Spiritual vs. Religious
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
14 Mar 2004
What is a religion? Most are simply happy to belong. Some have no idea and less interest. Others are puzzled. A few declare that they are not religious but “spiritual”. What is the difference?
Religion has three major characteristics that set it apart from spirituality. Firstly, it is trans-generational. A religion is not something that was made up or rediscovered recently. It spans the past, present and future, uniting those who live today with the generations of believers who have gone before them, and the generations of believers yet to be born. It offers an explanation of history, a way of understanding life today, and a vision of life after death.
Secondly, religion is always bound up with good conduct. It is not just a consoling myth or a spooky story. It has real consequences for how we choose to live our lives. It helps to give sense to existence by requiring the believer to be mindful of his conduct towards others and by providing a system of right and wrong.
Thirdly, religion gives purpose to life through a relationship with a source of meaning beyond the human world. This does not mean visitors from outer space, but a dimension of existence outside everyday concerns, and inter-twined with it.
These three elements, taken together, are what set religion apart from cults, sects, therapy and ideology. One or two taken by themselves might give you a secular moral code, a political association, or new-age spirituality. But you will only have religion if all three are together.
In his great novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80), the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky observes through one of his characters that “So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship”. Like the instinct for family and the instinct for community, the instinct for religion is inextinguishable. It is at the core of what it means to be human.
The emergence of new-age spiritualities is a reflection of this fundamental aspect of life. It comprises a wide range of beliefs and practices, some of them amusing, some of them worrying, but all of them representing inadequate and imperfect attempts to satisfy the need for faith, often without self-discipline or personal sacrifice.
Often such beliefs are based on secret knowledge available only to people who are particularly “deep”, “intuitive”, or “spiritual”. Sometimes adepts are required to undergo a special “initiation” covertly. This is always a dead end, a wrong turn.
It is the opposite of how things are in a religion like Christianity. It takes its beliefs to the public square in society and argues its case. It appeals not just to the heart or to confusion, but also to reason.
Christianity is a public faith, proposed to help individuals in the world at large, in which everyone is welcome.
