Spirituality and Religion

What’s the difference between spirituality and religion?

One of the most common distinctions I find people want to make is the difference between religion and spirituality. But there are so many definitions of spirituality, so many different inner experiences. Some people define themselves as spiritual and not religious, and vice versa. If you see spirituality as internally motivated and empowering, and religion as oppressive and structured, it might be easy to automatically denigrate religion, valorizing inner experience in favor of a stagnated structure that tells you what to do. However, creating structure in community can also be important and rich and valuable. It can hold you accountable when you don’t feel like doing your spiritual practice or being moral.

That’s just me, but here are some possible ways of understanding the difference between spirituality and religion, from different perspectives on spirituality and religion.

• Spirituality is internal and internally motivated. Religion comes from the outside.
• Being religious simply means you follow some religion. But being spiritual really means you are walking with the true God.
• Spirituality is unimportant – it’s just a feeling. Religion is adherence to what God expects from us.
• No one can give you spirituality – it’s a submission to whatever you think is greater than yourself. Plenty of people can claim to give you religions though.
• The difference between religion and spirituality is like the difference between food and nutrients. Religion is food for the soul and spirituality is the nutrients inside. The true value of food is measured by the quantity and quality of nutrients it contains.
• Religion is the manifestation of spirituality. It is how we convert our spiritual beliefs to something more tangible. We embody spirituality in religion.

Are you spiritual? Religious? Depends on the definition. The next time you feel triggered by someone elses's religion or spirituality, are about to enter into a debate with someone, or even judge someone else, take a breath and try to understand the definitions you each are using.

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