Knowledge you can walk. Read the idea below, then step up to the general, across to peers or down to the specific.
Spiritual
Spiritual
The root for meaning, purpose, values and the sense of connection to something larger than oneself.
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The idea
Spiritual is the root for meaning, purpose, values and the sense of connection to something larger than oneself. Under it sit religious traditions, personal spirituality, moral philosophy, sacred spaces, and rituals and practices.
These branches answer different questions. Religions offer shared beliefs, stories and communities that last for generations. Moral philosophy asks what is right and how we should treat each other. Sacred spaces and rituals give beliefs a place and a rhythm in daily life. Personal spirituality is each person's own search.
Today the word spirituality often means a personal sense of something sacred, along with the deepest values and meanings by which people live. It may involve belief in a supernatural realm or a search for the most sacred meaning. For others it means personal growth, religious experience, or meeting one's own inner self or spirit. People in every culture ask these questions. The answers shape how they live, celebrate and mourn.
Check yourself
Question 1 of 2
In early Christianity, what did the word spirituality refer to?
Composition
what it's made of
- Meaning and purpose — The search for an ultimate or sacred meaning in life.
- Values — The deepest values and meanings by which people live.
- Sense of the sacred — A personal experience of a sacred dimension of life.
- Religious traditions — The religions whose founders and sacred texts shaped the oldest meaning of the word.
- Inner life — Personal growth and an encounter with one's own inner dimension or spirit.
Connection
how it relates
One of the three roots
Change
how and why it evolves
- Past
- Originally, spirituality meant a religious process of re-formation toward the image of God. Early Christians used it for a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit, and in the Late Middle Ages it widened to take in mental aspects of life.
- Now
- In modern times the word has spread to other religious traditions and now covers a wider range of experiences, often apart from organized religious institutions.
- Next
- Several meanings of spirituality will probably keep existing side by side, as they do now. Scholars are likely to keep debating where spirituality ends and religion begins.