Some read religion and spirituality as 2 unrelated matters. Others view faith and spirituality as opposing every other. A third perspective is that the aim of organised religion is to present birth to healthy spirituality, and that positive, authentic spirituality is best supported by institutional religion.
Spirituality growing - Religion declining
Venture into most good bookshops in the West and one can notice shelf when shelf on spirituality (self facilitate, "New Age", body and soul,...). Eclectic collections usually based mostly on simplified, Westernised dipping into some Jap non secular beliefs, and thus on. Not a lot of Christian material. Presumably a Bible - however very little else to point that people might flip to institutional Christianity for spirituality.
Post-modernism is the current trend aloof from acceptance of objective truth, the denial of an overarching "story" to the universe and to our lives. Post-modernism will encourage and validate eclectic spiritualities where one picks and chooses what appeals subjectively. There is no ongoing commitment and one will move simply from one belief to another.
All this at a time when, excepting denominations with a robust stress on the certainties they proclaim, numerically religion is declining within the West.
Spirituality good - Faith unhealthy or indifferent
In distinction, spirituality is increasingly popular. Many don't perceive any affiliation between spirituality and organised religion. Others have a stronger position. For them religion is concerning external rituals, not internal spirituality. For them, faith crushes spirituality. Non secular individuals are typically portrayed as hypocritical, and the history of organised faith is full of violence. Faith is seen as dangerous.
Spirituality without the scaffolding of religion, however, can become purely subjective, targeted on me and my experience instead of resulting in the transcendence hoped for. There's no real community support, especially in times of non secular crisis, as there is no community with a shared perspective. No consistent tradition to draw from. Nor anything driving outwards to consistent moral action and justice.
"I'm non secular but not religious"
At its best, to choose up the image within the previous paragraph, faith is scaffolding. The scaffolding is community (yes, with all its problems - but all its positives yet), agreed texts, rites, and traditions. This healthy use of organised religion as scaffolding realises the restrictions of the scaffolding and that the aim is the standard of the building. The building, which the scaffolding supports the development of, is spirituality. When one goes through troublesome times, dry periods in spirituality, doubts, then the scaffolding, faith, is there to support one through.
The challenge is for faith typically, and for Christianity particularly - as the first faith of the West - to rediscover its treasure-trove of spiritual riches and to figure intentionally at making these assets more readily available and accessible. Therefore that the works of Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, and therefore the Cloud of Unknowing take up vital shelf area alongside those books by the Dalai Lama in the bookshops we tend to visit.
Author Resource:-
submit article has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Spirituality
You can also check out her latest website about :
Lyrics On DemandWhich reviews and lists the best
free sheet music
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.healthandwealth4you.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
