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The Differences Between Religion and Spirituality

By Anita Mathias

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Stuart asked me, “Do religion and spirituality mean the same thing?” Here’s my response:
To me, spirituality is our sense of God, of infinity and immensity. Every society we know of has been spiritual in some way. There are no entirely atheistic societies that I know of. Faced with the vastness, beauty and brilliance of creation, and our own smallness, most people instinctively sense a God behind it all.
When I consider the heavens the works of your hand,
The moon and the stars which you have made (Psalm 8)
this sense of wonder is not confined to religious people. The created world tells us much about God, since what may be known about God is plain , because God has made it plain. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, (Romans 1:20).
Wordsworth expresses this pantheistic  areligious spirituality,
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;      
A motion and a spirit, that
rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; 
Spirituality is a kind of DIY religion. Spiritual people can meditate, though the objects of their meditation can vary immensely. They may (or may not) believe in God, but this God is generally fashioned in the image of what their day and age believes a good human being should be.
I once met Iris Murdoch at a garden party at Somerville, when I was a student there. She said she meditated, but did not believe in God. A perfect example of a person being interested in things of the spirit, and even spiritual practices, without any religion at all.
All these can be part of non-religious spiritual experience: prayer, meditation, visions, dreams, revelations, ecstasy. And they can also be part of religious experience, in which case they add depth, joy and sweetness to it.
Religion, (in contrast to spirituality, which can vary in beliefs and experience so much so that one man’s spirituality can be unrecognisable to another) is a revealed set of beliefs, and most religions insist that their set of beliefs is right, and everyone else’s wrong. Mary McCarthy in her memoir, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood writes, “Religion is only good for good people.” The sense of being in on ultimate truth can bring out people’s pride, dogmatism and intolerance, and in that sense religion is far more dangerous than spirituality.
However, while most religions are based on revealed and written truths, spirituality can be a sort of jigsaw, patchwork, guesswork religion, each spiritual person piecing together a pastiche of what he or she believes.
I much prefer religion, well to be honest, the religion I believe in, Christianity. Essentially, because of the beautiful, breathtaking, brilliant figure of Christ.
And to a lesser extent, because of its beautiful, noble theological system, which makes sense to me, and satisfies my moral and aesthetic sense, and as my irritable cravings for logic and for the ineffable to make sense. I love reading the theology expressed in Paul’s writings. Just reading them expands my mind and spirit.
So while spirituality is an apprehension of the sublime and the divine, religion is a detailed description of the grounds of worship.
One can be spiritual without being religious. And people, sadly, have managed to be religious without being spiritual. They have understood the grammar without the poetry of the spiritual life, the letter without the spirit. These can make people arrogant, narrow-minded, dogmatic and judgmental. These people have been a menace to their churches and the societies in which they live, and as far as possible, I intend to steer clear of them!

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Comments

  1. Ever Smith says

    November 21, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    Spirituality is a private matter. Over-zealous physicians might abuse their position and proselytize to their patients.

  2. Anita says

    November 6, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    @Jazzymaz–Thanks much. I get excited when I discover I have a new reader!
    @ Jo, thanks for visiting again. I was introduced to Iris as an aspiring writer. I guess blogging hadn't been dreamed of:)

  3. jo rosenblum says

    November 5, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    I like what you've said,
    I noticed your comment over at Stuarts' and was going to say something.
    Any way, I once met Dame Elizabeth Murdoch,(but that's another story and possibly off track.)
    Thanks for all your hard thinking Anita.

  4. Jazzymaz says

    November 5, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    A wonderful insight shared…and you met Iris Murdoch! I love everything I read on Dreaming Beneath The Spires.
    Thank you!

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Recent Posts

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anita.mathias

Writer, Blogger, Reader, Mum. Christian. Instaing Oxford, travel, gardens and healthy meals. Oxford English alum. Writing memoir. Lives in Oxford, UK

Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford # Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford #walking #tranquility #naturephotography #nature
So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And h So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And here we are at one of the world’s most famous and easily recognisable sites.
#stonehenge #travel #england #prehistoric England #family #druids
And I’ve blogged https://anitamathias.com/2020/09/13/on-not-wasting-a-desert-experience/
So, after Paul the Apostle's lightning bolt encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he went into the desert, he tells us...
And there, he received revelation, visions, and had divine encounters. The same Judean desert, where Jesus fasted for forty days before starting his active ministry. Where Moses encountered God. Where David turned from a shepherd to a leader and a King, and more, a man after God’s own heart.  Where Elijah in the throes of a nervous breakdown hears God in a gentle whisper. 
England, where I live, like most of the world is going through a desert experience of continuing partial lockdowns. Covid-19 spreads through human contact and social life, and so we must refrain from those great pleasures. We are invited to the desert, a harsh place where pruning can occur, and spiritual fruitfulness.
A plague like this has not been known for a hundred years... John Piper, after his cancer diagnosis, exhorted people, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”—since this was the experience God permitted you to have, and He can bring gold from it. Pandemics and plagues are permitted (though not willed or desired) by a Sovereign God, and he can bring life-change out of them. 
Let us not waste this unwanted, unchosen pandemic, this opportunity for silence, solitude and reflection. Let’s not squander on endless Zoom calls—or on the internet, which, if not used wisely, will only raise anxiety levels. Let’s instead accept the invitation to increased silence and reflection
Let's use the extra free time that many of us have long coveted and which has now been given us by Covid-19 restrictions to seek the face of God. To seek revelation. To pray. 
And to work on those projects of our hearts which have been smothered by noise, busyness, and the tumult of people and parties. To nurture the fragile dreams still alive in our hearts. The long-deferred duty or vocation
So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I have totally sunk into the rhythm of it, and have got quiet, very quiet, the quietest spell of time I have had as an adult.
I like it. I will find going back to the sometimes frenetic merry-go-round of my old life rather hard. Well, I doubt I will go back to it. I will prune some activities, and generally live more intentionally and mindfully.
I have started blocking internet of my phone and laptop for longer periods of time, and that has brought a lot of internal quiet and peace.
Some of the things I have enjoyed during lockdown have been my daily long walks, and gardening. Well, and reading and working on a longer piece of work.
Here are some images from my walks.
And if you missed it, a blog about maintaining peace in the middle of the storm of a global pandemic
https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/  #walking #contemplating #beauty #oxford #pandemic
A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine. A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine.  We can maintain a mind of life and peace during this period of lockdown by being mindful of our minds, and regulating them through meditation; being mindful of our bodies and keeping them happy by exercise and yoga; and being mindful of our emotions in this uncertain time, and trusting God who remains in charge. A new blog on maintaining a mind of life and peace during lockdown https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/
In the days when one could still travel, i.e. Janu In the days when one could still travel, i.e. January 2020, which seems like another life, all four of us spent 10 days in Malta. I unplugged, and logged off social media, so here are some belated iphone photos of a day in Valetta.
Today, of course, there’s a lockdown, and the country’s leader is in intensive care.
When the world is too much with us, and the news stresses us, moving one’s body, as in yoga or walking, calms the mind. I am doing some Yoga with Adriene, and again seeing the similarities between the practice of Yoga and the practice of following Christ.
https://anitamathias.com/2020/04/06/on-yoga-and-following-jesus/
#valleta #valletamalta #travel #travelgram #uncagedbird
Images from some recent walks in Oxford. I am copi Images from some recent walks in Oxford.
I am coping with lockdown by really, really enjoying my daily 4 mile walk. By savouring the peace of wild things. By trusting that God will bring good out of this. With a bit of yoga, and weights. And by working a fair amount in my garden. And reading.
How are you doing?
#oxford #oxfordinlockdown #lockdown #walk #lockdownwalks #peace #beauty #happiness #joy #thepeaceofwildthings
Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social d Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social distancing. The first two are my own garden.  And I’ve https://anitamathias.com/2020/03/28/silver-and-gold-linings-in-the-storm-clouds-of-coronavirus/ #corona #socialdistancing #silverlinings #silence #solitude #peace
Trust: A Message of Christmas He came to earth in Trust: A Message of Christmas  He came to earth in a  splash of energy
And gentleness and humility.
That homeless baby in the barn
Would be the lynchpin on which history would ever after turn
Who would have thought it?
But perhaps those attuned to God’s way of surprises would not be surprised.
He was already at the centre of all things, connecting all things. * * *
Augustus Caesar issued a decree which brought him to Bethlehem,
The oppressions of colonialism and conquest brought the Messiah exactly where he was meant to be, the place prophesied eight hundred years before his birth by the Prophet Micah.
And he was already redeeming all things. The shame of unwed motherhood; the powerlessness of poverty.
He was born among animals in a barn, animals enjoying the sweetness of life, animals he created, animals precious to him.
For he created all things, and in him all things hold together
Including stars in the sky, of which a new one heralded his birth
Drawing astronomers to him.
And drawing him to the attention of an angry King
As angelic song drew shepherds to him.
An Emperor, a King, scholars, shepherds, angels, animals, stars, an unwed mother
All things in heaven and earth connected
By a homeless baby
The still point on which the world still turns. The powerful centre. The only true power.
The One who makes connections. * * *
And there is no end to the wisdom, the crystal glints of the Message that birth brings.
To me, today, it says, “Fear not, trust me, I will make a way.” The baby lay gentle in the barn
And God arranges for new stars, angelic song, wise visitors with needed finances for his sustenance in the swiftly-coming exile, shepherds to underline the anointing and reassure his parents. “Trust me in your dilemmas,” the baby still says, “I will make a way. I will show it to you.” Happy Christmas everyone.  https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/24/trust-a-message-of-christmas/ #christmas #gemalderieberlin #trust #godwillmakeaway
Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Gratitude journal, habit tracker, food and exercise journal, bullet journal, with time sheets, goal sheets and a Planner. Everything you’d like to track.  Here’s a post about it with ISBNs https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/23/life-changing-journalling/. Check it out. I hope you and your kids like it!
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