I had a phone message
yesterday where the person calling wanted to know the difference between
religion and spirituality. That’s a very popular question. After eight pages of
links on Google I had still not found one entry that was written by any mainstream
Christian faith organization. I knew what my opinion was on the subject but I
was curious as to what the ‘churches’ had to say on the subject. Considering
how popular this question is…a lot of people are asking and Churches are not
the ones providing the answers. Does anyone besides me have a problem with
that?
Before we explore the
difference between religion and spirituality, we must first define the two
terms.
Religion can
be defined as “belief in God or gods to be worshiped, usually expressed in
conduct and ritual” or “any specific system of belief, worship, etc., often
involving a code of ethics.”
Spirituality
can be defined as “the quality or fact of being spiritual, non-physical” or
“predominantly spiritual character as shown in thought, life, etc.; spiritual
tendency or tone.”
Religion revolves around a
sense of community of believers following the same teachings and beliefs about
their God or gods.
Spirituality in a personal
journey where one endeavors to bring oneself to a higher state of enlightenment
on a spiritual level.
For the sake of answering
the question posed by my caller…if someone is saying they are spiritual but not
religious, they are saying they do not go to church. People following a ‘religion’
can be spiritual but people claiming spiritual statuses only are not religious.
As a lover of words, let
me say this can be a tricky slope of word usage. As a Christian, I am a
spiritual person, we all are. God is spirit, we have the Holy Spirit in us…no
way should we say we are not spiritual people.
It is those choosing not
to follow any sort of established denomination or faith where man has created
rituals which, in some cases, define that faith who say they are spiritual not
religious.
Tomorrow we will look
deeper into this.
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