Religion And Spirituality in The West
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Religion And Spirituality in The West
In the current world religion and spirituality has been confused by a lot of people. Most of the people who are religious state that they are spiritual as well. Other people have completely or partially left religion and they claim to be spiritual. This is a challenging concept to grasp and many people try to understand these phenomena from different perspectives. However, taking from the history of religion, it is clear that religion and spirituality go hand in hand. Even though the two are separate they share some aspects and in fact in the history of Christianity and especially in the catholic church like in the Middle Ages it was not possible to state that a person is religious and not spiritual. This paper discusses the viewpoint of different people about the notion of religion and spirituality as well as the reasons as to why the west is withdrawing from religion and fixing themselves onto spirituality.
From time immemorial people have practiced based kind of life and it turns out to be very fulfilling to know and feel that there is a god who knows everything and who created human beings. However, at the same time the methods and ways in which different people worship that god have come into conflict as different groups and sects claim that there is a superior god to another one or they claim that the manner of worshipping which is done by some people is not the right manner and that some others are the ones doing the right thing (Worthington et al ,210). These have been an issue of societal concern for a long time and in the history of religion there has been these challenges. This paper will discuss Christian religion and how there has been a change in terms of worship and he manner in which different sects interpret religion and spirituality.
Before the coming of Jesus as indicated in the holy bible, Judaism was the main religion and it could conquer other lands, assimilate them into Judaism or leave them. However, most of the times it was not easy for assimilation to occur since for a person to becomes a jaw they had to be circumcised. This was a religion and there was almost nothing related to spirituality. According to psychology today spirituality is a personal journey to inner terrain of their soul. This means that if a person has a personal relationship with God that means it is spirituality but not religion. Religion is defined as a set of religious practices which bring people together for worship and other religious practices and a religious has more than just the purpose of worshipping God. Therefore, religion is different from each other even though a person can experience both. When a person experiences spirituality, they tend to firmly believe that they have a direct relationship with God.
Religion on the other hand is a place to belong and have communion with the people of God. It is also a place whereby people exchange ideas about their faith and talk about the importance of having the various religious exercises they usually have. Religious institutions can also be places whereby spirituality is mentored and a person gets to understand themselves better as well as gets to connect with their god.
During the Middle Ages almost every person was worshipping God under one big religious umbrella; the catholic church. However, during the age of enlightenment, it was very difficult to continue with this and most people deflected from the church and began going into the secular world. At this point when the age of enlightened came up and there was a lot of writing, literature, art and science people got away from the church and even though not entirely the church was no longer seen as the central part of every day life. It was also during this period when martin Luther king came up with the 99 thesis and the catholic church was divided into protestants and the catholic church. This was the first instance of spirituality being followed by a group of people. The followers of martin Luther claimed to be more spiritual than Catholics who were just practicing religion and were not spiritual. That trend continued and in the current world, a lot of people are leaving aside religious practices and they are beginning personal journeys with God since they feel that religion to a certain extent hinders their relationship with God.
The issue of spirituality began in Europe and it has found its way to the United States and basically all the west is highly affected by the aspect of religion versus spirituality conflict. In Europe religion fell firs then spirituality came up. This is what happens most of the times in most places as religion falls first then spirituality rises and at times like it is the case in Europe even spirituality begins to die off and a lot of people become atheists or just dormant. Therefore, in the west generally spirituality is more widespread than religion since religion is not taken serios. Some of the reasons as to why spirituality is on the rise and religion is not rising at the same rate is that.
Firstly, some religions are associated with devil worship or idol worship. Most of the protestant pastors and churches categorize the catholic church as a church will worships idols. However, when some members think about it they realize that they should love each other and not judge each other. Therefore, most of the people when they witness some incidences like these, they leave the church and go to search for God on their own since they believe that it is better to find god on their own without staying in a community of people who call themselves believers and they are hypocrites in real sense.
The other reason as to why spirituality is more widespread nowadays is the notion that a group gathering will never make one go to heaven but if a person spends time with their maker, it is possible that the relationship will be intimate and that the maker will show this person the correct thing to do away from the crowd (Worthington et al ,205). Therefore, the influence of crowds plays an important role in determining what is important to the person or not. Some people feel irritated via crowds while others like serenity.
The other reason at to why spirituality is on the rise while religion falls is the fact that Christian denominations and especially the catholic church has some priests who engage in child abuse practices. When a priest and a pastor get engaged into child abuse activity it means that the church where the people go and the religion can never get to impact those people to whom they have been preached to. Therefore, it becomes very difficult for people to trust not just the churches but also the ministers and for some parents to avoid things like these they never take their child to church again.
In conclusion, the many people who are experiencing spirituality within themselves is a sign that God is not a limited being and he loves his people. There is a very high likelihood such that the spirituality will continue to growth in the west while religion keeps diminishing.
Works Cited
Oman, Doug. “Defining religion and spirituality.” Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality 2 (2013): 23-47.
Worthington Jr, E. L., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., & McDaniel, M. A. (2011). Religion and spirituality. Journal of clinical psychology, 67(2), 204-214.
