“But spirituality without religion is also day-old manna, incapable of sustaining our life together in community. We are after all human beings and by our very nature we are beings who require other beings in order to thrive. We are called into community with one another and we bring into our communities our spiritual practices and once we do that we are about the task of being religious.” Taken from the online sermon, ‘Spiritual AND Religious’ by Rev. Dawn Hutchings
When I had finished reading the complete text of this sermon. I felt uneasy, that something was wrong. I agree that spirituality without religion would not sustain anyone’s life within a religious community. And so, yes, a religious community is made up of those who share similar religious views. However that doesn’t give them the right to denigrate the experiences of other people who have differing views, or to slight those with differing experiences as being of lesser value.
There are many other communities out there that are just as life-giving, just as important to our well-being as a religious community. They are not, after all, the only community. Anyone who has been part of a sports team knows it is a community, a community that extends beyond the actual game. If you belong to a political party, it too can become a community. Members and volunteers in many different areas of life, will find community in those activities. Of course, the family is the most basic form of community in our lives.
That is why, when I read later the same day, the phrase '...religions [which are really only structures of understanding]...' it jumped off the page for me. I had never actually thought of the various religions in quite that way, seeing them instead as the ways in which people attempt to give voice to their experiences. of what Paul Tillich called, 'the ground of being'. But spirituality is just that: a personal experience of what we each experience in our own way as the 'ground of being'.
That is why, when I read later the same day, the phrase '...religions [which are really only structures of understanding]...' it jumped off the page for me. I had never actually thought of the various religions in quite that way, seeing them instead as the ways in which people attempt to give voice to their experiences. of what Paul Tillich called, 'the ground of being'. But spirituality is just that: a personal experience of what we each experience in our own way as the 'ground of being'.
So for me that makes all religions secondary to spirituality. Religions are the result of specific experience of spirituality being organized within a structure of doctrines, dogmas, and beliefs. The sermon above put ‘the cart before the horse’. Spirituality didn’t come after religion. Rather it precedes and is the impetus for religions.
According to a study conducted by Pew Research Center in 2012, the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion has increased from 15% in 2007 to 20% in 2012, and this number continues to grow. These are the people, many of whom self-identify themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’. I have to wonder if this is the precursor to a new religion being formed and if so, just what will it look like….
“A new spiritual Order is afoot—one which could include the wisdom inherent in these institutions and religions (which really are only structures of understanding)” Order of the Sacred Earth by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jennifer Listug
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