Religion Provides What Spirituality Cannot

Last week’s Pew survey shows that Americans are increasingly becoming more spiritual than religious. In fact, 41% of adults grew more spiritual, compared with 24% who grew more religious over their lifetimes. Gallup’s 2023 data shows that 33% now identify as spiritual but not religious.

Some view the steady decline of religion as a triumph, interpreting it as people connecting to spirituality and God without the rituals, constructs, and perceived corruption of organized religion.

However, this trend is troubling because religion can exist without spirituality, but spirituality lacks a meaningful framework without the structure of religion.

I’m not particularly spiritual, but I observe Shabbat with my family, conduct the Passover seder diligently every year, light the menorah, and pray and socialize at the synagogue. These practices serve as vessels for spirituality and meaning in my life. Spirituality, when isolated, is more flighty and less rational than religion, despite spiritual individuals often viewing themselves as more enlightened.

I lean more towards religion than spirituality, primarily because I’m dubious about  the supernatural, and my skeptical nature makes it hard for me to believe in new-age spiritual concepts like tarot cards, energies, and zodiac signs.

When defining “spiritual,” respondents of the broader Pew study expressed a range of beliefs, from “souls/spirits” and “energy/vibrations” to “the universe,” with many also equating spirituality to a “belief in God” or a higher power.

A higher percentage of those who identify as spiritual but not religious, compared to their religious counterparts, hold beliefs that “spirits or spiritual energies can reside in animals,” “in natural elements like mountains, rivers, or trees,” and even “in objects like crystals, jewels, or stones.”

Although religion contains plenty of irrational superstitions, it firmly anchors itself in texts and traditions that provide a source for interpretation, debate, and even rejection.

Let’s consider the three Abrahamic faiths.

Questioning and debate are deeply rooted in the Jewish Talmud, which is essentially a record of rabbinical debates concerning law, ethics, philosophy, customs, and history.

In Islam, Ijtihad involves a jurist’s independent reasoning or thorough mental exertion in analyzing Sharia, allowing for interpretation, debate, and personal understanding within the structure of religion.

Christianity immerses itself in the tradition of apologetic, using rational arguments and discourse to defend faith. This intellectual tradition, evident from St. Augustine to C.S. Lewis’s writings, demonstrates Christianity’s value of reason and critical thinking in faith.

These traditions should ideally promote questioning and critical thinking, in contrast to the often unchallenged beliefs in spiritual practices like crystal balls, spirit guides, psychics, or energy fields.

Abraham, the founder of monotheistic religions, exemplified critical thinking. Midrashic commentaries portray him as a young iconoclast who rejected superstition and smashed his father’s idols. He observed the heavens and logically concluded that they must have an omniscient creator, thus discovering God.

Spirituality certainly has its benefits in the flexibility and individualism of practices like meditation, which has roots in various traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism. These practices have been successfully adapted in the West for spiritual wellness even outside of religious contexts.

Replacing religion with spirituality can be detrimental as it tries to fulfill a deep-seated need for purpose and meaning without the support of a religious community.

However, replacing religion with spirituality can be detrimental as it tries to fulfill a deep-seated need for purpose and meaning without the support of a religious community.

In fact, research suggests that spirituality may correlate with more health issues. A Cambridge University Press study found that spiritual people were more likely to be “dependent on drugs,” “have abnormal eating attitudes,” “generalized anxiety disorder,” “any phobia,” or “any neurotic disorder,” compared to those who weren’t spiritual or even religious. The study also concluded that “people who have a spiritual understanding of life in the absence of a religious framework are vulnerable to mental disorders.”

Spiritual practices may offer personal freedom and even a direct connection with the divine for some alienated from religion. It’s also understandable why people leave religion. A few things that turn me off include potential distortion of science, clergy abuse, dogma, inexplicable suffering, and othering. These issues can certainly pervade religious institutions and should be relentlessly combated, but they shouldn’t define religion.

Religion offers more than just a vessel for spirituality; it provides a comprehensive, time-tested framework that accommodates doubt and inquiry, making it a robust and meaningful path for those seeking a deeper understanding of the divine and their place in the world.

Eli Federman has written on religion at The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, and others. Follow him on X: @elifederman.