Q. Why do we need organized religion? Why can’t a person just be spiritual?
A. Before attempting to give an answer to such a fundamental question, we should first make sure we understand what is being asked. What does it mean to be “spiritual but not religious?” And why is it such an attractive option in our contemporary world?
When “spirituality” is understood in opposition to “religion,” (an opposition not found in Catholicism) the difference between the two is usually conceptualized in the following way: “Spirituality” refers to an individual’s interior life, to some personal connection to the divine or the transcendent, to any relationship with God, however idiosyncratically God might be understood. “Religion,” in contrast, refers to identifiable, institutionalized communities of belief or practice to which one belongs and conforms. Religions vary in many ways, but they all have an exterior or communal element, and because of this, there is always some way to identify if someone is “in” or “out.” The person who describes himself or herself as “spiritual but not religious” desires to maintain a meaningful connection to God without an attachment to a specific community or institution of belief or practice.
There are many reasons why such an option appears attractive. In our age which celebrates individuality and exalts personal freedom as the ultimate value, organized religion is often experienced as rigid and oppressive. We do not like being told what to do, and we prefer forming our own convictions rather than submitting to any higher authority. Furthermore, every institutionalized community (including the Catholic Church) is susceptible to the problems of hypocrisy and corruption. Affirming a personal “spirituality” without any religious commitment seems to avoid the serious problems of organized religion without losing some kind of transcendent meaning in life. But at what cost?
For Catholics, there is no opposition between the spiritual and the religious. It sees this opposition as a kind of modern dualism, which divorces the material from the spiritual, the exterior from the interior. In contrast, we believe that God – the God of all creation – made both our body and our soul: Genesis says he formed Adam from the mud (body) and breathed into him the breath of life (soul). These two are intimately connected: what is interior must be expressed in what is exterior, and what is exterior should conform to what is interior. This idea was radically confirmed by the Incarnation, when the Son of God truly became a man, an embodied person who lived in a certain time and place, in a particular social and religious context.
The upshot of this belief is that any connection to God, any authentic “spirituality” must express itself in an embodied form. Connection to God cannot remain individualized or idiosyncratic – if it is a true connection, it should express itself by a lived connection to all others who are authentically connected to God. For this reason, when Jesus came and preached the gospel of spiritual conversion and faith, he did it by gathering a concrete and identifiable community of disciples. He provided an identifiable form of initiation into that community (baptism) and to some of these disciples (the Apostles) he gave authority (meant to be exercised as service). In other words, along with his call to “spiritual” conversion, he created an identifiable “religious” community with concrete structures that, of course, have developed into the Church today. Jesus poured out His Spirit upon his Body, the Church, who is present in the world in an identifiable way.
There is another anthropological reason why religious communities are necessary to guide spirituality properly: when spirituality is divorced from institutionalized wisdom, it is highly susceptible to self-deception. How sure are we that we know, on our own, who God is? Are we certain that our “spirituality” is not superficial, or worse, just hidden narcissistic self-affirmation? Are we really wise and humble enough to see and admit our own ignorance, hypocrisy or corruption? Who will call us to conversion? Seeing sins in others is easy, but the plank in our own eye quickly vanishes from view. Religion provides a place in which spirituality can be grounded and grown. Religions need authentic spirituality to enliven and inspire their institutional structures, but spirituality needs religion to instruct it, challenge it, and connect it to real life.
An example of an ungrounded “spirituality” shows up in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamozov. A holy monk tells a story about a doctor who had a pristine humanitarian “spirituality” which had nothing to do with real love. The doctor says, “The more I love humanity in general the less I love man in particular. In my dreams, I often make plans for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually face crucifixion if it were suddenly necessary. Yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together. I know from experience. As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs me and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours, I begin to hate the best of men: one because he’s too long over his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I hate men individually the more I love humanity.” Organized religion provides a place for our ideals to be exercised and lived out.
By way of conclusion, it might be helpful to apply the same principles to marriage. Imagine a marriage which is “spiritual but not religious” – one in which a person feels some interior connection to another person, perhaps even a refined sense of respect or awe for them, but who refuses to get involved with the messy business of listening patiently, raising a family, forgiving, or working to make a real life together? One would have a beautiful idea, but nothing more. There is no doubt that all religions have a dark side, but without them, we run a real risk of ethereal superficiality and selfishness. A much better solution is to live out religious commitments with a spirituality of conversion, humility and Christ-like love.
This question was answered by Fr. Jim Morin, vice chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln and professor of Theology at St. Gregory the Great Seminary.
Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
