Christian Spirituality: The Shift from Religion to Spirituality

This essay discusses the shift from religion to spirituality in Christian Church. It covers the practices in spiritual direction, desert fathers, and discipleship. The essay concludes that Christian spirituality has become a more common factor than religion.

Running head: CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Christian Church
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The purpose of this essay is to produce the idea that religious ideas are giving way to
spirituality. The cultural shifts have been noted in the society as individualism is getting into
more promising aspects indeed (Heelas et al., 2005). The religious thinking process and their
motivations are depended on spirituality rather than observing religious rituals because many
corruptions have come in the different ideologies like egotism, dogmatism and many others.
There has been a relevant decrease in the domains of religious congregations.
The practices in the religious direction are indeed very much crucial for people to analyze
the thinking process of human beings. The religious issues have been somewhat faded in the
contemporary Christian spirituality (Barry & Connolly, 2009). In the modern world, the use of
the term ‘spirituality’ has become very much common. The origins of contemporary Christian
spirituality lie in the Christian and Jewish scriptures of old times. The practice of spirituality is
not only limited to several spiritual elements like meditation. The values of life have to be
achieved to get a new meaning of life. The several spiritual traditions in spirituality had evolved
at different points of time (Barry & Connolly, 2009). These elements of spirituality have been
adopted at different times and different cultures because religions have constrained human
beings in terms of their behavior. These spiritual practices have always helped human beings for
their growth in proper ways. In the book, it has been discussed that several scholars have been
able to identify different types of Christian spirituality that would be quite helpful for
understanding of human attributes and their complexities in real life situations (Barry &
Connolly, 2009). People are becoming more spiritual than religious as they do not want to be
bound by religious conservativeness at different levels.
. The role of the desert fathers in assessing spirituality gaining more momentum than
religion is the main talking point of this section. It has been recorded that early age Christian

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Fathers lived in the desert lands of Middle Eastern region of the world. This place is now
recognized as Arabian Peninsula. This has been recorded in the end of second century AD. These
people were known as Desert fathers (Chryssavgis, 2008). The sources have found that these
Desert fathers left everything so they could find peace and solace to find the true meaning of
Gospels in their minds. This could only be done discovering the true meaning of Gospels. They
began the trend of Christian spirituality in the eastern part of the world. They began the
Hesychast movement that went on to be a relevant thing to awaken Christian spirituality. They
focused on discovering the inner self of human beings and meditation was one of their most
profound ways (Chryssavgis, 2008). Their wisdom led human beings to discover what they
actually want from their lives. This could not be achieved only through religious practices and
rituals. It was quite important for individuals to live by ideals that these desert fathers taught.
They spread the messages of peace and love and taught individuals to eradicate the negative
thoughts from their minds completely. They gave many recommendations and suggestions on
how individuals could get over sickness of souls. Thus spiritual knowledge became much
important than religious importance in this context.
The third factor deals with the connection between discipleship and spirituality.
Spirituality has a big role to play in motivating human beings for the best ideas and not getting
bound by religious protectiveness only (Walton, 2012). The sole intention of Christian religion is
to focus more on Jesus Christ and His messages of a healed world. In this scenario, the idea of
discipleship can be discussed. The purpose of discipleship is to continuously focus Jesus Christ
and His benevolence by giving all heart, soul and mind. Discipleship is the way of life by which
individuals can attain a sense of celestial feeling in different terms. Just abiding by different
forms of Christian rituals can be done only for sake of psychological satisfaction that a Christian

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person has not anything bad. On the other hand, spirituality is something that cannot be found
only by observing religious rituals (Walton, 2012). It is a divine feeling that needs psychological
awakening. This is why only discipleship is an evident reason as to why religion is giving way to
spirituality. In discipleship, no corruption can be committed in terms of attaining spirituality.
On a concluding note, it can be stated that Christian spirituality has become a more
common factor than religion. The three crucial things like practices in spiritual direction, desert
fathers and discipleship have been discussed in this scenario. Therefore, it is very much apparent
and evident that religion is giving way to spirituality.

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Reference List
Barry, W., & Connolly, W. (2009). The practice of spiritual direction (2nd ed.). New York:
HarperOne.
Chryssavgis, J. (2008). In the heart of the desert: The spirituality of the desert fathers and
mothers. World Wisdom, Inc.
Heelas, P., Woodhead, L., Seel, B., Tusting, K., & Szerszynski, B. (2005). The spiritual
revolution: Why religion is giving way to spirituality. Blackwell.
Walton, R. (2012). The Reflective Disciple. Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd.