Spirituality and Religion

This essay seeks to understand the concept of desecularization and provides three examples of situations where spirituality represents desecularization. The essay also analyzes the Christian response to spiritual revolution and the issue of spiritual direction.

Running head: SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION
Spirituality and Religion
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Introduction
The present contemporary world is based on a number of aspects, one of which is that of
secularity (Kadar et al., 2015). The preponderance of the role of the various religious leaders of
the different existing faiths that was visible in the medieval times, gradually came to diminish in
the modern times. This happened because people became more logical and started to ask
questions which could not be answered by the clergymen of such religious institutions. As a
result, people started to become secular and disillusioned with the concept of religion (Gardner,
2017). However, the present times show the return of the preponderance of religious scriptures
and activities back in the lives of the people. This essay seeks to understand the concept of
desecularization and provides three examples of situations where spirituality represents
desecularization. The essay also analyzes the Christian response to spiritual revolution and the
issue of spiritual direction.
Three phenomena where spirituality represents desecularization
Desecularization refers to the aspect where there is an increase in the level of spirituality
among the people of the society, after an initial phase of spirituality (Weathers, McCarthy &
Coffey, 2016). There is often the idea that desecularization refers to the aspect of increase in
religiosity of the people. However, this is not the case. A strong distinction is made between
spirituality and that of religiosity. People are not religious as they were in the earlier times. They
are placing more emphasis on critical thinking and the factor of reason. In this sense people are
interested in the aspect of inner belief and faith. This is known as spirituality. Spirituality
therefore refers to that state where a person finds inner confidence and peace with the aid of
religion and religious teachings. They do not adhere to them by blind faith, but rather evaluates
the religious lessons in the scriptures in a critical manner and then makes a judgment call. This

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can be understood with the help of several noticeable phenomena occurring within the human
society.
The first phenomena is that of increase in the number of church attendees. It has been
observed within the United States of America that the number of people who attend church has
risen considerably from 1776 to 2000, almost from 17% of the population to around 62%
(Gardner, 2017). This has been made possible since the traditional religious routes have been
replaced by a new form of religiosity. People like to go to churches since there they feel the
closest to God and His wisdom. Individuals are in constant search for happiness and content and
one of the ways to attain this, according to them, is by frequenting places of worship and
religiosity. As a result, this aspect can be termed as a rise in the spiritual nature of people and
their inclination towards religious teachings.
The second example is the existence of orthodox Christianity in Russia. During the
existence of Soviet Union, the people living in the country were largely atheist in nature. They
believed in the reasoning of science and also undertook participation in the persecution of the
religious clergy who were living in Russia. The wave of secularism that occurred in the year
1990 revealed a rapid decline in the religious belief of the people. However, a study conducted in
2007 showed that round 80% of the people in Russia were orthodox Christians (Gardner, 2017).
In this regard, the religious aspect of the people can be seen to be increasing. The people of
Russia in the contemporary time period, are becoming more orthodox in nature while
disregarding the aspect of science and critical thinking in the process.
A third phenomena of desecularization that can be observed is within the context of East
Asia. A study has revealed that the religious inclinations of the people living in this part of the
world has increased considerably in the face of entrance exams (Gardner, 2017). Ethnographic

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survey has revealed that when people go to give exams for civil service or wants to climb the
social hierarchy, offer prays and worships to the Gods during this time. In this scenario, the
eagerness of the people to incline towards religion can be seen to be arising out of hopes of
personal gain.
Christian response to Spiritual Revolution
People were religious to a great extent in since the dawn of human civilization. Their
religious beliefs often coincided with their superstitions and this made them fear the aspect of
God. They lacked the sense of logic which would help them to decipher the needs of God and
therefore had to depend on the teachings of different religious head of various religions (Krahnke
& Hoffman, 2016). The preaching of such spiritual head were taken to be the truth and as a
consequence, the common people could be exploited to a great extent. With the introduction of
the period of Reformation, many changes were brought about, mainly within the context of
religion and its teachings. People started to disregard the authority of the religious heads and
paved the way for the development of their own logical reasoning and intellect. Such changes
mainly occurred within the field of Christianity and in the region of Europe. This is significant as
most of the population in Europe is Christian by religion. This period of secularization, however,
was soon followed by a period of desecularization where the people again began to give
importance to the aspect of religion (Heelas et al., 2005). This is a unique phenomena within the
context of the liberal twenty first century where a lot of emphasis is put on the importance of
critical thinking and questioning the nature of everything. However, the recent period of
desecularization is not similar to as it existed in the past (Krahnke & Hoffman, 2016). A great
change can be observed between the two time periods. Although the issue of religion is back
within the lives of the individuals, a significant change can be observed within this field. A

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distinction has occurred between religion and spirituality (Hodge, 2015). In other words, in the
post secular world, people are no longer interested in the religious scriptures and their doctrines.
Rather, they want to find the power within themselves. This is known as spirituality and a large
increase to the adherence to spirituality can be seen in the world. The aspect of spirituality is
mainly subjective in nature and can only be felt by the concerned individual (Heelas et al., 2005).
The response of Christians to such an idea of spiritual revolution is in the negative sense. They
continue to hold the belief in the existence of God, Jesus Christ, and hence, prefers to adhere by
the religious scriptures as laid down in the Bible.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be observed that there is indeed a rise of religiosity in the modern
contemporary times but this aspect of religiosity is much different from the one experienced
during the medieval times. Nowadays, people believe in the concept of spirituality and seeks to
draw a distinction between religion and spirituality.

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References:
Gardner, F. (2017). Critical spirituality: A holistic approach to contemporary practice.
Routledge.
Heelas, P., Woodhead, L., Seel, B., Tusting, K., & Szerszynski, B. (2005). The spiritual
revolution: Why religion is giving way to spirituality. Blackwell.
Hodge, D. R. (2015). Spirituality and religion among the general public: Implications for social
work discourse. Social work, 60(3), 219-227.
Kadar, J. L., Scott, A. B., Hipp, K., Belavich, T. G., Butfer, E. M., Rye, M. S., ... & Zinnbauer,
B. J. (2015). Religion and spirituality: Unfuzzying the fuzzy. In Sociology of
Religion (pp. 29-34). Routledge.
Krahnke, K., & Hoffman, L. (2016). The rise of religion and spirituality in the workplace:
Employees' rights and employers' accommodations. Journal of Behavioral and Applied
Management, 3(3), 1056.
Weathers, E., McCarthy, G., & Coffey, A. (2016, April). Concept analysis of spirituality: An
evolutionary approach. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 79-96).