Professional Poster: Separating spirituality from religion

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

Chapter 3 of the book on Whole Person Healthcare explores the Human Spirit and it's role in health

Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 2000

For scientific investigation to occur there has to be a consensus of meaning with regard to the phenomenon being observer. .. It is probably because such terms as 'spiritual' appear to have subjective meanings which are impossible to operationalize that behavioral scientists have avoided the study of spiritual health and disease." (Ellison, 1983, p. 331)

2006

2006 panel paper

R. Eisler & Montuori, A., (2002). Partnership in organizations. In Handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance, (pp. 46-56) R. A. Giacalone; C. L. Jurkiewicz (Eds.) M.E. Sharpe Publishers. , 2002

Philosophie der Spiritualität. Philosophy of Spirituality, 2024

This paper analyzes the concept of a spirituality without religion. I argue that spirituality is best understood as a specific attitude that a subject has towards the totality of existence, characterized by a certain emotional, evaluative and noetic quality. The spiritual attitude typically involves a shift in the way a subject interprets their relation to themselves and to the whole of reality. Understood this way, religious and non-religious spiritualities are varieties of the same core phenomenon. Religious beliefs are compatible with, but not necessary for spiritual attitudes.

Shikshak Anterdrishti, 2014

We humans, either we believe it or not, are spiritual in nature. The simplest clue to this perception is that we have tendency to ask questions why and how at every conflicting situation. If we take these whys and how’s from superficial level to a higher (or deeper) level, the questions of why and how become bigger i.e. The ultimate questions of being, existence, transcendence, purpose, connection etc. There is tendency in many to reject spiritual nature of human. We can term them atheist w.r.t. God/religion. But on asking bigger questions of existence an atheist would give a nod to “energy” i.e. there is an energy which is holding up a\all the existence. This is religion or faith free terminology. But regardless of the terminology, at some point of our life we all have asked these questions of ultimate existence. We all come up with different explanations. 21st century researchers/authors take spirituality as independent of religion and ‘God’. There is a quantum of formal and informal research on the concept of spirituality from different perspectives, ranging from what it is, how much it is, how useful it is, to how to use it etc. but there is an inherent conflict in use of terminology. Some researchers and authors view spirituality as independent characteristic of human psyche whereas others relate it to cognitive structure of human brain. But the purpose of most of the research is for human well-being. Either it is experimental or descriptive, spirituality or spiritual intelligence has been correlated with human well-being variables: mental health, self-efficacy, work environment, achievement, etc. this paper is aim at differentiating surrogate terms spirituality, religion, and spiritual intelligence.

M.D Litonjua is emeritus professor of sociology at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, OH. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University, an M.B.A. from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Licentiates in Theology and Philosophy from the University of Santo Tomas (Manila). He has written a monograph on liberation theology, Liberation Theology: The Paradigm Shift, a text in the sociology and cultural anthropology of religion, Structures of Sin, Cultures of Meaning: Social Science and Theology, 2 nd ed., and three collections of articles, published and unpublished, Critical Intersections, Creative Fractures, and Joint Ventures, all available at amazon.com. He has published in Studies in Comparative International Development, Theology Today, Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology, Chicago Studies, Philippines Studies, International Review of Modern Sociology, and Journal of Third World Studies. He was also a book reviewer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1984 to 1993.

In ordinary language a clear distinction is made between the world of matter and that of spirit. While dualism is typically thought to be incompatible with behaviorism, a behavioral analysis of self-awareness suggests that there are good reasons for dualistic talk. Reputed qualifies of both the spiritual aspect of humans and of a metaphysical God seem to flow naturally from the analysis. The use of the spiritual facet of self in therapy is briefly discussed. The purpose of the present paper is to attempt to analyze the distinction between matter and spirit from a behavioral point of view. I have three major reasons to attempt such an analysis. First, it is obvious that spiritual concerns exert an enormous influence over the behavior of many, if not most, of the members of our culture. Popular books on religion, mysticism, meditation, and spiritual growth are consistent sellers. Spiritual leaders are followed the world over. We spend billions of dollars each year on spiritual enhancement, from growth-oriented therapies to organized religion. Second, despite calls for a change in this area (Miller, 1984; Schoenfeld, 1979), there have been relatively few attempts to conduct behavioral theoretical analyses of such concerns. Those that have been done have largely focused on the development of superstition, or on the moralizing influence of organized religion (e.g., Skinner, 1953). While these are important topics, they are relatively easy to analyze in terms of principles of reinforcement or cultural survival. The matter/spirit distinction per se is more difficult to understand, but it is also more interesting in many ways. I intend to focus on the nature of the distinction as it is talked about in Western culture, while avoiding issues about the regulative, moralizing influence of organized religion. Third, I believe that a behavioral analysis of spirituality leads to important outcomes for a behavioral view of several other topics, including self-awareness, and therapeutic processes.

The essay question posed seems to propose that there is a distinction between spirituality and religion, however as definitions for these concepts are contested, it is not immediately evident this can be established.