Religions, Religious Experiences

and Spirituality

Introduction
We may have heard some people say that they are not religious, but they are spiritual
persons. Indeed, the current generation have shown a marked tendency toward a preference of
describing themselves as “spiritual” as contrasted to “religious.” European and American scholars
in the sociology of religion sought to examine the possible meanings and consequences
associated with this contrast in terms of the similarities and differences that affect those who use
these terms with respect to the everyday practices that they themselves employ or they believe
should be manifest in the lives of others as a result of a self-definition as “religious” or “spiritual” –
or not.
 This course takes up the religious-spiritual contrast specifically through investigations into
practice: In what ways do people who claim to be “religious” or “spiritual” define these self-images
as manifest in their own lives? How do people who make this contrast believe people who see
themselves in these ways implement their convictions in practice (or should implement them)?
How on a daily basis does a person who considers himself or herself “religious” or “spiritual” live
out that self-image in specific ways that she or he can describe to others, even if not share with
others?

The term “spirituality” is not by any means new to the world of religion. All of the major world
religious traditions, in their different languages, speak of spirituality. In the Roman Catholic
tradition, for example, it has been common to speak for hundreds of years in such terms as
Franciscan spirituality, Jesuit spirituality, Dominican spirituality. In these contexts, however,
spirituality was also closely connected to particular “disciplines” – that is, the “spiritual life” was
characterized by systems of rules that the intended practitioner followed in an attempt to achieve
spiritual depth and, ideally, perfection. These various disciplines were closely associated with
religious orders – monks, nuns, sisters, brothers, and so on.

The word “piety” may in another era have actually been closer to the current use of
“spirituality,” as people talked also of these different styles of spirituality as having distinct pieties
and could also speak of a piety apart from a specific order, as for example “a strong Marian piety,”
meaning simply an intense religious consciousness of or devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in
Christianity, but also Franciscan piety, Jesuit piety, and so on would be used. Nor were these
limited to Roman Catholics. Among Protestants persons might be noted for a Wesleyan spirituality
or piety, for example, and particularly successful preachers might engender similar devotion –
Haugean piety among Norwegians – and some denominations became specifically known as
“pietistic.” In its English-language use the term “spirituality” has on occasion been confused with
spiritualism, the practice of attempting to achieve contact with the “spirits” of deceased persons.
While this is a generally aberrant use of the term, nevertheless it is the case that some of the most
devoted spiritualists have developed a spirituality of spiritualism – in which, in effect, contact with
“the other side” becomes the core of a person’s religious self-image.

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