Without going into detail about her understandings of religious and spiritual (you may want to attend one of her conferences, if you can) share with us five thoughts ideas or practices that you consider to be "religious." Then share with us five thoughts, ideas, or practices that you consider to be "spiritual."
For example one thought about religion might be that it is "salvation" Or an idea about religion might be that it it is an "institution" and a religious practice might be "going to church." An example of spiritual thought might be a phrase from a poem, a spiritual idea might be the inspiration for a piece of art and a spiritual practice might be meditation.
So, five thoughts, ideas, or practices that are religious....and then five thoughts, ideas or practices that are spiritual. OR are they the same thing to you?
I certainly think of these concepts as being intertwined if not exactly the same. Maybe the best statement of my thinking is that religion is an expression of spirituality. So for example I read the holy scriptures of the Christian tradition as a part of my spiritual development. So for me it's not so much compare and contrast as identifying the broader spiritual domain within which my religious practices fit. I have focused on practice - as I cannot begin to work out where the dividing line is for thoughts and ideas.
| Religion | Spirituality |
| ‘Going without’ in Lent | Exercising discipline |
| Liturgical practice | Articulating faith |
| | Entering into tradition |
| Receiving sacraments | Participating in community |
| Contributing to mission | Engaging in social justice |
I must admit this was one week where I wanted to see what others had written before I ventured to put finger to keyboard myself. Glad I didn't though. Now I'll post and go see where this interesting task took other revgal readers.
Afterthought: Interesting that I haven't listed prayer anywhere. Just an observation. I think it is also part of participating in community.
5 comments:
Prayer would fall into one of many categories of either religious or spiritual....depending on how/where one places the "practices" of one's faith...is one's practice more religious or is it spiritual? And, for me, more interesting of all, the original understanding of religious is our current understanding of spiritual - an experience of awe...SOOOO...how can religion become what it is traditionally meant to be?
Very interesting...were they meant as "up against" each other? I wasn't sure about prayer either...depending on what kind it might be one or the other or both/and!
I like "how religious is my spirituality and how spiritual is my religion?" It gives a way to let the two entertwined instead of the separated.
I am interested that you have put entering into tradition under spirituality, my gut reactio would have been the other way around, but I think you are right they are so intertwined we cannot really seperate them!
Religion, to me, is the action of spirituality on the physical/temporal plane. Spirituality is the relationship with God.
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