

The following are a few more of the many positive findings related to spirituality and health:

• Research has shown that religion and spirituality can help people cope with the effects of everyday stress. One study found that everyday spiritual experiences helped older adults better cope with negative feelings, and enhanced positive feelings.
• Research shows that older women are more grateful to God than older men, and they receive greater ​stress-buffering health effects due to this gratitude.
• According to research, those with an intrinsic religious orientation, regardless of gender, exhibited less physiological reactivity toward stress than those with an extrinsic religious orientation. Those who were intrinsically oriented dedicated their lives to God or a "higher power," while the extrinsically oriented ones used religion for external ends like making friends or increasing community social standing.

This, along with other research, demonstrates that there may be tangible and lasting benefits to maintaining involvement with a spiritual community. This involvement, along with the gratitude that can accompany spirituality, can be a buffer against stress and is linked to greater levels of physical health.

Dedication to God or a higher power translated into less stress reactivity, greater feelings of well-being, and ultimately even a decreased fear of death.

People who feel comfortable and comforted using spirituality as a coping mechanism for stress can rest assured that there's even more evidence that this is a good idea for them. Prayer works for young and old alike. Prayer and spirituality have been linked to:

• Better health
• Greater psychological well-being
• Less depression  
• Less hypertension
• Less stress, even during difficult times  
• More positive feelings
• Superior ability to handle stress

How to Practice Spirituality

Whether you are rediscovering a forgotten spiritual path, reinforcing your commitment to an already well-established one, or wanting to learn more about spirituality for beginners, there are countless ways to start exploring your spiritual side and help improve your well-being.

Spirituality is a very personal experience, and everyone’s spiritual path may be unique. Research shows, however, that some spiritual stress relief strategies have been helpful to many, regardless of faith. Some things you can do to start exploring spirituality include:

• Pay attention to how you are feeling : Part of embracing spirituality means also embracing what it means to be human, both the good and the bad. 
• Focus on others : Opening your heart, feeling empathy, and helping others are important aspects of spirituality.
• Meditate : Try spending 10 to 15 minutes each morning engaged in some form of meditation .
• Practice gratitude : Start a gratitude journal and record what you are grateful for each day. This can be a great reminder of what is most important to you and what brings you the greatest happiness.
• Try mindfulness : By becoming more mindful, you can become more aware and appreciative of the present. Mindfulness encourages you to be less judgmental (both of yourself and others) and focus more on the present moment rather than dwelling on the past or future.

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One potential pitfall of spirituality is a phenomenon known as spiritual bypassing . This involves a tendency to use spirituality as a way to avoid or sidestep problems, emotions, or conflicts.

For example, rather than apologizing for some type of emotional wound you have caused someone else, you might bypass the problem by simply excusing it and saying that "everything happens for a reason" or suggesting that the other person just needs to "focus on the positive."

Spirituality can enrich your life and lead to a number of benefits, but it is important to be cautious to not let spiritual ideals lead to pitfalls such as dogmatism or a reason to ignore the needs of others.

Akbari M, Hossaini SM. The relationship of spiritual health with quality of life, mental health, and burnout: The mediating role of emotional regulation . Iran J Psychiatry . 2018;13(1):22-31. PMID:29892314

Whitehead BR, Bergeman CS. Coping with daily stress: Differential role of spiritual experience on daily positive and negative affect .  J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci . 2012;67(4):456-459. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbr136

Manning LK. Spirituality as a lived experience: Exploring the essence of spirituality for women in late life . Int J Aging Hum Dev . 2012;75(2):95-113. doi:10.2190/AG.75.2.a

McMahon, BT, Biggs HC. Examining spirituality and intrinsic religious orientation as a means of coping with exam anxiety . Society, Health & Vulnerability . 2012;3(1). doi:10.3402/vgi.v3i0.14918

Johnson KA. Prayer: A helpful aid in recovery from depression . J Relig Health . 2018;57(6):2290-2300. doi:10.1007/s10943-018-0564-8

Wachholtz AB, Sambamthoori U. National trends in prayer use as a coping mechanism for depression: Changes from 2002 to 2007 . J Relig Health . 2013;52(4):1356-68. doi:10.1007/s10943-012-9649-y

Gonçalves JP, Lucchetti G, Menezes PR, Vallada H. Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials . Psychol Med . 2015;45(14):2937-49. doi:10.1017/S0033291715001166

Arrey AE, Bilsen J, Lacor P, Deschepper R. Spirituality/religiosity: A cultural and psychological resource among sub-Saharan African migrant women with HIV/AIDS in Belgium .  PLoS One . 2016;11(7):e0159488. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159488

Paul Victor CG, Treschuk JV. Critical literature review on the definition clarity of the concept of faith, religion, and spirituality . J Holist Nurs. 2019;38(1):107-113. doi:10.1177/0898010119895368

By Elizabeth Scott, PhD Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Three Essays on Religion

Author:  King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Date:  September 1, 1948 to May 31, 1951 ?

Location:  Chester, Pa. ?

Genre:  Essay

Topic:  Martin Luther King, Jr. - Education

In the following three essays, King wrestles with the role of religion in modern society. In the first assignment, he calls science and religion “different though converging truths” that both “spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.” King emphasizes an awareness of God’s presence in the second document, noting that religion’s purpose “is not to perpetuate a dogma or a theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.” In the final handwritten essay King acknowledges the life-affirming nature of Christianity, observing that its adherents have consistently “looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.”

"Science and Religion"

There is widespread belief in the minds of many that there is a conflict between science and religion. But there is no fundamental issue between the two. While the conflict has been waged long and furiously, it has been on issues utterly unrelated either to religion or to science. The conflict has been largely one of trespassing, and as soon as religion and science discover their legitimate spheres the conflict ceases.

Religion, of course, has been very slow and loath to surrender its claim to sovereignty in all departments of human life; and science overjoyed with recent victories, has been quick to lay claim to a similar sovereignty. Hence the conflict.

But there was never a conflict between religion and science as such. There cannot be. Their respective worlds are different. Their methods are dissimilar and their immediate objectives are not the same. The method of science is observation, that of religion contemplation. Science investigates. Religion interprets. One seeks causes, the other ends. Science thinks in terms of history, religion in terms of teleology. One is a survey, the other an outlook.

The conflict was always between superstition disguised as religion and materialism disguised as science, between pseudo-science and pseudo-religion.

Religion and science are two hemispheres of human thought. They are different though converging truths. Both science and religion spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.

Science is the response to the human need of knowledge and power. Religion is the response to the human need for hope and certitude. One is an outreaching for mastery, the other for perfection. Both are man-made, and like man himself, are hedged about with limitations. Neither science nor religion, by itself, is sufficient for man. Science is not civilization. Science is organized knowledge; but civilization which is the art of noble and progressive communal living requires much more than knowledge. It needs beauty which is art, and faith and moral aspiration which are religion. It needs artistic and spiritual values along with the intellectual.

Man cannot live by facts alone. What we know is little enough. What we are likely to know will always be little in comparison with what there is to know. But man has a wish-life which must build inverted pyramids upon the apexes of known facts. This is not logical. It is, however, psychological.

Science and religion are not rivals. It is only when one attempts to be the oracle at the others shrine that confusion arises. Whan the scientist from his laboratory, on the basis of alleged scientific knowledge presumes to issue pronouncements on God, on the origin and destiny of life, and on man's place in the scheme of things he is [ passing? ] out worthless checks. When the religionist delivers ultimatums to the scientist on the basis of certain cosomologies embedded in the sacred text then he is a sorry spectacle indeed.

When religion, however, on the strength of its own postulates, speaks to men of God and the moral order of the universe, when it utters its prophetic burden of justice and love and holiness and peace, then its voice is the voice of the eternal spiritual truth, irrefutable and invincible.,

"The Purpose of Religion"

What is the purpose of religion? 1  Is it to perpetuate an idea about God? Is it totally dependent upon revelation? What part does psychological experience play? Is religion synonymous with theology?

Harry Emerson Fosdick says that the most hopeful thing about any system of theology is that it will not last. 2  This statement will shock some. But is the purpose of religion the perpetuation of theological ideas? Religion is not validated by ideas, but by experience.

This automatically raises the question of salvation. Is the basis for salvation in creeds and dogmas or in experience. Catholics would have us believe the former. For them, the church, its creeds, its popes and bishops have recited the essence of religion and that is all there is to it. On the other hand we say that each soul must make its own reconciliation to God; that no creed can take the place of that personal experience. This was expressed by Paul Tillich when he said, “There is natural religion which belongs to man by nature. But there is also a revealed religion which man receives from a supernatural reality.” 3 Relevant religion therefore, comes through revelation from God, on the one hand; and through repentance and acceptance of salvation on the other hand. 4  Dogma as an agent in salvation has no essential place.

This is the secret of our religion. This is what makes the saints move on in spite of problems and perplexities of life that they must face. This religion of experience by which man is aware of God seeking him and saving him helps him to see the hands of God moving through history.

Religion has to be interpreted for each age; stated in terms that that age can understand. But the essential purpose of religion remains the same. It is not to perpetuate a dogma or theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.

[ signed ] M. L. King Jr. 5

"The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry"

Basically Christianity is a value philosophy. It insists that there are eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good. This value content is embodied in the life of Christ. So that Christian philosophy is first and foremost Christocentric. It begins and ends with the assumption that Christ is the revelation of God. 6

We might ask what are some of the specific values that Christianity seeks to conserve? First Christianity speaks of the value of the world. In its conception of the world, it is not negative; it stands over against the asceticisms, world denials, and world flights, for example, of the religions of India, and is world-affirming, life affirming, life creating. Gautama bids us flee from the world, but Jesus would have us use it, because God has made it for our sustenance, our discipline, and our happiness. 7  So that the Christian view of the world can be summed up by saying that it is a place in which God is fitting men and women for the Kingdom of God.

Christianity also insists on the value of persons. All human personality is supremely worthful. This is something of what Schweitzer has called “reverence for life.” 8  Hunan being must always be used as ends; never as means. I realize that there have been times that Christianity has short at this point. There have been periods in Christians history that persons have been dealt with as if they were means rather than ends. But Christianity at its highest and best has always insisted that persons are intrinsically valuable. And so it is the job of the Christian to love every man because God love love. We must not love men merely because of their social or economic position or because of their cultural contribution, but we are to love them because  God  they are of value to God.

Christianity is also concerned about the value of life itself. Christianity is concerned about the good life for every  child,  man,  and  woman and child. This concern for the good life and the value of life is no where better expressed than in the words of Jesus in the gospel of John: “I came that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” 9  This emphasis has run throughout the Christian tradition. Christianity has always had a concern for the elimination of disease and pestilence. This is seen in the great interest that it has taken in the hospital movement.

Christianity is concerned about increasing value. The whole concept of the kingdom of God on earth expressing a concern for increasing value. We need not go into a dicussion of the nature and meaning of the Kingdom of God, only to say that Christians throughout the ages have held tenaciouly to this concept. They have looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.

In the light of all that we have said about Christianity as a value philosophy, where does the ministry come into the picture? 10

1.  King may have also considered the purpose of religion in a Morehouse paper that is no longer extant, as he began a third Morehouse paper, “Last week we attempted to discuss the purpose of religion” (King, “The Purpose of Education,” September 1946-February 1947, in  Papers  1:122).

2.  “Harry Emerson Fosdick” in  American Spiritual Autobiographies: Fifteen Self-Portraits,  ed. Louis Finkelstein (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 114: “The theology of any generation cannot be understood, apart from the conditioning social matrix in which it is formulated. All systems of theology are as transient as the cultures they are patterned from.”

3.  King further developed this theme in his dissertation: “[Tillich] finds a basis for God's transcendence in the conception of God as abyss. There is a basic inconsistency in Tillich's thought at this point. On the one hand he speaks as a religious naturalist making God wholly immanent in nature. On the other hand he speaks as an extreme supernaturalist making God almost comparable to the Barthian ‘wholly other’” (King, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” 15 April 1955, in  Papers  2:535).

4.  Commas were added after the words “religion” and “salvation.”

5.  King folded this assignment lengthwise and signed his name on the verso of the last page.

6.  King also penned a brief outline with this title (King, “The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951). In the outline, King included the reference “see Enc. Of Religion p. 162.” This entry in  An Encyclopedia of Religion,  ed. Vergilius Ferm (New York: Philosophical Library, 1946) contains a definition of Christianity as “Christo-centric” and as consisting “of eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good.” King kept this book in his personal library.

7.  Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-ca. 483 BCE) was the historical Buddha.

8.  For an example of Schweitzer's use of the phrase “reverence for life,” see Albert Schweitzer, “The Ethics of Reverence for Life,”  Christendom  1 (1936): 225-239.

9.  John 10:10.

10.  In his outline for this paper, King elaborated: “The Ministry provides leadership in helping men to recognize and accept the eternal values in the Xty religion. a. The necessity of a call b. The necessity for disinterested love c. The [ necessity ] for moral uprightness” (King, “Philosophy of Life,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951).

Source:  CSKC-INP, Coretta Scott King Collection, In Private Hands, Sermon file.

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The Role of Religion, Spirituality and Faith in Development: a critical theory approach

2009, Third World Quarterly

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1 (page 4) p. 4 What is spirituality?

• Published: November 2012
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Spirituality is now generally thought to be native to anyone, whether they are religious or not. The concept has a long history. The word originated in Christianity. ‘The spiritual’ was originally contrasted with ‘fleshly’ which meant worldly or contrary to God's spirit. This contrast remained common until the European Middle Ages. ‘What is spirituality’ examines how the definition of spirituality has changed and looks at contemporary definitions. Spirituality today concerns what is holistic, involves a quest for meaning, is linked to ‘thriving’, and asks for a self-reflective existence as opposed to an unexamined life. Within this definition there are a number of religious spiritualties: Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist.

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Spirituality vs Religion: An Essay on The Future of Meaning

As a child and teenager, I never had any interest in religion—yet later on I discovered that I had in me the inclination to become a deeply spiritual man. That inclination was not being triggered by the religious dogmas and practices that I was exposed to, so I felt it simply wasn’t for me. At that time I was not aware of the distinctions of spirituality vs religion.

I grew up in a regular, mildly religious middle-class family. My parents identified themselves as Christians, but they didn’t really go to church. My dad wanted me to go through catechism classes, but he never forced me to—I just attended one, because he insisted, but felt no pull to continue. For me, religion was something boring and lifeless, something that old people did.

On the other hand, once I discovered spirituality, it fired me up in life. It gave me meaning, direction and purpose. It helped me to grow as a person. It gave me tools to overcome the worst in myself, to develop myself, and to explore the transcendental aspects of our existence.

The fire for spirituality—for deeper meaning, direction and truth—is inherent in all people. For some of us, it is drowned by cynicism, skepticism, and scientific materialism; for others, it is expressed in limiting ways through a blind religious faith. Happy are those who recognize and own this drive, keeping it pure and letting it guide their lives in a constructive way.

There can be spirituality without religion, religion without spirituality, and religion and spirituality together—it depends on what you want, and how you approach it.

Here I explore the difference between religion and spirituality, and, therefore, the difference between being spiritual and being religious. The goal is not to put anyone down, but to bring clarity as to the differences and similarities, so you can follow your spirituality in the most empowering way possible for you—linked to a specific religion or not.

Spirituality vs Religion

Both religion and spirituality teach that there is more to the universe than what meets the eye, and more to our life than the physical body. Both agree that there are non-physical elements to the universe, and to our existence, and that unless we consciously connect with them, we will never be truly fulfilled in life.

The core difference between religion and spirituality is that religion presents you a set of beliefs, dogmas and “holy men” as intermediaries between you and Spirit (however you may name it); while spirituality promotes your individual autonomy in defining and connecting to Spirit as it fits your heart and mind.

As I mentioned above, religion and spirituality can be together. Many people find spirituality inside their religion, and for them these differences may not be so relevant or true, since the two things are mixed. But for those interested in pure spirituality , regardless of religious affiliation, here are some quotes on the difference between spiritual and religious:

Religion asks you to believe. Spirituality asks you to look. Religion has dogmas. Spirituality has wisdom teachings. Religion wants obedience. Spirituality wants experimentation. Religion speaks of sin and hell. Spirituality speaks of karma. Religion wants to comfort you. Spirituality wants to liberate you. Religion is external. Spirituality is internal. Religion is the form. Spirituality is the essence. Religion wants to convert you. Spirituality wants to inspire you. Religion is an institution. Spirituality is a journey.

Religion promotes shame and guilt. Spirituality promotes self-honesty and awareness.

Religion asks you to sacrifice your present attachments for a promised future. Spirituality asks you to let go of your present attachments for a better present .

Spirituality is the true essence, and the true origin , of every religious movement. So how is it that eventually spirituality gets the back seat, and what we are mostly left with are dogmas and empty rituals?

Buddha was not Buddhist; Jesus was not Christian. They were highly realized spiritual men; they were spiritual but not religious! They had a group of disciples who were also, in great part, moved by a spiritual search. But as centuries pass, as the groups start increasing and social acceptance grows, people who are not really burning with that spiritual drive start joining in and redefining the movement.

They join because it feels noble to do so, or because their parents expect, or because they were born poor and at least in the church/monastery there are meals every day. Or maybe they just needed the consolation and comfort that religion can give, to find shelter from the suffering of life, and a respectable position in society.

This is not a criticism nor a judgment of character, but just a description of how, by becoming more popular and accepted by society, the spiritual element of each religious movement gets watered down or distorted, and what is left is a social institution. Teachings become dogmas, principles become moral rules, spiritual practice becomes ritual, experiences become stories—in short, spirituality becomes religion . What was once private and intimate becomes a social institution.

The difference between religion and spirituality is not so much about what you believe—but about how you live, and what is your attitude. In any of the spiritual/religious traditions on Earth, you will find a majority of people who follow it as a religion, and a minority who follows it as a spiritual path.

Both religion and spirituality have their function in the world; but they are usually different things for different people. Understanding their differences helps to define what you are practicing, and if it is serving you well.

Why Spirituality Is Important

Since the time of the European Enlightenment in the 17th century, the role and dominion of religion seem to be steadily diminishing (at least in the Western world). Since we entered the so-called “age of reason”, with the ability of science to explain and transform reality around us constantly increasing, and the general level of education also rising for everyone, people feel less drawn to seek organized religion as a tool for explaining the world and creating well-being.

And yet we humans have this inherent thirst for meaning in life, for a higher purpose, and for strong principles to lead our living—whether individually or socially. Only that can truly quench our existential anxiety.

Here is the role of spirituality in the third millennium.

We live in an age of overindulgence, of instant gratification. We have more physical comforts, entertainment and knowledge than ever before in history. This is certainly a result of the advances in science and technology in the past century.

But why then…

• are mental health problems on the rise as never before?
• do many of us feel an emptiness inside, a lack of real fulfillment and contentment, even if we have financial security, stable income, a good family, plenty of comfort and an established career?
• no matter how much we acquire in our material life, and how much we understand about the physical universe around us, there is still a deeper itch that is never scratched?

Here is the role of spirituality in the third millennium. Spirituality fills the gaps left behind both by organized religion and by scientific materialism.

Nowadays we cannot believe the dogmas of religion anymore—not like before. But when living life from the point of view that science is the only valid way of determining truth, we find ourselves in a cold, mechanistic, and indifferent universe. This leads to nihilism, cynicism, and lack of meaning in life.

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” — Albert Einstein

I believe that spirituality—in its myriad expressions—is the best means to give meaning to human life. It is also the strongest basis for human goodness and ethical conduct in society. Without spirituality, often all the morality we are left with is the law, and there is really no reason why one should not “do anything one can get away with.”

• Religion says that truth is what the scriptures say, and you must believe it.
• Science says that truth is only the facts that can be experimentally proven through measuring devices, equations, and reason.
• Spirituality says that reason is not the only means of knowing, but that this doesn’t mean one needs to have blind faith in religious doctrines either. We accept how little we know about the universe and about ourselves, and explore a deeper meaning in life through tools such as meditation , contemplation, self-exploration—and also reason, scriptures, altered states of consciousness, and anything we can get hold of.

Therefore, the final difference between religion and spirituality is that spirituality can dialogue with science, while religion can’t. Indeed, the whole meditation and mindfulness movement in the past couple of decades is a result of this dialogue—science investigating spiritual practices.

This is just the beginning of a new era, when science and spirituality work together.

Look at the consciousness as a function of matter and you have science; look at matter as the product of consciousness and you have spirituality. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

Science and spirituality each have their own domains of knowledge, their own unique methods and purposes. They both are good at different things, and they both need each other.

• Spirituality is concerned with finding subjective truths, meaning, connection and fulfillment. Its subject matter is human growth, happiness, and transcendence.
• Science is concerned with finding objective truths about the external world. Its subject matter is knowledge, information, invention.

Much of the knowledge that science has, at any given time, may be proved wrong—or at least flawed and incomplete—a hundred years later; but it’s what we have to work with. Likewise, the meanings created by spirituality may evolve, but we must work with what we have at this moment, so long that it is functional. (I digress)

The Age of Spirituality Without Religion

This seems to be the direction we are moving towards: a spirituality informed by science, and a science informed by spirituality. Science will clean up spirituality of superstitions; and spirituality will elevate science, making it review some of its materialistic assumptions. The eastern concepts of meditation, karma, reincarnation, and enlightenment will play an important role in this development—a trend that we have seen since the early days of the New Age movement.

As for the institutionalized religions, if they still want a place in the next chapters of human history, they better become more like spirituality, and less like dogma.

So that is why I consider myself, as cliché as it may sound, spiritual but not religious .

What about you? What do religion and spirituality mean to you? Please share it in the comments .

And if you need help to figure things out in your spiritual path, consider spiritual coaching .

Religion is a social institution, an organized set of beliefs, dogmas, rules, and practices; it presents “holy men” as intermediaries between you and Spirit (however you may name it). Spirituality promotes your individual autonomy in defining and connecting to Spirit as it fits your heart and mind; it is a more internal and individual process. Many argue that spirituality is the essence of all religions. In all spiritual traditions in the planet, you can find both religion and spirituality—the difference is in the approach.

Being spiritual but not religious means that spirituality is a very important part of your life, but you follow it your own way. You may have a spiritual worldview, beliefs, and practices—but you follow them according to your own conscience, and not as per the dogmas of any organised religion.

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Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

• Edward B. Davis 0 ,
• Everett L. Worthington Jr. 1 ,
• Sarah A. Schnitker 2

School of Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy, Wheaton College, Wheaton, USA

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Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA

Department of psychology and neuroscience, baylor university, waco, usa.

• A comprehensive resource examining the intersections of positive psychology
• Draws connections between two fields that research has increasingly shown to be connected
• Useful for social and clinical scientists as well as practitioners
• This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

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Table of contents (31 chapters), front matter, historical and theoretical considerations, integrating positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality: transcending coexistence to potentiate coevolution.

• Edward B. Davis, Everett L. Worthington Jr., Sarah A. Schnitker, Kevin J. Glowiak, Austin W. Lemke, Chase Hamilton

Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality in Historical Perspective

• James M. Nelson, Noelle Canty

On the Integration of Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion/Spirituality: Logical, Normative, and Methodological Questions

• Steven L. Porter, Jason Baehr, Tenelle Porter, Robert C. Roberts

Virtues in Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

• Juliette L. Ratchford, Mason S. Ming, Sarah A. Schnitker

Theories of Health and Well-Being Germane to a Positive Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

• Douglas A. MacDonald

Meaning as a Framework for Integrating Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religiousness and Spirituality

• Crystal L. Park, Daryl R. Van Tongeren

Methodological Considerations

Measurement at the intersection of positive psychology and the psychology of religion/spirituality.

• Peter C. Hill, Nicholas DiFonzo, C. Eric Jones, Justin S. Bell

Methodological Diversity in Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

• Jo-Ann Tsang, Rosemary L. Al-Kire, Edward B. Davis, Hilary N. Alwood, Wade C. Rowatt

Cultural Considerations

Cultural considerations in positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality.

• Jacqueline S. Mattis

Positive Psychology and Christianity

• Adam S. Hodge, Joshua N. Hook, Jichan J. Kim, David K. Mosher, Aaron T. McLaughlin, Don E. Davis et al.

Positive Psychology and Judaism

• Mark Schiffman, Aaron Cherniak, Eliezer Schnall, Suzanne Brooks, Steven Pirutinsky, Devora Shabtai

Living the Good Life: An Islamic Perspective on Positive Psychology

• Seyma N. Saritoprak, Hisham Abu-Raiya

Positive Psychology and Hinduism

• Kamlesh Singh, Mahima Raina, Doug Oman

Positive Psychology and Buddhism

• Seth Zuihō Segall, Jean L. Kristeller

Positive Psychology and Religion/Spirituality Across Cultures in Europe, Non-US North America, and South America

• Clàudia Rossy, María Gámiz, Silvia Recoder, Iris Crespo, Maria Fernández-Capo, Edward B. Davis et al.

Positive Psychology and Religion/Spirituality Across Cultures in Africa, Asia, and Oceania

• Richard G. Cowden, Victor Counted, Man Yee Ho

This handbook aims to bridge the gap between the fields of positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality. It is the authoritative guide to the intersections among religion, spirituality, and positive psychology and includes the following sections: (1) historical and theoretical considerations, (2) methodological considerations, (3) cultural considerations, (4) developmental considerations, (5) empirical research on happiness and well-being in relation to religion and spirituality, (6) empirical research on character strengths and virtues in relation to religion and spirituality, (7) clinical and applied considerations, and (8) field unification and advancement. Leading positive psychologists and psychologists of religion/spirituality have coauthored the chapters, drawing on expertise from their respective fields. The handbook is useful for social and clinical scientists, practitioners in helping professions, practitioners in religious and spiritual fields, andstudents of psychology and religion/spirituality.

This is an open access book.

• Spirituality
• Positive psychology
• character strengths
• development

“Most classical treatises of religion in psychology and related disciplines have taken a deficiency approach to the topic—religion as a defense against threat, danger, insecurity, and death. Since the launch of positive psychology, research has—again and again—demonstrated the one-sided  nature of such treatises. Religion and spirituality also provide sources for growth—security, meaning, belonging, self-transcendence, and more. The Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality provides a masterful, comprehensive review of theory, research, and clinical applications at the exciting intersection between the psychology of religion/spirituality and positive psychology. It also demonstrates that each of those fields is incomplete without the other. This book should be in the shelf of every serious student of religion, spirituality, and psychology.”

-          Pehr Granqvist, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University

Author of Attachment in Religion and Spirituality: A Wider View (Guilford Press)

https://www.su.se/english/profiles/pgran-1.186804

https://www.guilford.com/books/Attachment-in-Religion-and-Spirituality/Pehr-Granqvist/9781462542680

“An epic moment for human flourishing resides within the synergy of positive psychology and spirituality. Within this volume is found the next frontier of positive psychology, exponentially expanded through spiritual awareness; and so too the translation of spiritual experience into lived positive cognition, behavioral habit, and practice. The editors of this volume help clear a rich new terrain for the next generation of humanitarian practitioners, researchers and scholars.”

-          Lisa Miller, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Education, Founder of the Spirituality, Mild, Body Institute (SMBI), Teachers College, Columbia University

-          Editor of The Oxford University Press Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality (2 nd ed.; Oxford University Press)

-          Author of The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life (Random House) and The Spiritual Child: The New Science of Parenting for Health and Lifelong Thriving (MacMillan)

-          https://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/lfm14/

-          https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-psychology-and-spirituality-9780190905538?cc=us&lang=en&

-          https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608347/the-awakened-brain-by-lisa-miller-phd/

“At last! This broad-based, creative, integrative handbook really helps to fill a niche by focusing directly on the interface between positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality. I especially appreciated the inclusion of a variety of faith traditions and the chance for ‘deep dives’ into so many aspects of positive psychology.”

-          Co-Author of Working With Spiritual Struggles in Psychotherapy: From Research to Practice

Edward B. Davis

Everett L. Worthington Jr.

Sarah A. Schnitker

Edward B. Davis , Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College (IL), has published over 100 articles and chapters, mostly on the intersections of positive psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality. He also is a licensed clinical psychologist who practices from a positive psychology framework that often is spiritually integrative. Davis has procured more than $4 million in funding as a principal investigator on research grants and was the recipient of the 2020 Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 36 (Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality).

Everett L. Worthington, Jr. , Commonwealth Professor Emeritus, has published over 500 articles and chapters and over 45 books on positive psychology, religion/spirituality, and the hope-focused couple approach. He does an essentially equal amount of basic scientific and applied research. He has co-edited several Springer-published handbooks. 

Sarah A. Schnitker , Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University, studies virtue and character development in adolescents and emerging adults, with a focus on the role of spirituality/religion and technology in virtue formation. Schnitker has procured more than $6 million in funding as a principal investigator on multiple research grants and has published over 50 articles and chapters.

Book Title : Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

Editors : Edward B. Davis, Everett L. Worthington Jr., Sarah A. Schnitker

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10274-5

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Behavioral Science and Psychology , Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2023

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-10273-8 Published: 19 November 2022

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-10276-9 Published: 19 November 2022

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-10274-5 Published: 17 November 2022

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XXIV, 513

Number of Illustrations : 10 b/w illustrations

Topics : Positive Psychology , Religion and Psychology

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The Cultural Psychology of Religiosity, Spirituality, and Secularism in Adolescence

Lene arnett jensen.

Department of Psychology, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610 USA

Cultural psychology has raised awareness of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in people’s psychological lives. This article takes a cultural-developmental approach by examining the development of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism among culturally diverse adolescents. At the outset, an explanation is provided as to why the valid study of peoples’ psychological lives necessitates taking culture into account, and of key implications for theory and methodology. Throughout research on adolescent religiosity, spirituality, and secularism is described, including studies on conceptions of God, afterlife beliefs, the development of an Ethic of Divinity in moral reasoning, recent increases in spirituality and secularism, and the impact of globalization on worldviews and religiously-based puberty rituals. While the focus is on adolescents, the article includes relevant research with children and emerging adults. Concrete future research directions are proposed, including a call to address the extent to which effects of religion on adolescents are dependent on culture and globalization.

Introduction

More than 80% of the world’s population identify with a religion (Pew-Templeton Global Religious Future Project 2020 ). At the same time, almost 20% indicate that they are religiously unaffiliated. The proportion of unaffiliated persons is rising in many countries, and this rise is led by adolescents and emerging adults (Bullard 2016 ; Pew Research Center 2018 ; Poushter and Fetterolf 2019 ). Being religiously affiliated and religious unaffiliated may seem like two distinct categories. However, research that delves into the beliefs and practices of cultural groups and their individual members finds that boundaries are porous between religiosity, spirituality, and secularism. For example, an Irish adolescent can self-identify as atheist and simultaneously be nominated by his community as a spiritual exemplar (King et al. 2014 ). An Australian Aborigine adolescent may take active part in collective puberty rituals that involve the teaching of long-standing religious beliefs, called the “Law,” while simultaneously being in the process of developing different beliefs that are more individualistic (Eichelkamp 2013 ). A Danish emerging adult may self-identify as agnostic but also profess a belief in life after death (Arnett and Jensen 2015 ).

The present article will provide a cultural psychology perspective on the development of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in adolescence. While the focus of this special issue of Adolescent Research Review is on adolescent religiosity and spirituality, this article will also address secularism because of its worldwide growth and the fact that it sometimes intersects with religiosity and spirituality. The focus will be on adolescent development, but relevant research with children and emerging adults will also be included.

Definitions and Organization

Defining religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in a way that has validity across cultures is a challenge. Here, religiosity and spirituality will be understood to entail belief in the supernatural, or sacred, or “ultimate reality” (King et al. 2020 , p. 593), while secularism will refer to the absence of such belief (Zuckerman and Thompson 2020 ). Religiosity involves an affirmative relationship with one or more religions, where a religion typically entails a set of doctrinal beliefs and behaviors that are shared by a community. Spirituality will refer to an individual’s search for or sense of connection with the sacred, supernatural, or ultimate reality. Social science definitions of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism are plentiful, and adolescent researchers have been moving toward flexible and multidimensional definitions (Hardy et al. 2019 ). The present definitions are intended as a starting point, yet it needs to be acknowledged that they may not apply equally well to all cultural groups (Eller 2017 ). Terms and meanings pertaining to religiosity, spirituality, and secularism are varied and multifaceted across cultures. As will be discussed later, investigating such cultural diversity is precisely part of cultural psychology.

Cultural psychology aims to understand the diverse psychologies of different peoples. The field of cultural psychology has burgeoned in recent decades. Initially, as cultural psychologists were focused on carving out a discipline, some distinguished cultural psychology from cross-cultural psychology (e.g., Stigler et al. 1990 ). The central argument was that cross-cultural psychology—like cultural psychology—involved the study of peoples of different cultures, but that its central aim—unlike cultural psychology—was to document universal psychological phenomena. Critics of cross-cultural psychology also noted that often concepts and measures developed in the United States were exported without adequate consideration of their relevance to local conditions. By now, the boundaries between cultural and cross-cultural psychology have become less sharp. Cross-cultural psychologists are showing increased attention to cultural diversity and ecological validity, perhaps partly in response to the cultural psychology critique (e.g., Kühnen et al. 2009 ). While this article uses the term cultural psychology, it is important to note that this burgeoning field includes scholars from many disciplines, including not only psychology but anthropology, communications, education, linguistics, political science, social work, sociology, and neuroscience (Jensen 2015a ).

Culture is defined here as symbolic, behavioral, and institutional inheritances that are shared and co-constructed by members of a community (Goodnow 2010 ; Jensen 2015a ). Culture is not synonymous with country or ethnicity, but rather describes communities whose members share key beliefs, values, behaviors, routines, and institutions. Of course, cultural communities include heterogeneity within groups, as scholars addressing cultural issues have long observed (Gramsci 1971 ). Variation also exists between cultural communities, including on their degree of heterogeneity and change over time (Weisner et al. 1997 ; Whiting and Edwards 1988 ). An important source of variation both within and across cultures is access to power. Power differentials occur along lines such as region of the world, nationality, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, gender, and religion (e.g., Abo-Zena and Ahmed 2014 ; Hammack and Toolis 2015 ; Kapadia and Gala 2015 ; Super 2010 ).

The articles in this journal issue present different disciplinary approaches to the study of religious and spiritual development in adolescence. Since the charge of the present article is to introduce the cultural psychology perspective, rationales as to why this perspective is necessary will be the starting point. Next will follow a section that describes key theoretical and methodological considerations when conducting cultural psychology research. While the key points of these first two section are germane to research with all age groups, the explanations and examples provided will focus on adolescents. The third section highlights additional important cultural psychology studies that have contribute to the study of the development of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in adolescence. Suggestions for future research will be presented at the end.

Cultural Psychology: Three Rationales

One reason that cultural psychology is necessary is that humans have evolved to be a uniquely cultural species, capable of inhabiting almost any part of the globe (Tomasello 2011 ). Our large brains have enabled us to adapt to most environments by inventing new methods of survival and passing them on to our children as part of a cultural way of life. The less mature brain of the human child at birth relative to other species also makes for a longer period of dependency and for extensive brain maturation and learning within local physical and cultural environments (Jensen and Arnett 2020 ). Successfully surviving in vastly different environments, from equatorial Africa to the Arctic, requires the highly flexible set of cognitive and emotional skills afforded by the human brain and the ability to create cultural communities. The extent to which religion was a part of this evolutionary process is currently being debated, but it undoubtedly became a salient component of culture over time (e.g., De Waal 2013 ; Turner et al. 2017 ). Apart from adapting to new environments, humans have also become capable of altering their environments, such that it is no longer natural selection alone but also the cultures we create that determine how we live. In short, being cultural is a fundamental part of what it means to be human, and cultural psychology addresses this fact.

A second reason for the necessity of a cultural psychology perspective is that today we live in a globalizing world where people from different cultures constantly come into contact with one another, in both the physical and the digital worlds (Jensen 2020 ). The flow of ideas, goods, and people across the world is not new, but the current extent and speed of globalization are unprecedented. In many ways, adolescents and emerging adults are at the forefront of globalization with their openness to new ideas, consumption of global brands, facility with use of new global technologies, and migration from rural to urban areas in search of new work opportunities (Jensen and Arnett 2012 ). Interestingly, psychological research on young people’s orientation to religion in the context of globalization is scarce, although one recent study in Thailand found that urban adolescents with extensive exposure to globalization emphasized individualized views of religion whereas rural adolescents with minimal exposure to globalization regarded religion as a relational experience that includes friends, family members, and teachers (McKenzie et al. 2019 ). Globalization calls for a cultural psychology perspective that helps us understand people from diverse cultures, including their religious, spiritual, and secular thoughts and behaviors. It is important to note that globalization has an impact across the world, not just in some countries, rendering a cultural psychology perspective relevant for all of us.

A third reason for a cultural psychology perspective is that most of the world’s population lives outside the West, yet most psychological research only includes samples from North America and Europe (Heine 2020 ). There is an urgent need to know more about the psychology of the majority world. Moreover, almost all future population growth is projected to take place in economically developing countries (Population Reference Bureau 2014 ). Some of the economically developing regions of the world are seeing an increase in religious affiliation in their adult populations. For example, this is the case in Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa (Bullard 2016 ). Does this mean that adolescents in these regions are also becoming more religious? If so, what forms are their religious beliefs and practices taking? And what are the implications for a global world where adolescents and emerging adults in other regions are becoming more secular? From a cultural psychology perspective, social science becomes more valid and more relevant when it includes the full scope of the human population.

Cultural Psychology: Theoretical and Methodological Implications

Psychology has long sought to provide nomothetic and idiographic knowledge; that is, knowledge of what all humans have in common and how individuals are unique, respectively. Cultural psychology adds a point in between these two ends of the spectrum, namely, the aim of knowing the diverse psychologies of cultural groups. Certainly, through the study of different cultures, cultural psychologists may point to human commonalities that carry across cultures. Also, cultural psychologists may provide case studies of individuals within groups or highlight how individuals within a culture vary. Nonetheless, the crucial contribution of cultural psychology is to point out that humans are cultural, and that attention to cultural diversity makes social science better able to accomplish its key goals of contributing knowledge and improving people’s lives. In order to reach these social science goals, cultural psychologists employ ecologically sensitive theoretical and methodological approaches.

Implications for Theory: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All

From a cultural psychology perspective, one-size-fits-all theories are insufficient. Psychology has a history of universalistic theories (e.g., Freud, Piaget, Kohlberg, Fowler, Maslow), and research based on these theories has contributed valuable insights. This research, however, has been ineffective at capturing diversity. For example, a long psychological research tradition on the development of conceptualizations of the supernatural has employed a Piagetian framework (Bassett et al. 1990 ; Elkind 1971 ; Goldman 1965 ; Harms 1944 ; Nye and Carlson 1984 ). Most of this research has examined how children and adolescents think about God, often by asking them to describe God in interviews or depict God in drawings. In line with Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, researchers have habitually concluded that children up until the age of about 10 or 11 view God in concrete ways (e.g., a man with a white beard), whereas adolescents have much more abstract images (e.g., God is everywhere).

There is a paucity of research on how culture may impact conceptualizations of God, but available studies call into question wholesale Piagetian conclusions and indicate that children from different religious cultures produce different images of God. For example, a study found that children from Latter-Day Saint, Lutheran, and Mennonite families drew pictures of God with more concrete features (God as a person), as compared to children of Jewish background (Pitts 1976 ). Another study showed that Hindu children, more than Baptist, Catholic, and Jewish children, described a many-sided God (Heller 1986 ). The Hindu children said they felt close to God while also portraying God as an abstract form of energy. Across these studies, children’s drawings and statements reflected the different images of God that distinguish their religions, including notably abstract ideas within some religious cultures.

Research that has extended these veins of inquiry to include additional age groups and to inquire about additional supernatural entities has shown that different religious cultures give rise to different psychological realities. For example, one study compared children (7–12), adolescents (13–18), and adults (36–57) from evangelical and mainline American Protestant communities on their conceptions of God and the Devil (Jensen 2009 ). Analyses of interviews showed differences along four dimensions. First, religious culture has an impact in terms of what supernatural entities populate one’s psychological reality. For almost all evangelicals, the Devil was real, whereas the majority of mainline participants repudiated the existence of the Devil. Second, religious culture makes a difference in terms of how one characterizes supernatural entities. Evangelicals conceived of God more in terms of power and judgment than mainline Protestants. They were also more likely to see God as male, whereas mainline Protestants often described God’s gender in terms of the abstract idea of “something else”. Third, religious culture affects how one evaluates supernatural entities. For evangelicals there was a particularly large within-subject difference in their evaluations of God and the Devil, as compared to mainliners. Evangelicals evaluated God far more positively than the Devil, and the Devil far more negatively than God. Fourth, religious culture makes a difference in the relationship that one has with God. The two groups differed strongly on how much control they saw God as having over their lives. This difference is exemplified by an evangelical adolescent who stated that “God controls everything, the kind of people I meet, how I react in situations”, and a mainline adolescent who said “I think God leaves ourselves to make our own decisions” (Jensen 2009 , p. 142).

In short, religious cultures differ on conceptions of supernatural entities. This includes which supernatural entities are believed to exist, how supernatural entities are characterized, and the nature of the relationship between humans and supernatural entities. These findings illustrate the limitations that one-size-fits-all theories place on obtaining knowledge across cultural groups that is valid and can meaningfully be applied to diverse peoples’ lives.

Implications for Theory: Toward Multiplicity

In lieu of one-size-fits-all theories, cultural psychology theories typically involve multiplicity. For example, they differentiate between multiple kinds of identities, intelligences, parenting styles, and creativities (e.g., Kağitçibaşi and Yalin 2015 ; Mourgues et al. 2015 ; Nsamenang 2011 ; Sternberg 1985 ). The differentiation between religiosity and spirituality can also be taken to represent a movement toward multiplicity, since it aims to better reflect the different ways that cultural groups and individuals believe in the supernatural or sacred or ultimate reality, and the diverse behaviors in which those beliefs find expression.

Cultural psychology has called attention to religious and spiritual concepts in research areas where they had not received much attention, thereby introducing multiplicity to these areas. One example is the area of moral development. For many decades most of the research on moral development was based on Kohlberg’s universalistic stage theory (Kohlberg 1984 ). The coding manual used for research with Kohlberg’s theory includes 708 criterion judgments for coding moral reasoning but only two pertain to religiosity, spirituality, or divinity (Walker et al. 1995 ). Other moral development theories that arose during the heyday of Kohlberg’s theory, such as Gilligan’s and Turiel’s theories, also did not code divinity considerations as part of moral reasoning (Gilligan 1982 ; Turiel 1983 ).

Aiming to broaden the area of moral development, cultural psychology researchers have introduced a tripartite differentiation between three ethics: Autonomy, Community, and Divinity (Jensen 1995 ; Shweder et al. 1997 ). Briefly, the Ethic of Autonomy—which is prominent in Kohlberg’s theory—involves a focus on persons as individuals. Moral reasons within this ethic include the interests, well-being, and rights of individuals (self or other), and fairness between individuals. The Ethic of Community focuses on persons as members of social groups, with attendant reasons such as duty to others and concern with the customs, interests, and welfare of groups. The Ethic of Divinity focuses on persons as spiritual or religious entities, and reasons include divine and natural law, sacred lessons, and spiritual purity. Research has shown the presence and reliable differentiation of the three ethics across diverse cultures, including groups from Brazil, Finland, India, New Zealand, the Philippines, Turkey, and the United States (Guerra and Giner-Sorolla 2010 ; Hickman 2014 ; Kapadia and Bhangaokar 2015 ; Padilla-Walker and Jensen 2016 ; Vasquez et al. 2001 ).

The broadening of moral development theory to include an Ethic of Divinity has generated new lines of research. Studies have shown that moral reasoning in terms of the Ethic of Divinity is present across many cultures, even as it varies considerably in frequency between cultures (Jensen 2015b ). Research has also shown that some cultural groups use the Ethic of Divinity when reasoning about public issues where their moral judgments apply to everyone, whereas other cultural groups privatize this ethic and use it only when judging their own moral behaviors (Jensen and McKenzie 2016 ).

Bridging cultural and developmental psychology, theory utilizing the three ethics has also proposed that divinity reasoning may be particularly likely to rise in adolescence. According to the cultural-developmental theory of moral psychology, use of the Ethic of Divinity will often be low among children but will increase in adolescence and become similar to adult use (Jensen 2009 ). This infusion of divinity reasoning in adolescence may especially characterize religious cultures that emphasize scriptural authority, or where people conceive of supernatural entities as largely distinct from humans, such as being omniscient and omnipotent. The reason is that these culturally articulated religious concepts are of such an abstract nature that they may be readily translated into moral reasoning only by adolescents, whose cognitive skills allow for more abstraction than those of younger children (Trommsdorff 2012 ). Research has begun to support this cultural-developmental hypothesis regarding the infusion of divinity in adolescents’ moral reasoning (DiBianca Fasoli 2018 ; Jensen and McKenzie 2019 ; Vainio 2015 ).

However, in cultures where scriptural accounts of supernatural entities are less salient or where people regard such entities as less distinct from humans, it is possible that Ethic of Divinity concepts are more accessible to and hence used more by children in their moral reasoning from an early age (Saraswathi 2005 ). In some Hindu Indian communities, for example, religious devotion finds expression in tangible and recurrent activities (e.g., bathing, dressing, and feeding the gods), there are many places within and outside the home for worship (e.g., household and roadside shrines, temples), and there are a variety of persons seen to have god-like status or special connections with the gods (e.g., gurus, sadhus [renouncers], temple priests) (Jensen 1998 ; Shweder et al. 1990 ). In such cultures, children may reason about moral issues in terms of Ethic of Divinity concepts from fairly early on because these concepts are tied repeatedly to specific everyday activities and objects. Then, in the course of adolescence and adulthood, additional Divinity concepts may become part of a person’s moral reasoning. Research is currently under way to examine this hypothesis (e.g., Pandya et al. 2020 ).

In sum, from a cultural psychology perspective, theories need to go beyond one-size-fits-all universalism to include cultural diversity. Because of their attention to diversity, cultural psychologists have contributed to highlighting the role of religion and spirituality in people’s lives, including how beliefs about the supernatural and divine contribute to different psychological realities and ways of thinking about morality.

Implications for Methodology: Working with Diverse Samples and Colleagues

A cultural psychology perspective has implications for who is studied and how they are studied. With respect to sampling, the still limited amount of psychological research on religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in adolescence (and all other periods of the life course) entails a need for research with samples from all over the world. The role of culture, however, needs to be considered explicitly in the conceptualization and write-up of the research.

Conducting research with an American sample, for example, and presuming generalizability of results to everyone else is unscientific. Yet, it is an approach that has been common and continues to be so. Cultural psychologists who seek to publish research from the majority world are routinely asked by reviewers and editors to justify their samples and to explain the cultural context. Research conducted in the United States is not necessarily held to the same standard. Studies are often published that provide no justification for the selection of an American sample and no information about the cultural context. Not only is that unscientific, it misses an opportunity to adequately inform readers from different parts of the world about American culture or cultures.

Instead, researchers need to consider and explain how results are shaped by culture. One example of a study in the United States that took a cultural psychology perspective sampled evangelical families. This study aimed to identify “social‐communicative” processes that promote the development of the Ethic of Divinity in children's moral reasoning. It purposefully sampled American evangelical families because they belong to a religious culture known for its emphasis on considerations pertaining to divinity (DiBianca Fasoli 2018 ). The study compared the moral reasoning of parents and children, and it delved into the ways they responded to one another in conversations about moral issues. Findings showed that the evangelical adults reasoned more in terms of Divinity than their children. The results also revealed that the parents regularly sought to reroute their children’s reasoning from a focus on the Ethic of Autonomy to the Ethic of Divinity, and that they did so through processes such as “scaffolding” Divinity considerations and “countering” Autonomy considerations. For example, one mother and her daughter discussed why someone should put off an outing to the movies and instead visit a friend who had just been hospitalized (Hickman and Fasoli 2015 , pp. 161–162).

The author framed the results of the study from the perspective of cultural psychology, stating that they “illuminate the processes through which children rationalize their developing moral outlooks in culturally distinct ways” (p. 1671). The author also specifically suggests that parental socialization by means of everyday moral discourse contributes to the rise in the Ethic of Divinity from childhood into adolescence within conservative religious cultures in the United States.

While research attuned to the role of culture within Western societies contributes importantly to our scientific knowledge, there is also a profound and urgent need to know more about the psychology of people from outside Europe and North America (Heine 2020 ). As noted earlier, the majority world is underrepresented in psychological research. Through the inclusion of understudied samples, we stand to gain new knowledge. For example, a recent study used archival data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (a database of coded variables from approximately 200 highly diverse cultures) to determine the most common religious “traits” among 33 hunter-gather societies and by implication, according to the authors, the origins and evolution of religion (Peoples et al. 2016 ). Animism was present in all of the societies, closely followed by belief in an afterlife and shamanism. Ancestor worship and belief in high gods were present in somewhat fewer than half of the societies, and belief in high gods who involve themselves actively in human affairs was rare (15% of societies). If we compare the meanings of religion in these hunter-gather societies with its meanings among other cultures described so far, the sheer diversity of religious beliefs across the world becomes apparent. This demonstrates how invaluable studies of majority world cultures are in broadening and deepening our knowledge of psychology.

When working in economically developing societies, it is worth noting that there is often an especially sharp divide between the high-SES urban elite and the relatively poor majority of the population. While the high-SES urban samples are often less difficult to recruit and less time-consuming to work with, they are also the ones most likely to resemble samples from the West because they have the most exposure to globalization. Thus, similarities across these samples cannot be interpreted as pointing to universalism, as sometimes happens. Instead, similarities are more likely to point to ways that urban elites in economically developing countries are becoming Westernized. For example, globalization is contributing to some urban adolescents in Thailand becoming more critical of religion. This cultural shift is vividly exemplified by an adolescent who said: “It’s easy to get bored with Buddhism…. There’s nothing new—there are no updates in religion. Like a new iPad—iPad 2, iPad 3—there’s not Buddhism 1, Buddhism 2” (McKenzie et al. 2019 , p. 81).

For psychology to become inclusive of samples across the world and attuned to culture and cultural change, researchers from different countries will benefit from collaborating, something globalization has made easier than ever before. This provides opportunities for research in places that are understudied. Such collaborations can also generate particularly rich insights, as researchers who have insider and outsider perspectives develop and complete projects together. Furthermore, such projects may also lead to explicit consideration of ways that research participants’ behaviors may be influenced by the cultural (or religious) backgrounds of the researchers.

Implications for Methodology: Working with Indigenous Concepts and Languages

Cultural psychologists differentiate etic and emic concepts. Etic concepts are the ones that researchers have formulated prior to going into a culture to do research, and which they now intend to use in studying a new culture. In contrast, emic concepts derive from the study of a culture. They are concepts that people in the culture use. While cultural psychologists may use etic concepts, the use of emic ones is necessary in order to achieve ecologically valid knowledge.

Returning to the Ethics of Autonomy, Community, and Divinity, described earlier, measurements of the three ethics assess the degree to which a person uses each ethic, and also specific types of reasons used within an ethic. The coding manual for open-ended oral or written responses differentiates 13–16 subcodes for each ethic, such as “Self’s Psychological Well-Being” and “Rights” for Autonomy, “Duty to Others” and “Social Order or Harmony Goals” for Community, and “Scriptural Authority” and “Natural Law” for Divinity (Jensen 2015c ). The differentiation of types of reasons within each of the three broader ethics facilitates the valid assessment of all the reasons utilized by persons of different cultural backgrounds. (A questionnaire that measures the use of the three ethics, The Ethical Values Assessment, includes fewer specific types of reasons than the coding manual but provides space for open-ended responses in order to be inclusive of emic concepts; Padilla-Walker and Jensen 2016 ).

The types of moral reasons detailed in the coding manual for the three ethics have been generated over time through research with diverse cultural groups. As new cultures are studied, however, new emic types sometimes become necessary to add. Currently, for example, interviews with children and adolescents from low- and high-SES backgrounds in India are highlighting the importance of the emic concepts of dharma, an idea pertaining to the obligations of an inner self or soul, and paap , an idea pertaining to sin and divine punishment (Pandya et al. 2020 ).

In order to arrive at emic concepts, it is necessary for researchers to elicit them through their measurements and methods. This may involve having open-ended questions on surveys. It may involve ethnographic research. It may involve naturalistic observations aimed at generating knowledge of culturally-situated behaviors. It may involve using culture-sensitive prompts in experiments or interviews. In the interviews with low- and high-SES Indian children and adolescents, for example, they respond to scenarios constructed on the basis of local knowledge (Pandya and Bhangaokar 2015 ). One of these scenarios reads:

A group of children is playing soccer in their society garden. The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is being celebrated and an idol of Lord Ganesha has been installed near the garden. While playing, one of the children—Nikhil—kicks the ball hard and it accidentally hits the idol. As a result, the idol breaks and soon residents of the society come to know it. They wonder who is responsible for this. None of the children speak up. Nikhil has to decide whether to tell that he broke the idol by mistake or stay quiet.

In addition to ensuring that their methods and measurements are designed to elicit emic concepts, cultural psychologists will want to consider the extent to which they rely on English in their research. English is becoming an international language. By the year 2050, half of the world’s population is projected to be proficient in English (Rubenstein 2017 ). Children, adolescents, and emerging adults are particularly likely to learn English as part of their education and through the internet. While relying on English for research simplifies the process for English-speaking researchers and when studying cultures with different native languages, researchers need to bear in mind that use of English may change the nature of participants’ responses. For example, a well-known study of Chinese emerging adults who resided in Canada found that they provided different descriptions of themselves depending on the language used (Ross et al. 2002 ). Emerging adults provided more individualistic attributes when responding in English (e.g., “I am intelligent”) and more descriptions pertaining to their relationships with others when using Cantonese or Mandarin (e.g., “I am an obedient child”). English, perhaps especially as conveyed through popular culture, is not simply a neutral means of communication. English is to some extent tied to certain messages and meanings that originate in an individualistic North American and Western worldview. As multilingual, multicultural, and globalized research participants switch into English, they also switch into a mindset that some extent is different from mindsets linked to their other languages (Hong et al. 2000 ; McKenzie 2019 ).

Meanwhile when indigenous languages are not used, there are invariably words and meanings that do not get communicated. Languages have words, expressions, and oral and written products that convey cultural meanings. The Danish word hygge , for example, has no equivalent English translation, and its meaning in Denmark is infused with cultural ideas and habits. The Hindu words paap and dharma , described earlier, are two other examples. From a cultural psychology perspective, words, expressions, stories, and conversations in peoples’ local languages—including untranslatable words—are rich sources of understanding emic concepts. This includes what people have to say about religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in their native tongues (c.f., Lomas 2019 ).

Cultural Psychology: Highlighting Religiosity, Spirituality, and Secularism in Adolescence

Cultural psychology research has called attention to the widespread presence of religion, and how adolescence is an important time for the development of religious and spiritual beliefs and behaviors across cultures. Cultural psychology research has also called attention to the rise in secularism among youth, and ways in which their secular beliefs overlap with religious and spiritual notions. We now turn to a description of some of this research which, in turn, informs subsequent recommendations for future research.

Developing a Worldview: Collective Rituals and Individual Identity Formation

Surveys across cultures have documented the presence of puberty rituals across the vast majority of traditional cultures (Schlegel and Barry 1991 ). These puberty rituals, which take place in early or mid-adolescence, mark the departure from childhood and the entrance into adolescence. The rituals convey key elements of a culture’s worldview to adolescents, and often they confer moral responsibility on adolescents and link that responsibility to knowledge of religious teachings. The rituals involve a lot of time and effort on the part of the adolescents and the community as whole. Sometimes the hope is that ancestors or gods will reciprocate with blessings (Schlegel and Barry 2015 ). Certainly, the efforts involved contribute to collective solidarity and to making adolescents feel invested in the worldview of their culture.

Researchers have also observed that contemplation of beliefs and values rises as part of identity development during adolescence, and that this process may include religious, spiritual, and secular beliefs and values (King et al. 2014 ; Levesque 2002 ; Saroglou 2012 ; Trommsdorff 2012 ). The nature of adolescents’ thoughts and questions depends on their culture. For example, research shows that Bahrain, American, and Finnish adolescents ask different questions such as “Do I get a chance to go to Mecca”, “Does the Devil exist”, and “[In the future], will we still have religion”, respectively (Tirri et al. 2005 , p. 212).

In cultures with no or relatively limited puberty rituals and without one widely endorsed religious worldview, there is more room for individualization of beliefs. The individual nature of this process in adolescence is evident across economically developed countries. The United States provides one example. While Americans are more religious than people in virtually any other economically developed country, the beliefs of American adolescents do not tend to follow traditional religious doctrines. The National Survey of Youth and Religion (NSYR), which involved over 3000 adolescents ages 13–17 in every part of the United States, found that American adolescents embrace “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (Smith and Denton 2005 ). This includes the belief that a God exists who created the world and watches over human life; that God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other; and that the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. The NSYR, which included not only questionnaires but also interviews with a subset of its sample, found that American adolescents were increasingly likely to say that they are “spiritual, but not religious”. They understood spirituality to involve a person’s individual quest for meaning and happiness. As we will discuss in the next section on future research directions, more and more adolescents in traditional cultures may also be developing individualized beliefs.

In part because identity achievement in economically developed countries is increasingly reached in emerging adulthood rather than adolescence, the NYSR conducted a longitudinal follow-up at ages 18–23 (Smith and Snell 2010 ). Beliefs in emerging adulthood remained highly individualized. Few emerging adults accepted a standard religious doctrine; instead, they took pieces of beliefs that they had learned from their parents and many other sources and puzzled them together into their own individual creations. Consequently, religious denomination did not hold much meaning for most of them. They could state they were “Catholic” or “Presbyterian” or “Jewish” without believing much of what is stated in the traditional doctrines of these religions, and without participating in religious activities and rituals. This individualized approach to religion in emerging adulthood has also been found in other studies and is exemplified by an emerging adult man who described himself as Christian, but also said that he believed that “you don’t have to be one religion. Take a look at all of them, see if there is something in them you like—almost like an a la carte belief system. I think all religions have things that are good about them” (Arnett and Jensen 2002 , p. 459).

The Rise of Secular Worldviews

While cultural psychology research shows the salience of religious and spiritual development in adolescence, it also documents a rise in secularism among adolescence in a variety of countries. In American studies, religiosity has been declining among adolescents and emerging adults in recent decades (Pew Research Center 2020 ; Twenge et al. 2015 ). Religiosity also generally declines from adolescence through emerging adulthood. A recent national poll found that half of 18–29-year-old Americans did not consider themselves to be a member of any religious denomination or organization (Pew Research Center 2020 ). These “Nones”, when asked what religion they are, respond with some version of “none”—atheist, agnostic, spiritual but not religious, or just not religious.

In general, adolescents and emerging adults in developed countries are more secular than their counterparts in developing countries. Religious beliefs and practices are especially low among adolescents and emerging adults in Europe. For example, in Belgium, only 8% of 18-year-olds attend religious services at least once a month (Goossens and Luyckx 2006 ). In Spain, traditionally a highly Catholic country, only 18% of adolescents attend church regularly (Gibbons and Stiles 2004 ). A recent interview study in Denmark, one of the least religious countries in the world (Haraldson 2006 ; World Population Review 2020 ), found that almost 80% of emerging adults described themselves as either agnostic, atheist, or as having no religious beliefs (Arnett and Jensen 2015 ).

Traditionally, religion has provided answers to questions about the meaning of life and death. How do secular adolescents and emerging adults think about these questions? In that same interview study in Denmark, emerging adults were asked what they believe happens after death (Arnett and Jensen 2015 ). Despite unbelief being the norm, 62% of the Danish emerging adults nonetheless believed in some form of afterlife. They were vague about what form it might take. To some, it seemed illogical that death should be the end of existence (“I find it difficult to accept that it’s just over and done”). For others, it was emotionally unpalatable to believe that there is no life after death (“I can’t tolerate the idea that if someone in your family dies, there’s nothing more”). Still others stated a belief in a soul that goes on in some form (“Our soul can’t just disappear. It lives on, in one place or another, but I don’t know how”).

The absence of religion in the worldviews of today’s Danish emerging adults can be explained partly on the basis of their society’s affluence and stability. Cross-national studies have found that, although within many countries religiosity is associated with well-being and serves a protective function against risk behavior, the countries that are the most prosperous also tend to be the least religious (Diener et al. 2011 ; French et al. 2012 ; Lun and Bond 2013 ; Saroglou and Cohen 2014 ).Yet even for the Danish emerging adults who have had all the advantages of coming of age in a wealthy and stable society, the majority believed in some kind of life after death. As described earlier, belief in life after death is also highly common in hunter-gather societies, whereas belief in high gods—especially high gods who are actively involved in human affairs—is far less common. The everyday lives of Danish emerging adults are very different from the lives of young people in hunter-gather societies, but some of the existential questions they contemplate are similar. From the point of view of cultural psychology, the rise of secularism in many parts of the world merits future research, as does the intersection of secularism with religiosity and spirituality.

Future Research Directions

Cultural psychology research has shown that religiosity, spirituality, and secularism are not as sharply differentiated as might be expected. Research in purposefully selected cultures that examine the meaning of these concepts and their intersections is a promising future direction. This research needs to move beyond a previously common focus on conceptualizations of God and cast a much broader and culturally inclusive net. Clearly, research on beliefs about life after death, animism, and ancestor worship would be useful, as would research on other ideas about the supernatural such as ghosts, witches, and guardian angels.

Cultural changes seem to take place more rapidly than ever, in part due to technological advances and globalization. These changes precipitate questions about the beliefs, practices, and values espoused by traditional worldviews, including religious ones. Seldom do adolescent come of age anymore with knowledge of only one traditional worldview. Adolescence and emerging adulthood are periods of life when there is newfound ability to contemplate and decide upon one’s worldview. Many examples exist of how individualism is on the rise, even in traditional cultures. For example, the Aborigines of Australia were nomadic hunters and gatherers until about 70 years ago (Burbank 1988 ). A key part of traditional childhood socialization among the Aborigines involved the teaching of a set of beliefs and values known as the Law, including an explanation of how the world began. Traditionally, socialization of the Law also included elaborate puberty rituals. To many adolescents today, however, the Law seems irrelevant to the world they live in, which is no longer a world of nomadic hunting and gathering but of schools, a complex economy, and modern media. Aborigine children and adolescents now show increasing resistance to learning and adhering to the traditional beliefs and values, and they develop more individualistic values based not just on the Law but also on their other experiences. How cultural changes are impacting the religiosity, spirituality, and secularism of adolescents is a timely topic of research.

In turn, this also raises questions about the extent to which positive contributions of religiosity to adolescent development are dependent on the changing meanings and evaluations of religion within a culture. A meta-analysis of 75 studies conducted with more than 66,000 adolescents and emerging adults between 1990 and 2010 found that religiosity was modestly associated with lower levels of risk behavior and depression, and higher levels of well-being and self-esteem (Yonker et al. 2012 ). The 75 studies were conducted in the context of an American society that is fairly high on religiosity. As described, however, American emerging adults are increasingly secular. They also evaluate religion more negatively than older generations. For example, 59% of 18–29-year-olds say religious people are generally less tolerant, in comparison to 34% of persons over 65 years (Cox 2019 ). Fifty-five percent of emerging adults also say that religion causes more problems for society than it solves, as compared to 32% of older adults. If religion takes on negative connotations broadly within a society, will religion nonetheless contribute positively to youth development?

Finally, for any question that addresses the intersection of development with cultural change, the field is ripe for cross-sequential research which studies different age-cohorts longitudinally. Cross-sequential research is the only way to document both developmental changes as well as the impact of cultural change over time. Such studies are costly, but they would greatly aid in addressing some of the most interesting questions about the future of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in the lives of culturally diverse adolescents.

Cultural psychology has raised awareness of religiosity, spirituality, and secularism in people’s psychological lives. Cultural psychologists have also called attention to adolescence and emerging adulthood as important periods for the development of worldviews. As adolescents and emerging adults formulate answers to existential questions, they may draw on the religious, spiritual, and secular ideas and practices within the culture in which they live. They may seek answers collectively or individually. Increasingly, their questions and answers occur in the context of a globalizing and rapidly changing world. While cultural psychology may point to developmental commonalities, cultural psychology research provides the theoretical perspective and research tools to delve into the diverse ways that religiosity, spirituality, and secularism develop among adolescents across the world.

Acknowledgements

I thank Sam Hardy and Jenae Nelson for arranging an inspiring virtual conference on the social science of religion in adolescence during Covid-19, as well as for their leadership in bringing together this special issue in difficult times. Additionally, I would like to thank Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Miles Jensen Arnett, Allison DiBianca Fasoli, Roger Levesque, and three anonymous reviewers for their detailed and thoughtful feedback on this article.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

The author reports no conflict of interest.

My theoretical goal is to advance a “cultural-developmental approach ” to theory and research on human development. One-size-fits-all theories—popular in the social sciences in the twentieth century—are often too broad and too biased to adequately capture the complexities of human selves and relations. On the other hand, one-for-every-culture raises the specter of theoretical pandemonium. The challenge and opportunity that we face in today’s globalizing world is bridging universal and cultural perspectives. My empirical research addresses moral, civic, and cultural identity development in the context of culture, migration, and globalization. I often combine qualitative and quantitative methods.

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Essay on Spirituality

Students are often asked to write an essay on Spirituality in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Spirituality

What is spirituality.

Spirituality is about having a connection with something greater than us. It can be about feeling a sense of purpose or meaning in life, being connected to nature, or feeling a sense of awe and wonder about the world around us. Most religions are spiritual, but you don’t have to be religious to be spiritual. Spirituality is a personal thing, and there is no right or wrong way to be spiritual.

Why is Spirituality Important?

Spirituality can help us to live more meaningful and fulfilling lives. It can give us a sense of purpose and direction, help us to cope with difficult times, and connect us with others. Spirituality can also help us to appreciate the beauty and wonder of the world around us.

How Can We Develop Our Spirituality?

There are many ways to develop our spirituality. Some people find that practicing meditation or yoga helps them to feel more connected to their spiritual side. Others find that spending time in nature or being creative helps them to feel more spiritual. There is no right or wrong way to develop your spirituality, so find what works for you and stick with it.

250 Words Essay on Spirituality

Spirituality is a broad concept that involves a person’s beliefs about the meaning and purpose of life, as well as their relationship to the world around them. It can also include beliefs about what happens after death and how to live a good life.

Spirituality and Religion

Spirituality and religion are often closely linked, but they are not the same thing. Religion is a specific set of beliefs and practices that are shared by a group of people. Spirituality is more personal and individual. It is about a person’s own beliefs and experiences, not necessarily those of a particular group.

Spirituality and Meaning

Spirituality can help people find meaning and purpose in life. It can provide a sense of connection to something greater than themselves, such as nature, the universe, or God. It can also help people to develop a sense of inner peace and well-being.

Spirituality and Health

Spirituality has been shown to have a number of positive effects on health. Studies have shown that people who are spiritual are more likely to be happy, healthy, and resilient. They are also less likely to experience stress, depression, and anxiety.

Spirituality is a complex and personal experience that can have a profound impact on a person’s life. It can provide a sense of meaning and purpose, inner peace, and well-being. It can also help people to cope with stress, depression, and anxiety.

500 Words Essay on Spirituality

Meaning of spirituality.

Spirituality is the feeling of being connected to something bigger than ourselves. It’s a personal experience that can be expressed in many different ways. For some people, spirituality means having a relationship with God or a higher power. For others, it means feeling a deep connection to nature or to the universe. Spirituality can also be about finding meaning and purpose in life, or simply about living in the present moment.

Different Ways to be Spiritual

There is no one right way to be spiritual. Some people find spirituality through religion, while others find it through meditation, yoga, or spending time in nature. There is no right or wrong way to be spiritual, as long as it feels meaningful and fulfilling to you.

Benefits of Spirituality

There are many benefits to being spiritual. Spirituality can help us to feel more connected to others, to our community, and to the world around us. It can also help us to find meaning and purpose in life, and to cope with difficult times. Spirituality can also help us to live more fulfilling and happier lives.

Spirituality and religion are often closely related, but they are not the same thing. Spirituality is a personal experience that can be expressed in many different ways, while religion is an organized system of beliefs and practices. Not all spiritual people are religious, and not all religious people are spiritual.

Spirituality is a personal journey that can lead to a more fulfilling and happier life. There is no one right way to be spiritual, and the best way to find out what spirituality means to you is to explore different practices and see what resonates with you.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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