By: Julius-Kei Kato, SSL, PhD
These thoughts are the result of my reading of Dr. David Tacey's The Spirituality Revolution [henceforth, SR]: The Rise of Contemporary Spirituality (2004), as well as my own various reflections, research, and experiences related to this theme. [jkk]
[1] There is an Ongoing "Spirituality Revolution" Today | Many studies and surveys show that there is a high level of interest in—what we can call—"spirituality" today among people from all backgrounds and persuasions, surprisingly even those who are not interested in traditional and organized “religion.” Of course, the term "spirituality” itself is difficult to define in a simple way because there are many ways to understand it. I usually explain spirituality as the quest to live not superficially but more deeply, not egoistically but for something bigger than one’s selfish interests. Hence, spirituality—as I understand it—is a quest for “deeper and bigger”; in fancier terms, it is a quest for “depth and transcendence.” Spirituality (or cultivating your own spirituality) is deeply and fundamentally a human trait (or a human activity). It is the core of all religion (SR, p. 87) but, as is common today, it does not have to be linked with organized religion.
In other words, one can be both spiritual and religious, or one can even be—as the common buzzword today states—“spiritual but not religious.” To share my own self-perception, I describe myself as “spiritual but not-and yet religious” to express both my deep ambiguity toward the dark sides of organized religion yet, at the same time, also my deep recognition of religion’s ongoing importance for myself and many others in today’s world.
Spirituality is not per se an enemy of religious faith. But it will definitely make a believer seek the core and the origin of one’s religious faith. And in that process, the spiritual seeker-believer discovers both the wholesome and the dark sides of religion. This is the reason why “spiritual” people are sometimes viewed as “rebels.” They try to call out and reform the religious traditions to purify themselves and return to their authentic roots.
Australian professor of humanities Dr. David Tacey, who observes trends in spirituality in contemporary society, is convinced that we are actually in the midst of—what he calls—a "spirituality revolution" today. Being myself a professor who teaches religion & spirituality courses to young adults at a liberal arts university, I strongly agree with him. I have experienced firsthand this spiritual thirst among many young people at the university. This seems ironical because a lot of these same young people do not affiliate with institutional forms of religion.
Tacey’s central premise in the abovementioned book (The Spirituality Revolution [SR]) is this: “We are entering a new aeon, governed by a new ethos and a new spirit. The secular period has peaked and is drawing to a close. The dry, arid wasteland of the modern era is being eclipsed by something new, and it is still too early to determine exactly what it is” (SR p. 16, numbers in parentheses refer to pages in Tacey’s book).
[2] A "Post-Secular" Age | Linked with this contemporary heightened interest in spirituality is the fact that we are living at present in--what some call--a "post-secular" age. What that means is, many people (particularly, youth and young adults) have moved beyond a purely secular worldview (one that is fundamentally materialistic and dogmatically scientific but unable to provide people with a deeper meaning for their human existence) into something else that (happily, I think!) is open to and includes spiritual and transcendent realities. In other words, being a dogmatic materialist (“I only believe what I can see and touch”) is no longer cool. Being “spiritual” is actually “in” to such an extent that I have seen a study that says, saying you are “spiritual” makes you more attractive as a date.
Tacey bases his claim of a spiritual revolution mainly from his experience of observing firsthand the spirituality movement "from below,” that is, the spiritual ferment happening among the youth who take his courses at the university setting. In his book, he mentions a famous line from a poem titled "Dover Beach" (by British poet Matthew Arnold) which proclaimed (in 1867!) that the "sea of faith" (referring to some parts of Western Europe at the time) has come to be at a low tide. Going back to our present day, in light of the heightened interest in spirituality today, Tacey disagrees with the line from Dover’s Beach. He actually thinks we are once again at "high tide" about matters of the spirit, hence, his claim of a present-day "spirituality revolution" (SR, p. 21). And I definitely agree with him.
[3] The Spirituality Revolution as Evidenced in the Contemporary Quest for Spirituality | To describe this current spirituality revolution more concretely, let's try to identify its main characteristics. We can observe some important common trends from the experiences of many people today who are seeking and questing for a more meaningful spirituality. These trends seem to form a set of principles and practices that can give a deeper meaning to life in the midst of the many challenges of our contemporary age.
Let me start by enumerating some common themes that—we can say—are characteristic of the common quest for spirituality particularly in the West (and in Westernized contexts) today. These themes all express a quest for—what I often express as—"inner depth & self-transcendence.” However, that quest includes the following prominent features that relate to: the body, the feminine, gender equality, nature & ecology, the desire for a greater wholeness, the struggle for social justice and peace, among others. To organize these various themes more systematically, I'll group them into three big areas that I will label as follows: (1) creation spirituality (SR, p. 84); (2) spirituality as a quest for greater wholeness, depth, and transcendence (SR, pp. 80-91); (3) the struggle to attain greater social justice & peace, especially for the marginalized and oppressed (SR, pp. 66, 147-48).
[4] "Creation Spirituality": Contemporary Spirituality as a Response to the Sacred Embedded in the World | How is contemporary spirituality a kind of "creation spirituality"? We can say that today's common type of spirituality seems like a "natural” expression of religiosity because it is a spontaneous response to the presence of the Sacred in nature, in the environment, in the world, in short, in practically everything (SR, pp. 84; 181-188).
In traditional religious language, nature (and everything in it) was referred to as "creation" because the foundational biblical story in the first chapters of Genesis recounts that everything was created by the Creator-God and recognized by this Being as "very good" (see Genesis 1:31). Hence, creation (the world and everything in it) is something that has originally been and still is originally "blessed" (by God). It is not primarily something that is "fallen" because of human sin, as traditional Christianity has somehow come to emphasize in its conventional teaching.
Recall that in the biblical story "the Fall" only came after the primordial blessing! (Consult theologian Matthew Fox's work for more on this.) Contemporary spirituality seems to affirm strongly that creation (that is, everything in the universe) contains and embodies "the Sacred." In contemporary spirituality, it is considered supremely important to acknowledge this and be more attuned to this sacred presence. This is why I name "creation spirituality" as one of the key features of spirituality today.
[5] The Sacred/The Holy | What, by the way, is "the Sacred" (aka, "the Holy")? For our purposes here, the following would be my description: The Sacred is what we humans recognize to be significant in a special way (to the extent of being awestruck by it or even revering it deeply!) because it is something (be it a person, an event, a scene in nature, an animal, or practically anything!) that gives us profound and powerful experiences of the most moving and life-changing things possible, such as: goodness, truth, beauty (the Platonic “big three”), love, union or communion, depth, transcendence, awe, peace, joy, and the like.
It is important to add that contemporary spirituality's response to the presence of "the Sacred" in nature is also broadly applied to life itself and everything contained in life and existence, so much so that the British philosopher of religion Don Cupitt has even argued that there is in the West today a fundamental shift in people's religiosity from a traditional "religion of God" (a spirituality centered on a divine being) to a "religion of life" which we take here to mean: a spirituality centered on life--here and now!
Now let us go on to describe some other key features of contemporary spirituality.
[6] Rediscovering the Sacred Within Us: Interior Depth | It seems that many secularized people nowadays are instinctively suspicious/untrusting about the ideas on God that traditional religion/Christianity has and continues to teach. Instead, there is a renewed movement among many to go on a fresh search for "God" (or with whatever title the Sacred is named, such as "the Ultimate", "the Universe", "the Force", "the Greater Something", etc.). This is done with the hope that they would discover anew the primordial or original spiritual experience by which "God" (or however one names the Ultimate) was experienced by our ancestors in the past. The good news is that, this "God" or this "Greater Something" could still be experienced by humans today (as spiritual practitioners in every wisdom tradition have claimed). It is not just some distant fairy tale!
Present trends seem to suggest that there is a significant shift in emphasis from considering religion as mainly a moralizing enterprise ("Do not do this" "You should do this") to the recognition that the core of religion is spirituality. Spirituality is also often identified with “mysticism” or contemplation. There seems to be less emphasis upon the God “out there” (the transcendent God) and instead a greater quest to discover the Divine or the Sacred that could be found "within us" or, as mentioned, in creation itself. In fancier terms, this is called the “immanent” character of God.
In short, this is a subtle shift in emphasis from the dominant idea of God-as-transcendent ("out there") to the Divine-as-immanent (the God who is within us, in our hearts, in the world). Many contemporary people long to find God in a new place, and one of the most convincing places of all will be our human hearts (and this world). Meister Eckhart wrote in the fourteenth century that when God disappears from culture, we have to learn to give birth to God in the soul (SR p. 193; see also pp. 82-84).
This calls to mind some prophetic words of the 20th century Catholic theologian Karl Rahner who said that the Christian of the future will either be a mystic or not (a Christian) at all.
[7] A Holistic Spirituality | Tacey observes that “our experience of spirit today appears to break doctrinal rules in its holistic rather than perfectionistic strivings; in its quest for human authenticity, body-mind integration, psychological health, ecological integrity and sexual wholeness” (SR, p.128). This encapsulates another strong trait of contemporary spirituality: the quest for a holistic state of being or, simply put, the drive to be “whole.”
This might be understood also as a move away from the dichotomy of a more traditional spirituality in the West that emphasized "the soul" and its importance and that tended to look down upon the body, which was viewed as somehow evil/impure. Today, there is a renewed quest to integrate body and soul into a whole.
[8] Transcendence | Although we named immanence is a salient trait of contemporary spirituality above, Tacey also reminds us that spirituality is necessarily linked with “transcendence.” I express that more simply as “becoming bigger” (than one’s small self). It is not only something within our hearts. “The spirit does not exist for our own edification and enjoyment, on the contrary spirituality has traditionally emphasized that we exist to glorify and serve a transcendent reality beyond ourselves” (SR, p. 141).
Indeed, the spirit depends for its being upon something greater than ourselves, which overpowers us and, as it were, takes away our control of our lives. It addresses the “Sacred Other” and obliges us to follow its will, a command that can potentially "destroy" the present order of our lives. “Genuine spiritual awakening is always followed by a centrifugal movement away from the self towards the world and the transcendent” (SR, p. 148).
[9] “Pan-en-theism”: a combination of creation theology and contemplation | In a sense, we can distinguish between the God of old-style, supernaturalist religion and the God of contemporary spirituality. Thus, Tacey can say, “Let us agree that the old image of God is dead and buried. The conventional image of God as a supernatural deity who has an objective existence is a human invention, that education and science can no longer sustain…. We need to discover God anew” (SR, p. 156).
In another place, he underlines that the new (idea of) God is everywhere and, in all things or, to be more precise, ‘all things are in God’ (expressed by "pan-en-theism"). While pantheism reduces God to the shape and size of material things, panentheism allows for the transcendental dimension by recognizing that God is greater than things, while also present in them. Spirituality today is not tortured by questions about the existence of God, or about proofs for God’s existence, as traditional theology and metaphysics so often are. Spirituality does not ask for proofs, because the proof is in the experience itself (SR, p. 164).
[10] Social Justice and Peace | (SR, pp. 65-67; 147-148) (To be) "Woke" has become a contemporary buzzword. Of course, it is not completely new. Its root concept expressed by the word "awakening" has been an ancient and perennial theme in various world religions. It is for example the key notion and start of the spiritual path in Buddhism.
To be awakened about issues concerning oppression, discrimination, marginalization, and the like, and to follow that up by joining in the struggle against these dark shadows in our present world in order to achieve a greater social justice and peace for more people, are clearly key and essential features of the sprituality of many people today. As already mentioned above, it is commonsense nowadays that working to better the ecological environment is also an essential ingredient for true peace in the world.
We can therefore very rightly identify today's spirituality as deeply "engaged" with the many issues that face our societies and the world at large. Whatever effort is made to go deeper into one's spiritual core is rightly linked with the effort to achieve a better world. In short, the internal is connected with the external work for peace and justice. As Tacey puts it succinctly, "social responsibility is a sacred imperative!" (SR, p. 147)
****
[11] Points of Divergence with Traditional Western Religion (i.e. Christianity) | Given the abovementioned characteristics of contemporary spirituality, we have to say that there are significant points in it that clash with traditional religion. Recall, in the West, “traditional religion” is tantamount to traditional Christianity. To give a glaring example, while many contemporary seekers are generally looking for a mystical (or spiritual) experience and in effect have embraced a creation-centered theology with its emphasis on original blessing and the innate goodness of humans and of creation, traditional religion in the West, on the other hand, still holds on firmly to a dominant paradigm called "fall-redemption" theology. That kind of thinking emphasizes a supposed human “fall from grace” (original sin) into the state of sin by which all kinds of evil have entered the world. (This thinking is based on an interpretation of the Adam and Eve story in the first chapters of Genesis.)
I am well aware that this traditional thinking has its urgent lessons to teach humanity. However, that should be integrated into current trends in spirituality so that that important traditional teaching concerning humanity’s dark sides does not remain a morbid proclamation that would be immediately rejected by many.
Other traditional emphases of Western religion that are not so much in sync with contemporary spirituality are: a critical separation of soul/spirit from the body and from the material dimension, negative attitudes toward sexuality, and a suspicion of nature as the arena of paganism and the devil, among other things. Because of these points of divergence, many contemporary spiritual seekers find it hard to grasp the worldview of traditional Christianity which seems to be unhealthily other-worldly and dualistic to them. (SR, p. 84)
[12] Why Many People Don’t Understand and Appreciate the Core Proclamation of Traditional Christianity Today | To elaborate further on that last point, because many contemporary spiritual seekers see the world as essentially good and creation as fundamentally graced, they do not often recognize the fundamental message proclaimed by traditional Christianity: namely, there is an urgent need to be saved from sin and evil by a savior (Jesus, the Christ), who grapples with evil and triumphs over it through his life, teaching, death and resurrection (SR, p. 84).
Given these serious points of divergence between traditional religion and the most cherished values of contemporary spiritual seekers, Tacey emphasizes the inevitability and legitimacy of the present “spirituality revolution” for those seeking an alternative path to the sacred. He echoes another observer of contemporary spirituality, Sandra Schneiders, who incisively comments, “Religion is in trouble, spirituality is in the ascendancy [and everywhere we hear] justification among those who have traded the religion of their past for the spirituality of their present” (106).
[13] Concluding Reflections: Importance of the Current Spirituality Revolution and Its Need for Some Structure | In sum, the abovementioned points are my main takeaways from reading David Tacey's The Spirituality Revolution. I have liberally included my own reflections on what I have experienced firsthand from teaching spirituality to young adults for the past 15+ years and also from a lot of research. I am convinced that this current movement which Tacey calls “a spirituality revolution” happening in our midst is one of the most significant movements in our contemporary world. We who are involved in the study, teaching, and practice of spiritual-wisdom-religious traditions should pay very close attention to it and do whatever we can in order to "ride this wave" well, meet this demand in some way, and contribute to making spiritual-wisdom traditions a greater force for good in today's world.
I am furthermore convinced that one significant aid that traditional spiritual-wisdom traditions can offer to contemporary spiritual seekers is suggesting and providing a viable structure to frame the general heightened interest in spirituality. The various world spiritual-wisdom traditions can be considered masters in the realm of creating structure for spirituality. In contrast, many contemporary forms of spiritual seeking are done in a framework that lacks structure. Many spiritual quests are, therefore, in danger of fizzling out quickly because of that. The simple truth is, in order for an activity to continue over time, we cannot neglect the need for some "structure.” Today's search for a more meaningful spirituality can definitely take some important hints from traditional spiritual-wisdom traditions (the world religions) in that regard.
Moreover, the world's spiritual-wisdom traditions are
also immensely rich in spiritual practices that will definitely enhance
spirituality. This is another key contribution that they could offer to the
contemporary spiritual revolution. For more on that see my blogpost on psychologist-spiritual
practitioner Roger Walsh’s “The Seven Essential Spiritual Practices” at the link below.
Noteworthy Resources:
David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality (New York: Routledge, 2004).
---
Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Julius-Kei Kato, Reading the Bible in a Secular Age: The New Testament as Spiritual Ancestry (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023).
Linda A. Mercadante, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual But Not Religious (Oxford University Press, 2014).
Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists reveal why people are DONE with church but not their faith (Group Publishing, Inc., 2015).
Josh Packard, Exodus of the Religious Dones: Research Reveals the Size, Makeup, and Motivations of the Formerly Churched Population (Group Publishing, Inc., 2015).
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, Religion, Spirituality and Secularity Among Millennials: The Generation Shaping American and Canadian Trends (Taylor & Francis, 2022).
---
No comments:
Post a Comment