We’re into a quarter of vulnerability and openness for the book club as we shortlisted the theme of “Spirituality” for the next few months. Exploring a topic that can be deeply personal could be tricky but we felt like we had built enough trust amongst the group to start understanding how spirituality looks across a diverse set of members, as well as to explore how it’s evolved over time and in modern societies. In this session, we distinguished between faith, spirituality and religion for each of us and contemplated what a lack of shared definitions could effect.

Before we dive into the reflections, here are the resources we used:

• Faith, Spirituality, and Religion: A Model for Understanding the Differences – Leanne Lewis Newman
• Defining Atheism, Theism and God – Bruce Milem
• Can Spirituality Exist Without God? A Growing Number Of Americans Say Yes – WBUR
• The Spirituality Questionnaire: Core Dimensions of Spirituality – Hardt et. al.
• How to Navigate a Midlife Change of Faith – The Atlantic
• History of Ideas: Religion – The School of Life

Varying Definitions

I liked Newman’s framework of the relationship between Faith, Spirituality and Religion as that of Knowing, Being and Doing.

In my own journey, I recall growing up very much in the “Doing” space of things without a deep and validated “Knowing” of my own faith. You could chalk it up to a lack of life experiences or a decently sheltered upbringing but I did not really understand why I was doing what I was doing in church and in family life. The shaky foundation ultimately led me to leave the church, but perhaps it was a necessary pre-condition for me to then desire to know my faith once again, but on terms that were more appropriate. Faith is therefore the way we order the world, not just in the way science does to explain things, but even for the inexplicable.

Spirituality for me then becomes the identity we adopt and embody as we know and practice our faith. This involves taking quiet moments of prayer to lean on God, or even in the way we approach problems by accepting that God’s will be done. It is the “being” of our faith. Religion and religiosity acts a muscle builder and institutional structure for us to manifest our faith, to act and do so as to reinforce our knowledge and being. The danger therefore is religion without clearly understood faith and spirituality becomes a dangerous machine for corrupt agendas.

The above are my definitions, and they are mapped onto Newman’s framework because I felt a lot resonance with it. Interestingly, other members of the group had unique definitions of the three terms. Some identified spirituality to constitute of “connectedness to people and the world”, others identified religion to constitute “working out”, as a means to get in touch with one’s somatic self. Meditation, mental breaks, music all featured in some way or another across the key terms and I was intrigued by how the need for some sense of re-centering and connection to the universe underpinned a lot of these definitions. We were in new territory where diversity was on full display and it was simultaneously beautiful and overwhelming.

The Lack of a Shared Definition

The last 50 years or so has seen a massive opening up of attitudes towards different forms of faith and spirituality. Religion has been facing a downward trend of subscription for a while now, with some exceptions in pockets of the world (e.g. increasing Islamic religiosity in Arab states). Most people I chat with find individual conceptions of faith and spirituality to be sufficient.

There is an open question then on whether societies need some level of broad consensus on what faith entails. One can look at historical empires and civilizations that were drawn together because of their shared faith (or perhaps, religion) and therefore had a stronger sense of shared identity. Even in multi-religious Singapore, we’ve been able to “manage” the diversity by identifying the key religions and providing them a voice and platform.

How does this stand up against decreasing religiosity but increasing individual conceptions of faith and spirituality? This is a question we left open for ourselves to explore and ponder throughout the rest of the quarter, but if you have an idea or perspective, do share it in the comments! It’s always useful to learn together.