bythemethod.com blog

Today we are all being encouraged to be more spiritual. Research shows that people who are spiritual tend to be more relaxed and happier. However being spiritual seems to cover a whole range of things.

Spirituality is a mixture of all kinds of different ideas. It includes things like beauty,feeling good, the other, divinity, God or gods, etc. It was once the preserve of the classic religions (the word spiritual comes from Christian sources) but this is no longer the case.

In 1902 a famous philosopher called William James published “Varieties of Religious Experience”. He wanted to apply psychology and the experience of the believer to religion. He divided religion into two parts: the institutional part, and the religious part (what we now call spirituality). This idea has become popular and now spirituality is seen as something quite seperate from organised religion.

This has led many to believe that the instituional part of religion is optional and that real spirituality is a private matter and that this inward part is the same across all religions and people.

Then a principal was founds that nearly all religions subscribe to, what many call the golden rule: ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.

If we combine all this we get the definition of: true spirituality is psychological well-being combined with the golden rule morality.

This sentiment is also shared by many of the worlds religions.

However I see this as being the beginning of the story and not the end. You may read on some other web sites that we have now reached a new way of looking at spirituality that allows us to throw off the shackles of organised religion and discover the spiritual world for ourselves.

I appreciate the sentiment about ‘organised religion’. If a faith becomes nothing more than a set of rules to follow then it is a shackle and not the source of strength it should be. Yet you must admit that organisation does not in itself make spirituality invalid. Perhaps the people doing the organising might but not the organisation itself. Otherwise the only spiritual people would be outside of organisations. Where would this leave people like Mother Theresa or Desmond Tutu or Martin Luther King Jr etc.?

I think Abbot Christopher Jamison in his book finding sanctuary makes some good points.

He applauds those who seek spirituality in life and goes on to say he also believes that the classic religions have something to say extra to the definition above.

He points to the truth that everyone has their heart set on something, something we are devoted to. This is often revealed in the ’shrines’ that people build. Shrines to pop stars or other important people. Shrines to money or fame etc. Some people worship many of these gods and their heart is torn in many directions. Looked at in this way everyone is religious in that we all have idols, whether we acknowledge this or not. For some that idol will be themselves.

Not everyone has noticed their idolatry and so their devotion is very self-centered rather than being rooted in the other or what I (as a Christian) call God. Indeed many modern spiritual movements affirm this idea – that you are a god. In this way of thinking the interior world and its selfish desires are paramount, each individual becomes responsible for their own spiritual progress and decides how to persue it.

Classic religion is about being set free from the idolatty of people, objects and tchniques. It is about being set free from the constantly shifting sands of human desire. In classic religion you don’t pick an choose based on your whims but instead you learn a way of life.

Classic religion takes the centre away from a personal peak experience and broadens it. Classic religion incorporates the notion that religion and spirituality are communal events lived out through public rituals and human relationships.

Through its doctrines classic religion is capable of expanding a persons reality and freeing them from the shackles of every day experience and the smallness of private life.

So then spirituality is great. You are a much better person when you are spiritual. However the self-centered spiritualites of many modern views is very limiting and selfish. Classic religion offers a much broader view of spirituality that is centred not in self but in God or gods and in community with others.

William James was quite right to look at religious experience through the eyes of psychology but by centering on the individual he has created a spiritality that is very small and selfish. Don’t limit yourself to this kind of spirituality try to find ways of expanding your spirituality not confining it.