The Gift of Spirituality

“If you have seen God face-to-face 

Your circumstances will never arouse any panic in you.” 

- author unknown 

Page 2 of 174

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Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential 

Since its founding in 2003, The Advocacy Foundation has become recognized as an effective 

provider of support to those who receive our services, having real impact within the communities 

we serve. We are currently engaged in community and faith-based collaborative initiatives, 

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framework developed and implemented by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency 

Prevention (OJJDP). 

The stated objectives are: 

1. Community Mobilization; 

2. Social Intervention; 

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5. Suppression [of illegal activities]. 

Moreover, it is our most fundamental belief that in order to be effective, prevention and 

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Dedication 

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Every publication in our many series’ is dedicated to everyone, absolutely everyone, who by 

virtue of their calling and by Divine inspiration, direction and guidance, is on the battlefield dayafter-day 

striving to follow God’s will and purpose for their lives. And this is with particular affinity 

for those Spiritual warriors who are being transformed into excellence through daily academic, 

professional, familial, and other challenges. 

We pray that you will bear in mind: 

Matthew 19:26 (NIV) 

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, 

but with God all things are possible." (Emphasis added) 

To all of us who daily look past our circumstances, and naysayers, to what the Lord says we will 

accomplish: 

Blessings!! 

- The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 



The Transformative Justice Project 

Eradicating Juvenile Delinquency Requires a Multi-Disciplinary Approach 

The way we accomplish all this is a follows: 

The Juvenile Justice system is incredibly overloaded, and 

Solutions-Based programs are woefully underfunded. Our 

precious children, therefore, particularly young people of 

color, often get the “swift” version of justice whenever they 

come into contact with the law. 

Decisions to build prison facilities are often based on 

elementary school test results, and our country incarcerates 

more of its young than any other nation on earth. So we at 

The Foundation labor to pull our young people out of the 

“school to prison” pipeline, and we then coordinate the efforts 

of the legal, psychological, governmental and educational 

professionals needed to bring an end to delinquency. 

We also educate families, police, local businesses, elected 

officials, clergy, and schools and other stakeholders about 

transforming whole communities, and we labor to change 

their thinking about the causes of delinquency with the goal 

of helping them embrace the idea of restoration for the young 

people in our care who demonstrate repentance for their 

mistakes. 

1. We vigorously advocate for charges reductions, wherever possible, in the adjudicatory (court) 

process, with the ultimate goal of expungement or pardon, in order to maximize the chances for 

our clients to graduate high school and progress into college, military service or the workforce 

without the stigma of a criminal record; 

2. We then enroll each young person into an Evidence-Based, Data-Driven Restorative Justice 

program designed to facilitate their rehabilitation and subsequent reintegration back into the 

community; 

3. While those projects are operating, we conduct a wide variety of ComeUnity-ReEngineering 

seminars and workshops on topics ranging from Juvenile Justice to Parental Rights, to Domestic 

issues to Police friendly contacts, to CBO and FBO accountability and compliance; 

4. Throughout the process, we encourage and maintain frequent personal contact between all 

parties; 

5 Throughout the process we conduct a continuum of events and fundraisers designed to facilitate 

collaboration among professionals and community stakeholders; and finally 


6. 1 We disseminate Quarterly publications, like our e-Advocate series Newsletter and our e-Advocate 

Quarterly electronic Magazine to all regular donors in order to facilitate a lifelong learning process 

on the ever-evolving developments in the Justice system. 

And in addition to the help we provide for our young clients and their families, we also facilitate 

Community Engagement through the Restorative Justice process, thereby balancing the interesrs 

of local businesses, schools, clergy, elected officials, police, and all interested stakeholders. Through 

these efforts, relationships are rebuilt & strengthened, local businesses and communities are enhanced & 

protected from victimization, young careers are developed, and our precious young people are kept out 

of the prison pipeline. 

This is a massive undertaking, and we need all the help and financial support you can give! We plan to 

help 75 young persons per quarter-year (aggregating to a total of 250 per year) in each jurisdiction we 

serve) at an average cost of under $2,500 per client, per year.* 

Thank you in advance for your support! 

* FYI: 

1. The national average cost to taxpayers for minimum-security youth incarceration, is around 

$43,000.00 per child, per year. 

2. The average annual cost to taxpayers for maximun-security youth incarceration is well over 

$148,000.00 per child, per year. 

- (US News and World Report, December 9, 2014); 

3. In every jurisdiction in the nation, the Plea Bargain rate is above 99%. 

The Judicial system engages in a tri-partite balancing task in every single one of these matters, seeking 

to balance Rehabilitative Justice with Community Protection and Judicial Economy, and, although 

the practitioners work very hard to achieve positive outcomes, the scales are nowhere near balanced 

where people of color are involved. 

We must reverse this trend, which is right now working very much against the best interests of our young. 

Our young people do not belong behind bars. 

- Jack Johnson 

1 

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The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 

Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential 

…a collection of works on 

The Gift of 

Spirituality 

“If you have seen God face-to-face 

Your circumstances will never arouse any panic in you.” 

Atlanta 

Philadelphia 

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John C Johnson III 

Founder & CEO 

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Biblical Authority 

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NASB 

John 3:5-8 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and 

the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is 

flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 

'You must be born again.' 

Ephesians 3:17-19 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, 

being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what 

is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which 

surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 

1 Timothy 4:15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your 

progress will be evident to all. 

Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in 

Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your 

faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. 

Hebrews 6:1-2 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press 

on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith 

toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection 

of the dead and eternal judgment. 

John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he 

bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 

James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its 

perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

Philippians 3:10-14 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the 

fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to 

the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already 

become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid 

hold of by Christ Jesus. 


Galatians 5:16-17 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the 

flesh. 17 For the flesh [a] sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these 

are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you [b] please. 18 But if you 

are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which 

are: [c] immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of 

anger, disputes, dissensions, [d] factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like 

these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such 

things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there 

is no law. 

Romans 8:14-16 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have 

received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit 

Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, 

you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more 

precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to 

result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 


Table of Contents 

…a compilation of works on 

The Gift of Spirituality 

Biblical Authority 

I. Spirituality………………………………………………….. 15 

II. Religion…………………………………………………….. 31 

III. The Relationship Between Religion and Science……... 59 

IV. Faith and Rationality………………………………………. 91 

V. Christian Apologetics……………………………………… 97 

VI. Anthroposophy…………………………………………….. 107 

VII. 

Ecospirituality…………….…………………………………129 

VIII. References……………………………………………….... 139 

______ 

Attachments 

A. An Introduction to Spiritual Development 

B. The Impact of Spirituality on Mental Health 

C. Transformative Learning Theory and Spirituality 

D. The Place of Spirituality in Organizational Theory 

Copyright © 2018 The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 



I. Spirituality 

Traditionally, Spirituality refers to a 

religious process of re-formation which 

"aims to recover the original shape of 

man," oriented at "the image of God" as 

exemplified by the founders and sacred 

texts of the religions of the world. 

In modern times the emphasis is on 

subjective experience of a sacred 

dimension and the 

"deepest values and 

meanings by which 

people live," often in 

a context separate 

from organized 

religious institutions. 

Modern systems of 

spirituality may 

include a belief in a 

supernatural (beyond 

the known and 

observable) realm, 

personal growth, a 

quest for an ultimate or sacred meaning, 

religious experience, or an encounter 

with one's own "inner dimension." 

The meaning of spirituality has 

developed and expanded over time, and 

various connotations can be found 

alongside each other. The term 

"spirituality" originally developed within 

early Christianity, referring to a life 

oriented toward the Holy Spirit. 

During late medieval times the meaning 

broadened to include mental aspects of 

life, while in modern times the term both 

spread to other religious traditions and 

broadened to refer to a wider range of 

experience, including a range of esoteric 

traditions. 

Etymology 

The term spirit means "animating or vital 

principle in man and animals". It is 

derived from the Old French espirit, 

which comes from the Latin word 

spiritus (soul, courage, vigor, breath) 

and is related to spirare (to breathe). In 

the Vulgate the Latin word spiritus is 

used to translate the 

Greek pneuma and 

Hebrew ruah. 

The term "spiritual", 

matters "concerning 

the spirit", is derived 

from Old French 

spirituel (12c.), which 

is derived from Latin 

spiritualis, which 

comes from spiritus 

or "spirit". 

The term "spirituality" is derived from 

Middle French spiritualité, from Late 

Latin "spiritualitatem" (nominative 

spiritualitas), which is also derived from 

Latin spiritualis. 

Definition 

There is no single, widely agreed upon 

definition of spirituality. Surveys of the 

definition of the term, as used in 

scholarly research, show a broad range 

of definitions ranging from unidimensional 

definitions such as a 

personal belief in a supernatural realm 

to broader concepts such as a quest for 

an ultimate/sacred meaning, 

transcending the base/material aspects 

of life, and/or a sense of 

awe/wonderment and reverence toward 


the universe. A survey of reviews by 

McCarroll e.a. dealing with the topic of 

spirituality gave twenty-seven explicit 

definitions, among which "there was little 

agreement." This causes some difficulty 

in trying to study spirituality 

systematically; i.e., it impedes both 

understanding and the capacity to 

communicate findings in a meaningful 

fashion. Indeed, many of spirituality's 

core features are not unique to 

spirituality alone; for example German 

philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (a 

famous atheist) regarded selftranscendence, 

asceticism and the 

recognition of one's connection to all as 

a key to ethical living. 

According to Kees Waaijman, the 

traditional meaning of spirituality is a 

process of re-formation which "aims to 

recover the original shape of man, the 

image of God. To accomplish this, the 

re-formation is oriented at a mold, which 

represents the original shape: in 

Judaism the Torah, in Christianity there 

is Christ, for Buddhism, Buddha, and in 

Islam, Muhammad." In modern times the 

emphasis is on subjective experience [1] 

and the "deepest values and meanings 

by which people live," incorporating 

personal growth or transformation, 

usually in a context separate from 

organized religious institutions. 

Houtman and Aupers suggest that 

modern spirituality is a blend of 

humanistic psychology, mystical and 

esoteric traditions and Eastern religions. 

Spirituality is sometimes associated with 

philosophical, social, or political 

movements such as liberalism, feminist 

theology, and green politics. Some 

argue (though far from universally 

accepted—see those who espouse 

secular humanism) that spirituality is 

intimately linked to resolving mental 

health issues, managing substance 

abuse, marital functioning, parenting, 

and coping. 

Development of The Meaning 

of Spirituality 

Classical, Medieval 

and Early Modern Periods 

Words translatable as 'spirituality' first 

began to arise in the 5th century and 

only entered common use toward the 

end of the Middle Ages. In a Biblical 

context the term means being animated 

by God, to be driven by the Holy Spirit, 

as opposed to a life which rejects this 

influence. 

In the 11th century this meaning 

changed. Spirituality began to denote 

the mental aspect of life, as opposed to 

the material and sensual aspects of life, 

"the ecclesiastical sphere of light against 

the dark world of matter". In the 13th 

century "spirituality" acquired a social 

and psychological meaning. Socially it 

denoted the territory of the clergy: "The 

ecclesiastical against the temporary 

possessions, the ecclesiastical against 

the secular authority, the clerical class 

against the secular class" 

Psychologically, it denoted the realm of 

the inner life: "The purity of motives, 

affections, intentions, inner dispositions, 

the psychology of the spiritual life, the 

analysis of the feelings". 

In the 17th and 18th century a 

distinction was made between higher 

and lower forms of spirituality: "A 

spiritual man is one who is Christian 

'more abundantly and deeper than 

others'." The word was also associated 


with mysticism and quietism, and 

acquired a negative meaning. 

Modern Spirituality 

Modern notions of spirituality developed 

throughout the 19th and 20th century, 

mixing Christian ideas with westen 

esoteric traditions and elements of 

Asian, especially Indian, religions. 

Spirituality became increasingly 

approach of religion. Following 

Schleiermacher, an individual's intuition 

of truth was taken as the criterion for 

truth. In the late 18th and early 19th 

century, the first translations of Hindu 

texts appeared, which were also read by 

the Transcendentalists, and influenced 

their thinking. They also endorsed 

universalist and Unitarianist ideas, 

leading to Unitarian Universalism, the 

idea that there must be truth in other 

disconnected from traditional religious 

organizations and institutions. 

Transcendentalism and Unitarian 

Universalism 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) 

was a pioneer of the idea of spirituality 

as a distinct field. He was one of the 

major figures in Transcendentalism, an 

early 19th-century liberal Protestant 

movement, which was rooted in English 

and German Romanticism, the Biblical 

criticism of Johann Gottfried Herder and 

Friedrich Schleiermacher, the 

skepticism of Hume, and Neo- 

Platonism. The Transcendentalists 

emphasised an intuitive, experiential 

religions as well, since a loving God 

would redeem all living beings, not just 

Christians. 

Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and The 

Perennial Philosophy 

A major influence on modern spirituality 

was the Theosophical Society, which 

searched for 'secret teachings' in Asian 

religions. It has been influential on 

modernist streams in several Asian 

religions, notably Neo-Vedanta, the 

revival of Theravada Buddhism, and 

Buddhist modernism, which have taken 

over modern western notions of 

personal experience and universalism 

and integrated them in their religious 


concepts. A second, related influence 

was Anthroposophy, whose founder, 

Rudolf Steiner, was particularly 

interested in developing a genuine 

Western spirituality, and in the ways that 

such a spirituality could transform 

practical institutions such as education, 

agriculture, and medicine. 

The influence of Asian traditions on 

western modern spirituality was also 

furthered by the Perennial Philosophy, 

whose main proponent Aldous Huxley 

was deeply influenced by Swami 

Vivekananda's Neo-Vedanta and 

Universalism, and the spread of social 

welfare, education and mass travel after 

World War Two. 

Neo-Vedanta 

An important influence on western 

spirituality was Neo-Vedanta, also called 

neo-Hinduism and Hindu Universalism, 

a modern interpretation of Hinduism 

which developed in response to western 

colonialism and orientalism. It aims to 

present Hinduism as a "homogenized 

ideal of Hinduism" with Advaita Vedanta 

as its central doctrine. Due to the 

colonisation of Asia by the western 

world, since the 19th century an 

exchange of ideas has been taking 

place between the western world and 

Asia, which also influenced western 

religiosity. Unitarianism, and the idea of 

Universalism, was brought to India by 

missionaries, and had a major influence 

on neo-Hinduism via Ram Mohan Roy's 

Brahmo Samaj and Brahmoism. Roy 

attempted to modernise and reform 

Hinduism, from the idea of Universalism. 

This universalism was further 

popularised, and brought back to the 

west as neo-Vedanta, by Swami 

Vivekananda. 

"Spiritual But Not Religious" 

After the Second World War, spirituality 

and theistic religion became increasingly 

disconnected, and spirituality became 

more oriented on subjective experience, 

instead of "attempts to place the self 

within a broader ontological context." A 

new discourse developed, in which 

(humanistic) psychology, mystical and 

esoteric traditions and eastern religions 

are being blended, to reach the true self 

by self-disclosure, free expression and 

meditation. 

The distinction between the spiritual and 

the religious became more common in 

the popular mind during the late 20th 

century with the rise of secularism and 

the advent of the New Age movement. 

Authors such as Chris Griscom and 

Shirley MacLaine explored it in 

numerous ways in their books. Paul 

Heelas noted the development within 

New Age circles of what he called 

"seminar spirituality": structured 

offerings complementing consumer 

choice with spiritual options. 

Among other factors, declining 

membership of organized religions and 

the growth of secularism in the western 

world have given rise to this broader 

view of spirituality. Even the secular are 

finding use for spiritual beliefs. In his 

books, Michael Mamas makes the case 

for integrating Eastern spiritual 

knowledge with Western rational 

thought. 

The term "spiritual" is now frequently 

used in contexts in which the term 

"religious" was formerly employed. Both 

theists and atheists have criticized this 

development. 


Traditional Spirituality 

Abrahamic Faiths 

Judaism 

Rabbinic Judaism (or in some Christian 

traditions, Rabbinism) (Hebrew: 

"Yahadut Rabanit" - יהדות ‏(רבנית has 

been the mainstream form of Judaism 

since the 6th century CE, after the 

codification of the Talmud. It is 

characterised by the belief 

that the Written Torah 

("Law" or "Instruction") 

cannot be correctly 

interpreted without 

reference to the Oral 

Torah and by the 

voluminous literature 

specifying what 

behavior 

is 

sanctioned by the law 

(called halakha, "the 

way"). 

Judaism knows a variety of 

religious observances: ethical rules, 

prayers, religious clothing, holidays, 

shabbat, pilgrimages, Torah reading, 

dietary laws. 

Kabbalah (literally "receiving"), is an 

esoteric method, discipline and school 

of thought of Judaism. Its definition 

varies according to the tradition and 

aims of those following it, from its 

religious origin as an integral part of 

Judaism, to its later Christian, New Age, 

or Occultist syncretic adaptations. 

Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings 

meant to explain the relationship 

between an unchanging, eternal and 

mysterious Ein Sof (no end) and the 

mortal and finite universe (his creation). 

While it is heavily used by some 

denominations, it is not a religious 

denomination in itself. Inside Judaism, it 

forms the foundations of mystical 

religious interpretation. Outside 

Judaism, its scriptures are read outside 

the traditional canons of organised 

religion. Kabbalah seeks to define the 

nature of the universe and the human 

being, the nature and purpose of 

existence, and various other ontological 

questions. It also presents methods to 

aid understanding of these concepts 

and to thereby attain spiritual 

realisation. 

Hasidic Judaism, 

meaning "piety" (or 

"loving kindness"), is 

a branch of Orthodox 

Judaism that 

promotes spirituality 

through 

the 

popularisation and 

internalisation of 

Jewish mysticism as the 

fundamental aspect of the 

faith. It was founded in 18thcentury 

Eastern Europe by Rabbi 

Israel Baal Shem Tov as a reaction 

against overly legalistic Judaism. His 

example began the characteristic 

veneration of leadership in Hasidism as 

embodiments and intercessors of 

Divinity for the followers. Opposite to 

this, Hasidic teachings cherished the 

sincerity and concealed holiness of the 

unlettered common folk, and their 

equality with the scholarly elite. The 

emphasis on the Immanent Divine 

presence in everything gave new value 

to prayer and deeds of kindness, 

alongside Rabbinic supremacy of study, 

and replaced historical mystical 

(kabbalistic) and ethical (musar) 

asceticism and admonishment with 

optimism, encouragement, and daily 


fervour. This populist emotional revival 

accompanied the elite ideal of 

nullification to paradoxical Divine 

Panentheism, through intellectual 

articulation of inner dimensions of 

mystical thought. 

Christianity 

Catholic spirituality is the spiritual 

practice of living out a personal act of 

faith (fides qua creditur) following the 

acceptance of faith (fides quae creditur). 

Although all Catholics are expected to 

pray together at Mass, there are many 

different forms of spirituality and private 

prayer which have developed over the 

centuries. Each of the major religious 

orders of the Catholic Church and other 

lay groupings have their own unique 

spirituality - its own way of approaching 

God in prayer and in living out the 

Gospel. 

Christian mysticism refers to the 

development of mystical practices and 

theory within Christianity. It has often 

been connected to mystical theology, 

especially in the Catholic and Eastern 

Orthodox traditions. The attributes and 

means by which Christian mysticism is 

studied and practiced are varied and 

range from ecstatic visions of the soul's 

mystical union with God to simple 

prayerful contemplation of Holy 

Scripture (i.e., Lectio Divina). 

Progressive Christianity is a 

contemporary movement which seeks to 

remove the supernatural claims of the 

faith and replace them with a postcritical 

understanding of biblical 

spirituality based on historical and 

scientific research. It focuses on the 

lived experience of spirituality over 

historical dogmatic claims, and accepts 

that the faith is both true and a human 

construction, and that spiritual 

experiences are psychologically and 

neurally real and useful. 

Islam 

Five Pillars 

The Pillars of Islam (arkan al-Islam; also 

arkan ad-din, "pillars of religion") are five 

basic acts in Islam, considered 

obligatory for all believers. The Quran 

presents them as a framework for 

worship and a sign of commitment to the 

faith. They are (1) the shahadah (creed), 

(2) daily prayers (salat), (3) almsgiving 

(zakah), (4) fasting during Ramadan and 

(5) the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at 

least once in a lifetime. The Shia and 

Sunni sects both agree on the essential 

details for the performance of these 

acts. 

Sufism 

The best known form of Islamic mystic 

spirituality is the Sufi tradition (famous 

through Rumi and Hafiz) in which a 

spiritual master or pir transmits spiritual 

discipline to students. 

Sufism or taṣawwuf (Arabic: ف ‏(تصوّ‏ is 

defined by its adherents as the inner, 

mystical dimension of Islam. A 

practitioner of this tradition is generally 

known as a ṣūfī ( ‏.(صُوفِي Sufis believe 

they are practicing ihsan (perfection of 

worship) as revealed by Gabriel to 

Muhammad, 

Worship and serve Allah as you are 

seeing Him and while you see Him not 

yet truly He sees you. 


Sufis consider themselves as the 

original true proponents of this pure 

original form of Islam. They are strong 

adherents to the principal of tolerance, 

peace and against any form of violence. 

The Sufi have suffered severe 

persecution by more rigid and 

fundamentalist groups such as the 

Wahhabi and Salafi movement. In 1843 

the Senussi Sufi were forced to flee 

Mecca and Medina and head to Sudan 

and Libya. 

Classical Sufi scholars have defined 

Sufism as "a science whose objective is 

the reparation of the heart and turning it 

away from all else but God". 

Alternatively, in the words 

of the Darqawi Sufi 

teacher Ahmad ibn 

Ajiba, "a science through 

which one can know how to 

travel into the presence of the Divine, 

purify one's inner self from filth, and 

beautify it with a variety of 

praiseworthy traits". 

Jihad 

Jihad is a religious duty of Muslims. In 

Arabic, the word jihād translates as a 

noun meaning "struggle". There are two 

commonly accepted meanings of jihad: 

an inner spiritual struggle and an outer 

physical struggle. The "greater jihad" is 

the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill 

his religious duties. This non-violent 

meaning is stressed by both Muslim and 

non-Muslim authors. 

Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, an 11th-century 

Islamic scholar, referenced a statement 

by the companion of Muhammad, Jabir 

ibn Abd-Allah: 

The Prophet ... returned from one of his 

battles, and thereupon told us, 'You 

have arrived with an excellent arrival, 

you have come from the Lesser Jihad to 

the Greater Jihad—the striving of a 

servant (of Allah) against his desires 

(holy war)." 

Asian Traditions 

Buddhism 

Buddhist practices are known as 

Bhavana, which literally means 

"development" or "cultivating" or 

"producing" in the sense of "calling 

into existence." It is an important 

concept in Buddhist praxis 

(Patipatti). The word 

bhavana normally 

appears in conjunction 

with another word forming a 

compound phrase such as cittabhavana 

(the development or 

cultivation of the heart/mind) or mettabhavana 

(the development/cultivation of 

lovingkindness). When used on its own 

bhavana signifies 'spiritual cultivation' 

generally. 

Various Buddhist Paths to liberation 

developed throughout the ages. Bestknown 

is the Noble Eightfold Path, but 

others include the Bodhisattva Path and 

Lamrim. 

Hinduism 

Hinduism has no traditional 

ecclesiastical order, no centralized 

religious authorities, no governing body, 

no prophet(s) nor any binding holy book; 

Hindus can choose to be polytheistic, 

pantheistic, monistic, or atheistic. Within 

this diffuse and open structure, 

spirituality in Hindu philosophy is an 


individual experience, and referred to as 

ksaitrajña (Sanskrit: क्षैत्रज्ञ). It defines 

spiritual practice as one's journey 

towards moksha, awareness of self, the 

discovery of higher truths, true nature of 

reality, and a consciousness that is 

liberated and content. 

Four Paths 

Traditionally, Hinduism identifies three 

mārga (ways) of spiritual practice, 

namely Jñāna, the way of knowledge; 

Bhakti, the way of devotion; and Karma 

yoga, the way of selfless action. In the 

19th century Vivekananda, in his neo- 

Vedanta synthesis of Hinduism, added 

Rāja yoga, the way of contemplation 

and meditation, as a fourth way, calling 

all of them "yoga." 

Jñāna marga is a path often assisted by 

a guru (teacher) in one's spiritual 

practice. Bhakti marga is a path of faith 

and devotion to deity or deities; the 

spiritual practice often includes 

chanting, singing and music - such as in 

kirtans - in front of idols, or images of 

one or more deity, or a devotional 

symbol of the holy. Karma marga is the 

path of one's work, where diligent 

practical work or vartta (Sanskrit: वार्त् ा, 

profession) becomes in itself a spiritual 

practice, and work in daily life is 

perfected as a form of spiritual liberation 

and not for its material rewards. Rāja 

marga is the path of cultivating 

necessary virtues, self-discipline, tapas 

(meditation), contemplation and selfreflection 

sometimes with isolation and 

renunciation of the world, to a pinnacle 

state called samādhi. This state of 

samādhi has been compared to peak 

experience. 

There is a rigorous debate in Indian 

literature on relative merits of these 

theoretical spiritual practices. For 

example, Chandogyopanishad suggests 

that those who engage in ritualistic 

offerings to gods and priests will fail in 

their spiritual practice, while those who 

engage in tapas will succeed; 

Svetasvataropanishad suggests that a 

successful spiritual practice requires a 

longing for truth, but warns of becoming 

'false ascetic' who go through the 

mechanics of spiritual practice without 

meditating on the nature of Self and 

universal Truths. In the practice of 

Hinduism, suggest modern era scholars 

such as Vivekananda, the choice 

between the paths is up to the individual 

and a person's proclivities. Other 

scholars suggest that these Hindu 

spiritual practices are not mutually 

exclusive, but overlapping. These four 

paths of spirituality are also known in 

Hinduism outside India, such as in 

Balinese Hinduism, where it is called 

Catur Marga (literally: four paths). 

Schools and Spirituality 

Different schools of Hinduism 

encourage different spiritual practices. 

In Tantric school for example, the 

spiritual practice has been referred to as 

sādhanā. It involves initiation into the 

school, undergoing rituals, and 

achieving moksha liberation by 

experiencing union of cosmic polarities. 

The Hare Krishna school emphasizes 

bhakti yoga as spiritual practice. In 

Advaita Vedanta school, the spiritual 

practice emphasizes jñāna yoga in 

stages: samnyasa (cultivate virtues), 

sravana (hear, study), manana (reflect) 

and dhyana (nididhyasana, 

contemplate). 


Sikhism 

Sikhism considers spiritual life and 

secular life to be intertwined: "In the 

Sikh Weltanschauung...the temporal 

world is part of the Infinite Reality and 

partakes of its characteristics." Guru 

Nanak described living an "active, 

creative, and practical life" of 

"truthfulness, fidelity, self-control and 

developed into the concept of the Saint 

Soldier by the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind 

Singh. 

According to Guru Nanak, the goal is to 

attain the "attendant balance of 

separation-fusion, self-other, actioninaction, 

attachment-detachment, in the 

course of daily life", the polar opposite to 

a self-centered existence. 

purity" as being higher than a purely 

contemplative life. 

The 6th Sikh Guru Guru Hargobind reaffirmed 

that the political/temporal (Miri) 

and spiritual (Piri) realms are mutually 

coexistent. 

According to the 9th Sikh Guru, Tegh 

Bahadhur, the ideal Sikh should have 

both Shakti (power that resides in the 

temporal), and Bhakti (spiritual 

meditative qualities). This was 

Nanak talks further about the one God 

or Akal (timelessness) that permeates 

all life). and which must be seen with 

'the inward eye', or the 'heart', of a 

human being. 

In Sikhism there is no dogma, priests, 

monastics or yogis. 


African Spirituality 

In some African contexts, spirituality is 

considered a belief system that guides 

the welfare of society and the people 

therein, and eradicates sources of 

unhappiness occasioned by evil. 

Contemporary Spirituality 

The term "spiritual" is now frequently 

used in contexts in which the term 

"religious" was formerly employed. 

Contemporary spirituality is also called 

"post-traditional spirituality" and "New 

Age spirituality". Hanegraaf makes a 

distinction between two "New Age" 

movements: New Age in a restricted 

sense, which originated primarily in midtwentieth 

century England and had its 

roots in Theosophy and Anthroposophy, 

and "New Age" in a general sense, 

which emerged in the later 1970s when 

increasing numbers of people ... began 

to perceive a broad similarity between a 

wide variety of "alternative ideas" and 

pursuits, and started to think of them as 

part of one "movement"". 

Those who speak of spirituality outside 

of religion often define themselves as 

spiritual but not religious and generally 

believe in the existence of different 

"spiritual paths," emphasizing the 

importance of finding one's own 

individual path to spirituality. According 

to one 2005 poll, about 24% of the 

United States population identifies itself 

as spiritual but not religious. 

Characteristics 

Modern spirituality is centered on the 

"deepest values and meanings by which 

people live." It embraces the idea of an 

ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality. 

It envisions an inner path enabling a 

person to discover the essence of 

his/her being. 

Not all modern notions of spirituality 

embrace transcendental ideas. Secular 

spirituality emphasizes humanistic ideas 

on moral character (qualities such as 

love, compassion, patience, tolerance, 

forgiveness, contentment, responsibility, 

harmony, and a concern for others). 

These are aspects of life and human 

experience which go beyond a purely 

materialist view of the world without 

necessarily accepting belief in a 

supernatural reality or divine being. 

Nevertheless, many humanists (e.g. 

Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre) who 

clearly value the non-material, 

communal and virtuous aspects of life 

reject this usage of the term spirituality 

as being overly-broad (i.e. it effectively 

amounts to saying "everything and 

anything that is good and virtuous is 

necessarily spiritual"). In 1930 Russell, a 

renowned atheist, wrote "... one's ego is 

no very large part of the world. The man 

[sic.] who can center his thoughts and 

hopes upon something transcending self 

can find a certain peace in the ordinary 

troubles of life which is impossible to the 

pure egoist." Similarly, Aristotle—one of 

the first known Western thinkers to 

demonstrate that morality, virtue and 

goodness can be derived without 

appealing to supernatural forces—even 

argued that "men create Gods in their 

own image" (not the other way around). 

Moreover, theistic and atheistic critics 

alike dismiss the need for the "secular 

spirituality" label on the basis that 

appears to be nothing more than 

obscurantism in that i) the term "spirit" is 

commonly taken as denoting the 

existence of unseen / otherworldly / lifegiving 

forces and ii) words such as 


morality, philanthropy and humanism 

already efficiently and succinctly 

describe the prosocial-orientation and 

civility that the phrase secular spirituality 

is meant to convey but without risk of 

potential confusion that one is referring 

to something supernatural. 

Although personal well-being, both 

physical and psychological, is said to be 

an important aspect of modern 

assert that spirituality causes a wide 

array of positive health outcomes, 

including "morale, happiness, and life 

satisfaction.". However, Schuurmans- 

Stekhoven (2013) actively attempted to 

replicate this research and found more 

"mixed" results. Nevertheless, spirituality 

has played a central role in some selfhelp 

movements such as Alcoholics 

Anonymous: 

spirituality, this does not imply 

spirituality is essential to achieving 

happiness (e.g. see). Free-thinkers who 

reject notions that the numinous/nonmaterial 

is important to living well can be 

just as happy as more spirituallyoriented 

individuals (see) 

Contemporary spirituality theorists 

assert that spirituality develops inner 

peace and forms a foundation for 

happiness. For example, meditation and 

similar practices are suggested to help 

the practitioner cultivate her/his inner life 

and character. Ellison and Fan (2008) 

if an alcoholic failed to perfect 

and enlarge his spiritual life 

through work and self-sacrifice 

for others, he could not survive 

the certain trials and low spots 

ahead 

Yet such spiritually-informed treatment 

approaches have been challenged as 

pseudoscience, are far from uniformly 

curative and may for non-believers 

cause harm. 

Spiritual Experience 

"Spiritual experience" plays a central 

role in modern spirituality. This notion 


has been popularised by both western 

and Asian authors. Important early 20th 

century western writers who studied the 

phenomenon of spirituality, and their 

works, include William James, The 

Varieties of Religious Experience 

(1902), and Rudolph Otto, especially 

The Idea of the Holy (1917). James' 

notions of "spiritual experience" had a 

further influence on the modernist 

streams in Asian traditions, making 

them even further recognisable for a 

western audience. 

William James popularized the use of 

the term "religious experience" in his 

The Varieties of Religious Experience. It 

has also influenced the understanding of 

mysticism as a distinctive experience 

which supplies knowledge. 

Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the 

notion of "religious experience" further 

back to the German theologian Friedrich 

Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who 

argued that religion is based on a 

feeling of the infinite. The notion of 

"religious experience" was used by 

Schleiermacher to defend religion 

against the growing scientific and 

secular critique. It was adopted by many 

scholars of religion, of which William 

James was the most influential. 

Major Asian influences were 

Vivekananda and D.T. Suzuki. Swami 

Vivekananda popularised a modern 

syncretitistic Hinduism, in which the 

authority of the scriptures was replaced 

by an emphasis on personal experience. 

D.T. Suzuki had a major influence on 

the popularisation of Zen in the west 

and popularized the idea of 

enlightenment as insight into a timeless, 

transcendent reality. Another example 

can be seen in Paul Brunton's A Search 

in Secret India, which introduced 

Ramana Maharshi and Meher Baba to a 

western audience. 

Spiritual experiences can include being 

connected to a larger reality, yielding a 

more comprehensive self; joining with 

other individuals or the human 

community; with nature or the cosmos; 

or with the divine realm. 

Spiritual Practices 

Waaijman discerns four forms of 

spiritual practices: 

1. Somatic practices, especially 

deprivation and diminishment. 

Deprivation aims to purify the 

body. Diminishment concerns the 

repulsement of ego-oriented 

impulses. Examples include 

fasting and poverty. 

2. Psychological practices, for 

example meditation. 

3. Social practices. Examples 

include the practice of obedience 

and communal ownership, 

reforming ego-orientedness into 

other-orientedness. 

4. Spiritual. All practices aim at 

purifying ego-centeredness, and 

direct the abilities at the divine 

reality. 

Spiritual practices may include 

meditation, mindfulness, prayer, the 

contemplation of sacred texts, ethical 

development, and spiritual retreats in a 

convent. Love and/or compassion are 

often described as the mainstay of 

spiritual development. 


Within spirituality is also found "a 

common emphasis on the value of 

thoughtfulness, tolerance for breadth 

and practices and beliefs, and 

appreciation for the insights of other 

religious communities, as well as other 

sources of authority within the social 

sciences." 

historically originated with "thinkers with 

a social or political axe to grind" rather 

than with the natural philosophers 

themselves. Though physical and 

biological scientists today see no need 

for supernatural explanations to 

describe reality, some scientists 

continue to regard science and 

spirituality as complementary, not 

Science 

Relation to Science 

Since the scientific revolution of the 

18th-century Enlightenment, the 

relationship of science to religion and to 

spirituality has developed in complex 

ways. Historian John Hedley Brooke 

describes wide variations: 

The natural sciences have been 

invested with religious meaning, with 

antireligious implications and, in many 

contexts, with no religious significance 

at all." 

Brooke has proposed that the currently 

held popular notion of antagonisms 

between science and religion has 

contradictory, and are willing to debate, 

rather than simply classifying spirituality 

and science as non-overlapping 

magisteria. 

A few religious leaders have shown 

openness to modern science and its 

methods. The 14th Dalai Lama, for 

example, has proposed that if a 

scientific analysis conclusively showed 

certain claims in Buddhism to be false, 

then the claims must be abandoned and 

the findings of science accepted. 

Holism 

During the twentieth century the 

relationship between science and 

spirituality has been influenced both by 

Freudian psychology, which has 


accentuated the boundaries between 

the two areas by accentuating 

individualism and secularism, and by 

developments in particle physics, which 

reopened the debate about 

complementarity between scientific and 

religious discourse and rekindled for 

many an interest in holistic conceptions 

of reality. These holistic conceptions 

were championed by New Age 

spiritualists in a type of quantum 

mysticism that they claim justifies their 

spiritual beliefs, though quantum 

physicists themselves on the whole 

reject such attempts as being 

pseudoscientific. 

Scientific Research 

Health and Well-Being 

Various studies (most originating from 

North America) have reported a positive 

correlation between spirituality and 

mental well-being in both healthy people 

and those encountering a range of 

physical illnesses or psychological 

disorders. Although spiritual individuals 

tend to be optimistic, report greater 

social support, and experience higher 

intrinsic meaning in life, strength, and 

inner peace., whether the correlation 

represents a causal link remains 

contentious. Both supporters and 

opponents of this claim agree that past 

statistical findings are difficult to 

interpret, in large part because of the 

ongoing disagreement over how 

spirituality should be defined and 

measured. There is also evidence that 

an agreeable / positive temperament 

and/or a tendency toward sociability 

(which all correlate with spirituality) 

might actually be the key psychological 

features that predispose people to 

subsequently adopt a spiritual 

orientation and that these 

characteristics, not spiritually per se, 

add to well-being. There is also some 

suggestion that the benefits associated 

with spirituality and religiosity might 

arise from being a member of a closeknit 

community. Social bonds available 

via secular sources (i.e., not unique to 

spirituality or faith-based groups) might 

just as effectively raise well-being. In 

sum, spirituality may not be the "active 

ingredient" (i.e. past association with 

psychological well-being measures 

might reflect a reverse causation or 

effects from other variables that 

correlate with spirituality), and that the 

effects of agreeableness, 

conscientiousness, or virtue— 

personality traits common in many nonspiritual 

people yet known to be slightly 

more common among the spiritual— 

may better account for spirituality's 

apparent correlation with mental health 

and social support. 

Intercessionary Prayer 

Masters and Spielmans conducted a 

meta-analysis of all the available and 

reputable research examining the 

effects of distant intercessory prayer. 

They found no discernible health effects 

from being prayed for by others. 

Spiritual Care in Health Care 

Professions 

In the health-care professions there is 

growing interest in "spiritual care", to 

complement the medical-technical 

approaches and to improve the 

outcomes of medical treatments. 

Puchalski et al. argue for 

"compassionate systems of care" in a 

spiritual context. 


Spiritual Experiences 

Neuroscientists have examined brain 

functioning during reported spiritual 

experiences finding that certain 

neurotransmitters and specific areas of 

the brain are involved. Moreover, 

experimenters have also successfully 

induced spiritual experiences in 

individuals by administering 

psychoactive agents known to elicit 

euphoria and perceptual distortions. 

Conversely, religiosity and spirituality 

can also be dampened by 

electromagnetic stimulation of the brain. 

These results have motivated some 

leading theorists to speculate that 

spirituality may be a benign subtype of 

psychosis. Benign in the sense that the 

same aberrant sensory perceptions that 

those suffering clinical psychoses 

evaluate as distressingly in-congruent 

and inexplicable are instead interpreted 

by spiritual individuals as positive—as 

personal and meaningful transcendent 

experiences. 



II. Religion 

Religion may be defined as a cultural system of designated behaviors and 

practices, world views, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that 

claims to relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements. 

However, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion. 

Different religions may or 

may not contain various 

elements ranging from 

the divine, sacred 

things, faith, a 

supernatural being or 

supernatural beings or 

"some sort of ultimacy 

and transcendence that 

will provide norms and 

power for the rest of 

life". Religious practices 

may 

include rituals, sermons, 

commemoration or veneration 

(of deities), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary 

services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or 

other aspects of human culture. Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which 

may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to 

give a meaning to life. 

Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are sometimes said by followers to be 

true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life, the universe, and other 

things. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source 

of religious beliefs. 

There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, but about 84% of the world's 

population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, 

namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. The religiously 

unaffiliated demographic includes those who do not identify with any particular 

religion, atheists and agnostics. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, 

many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs. 

The study of religion encompasses a wide variety of academic disciplines, 

including theology, comparative religion and social scientific studies. Theories of 

religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion. 


Concept and Etymology 

Religion (from O.Fr. religion religious community, from L. religionem (nom. religio) 

"respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods", "obligation, the bond between man 

and the gods") is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are 

obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i.e. re (again) 

with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The definition of 

religio by Cicero is cultum deorum, "the proper performance of rites in veneration of the 

gods." Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation 

from ligare bind, connect, probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or to 

reconnect, which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation 

given by Lactantius in Divinae institutiones, IV, 28. The medieval usage alternates 

with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders: "we hear of 

the 'religion' of the Golden Fleece, of a knight 'of the religion of Avys'". 

In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as 

an individual virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice, or actual source of 

knowledge. Furthermore, religio referred to broad social obligations to family, neighbors, 

rulers, and even towards God. When religio came into English around the 1200s as 

religion, it took the meaning of "life bound by monastic vows". The compartmentalized 

concept of religion, where religious things were separated from worldly things, was not 

used before the 1500s. The concept of religion was first used in the 1500s to distinguish 

the domain of the church and the domain of civil authorities. 

The concept of religion was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries, despite the fact that 

ancient sacred texts like the Bible, the Quran, and others did not have a word or even a 

concept of religion in the original languages and neither did the people or the cultures in 

which these sacred texts were written. For example, there is no precise equivalent of 

religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, 

racial, or ethnic identities. One of its central concepts is halakha, meaning the walk or 

path sometimes translated as law, which guides religious practice and belief and many 

aspects of daily life. The Greek word threskeia, which was used by Greek writers such 

as Herodotus and Josephus, is found in the New Testament. Threskeia is sometimes 

translated as religion in today's translations, however, the term was understood as 

worship well into the medieval period. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often 

translated as religion in modern translations, but up to the mid-1600s translators 

expressed din as law. Even in the 1st century CE, Josephus had used the Greek 

term ioudaismos, which some translate as Judaism today, even though he used it as an 

ethnic term, not one linked to modern abstract concepts of religion as a set of 

beliefs. The Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, also means law. 

Throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such 

as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan 

at first had a similar union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these 

later became independent sources of power. 


The modern concept of religion, as an abstraction that entails distinct sets of beliefs or 

doctrines, is a recent invention in the English language since such usage began with 

texts from the 17th century due to the splitting of Christendom during the Protestant 

Reformation and globalization in the age of exploration which involved contact with 

numerous foreign cultures with non-European languages. Some argue that regardless 

of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply the term religion to non-Western 

cultures. Others argue that using religion on non-western cultures distorts what people 

do and believe. 

It was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, 

and World Religions first emerged. No one self-identified as a Hindu or Buddhist or 

other similar identities before the 1800s. Throughout its long history, Japan had no 

concept of religion since there was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything 

close to its meaning, but when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 

1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other 

things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. 

According to the philologist Max Müller in the 19th century, the root of the English word 

religion, the Latin religio, was originally used to mean only reverence for God or the 

gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety (which Cicero further derived to mean 

diligence). Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including 

Egypt, Persia, and India, as having a similar power structure at this point in history. 

What is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. 

Definition 

Scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. There are however two general 

definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical. 


Modern Western 

Religion is a modern Western concept. Parallel concepts are not found in many current 

and past cultures; there is no equivalent term for religion in many languages. Scholars 

have found it difficult to develop a consistent definition, with some giving up on the 

possibility of a definition. Others argue that regardless of its definition, it is not 

appropriate to apply it to non-Western cultures. 

An increasing number of scholars have expressed reservations about ever defining the 

essence of religion. They observe that the way we use the concept today is a 

particularly modern construct that would not have been understood through much of 

history and in many cultures outside the West (or even in the West until after the Peace 

of Westphalia). The MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions states: 

The very attempt to define religion, to find some distinctive or possibly unique essence 

or set of qualities that distinguish the religious from the remainder of human life, is 

primarily a Western concern. The attempt is a natural consequence of the Western 

speculative, intellectualistic, and scientific disposition. It is also the product of the 

dominant Western religious mode, what is called the Judeo-Christian climate or, more 

accurately, the theistic inheritance from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The theistic 

form of belief in this tradition, even when downgraded culturally, is formative of the 

dichotomous Western view of religion. That is, the basic structure of theism is 

essentially a distinction between a transcendent deity and all else, between the creator 

and his creation, between God and man. 

The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as a system of symbols which acts to 

establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by 

formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions 

with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." 

Alluding perhaps to Tylor's "deeper motive", Geertz remarked that we have very little 

idea of how, in empirical terms, this particular miracle is accomplished. We just know 

that it is done, annually, weekly, daily, for some people almost hourly; and we have an 

enormous ethnographic literature to demonstrate it. 

The theologian Antoine Vergote took the term supernatural simply to mean whatever 

transcends the powers of nature or human agency. He also emphasized the cultural 

reality of religion, which he defined as the entirety of the linguistic expressions, 

emotions and, actions and signs that refer to a supernatural being or supernatural 

beings. 

Peter Mandaville and Paul James intended to get away from the modernist dualisms or 

dichotomous understandings of immanence/transcendence, spirituality/materialism, and 

sacredness/secularity. They define religion as a relatively-bounded system of beliefs, 

symbols and practices that addresses the nature of existence, and in which communion 


with others and Otherness is lived as if it both takes in and spiritually transcends 

socially-grounded ontologies of time, space, embodiment and knowing. 

According to the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions, there is an experiential aspect to 

religion which can be found in almost every culture almost every known culture [has] a 

depth dimension in cultural experiences toward some sort of ultimacy and 

transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less 

distinct patterns of behavior are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this 

structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the 

organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience—varied in form, 

completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture. 

Classical 

Budazhap Shiretorov (Будажап 

Цыреторов), the head shaman of the 

religious community Altan Serge 

(Алтан Сэргэ) in Buryatia. 

Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 

18th century defined religion as das 

schlechthinnige Abhängigkeitsgefühl, 

commonly translated as "the feeling of 

absolute dependence". 

His contemporary Georg Wilhelm 

Friedrich Hegel disagreed thoroughly, 

defining religion as "the Divine Spirit 

becoming conscious of Himself through 

the finite spirit." 

Edward Burnett Tylor defined religion in 1871 as "the belief in spiritual beings". He 

argued that narrowing the definition to mean the belief in a supreme deity or judgment 

after death or idolatry and so on, would exclude many peoples from the category of 

religious, and thus "has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular 

developments than with the deeper motive which underlies them". He also argued that 

the belief in spiritual beings exists in all known societies. 

In his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, the psychologist William 

James defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their 

solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may 

consider the divine". By the term divine James meant "any object that is godlike, 

whether it be a concrete deity or not" to which the individual feels impelled to respond 

with solemnity and gravity. 


The sociologist Émile Durkheim, in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the 

Religious Life, defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to 

sacred things". By sacred things he meant things "set apart and forbidden—beliefs and 

practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who 

adhere to them". Sacred things are not, however, limited to gods or spirits. On the 

contrary, a sacred thing can be "a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a 

house, in a word, anything can be sacred". Religious beliefs, myths, dogmas and 

legends are the representations that express the nature of these sacred things, and the 

virtues and powers which are attributed to them. 

Echoes of James' and Durkheim's definitions are to be found in the writings of, for 

example, Frederick Ferré who defined religion as "one's way of valuing most 

comprehensively and intensively". Similarly, for the theologian Paul Tillich, faith is "the 

state of being ultimately concerned", which "is itself religion. Religion is the substance, 

the ground, and the depth of man's spiritual life." 

When religion is seen in terms of sacred, divine, intensive valuing, or ultimate concern, 

then it is possible to understand why scientific findings and philosophical criticisms (e.g., 

those made by Richard Dawkins) do not necessarily disturb its adherents. 

Aspects 

Beliefs 

Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious 

beliefs. The interplay between faith and reason, and their use as perceived support for 

religious beliefs, have been a subject of interest to philosophers and theologians. 

Mythology 

The word myth has several meanings. 

1. A traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the 

world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon; 

2. A person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence; or 

3. A metaphor for the spiritual potentiality in the human being. 

Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, are 

usually categorized under the heading of mythology. Religions of pre-industrial peoples, 

or cultures in development, are similarly called myths in the anthropology of religion. 

The term myth can be used pejoratively by both religious and non-religious people. By 

defining another person's religious stories and beliefs as mythology, one implies that 

they are less real or true than one's own religious stories and beliefs. Joseph 

Campbell remarked, "Mythology is often thought of as other people's religions, and 

religion can be defined as mis-interpreted mythology." 


In sociology, however, the term myth has a non-pejorative meaning. There, myth is 

defined as a story that is important for the group whether or not it is objectively or 

provably true. Examples include the resurrection of their real-life founder Jesus, which, 

to Christians, explains the means by which they are freed from sin, is symbolic of the 

power of life over death, and is also said to be a historical event. But from a 

mythological outlook, whether or not the event actually occurred is unimportant. Instead, 

the symbolism of the death of an old life and the start of a new life is what is most 

significant. Religious believers may or may not accept such symbolic interpretations. 


Worldview 

Religions have sacred histories, narratives, and mythologies which may be preserved in 

sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim to explain the meaning of life, 

the origin of life, or the Universe. 

Practices 

The practices of a religion may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration 

(of a deity, gods, or goddesses), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary 

services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or 

other aspects of human culture. 

Social Organization 

Religions have a societal basis, either as a living tradition which is carried by lay 

participants, or with an organized clergy, and a definition of what constitutes adherence 

or membership. 

Academic Study 

A number of disciplines study the phenomenon of religion: theology, comparative 

religion, history of religion, evolutionary origin of religions, anthropology of 

religion, psychology of religion (including neuroscience of religion and evolutionary 

psychology of religion), law and religion, and sociology of religion. 

Daniel L. Pals mentions eight classical theories of religion, focusing on various aspects 

of religion: animism and magic, by E.B. Tylor and J.G. Frazer; the psychoanalytic 

approach of Sigmund Freud; and further Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max 

Weber, Mircea Eliade, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, and Clifford Geertz. 

Michael Stausberg gives an overview of contemporary theories of religion, 

including cognitive and biological approaches. 

Theories 

Sociological and anthropological theories of religion generally attempt to explain 

the origin and function of religion. These theories define what they present as universal 

characteristics of religious belief and practice. 

Origins and Development 

The origin of religion is uncertain. There are a number of theories regarding the 

subsequent origins of religious practices. 


According to anthropologists John Monaghan and Peter Just, "Many of the great world 

religions appear to have begun as revitalization movements of some sort, as the vision 

of a charismatic prophet fires the imaginations of people seeking a more comprehensive 

answer to their problems than they feel is provided by everyday beliefs. Charismatic 

individuals have emerged at many times and places in the world. It seems that the key 

to long-term success – and many movements come and go with little long-term effect – 

has relatively little to do with the prophets, who appear with surprising regularity, but 

more to do with the development of a group of supporters who are able to 

institutionalize the movement." 

The development of religion has taken different forms in different cultures. Some 

religions place an emphasis on belief, while others emphasize practice. Some religions 

focus on the subjective experience of the religious individual, while others consider the 

activities of the religious community to be most important. Some religions claim to be 

universal, believing their laws and cosmology to be binding for everyone, while others 

are intended to be practiced only by a closely defined or localized group. In many 

places religion has been associated with public institutions such as education, hospitals, 

the family, government, and political hierarchies. 


Anthropologists John Monoghan and Peter Just state that, "it seems apparent that one 

thing religion or belief helps us do is deal with problems of human life that are 

significant, persistent, and intolerable. One important way in which religious beliefs 

accomplish this is by providing a set of ideas about how and why the world is put 

together that allows people to accommodate anxieties and deal with misfortune." 

Cultural System 

While religion is difficult to define, one standard model of religion, used in religious 

studies courses, was proposed by Clifford Geertz, who simply called it a "cultural 

system". A critique of Geertz's model by Talal Asad categorized religion as 

"an anthropologicalcategory". Richard Niebuhr's (1894–1962) five-fold classification of 

the relationship between Christ and culture, however, indicates that religion and culture 

can be seen as two separate systems, though not without some interplay. 

Social Constructionism 

One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a 

modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar 

to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and 

define human beings. Among the main proponents of this theory of religion are Daniel 

Dubuisson, Timothy Fitzgerald, Talal Asad, and Jason Ānanda Josephson. The social 

constructionists argue that religion is a modern concept that developed from Christianity 

and was then applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures. 

Cognitive Science 

Cognitive science of religion is the study of religious thought and behavior from the 

perspective of the cognitive and evolutionary sciences. The field employs methods and 

theories from a very broad range of disciplines, including: cognitive 

psychology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive anthropology, artificial 

intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, neurobiology, zoology, and ethology. Scholars in 

this field seek to explain how human minds acquire, generate, and transmit religious 

thoughts, practices, and schemas by means of ordinary cognitive capacities. 

Hallucinations and delusions related to religious content occurs in about 60% of people 

with schizophrenia. While this number varies across cultures, this had led to theories 

about a number of influental religious phenomenon and possible relation to psychotic 

disorders. A number of prophetic experiences are consistent with psychotic symptoms, 

although retrospective diagnoses are practically impossible. Schizophrenic episodes are 

also experienced by people who do not have belief in gods. 

Religious content is also common in temporal lobe epilepsy, and obsessive-compulsive 

disorder. Atheistic content is also found to be common with temporal lobe epilepsy. 


Comparativism 

Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions concerned with the 

systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices of the world's religions. In general 

the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental 

philosophical concerns of religion such as ethics, metaphysics, and the nature and form 

of salvation. Studying such material is meant to give one a richer and more 

sophisticated understanding of human beliefs and practices regarding 

the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine. 

In the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification of the main 

world religions includes Middle Eastern religions (including Zoroastrianism and Iranian 

religions), Indian religions, East Asian religions, African religions, American religions, 

Oceanic religions, and classical Hellenistic religions. 

Classification 

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the academic practice of comparative religion divided 

religious belief into philosophically defined categories called world religions. Some 

academics studying the subject have divided religions into three broad categories: 

1. World Religions, a term which refers to transcultural, international faiths; 


2. Indigenous Religions, which refers to smaller, culture-specific or nation-specific 

religious groups; and 

3. New Religious Movements, which refers to recently developed faiths. 

Some recent scholarship has argued that not all types of religion are necessarily 

separated by mutually exclusive philosophies, and furthermore that the utility of 

ascribing a practice to a certain philosophy, or even calling a given practice religious, 

rather than cultural, political, or social in nature, is limited. The current state of 

psychological study about the nature of religiousness suggests that it is better to refer to 

religion as a largely invariant phenomenon that should be distinguished from cultural 

norms (i.e. religions). 

Morphological Classification 

Some scholars classify religions as either universal religions that seek worldwide 

acceptance and actively look for new converts, or ethnic religions that are identified with 

a particular ethnic group and do not seek converts. Others reject the distinction, pointing 

out that all religious practices, whatever their philosophical origin, are ethnic because 

they come from a particular culture. 

Demographical Classification 

The five largest religious groups by world population, estimated to account for 5.8 billion 

people and 84% of the population, are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism (with the 

relative numbers for Buddhism and Hinduism dependent on the extent of syncretism) 

and traditional folk religion. 

Five largest 

religions 

2010 

(billion) 

2010 (%) 

2000 

(billion) 

Christianity 2.2 32% 2.0 33% 

2000 (%) Demographics 

Christianity by 

country 

Islam 1.6 23% 1.2 19.6% Islam by country 

Hinduism 1.0 15% 0.811 13.4% Hinduism by country 

Buddhism 0.5 7% 0.360 5.9% Buddhism by country 

Folk religion 0.4 6% 0.385 6.4% 

Total 5.8 84% 4.8 78.3% 

A global poll in 2012 surveyed 57 countries and reported that 59% of the world's 

population identified as religious, 23% as not religious, 13% as convinced atheists, and 

also a 9% decrease in identification as religious when compared to the 2005 average 

from 39 countries. A follow up poll in 2015 found that 63% of the globe identified as 

religious, 22% as not religious, and 11% as convinced atheists. On average, women are 

more religious than men. Some people follow multiple religions or multiple religious 


principles at the same time, regardless of whether or not the religious principles they 

follow traditionally allow for syncretism. 

Geographical Classification 

Abrahamic 

Abrahamic religions are monotheistic religions which believe they descend 

from Abraham. 

Judaism 

Judaism is the oldest Abrahamic religion, originating in the people of ancient Israel and 

Judea. The Torah is its foundational text, and is part of the larger text known as 

the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. It is supplemented by oral tradition, set down in written 

form in later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud. Judaism includes a wide corpus 

of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Within Judaism 

there are a variety of movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism, 

which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in 

the form of both the Written and Oral Torah; historically, this assertion was challenged 

by various groups. The Jewish people were scattered after the destruction of 

the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Today there are about 13 million Jews, about 40 per 


cent living in Israel and 40 per cent in the United States. The largest Jewish religious 

movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox 

Judaism), Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. 

Christianity 

Christianity is based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (1st century) as 

presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as 

the Christ, the Son of God, and as Savior and Lord. Almost all Christians believe in 

the Trinity, which teaches the unity of Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit as 

three persons in one Godhead. Most Christians can describe their faith with the Nicene 

Creed. As the religion of Byzantine Empire in the first millennium and of Western 

Europe during the time of colonization, Christianity has been propagated throughout the 

world. The main divisions of Christianity are, according to the number of adherents: 

 

 

 

The Catholic Church, led by the Bishop of Rome and the bishops worldwide in 

communion with him, is a communion of 24 Churches sui iuris, including 

the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic churches, such as 

the Maronite Catholic Church. 

Eastern Christianity, which include Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and 

the Church of the East. 

Protestantism, separated from the Catholic Church in the 16th-century Protestant 

Reformation and is split into thousands of denominations. Major branches of 

Protestantism 

include Anglicanism, Baptists, Calvinism, Lutheranism, 

and Methodism, though each of these contain many different denominations or 

groups. 

There are also smaller groups, including: 

 

Restorationism, the belief that Christianity should be restored (as opposed to 

reformed) along the lines of what is known about the apostolic early church. 

Latter Day Saint movement, founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s. 

 

Jehovah's Witnesses, founded in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell. 

Islam 

Islam is based on the Quran, one of the holy books considered by Muslims to 

be revealed by God, and on the teachings (hadith) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a 

major political and religious figure of the 7th century CE. Islam is based on the unity of 

all religious philosophies and accepts all of the Abrahamic prophets of Judaism, 

Christianity and other Abrahamic religions before Muhammad. It is the most widely 

practiced religion of Southeast Asia, North Africa, Western Asia, and Central Asia, while 


Muslim-majority countries also exist in parts of South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, 

and Southeast Europe. There are also several Islamic republics, 

including Iran, Pakistan, Mauritania, and Afghanistan. 

 

 

 

 

Sunni Islam is the largest denomination within Islam and follows the Quran, the 

hadiths which record the sunnah, whilst placing emphasis on the sahabah. 

Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of Islam and its adherents believe 

that Ali succeeded Muhammad and further places emphasis on Muhammad's 

family. 

Ahmadiyya adherents believe that the awaited Imam Mahdi and the Promised 

Messiah has arrived, believed to be Mirza Ghulam Ahmad by Ahmadis. 

There are also Muslim revivalist movements such as Muwahhidism and Salafism. 

Other denominations of Islam include Nation of 

Islam, Ibadi, Sufism, Quranism, Mahdavia, and non-denominational Muslims. 

Wahhabism is the dominant Muslim schools of thought in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

Other 

The Bahá'í Faith is an Abrahamic religion founded in 19th century Iran and since then 

has spread worldwide. It teaches unity of all religious philosophies and accepts all of the 


prophets of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as additional prophets including its 

founder Bahá'u'lláh. One of its divisions is the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith. 

Smaller regional Abrahamic groups also exist, including Samaritanism (primarily in 

Israel and the West Bank), the Rastafari movement (primarily in Jamaica), 

and Druze (primarily in Syria and Lebanon). 

East Asian 

East Asian religions (also known as Far Eastern religions or Taoic religions) consist of 

several religions of East Asia which make use of the concept of Tao (in Chinese) or Dō 

(in Japanese or Korean). They include: 

Taoism and Confucianism 

 

Taoism and Confucianism, as well as Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese 

religion influenced by Chinese thought. 

Chinese Folk Religion 

 

 

Chinese folk religion: the indigenous religions of the Han Chinese, or, 

by metonymy, of all the populations of the Chinese cultural sphere. It includes the 

syncretism of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, Wuism, as well as many 

new religious movements such as Chen Tao, Falun Gong and Yiguandao. 

Other folk and new religions of East Asia and Southeast Asia such as Korean 

shamanism, Chondogyo, and Jeung San Do in 

Korea; Shinto, Shugendo, Ryukyuan religion, and Japanese new religions in 

Japan; Satsana Phi in Laos; Cao Đài, Hòa Hảo, and Vietnamese folk religion in 

Vietnam. 

Indian 

Indian religions are practiced or were founded in the Indian subcontinent. They are 

sometimes classified as the dharmic religions, as they all feature dharma, the specific 

law of reality and duties expected according to the religion. 

Hinduism 

Hinduism is a synecdoche describing the similar philosophies 

of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and related groups practiced or founded in the Indian 

subcontinent. Concepts most of them share in common 

include karma, caste, reincarnation, mantras, yantras, and darśana. Hinduism is 

one of the most ancient of still-active religions, with origins perhaps as far back 

as prehistoric times. Hinduism is not a monolithic religion but a religious category 

containing dozens of separate philosophies amalgamated as Sanātana Dharma, 


Jainism 

which is the name by which Hinduism has been known throughout history by its 

followers. 

 

Jainism, taught primarily by Rishabhanatha (the founder of ahimsa) is an ancient 

Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence , truth and anekantavada for 

all forms of living beings in this universe ; which helps them to eliminate all 

the Karmas ,and hence to attain freedom from the cycle of birth and death 

(nirvana). Jains are found mostly in India. According to Dundas, outside of the 

Jain tradition, historians date the Mahavira as about contemporaneous with 

the Buddha in the 5th-century BC, and accordingly the historical Parshvanatha, 

based on the c. 250-year gap, is placed in 8th or 7th century BC. 

Buddhism 

 

Buddhism was founded by Siddhattha Gotama in the 6th century BCE. Buddhists 

generally agree that Gotama aimed to help sentient beings end their suffering 

(dukkha) by understanding the true nature of phenomena, thereby escaping the 

cycle of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra), that is, achieving nirvana. 

 

Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced mainly in Sri Lanka and 

Southeast Asia alongside folk religion, shares some characteristics of 

Indian religions. It is based in a large collection of texts called the Pali 

Canon. 


Mahayana Buddhism (or the Great Vehicle) under which are a multitude of 

doctrines that became prominent in China and are still relevant in 

Vietnam, Korea, Japan and to a lesser extent in Europe and the United 

States. Mahayana Buddhism includes such disparate teachings 

as Zen, Pure Land, and Soka Gakkai. 

Vajrayana Buddhism first appeared in India in the 3rd century CE. It is 

currently most prominent in the Himalaya regions and extends across all 

of Asia (cf. Mikkyō). 

Two notable new Buddhist sects are Hòa Hảo and the Navayana (Dalit 

Buddhist movement), which were developed separately in the 20th 

century. 

Sikhism 

 

Sikhism is a panentheistic religion founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak and 

ten successive Sikh gurus in 15th century Punjab. It is the fifth-largest organized 

religion in the world, with approximately 30 million Sikhs. Sikhsare expected to 

embody the qualities of a Sant-Sipāhī – a saint-soldier, have control over one's 

internal vices and be able to be constantly immersed in virtues clarified in 

the Guru Granth Sahib. The principal beliefs of Sikhi are faith in Waheguru— 

represented by the phrase ik ōaṅkār, meaning one God, who prevails in 

everything, along with a praxis in which the Sikh is enjoined to engage in social 

reform through the pursuit of justice for all human beings. 

Indigenous and folk 

Indigenous religions or folk religions refers to a broad category of traditional religions 

that can be characterised by shamanism, animism and ancestor worship, where 

traditional means "indigenous, that which is aboriginal or foundational, handed down 

from generation to generation…". These are religions that are closely associated with a 

particular group of people, ethnicity or tribe; they often have no formal creeds or sacred 

texts. Some faiths are syncretic, fusing diverse religious beliefs and practices. 

 

 

Australian Aboriginal religions. 

Folk religions of the Americas: Native American religions 

Folk religions are often omitted as a category in surveys even in countries where they 

are widely practiced, e.g. in China. 

Traditional African 

African traditional religion encompasses the traditional religious beliefs of people in 

Africa. In West Africa, these religions include the Akan religion, Dahomey (Fon) 


mythology, Efik mythology, Odinani, Serer religion (A ƭat Roog), and Yoruba religion, 

while Bushongo mythology, Mbuti (Pygmy) mythology, Lugbara mythology, Dinka 

religion, and Lotuko mythology come from central Africa. Southern African traditions 

include Akamba mythology, Masai mythology, Malagasy mythology, San religion, Lozi 

mythology, Tumbuka mythology, and Zulu mythology. Bantu mythology is found 

throughout central, southeast, and southern Africa. In north Africa, these traditions 

include Berber and ancient Egyptian. 

There are also notable African diasporic religions practiced in the Americas, such 

as Santeria, Candomble, Vodun, Lucumi, Umbanda, and Macumba. 

Iranian 

Iranian religions are ancient religions whose roots predate the Islamization of Greater 

Iran. Nowadays these religions are practiced only by minorities. 

Zoroastrianism 

Zoroastrianism is based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE. 

Zoroastrians worship the creator Ahura Mazda. In Zoroastrianism good and evil have 

distinct sources, with evil trying to destroy the creation of Mazda, and good trying to 

sustain it. 

Mandaeism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Mandaeans 

are sometime labeled as the Last Gnostics. 


Kurdish religions include the traditional beliefs of the Yazidi, Alevi, and Ahl-e Haqq. 

Sometimes these are labeled Yazdânism. 

New 

 

Shinshūkyō is a general category for a wide variety of religious movements 

founded in Japan since the 19th century. These movements share almost 

nothing in common except the place of their founding. The largest religious 

movements centered in Japan include Soka Gakkai, Tenrikyo, and Seicho-No- 

Ie among hundreds of smaller groups. 

Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, established in Vietnam in 1926. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raëlism is a new religious movement founded in 1974 teaching that humans 

were created by aliens. It is numerically the world's largest UFO religion. 

Hindu reform movements, such as Ayyavazhi, Swaminarayan Faith and Ananda 

Marga, are examples of new religious movements within Indian religions. 

Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a free and 

responsible search for truth and meaning, and has no 

accepted creed or theology. 

Noahidism is a monotheistic ideology based on the Seven Laws of Noah, and on 

their traditional interpretations within Rabbinic Judaism. 

Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their 

true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling known 

as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience and 

understand painful or traumatic events and decisions in their past in order to free 

themselves of their limiting effects. 

Eckankar is a pantheistic religion with the purpose of making God an everyday 

reality in one's life. 

Wicca is a neo-pagan religion first popularised in 1954 by British civil 

servant Gerald Gardner, involving the worship of a God and Goddess. 

Druidry is a religion promoting harmony with nature, and drawing on the practices 

of the druids. 

There are various Neopagan movements that attempt to reconstruct or revive 

ancient pagan practices. These include Heathenry, Hellenism, and Kemeticism. 


Satanism is a broad category of religions that, for example, worship Satan as a 

deity (Theistic Satanism) or use Satan as a symbol of carnality and earthly 

values (LaVeyan Satanism). 

Sociological classifications of religious movements suggest that within any given 

religious group, a community can resemble various types of structures, 

including churches, denominations, sects, cults, and institutions. 

Law 

Related Aspects 

The study of law and religion is a relatively new field, with several thousand scholars 

involved in law schools, and academic departments including political science, religion, 

and history since 1980. Scholars in the field are not only focused on strictly legal issues 

about religious freedom or non-establishment, but also study religions as they are 

qualified through judicial discourses or legal understanding of religious phenomena. 

Exponents look at canon law, natural law, and state law, often in a comparative 

perspective. Specialists have explored themes in western history regarding Christianity 

and justice and mercy, rule and equity, and discipline and love. Common topics of 

interest include marriage and the family and human rights. Outside of Christianity, 

scholars have looked at law and religion links in the Muslim Middle East and pagan 

Rome. 


Studies have focused on secularization. [120][121] In particular the issue of wearing 

religious symbols in public, such as headscarves that are banned in French schools, 

have received scholarly attention in the context of human rights and feminism. [122] 

Science 

Science acknowledges reason, empiricism, and evidence; and religions 

include revelation, faith and sacredness whilst 

also 

acknowledging philosophical and metaphysical explanations with regard to the study of 

the universe. Both science and religion are not monolithic, timeless, or static because 

both are complex social and cultural endeavors that have changed through time across 

languages and cultures. 

The concepts of science and religion are a recent invention: the term religion emerged 

in the 17th century in the midst of colonization and globalization and the Protestant 

Reformation. The term science emerged in the 19th century out of natural philosophy in 

the midst of attempts to narrowly define those who studied nature (natural science), and 

the phrase religion and science emerged in the 19th century due to the reification of 

both concepts. It was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, 

and Confucianism first emerged. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological 

Latin roots of both science (scientia) and religion (religio) were understood as inner 

qualities of the individual or virtues, never as doctrines, practices, or actual sources of 

knowledge. 

In general the scientific method gains knowledge by testing hypotheses to 

develop theories through elucidation of facts or evaluation by experiments and thus only 

answers cosmological questions about the universe that can be observed and 

measured. It develops theories of the world which best fit physically observed evidence. 

All scientific knowledge is subject to later refinement, or even rejection, in the face of 

additional evidence. Scientific theories that have an overwhelming preponderance of 

favorable evidence are often treated as de facto verities in general parlance, such as 

the theories of general relativity and natural selection to explain respectively the 

mechanisms of gravity and evolution. 

Religion does not have a method per se partly because religions emerge through time 

from diverse cultures and it is an attempt to find meaning in the world, and to explain 

humanity's place in it and relationship to it and to any posited entities. In terms of 

Christian theology and ultimate truths, people rely on reason, experience, scripture, and 

tradition to test and gauge what they experience and what they should believe. 

Furthermore, religious models, understanding, and metaphors are also revisable, as are 

scientific models. 

Regarding religion and science, Albert Einstein states (1940): "For science can only 

ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of 

all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of 

human thought and action; it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between 


facts…Now, even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly 

marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal 

relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determine the 

goals, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means 

will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up." 

Morality 

Many religions have value frameworks regarding personal behavior meant to guide 

adherents in determining between right and wrong. These include the Triple Jems of 

Jainism, Judaism's Halacha, Islam's Sharia, Catholicism's Canon 

Law, Buddhism's Eightfold Path, and Zoroastrianism's good thoughts, good words, and 

good deeds concept, among others. 

Religion and morality are not synonymous. While it is "an almost automatic 

assumption." in Christianity, morality can have a secular basis. 


The study of religion and morality can be contentious due to ethnocentric views on 

morality, failure to distinguish between in group and out group altruism, and inconsistent 

definitions of religiosity. 

Impact 

Politics 

Religion has had a significant impact on the political system in many countries. Notably, 

most Muslim-majority countries adopt various aspects of sharia, the Islamic law. Some 

countries even define themselves in religious terms, such as The Islamic Republic of 

Iran. The sharia thus affects up to 23% of the global population, or 1.57 billion people 

who are Muslims. However, religion also affects political decisions in many western 

countries. For instance, in the United States, 51% of voters would be less likely to vote 

for a presidential candidate who did not believe in God, and only 6% more 

likely. Christians make up 92% of members of the US Congress, compared with 71% of 

the general public (as of 2014). At the same time, while 23% of U.S. adults are 

religiously unaffiliated, only one member of Congress (Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona), or 

0.2% of that body, claims no religious affiliation. In most European countries, however, 

religion has a much smaller influence on politics although it used to be much more 

important. For instance, same-sex marriage and abortion were illegal in many European 

countries until recently, following Christian (usually Catholic) doctrine. Several European 

leaders are atheists (e.g. France’s former president Francois Hollande or Greece's 

prime minister Alexis Tsipras). In Asia, the role of religion differs widely between 

countries. For instance, India is still one of the most religious countries and religion still 

has a strong impact on politics, given that Hindu nationalists have been targeting 

minorities like the Muslims and the Christians, who historically belonged to the lower 

castes. By contrast, countries such as China or Japan are largely secular and thus 

religion has a much smaller impact on politics. 

Secularism 

Secularization is the transformation of the politics of a society from close identification 

with a particular religion's values and institutions toward nonreligious values 

and secular institutions. The purpose of this is frequently modernization or protection of 

the populations religious diversity. 

Economics 

One study has found there is a negative correlation between self-defined religiosity and 

the wealth of nations. In other words, the richer a nation is, the less likely its inhabitants 

to call themselves religious, whatever this word means to them (Many people identify 

themselves as part of a religion (not irreligion) but do not self-identify as religious). 


Sociologist and political economist Max Weber has argued that Protestant Christian 

countries are wealthier because of their Protestant work ethic. [135] 

According to a study from 2015, Christians hold the largest amount of wealth (55% of 

the total world wealth), followed by Muslims (5.8%), Hindus (3.3%) and Jewish (1.1%). 

According to the same study it was found that adherents under the 

classification Irreligion or other religions hold about 34.8% of the total global wealth. [136] 

Health 

Mayo Clinic researchers examined the association between religious involvement and 

spirituality, and physical health, mental health, health-related quality of life, and other 

health outcomes. The authors reported that: "Most studies have shown that religious 

involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including 

greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal 

illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide." 

The authors of a subsequent study concluded that the influence of religion on health is 

largely beneficial, based on a review of related literature. According to academic James 

W. Jones, several studies have discovered "positive correlations between religious 

belief and practice and mental and physical health and longevity." 

An analysis of data from the 1998 US General Social Survey, whilst broadly confirming 

that religious activity was associated with better health and well-being, also suggested 


that the role of different dimensions of spirituality/religiosity in health is rather more 

complicated. The results suggested "that it may not be appropriate to generalize 

findings about the relationship between spirituality/religiosity and health from one form 

of spirituality/religiosity to another, across denominations, or to assume effects are 

uniform for men and women. 

Violence 

United Airlines Flight 175 hits the South Tower during the September 11 attacks of 2001 

in New York City. The September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11) were a series of 

four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United 

States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. 

Critics like Hector Avalos [141] Regina Schwartz, [142] Christopher Hitchens and Richard 

Dawkins have argued that religions are inherently violent and harmful to society by 

using violence to promote their goals, in ways that are endorsed and exploited by their 

leaders. 

Anthropologist Jack David Eller asserts that religion is not inherently violent, arguing 

"religion and violence are clearly compatible, but they are not identical." He asserts that 

"violence is neither essential to nor exclusive to religion" and that "virtually every form of 

religious violence has its nonreligious corollary." 

Animal Sacrifice 

Done by some (but not all) religions, animal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of 

an animal to appease or maintain favour with a deity. It has been banned in India. 

Superstition 

Greek and Roman pagans, who saw their relations with the gods in political and social 

terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods 

(deisidaimonia), as a slave might fear a cruel and capricious master. The Romans 

called such fear of the gods superstitio. Ancient Greek historian Polybius described 

superstition in Ancient Rome as an instrumentum regni, an instrument of maintaining 

the cohesion of the Empire. 

Superstition has been described as the non rational establishment of cause and 

effect. Religion is more complex and is often composed of social institutions and has a 

moral aspect. Some religions may include superstitions or make use of magical 

thinking. Adherents of one religion sometimes think of other religions as 

superstition. Some atheists, deists, and skeptics regard religious belief as superstition. 

The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it 

denotes a lack of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the 

first of the Ten Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that 


superstition "in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110). 

"Superstition," it says, "is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling 

imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes 

an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. 

To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external 

performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into 

superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16–22" (para. #2111) 

Agnosticism and Atheism 

The terms atheist (lack of belief in any gods) and agnostic (belief in the unknowability of 

the existence of gods), though specifically contrary to theistic (e.g. Christian, Jewish, 

and Muslim) religious teachings, do not by definition mean the opposite of religious. 

There are religions (including Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism), in fact, that classify 

some of their followers as agnostic, atheistic, or nontheistic. The true opposite of 

religious is the word irreligious. Irreligion describes an absence of any 

religion; antireligion describes an active opposition or aversion toward religions in 

general. 

Interfaith Cooperation 

Because religion continues to be recognized in Western thought as a universal impulse, 

many religious practitioners have aimed to band together in interfaith dialogue, 

cooperation, and religious peacebuilding. The first major dialogue was the Parliament of 

the World's Religions at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which affirmed universal values 

and recognition of the diversity of practices among different cultures. The 20th century 

has been especially fruitful in use of interfaith dialogue as a means of solving ethnic, 


political, or even religious conflict, with Christian–Jewish reconciliation representing a 

complete reverse in the attitudes of many Christian communities towards Jews. 

Recent interfaith initiatives include A Common Word, launched in 2007 and focused on 

bringing Muslim and Christian leaders together, the "C1 World Dialogue", the Common 

Ground initiative between Islam and Buddhism, and a United Nations sponsored "World 

Interfaith Harmony Week". 

Criticism 

Criticism of religion is criticism of the ideas, the truth, or the practice of religion, 

including its political and social implications. 

Every exclusive religion on Earth that promotes exclusive truth claims necessarily 

denigrates the truth claims of other religions. 


III. The Relationship Between 

Religion and Science 

Various aspects of the Relationship Between Religion and Science 

have been addressed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others. Perspectives 

from different geographical regions, cultures and historical epochs are diverse, with 

some characterizing the relationship as one of conflict, others describing it as one of 

harmony, and others proposing little interaction. 

Both science and religion are complex social and cultural 

endeavors that vary across cultures and have changed 

over time. Most scientific and technical innovations 

prior to the scientific revolution were achieved by 

societies organized by religious traditions. 

Elements of the scientific method were 

pioneered by ancient pagan, Islamic, and 

Christian scholars. Roger Bacon, who is 

often credited with formalizing the scientific 

method, was a Franciscan friar. Hinduism has 

historically embraced reason and empiricism, 

holding that science brings legitimate, but 

incomplete knowledge of the world. 

Confucian thought has held different views of 

science over time. Most Buddhists today view 

science as complementary to their beliefs. While 

the classification of the material world by the ancient 

Indians and Greeks into air, earth, fire and water was 

more philosophical, medieval Middle Easterns used practical 

and experimental observation to classify materials. 

Events in Europe such as the Galileo affair, associated with the scientific revolution and 

the Age of Enlightenment, led scholars such as John William Draper to postulate a 

conflict thesis, holding that religion and science have been in conflict methodologically, 

factually and politically throughout history. This thesis is held by some contemporary 

scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg and Carl Sagan, and some 

creationists. The conflict thesis has lost favor among most contemporary historians of 

science. 

Many scientists, philosophers, and theologians throughout history, such as Francisco 

Ayala, Kenneth R. Miller and Francis Collins, have seen compatibility or independence 

between religion and science. Biologist Stephen Jay Gould, other scientists, and some 

contemporary theologians hold that religion and science are non-overlapping 

magisteria, addressing fundamentally separate forms of knowledge and aspects of life. 

Some theologians or historians of science, including John Lennox, Thomas Berry, Brian 


Swimme and Ken Wilber propose an interconnection between science and religion, 

while others such as Ian Barbour believe there are even parallels. 

Public acceptance of scientific facts may be influenced by religion; many in the United 

States reject evolution by natural selection, especially regarding human beings. 

Nevertheless, the American National Academy of Sciences has written that "the 

evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith", a view officially 

endorsed by many religious denominations globally. 

History of The Concepts 

The concepts of "science" and "religion" are a recent invention: "religion" emerged in the 

17th century in the midst of colonization and globalization and the Protestant 

Reformation, "science" emerged in the 19th century in the midst of attempts to narrowly 

define those who studied nature. Furthermore, the phrase "religion and science" or 

"science and religion" emerged in the 19th century, not before, due to the reification of 

both concepts. 

It was in the 19th century that the terms "Buddhism", "Hinduism", "Taoism", 

"Confucianism" and "World Religions" first emerged. In the ancient and medieval world, 

the etymological Latin roots of both science (scientia) and religion (religio) were 

understood as inner qualities of the individual or virtues, never as doctrines, practices, 

or actual sources of knowledge. 

It was in the 19th century that the concept of "science" received its modern shape with 

new titles emerging such as "biology" and "biologist", "physics" and "physicist" among 

other technical fields and titles; institutions and communities were founded, and 

unprecedented applications to and interactions with other aspects of society and culture 

occurred. The term scientist was first coined by the naturalist-theologian William 

Whewell in 1834 and it was applied to those who sought knowledge and understanding 

of nature. From the ancient world, starting with Aristotle, to the 19th century, the term 

"natural philosophy" was the common term used to describe the practice of studying 

nature. Isaac Newton's book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), 

whose title translates to "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", reflects the 

then-current use of the words "natural philosophy", akin to "systematic study of nature". 

Even in the 19th century, a treatise by Lord Kelvin and Peter Guthrie Tait's, which 

helped define much of modern physics, was titled Treatise on Natural Philosophy 

(1867). 

It was in the 17th century that the concept of "religion" received its modern shape 

despite the fact that ancient texts like the Bible, the Quran, and other sacred texts did 

not have a concept of religion in the original languages and neither did the people or the 

cultures in which these sacred texts were written. In the 19th century, Max Müller noted 

that what is called ancient religion today, would have been called "law" in antiquity. For 

example, there is no precise equivalent of "religion" in Hebrew, and Judaism does not 

distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities. The Sanskrit 


word "dharma", sometimes translated as "religion", also means law or duty. Throughout 

classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through 

piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a similar 

union between "imperial law" and universal or "Buddha law", but these later became 

independent sources of power. Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of 

"religion" since there was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its 

meaning, but when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and 

forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, 

freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. 

Middle Ages and Renaissance 

The development of sciences (especially natural philosophy) in Western Europe during 

the Middle Ages, has considerable foundation in the works of the Arabs who translated 

Greek and Latin compositions. The works of Aristotle played a major role in the 

institutionalization, systematization, and expansion of reason. Christianity accepted 

reason within the ambit of faith. In Christendom, reason was considered subordinate to 

revelation, which contained the ultimate truth and this truth could not be challenged. 

Even though the medieval Christian had the urge to use their reason, they had little on 

which to exercise it. In medieval universities, the faculty for natural philosophy and 

theology were separate, and discussions pertaining to theological issues were often not 

allowed to be undertaken by the faculty of philosophy. 

Natural philosophy, as taught in the arts faculties of the universities, was seen as an 

essential area of study in its own right and was considered necessary for almost every 

area of study. It was an independent field, separated from theology, which enjoyed a 

good deal of intellectual freedom as long as it was restricted to the natural world. In 

general, there was religious support for natural science by the late Middle Ages and a 

recognition that it was an important element of learning. 


The extent to which medieval science led directly to the new philosophy of the scientific 

revolution remains a subject for debate, but it certainly had a significant influence. 

The Middle Ages laid ground for the developments that took place in science, during the 

Renaissance which immediately succeeded it. With significant developments taking 

place in science, mathematics, medicine and philosophy, the relationship between 

science and religion became one of curiosity and questioning. As humanism became 

more and more popular, people tried to understand the nature around them better, 

rather than turn to religious aspirations. Renaissance humanism looked to classical 

Greek and Roman texts to change contemporary thought, allowing for a new mindset 

after the Middle Ages. Renaissance readers understood these classical texts as 

focusing on human decisions, actions and creations, rather than blindly following the 

rules set forth by the Catholic Church as "God's plan." Though many Renaissance 

humanists remained religious, they believed God gave humans opportunities and it was 

humanity's duty to do the "best and most moral thing". Renaissance humanism was an 

"ethical theory and practice that emphasized reason, scientific inquiry and human 

fulfillment in the natural world," said Abernethy. By 1630, ancient authority from classical 

literature and philosophy, as well as their necessity, started eroding, although scientists 

were still expected to be fluent in Latin, the international language of Europe's 

intellectuals. With the sheer success of science and the steady advance of rationalism, 

the individual scientist gained prestige. 

Along with the inventions of this period, especially the printing press by Johannes 

Gutenberg, allowed for the dissemination of the Bible in languages of the common 

people (languages other than Latin). This allowed more people to read and learn from 

the scripture, leading to the Evangelical movement. The people who spread this 

message, concentrated more on individual agency rather than the structures of the 

Church. 

Perspectives 

According to Richard Dawkins, "not only is science corrosive to religion; religion is 

corrosive to science. It teaches people to be satisfied with trivial, supernatural nonexplanations 

and blinds them to the wonderful real explanations that we have within our 

grasp. It teaches them to accept authority, revelation and faith instead of always 

insisting on evidence." 

The kinds of interactions that might arise between science and religion have been 

categorized by theologian, Anglican priest, and physicist John Polkinghorne: (1) conflict 

between the disciplines, (2) independence of the disciplines, (3) dialogue between the 

disciplines where they overlap and (4) integration of both into one field. 

This typology is similar to ones used by theologians Ian Barbour and John Haught. 

More typologies that categorize this relationship can be found among the works of other 

science and religion scholars such as theologian and biochemist Arthur Peacocke. 


Incompatibility 

According to Guillermo Paz-y-Miño-C and Avelina Espinosa, the historical conflict 

between evolution and religion is intrinsic to the incompatibility between scientific 

rationalism/empiricism and the belief in supernatural causation; these authors have 

formally proposed the incompatibility hypothesis (IH) to explain the "everlasting-conflictscience-and-faith". 

According to Jerry Coyne, views on evolution and levels of religiosity 

in some countries, along with the existence of books explaining reconciliation between 

evolution and religion, indicate that people have trouble in believing both at the same 

time, thus implying incompatibility. According to Lawrence Krauss, compatibility or 

incompatibility is a theological concern, not a scientific concern. In Lisa Randall's view, 

questions of incompatibility or otherwise are not answerable, since by accepting 

revelations one is abandoning rules of logic which are needed to identify if there are 

indeed contradictions between holding certain beliefs. Daniel Dennett holds that 

incompatibility exists because religion is not problematic to a certain point before it 

collapses into a number of excuses for keeping certain beliefs, in light of evolutionary 

implications. 

According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, the central difference between the nature of science 

and religion is that the claims of science rely on experimental verification, while the 

claims of religions rely on faith, and these are irreconcilable approaches to knowing. 

Because of this both are incompatible as currently practiced and the debate of 

compatibility or incompatibility will be eternal. Philosopher and physicist Victor J. 

Stenger's view is that science and religion are incompatible due to conflicts between 

approaches of knowing and the availability of alternative plausible natural explanations 

for phenomena that is usually explained in religious contexts. 


Richard Dawkins is hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the 

scientific enterprise. According to Dawkins, religion "subverts science and saps the 

intellect". He believes that when science teachers attempt to expound on evolution, 

there is hostility aimed towards them by parents who are skeptical because they believe 

it conflicts with their religious beliefs, that even some textbooks have had the word 

'evolution' systematically removed. According to Sean M. Carroll, since religion makes 

claims that are not compatible with science, such as supernatural events, therefore both 

are incompatible. 

Others such as Francis Collins, Kenneth R. Miller, George Coyne and Francisco J. 

Ayala argue for compatibility since they do not agree that science is incompatible with 

religion and vice versa. They argue that science provides many opportunities to look for 

and find God in nature and to reflect on their beliefs. According to Kenneth Miller, he 

disagrees with Jerry Coyne's assessment and argues that since significant portions of 

scientists are religious and the proportion of Americans believing in evolution is much 

higher, it implies that both are indeed compatible. Elsewhere, Miller has argued that 

when scientists make claims on science and theism or atheism, they are not arguing 

scientifically at all and are stepping beyond the scope of science into discourses of 

meaning and purpose. What he finds particularly odd and unjustified is in how atheists 

often come to invoke scientific authority on their non-scientific philosophical conclusions 

like there being no point or no meaning to the universe as the only viable option when 

the scientific method and science never have had any way of addressing questions of 

meaning or God in the first place. Furthermore, he notes that since evolution made the 

brain and since the brain can handle both religion and science, there is no natural 

incompatibility between the concepts at the biological level. 

Karl Giberson argues that when discussing compatibility, some scientific intellectuals 

often ignore the viewpoints of intellectual leaders in theology and instead argue against 

less informed masses, thereby, defining religion by non intellectuals and slanting the 

debate unjustly. He argues that leaders in science sometimes trump older scientific 

baggage and that leaders in theology do the same, so once theological intellectuals are 

taken into account, people who represent extreme positions like Ken Ham and Eugenie 

Scott will become irrelevant. Cynthia Tolman notes that religion does not have a method 

per se partly because religions emerge through time from diverse cultures, but when it 

comes to Christian theology and ultimate truths, she notes that people often rely on 

scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to test and gauge what they experience and 

what they should believe. 

Conflict Thesis 

The conflict thesis, which holds that religion and science have been in conflict 

continuously throughout history, was popularized in the 19th century by John William 

Draper's and Andrew Dickson White's accounts. It was in the 19th century that 

relationship between science and religion became an actual formal topic of discourse, 

while before this no one had pitted science against religion or vice versa, though 


occasional complex interactions had been expressed before the 19th century. Most 

contemporary historians of science now reject the conflict thesis in its original form and 

no longer support it. Instead, it has been superseded by subsequent historical research 

which has resulted in a more nuanced understanding: Historian of science, Gary 

Ferngren, has stated "Although popular images of controversy continue to exemplify the 

supposed hostility of Christianity to new scientific theories, studies have shown that 

Christianity has often nurtured and encouraged scientific endeavour, while at other 

times the two have co-existed without either tension or attempts at harmonization. If 

Galileo and the Scopes trial come to mind as examples of conflict, they were the 

exceptions rather than the rule." 

Most historians today have 

moved away from a conflict 

model, which is based 

mainly on two historical 

episodes (Galileo and Darwin) for a 

"complexity" model, because religious 

figures were on both sides of each 

dispute and there 

was no overall aim 

by any party involved to 

discredit religion. 

An often cited example of 

conflict, that has 

been clarified by 

historical research 

in the 20th century, 

was the Galileo affair, whereby 

interpretations of the Bible were used 

to attack ideas by Copernicus on 

heliocentrism. By 1616 

Galileo went to Rome to 

try to persuade Catholic 

Church authorities not to 

ban Copernicus' ideas. In the end, a decree of the 

Congregation of the Index was issued, declaring that the ideas that the Sun stood still 

and that the Earth moved were "false" and "altogether contrary to Holy Scripture", and 

suspending Copernicus's De Revolutionibus until it could be corrected. Galileo was 

found "vehemently suspect of heresy", namely of having held the opinions that the Sun 

lies motionless at the center of the universe, that the Earth is not at its centre and 

moves. He was required to "abjure, curse and detest" those opinions. However, before 

all this, Pope Urban VIII had personally asked Galileo to give arguments for and against 

heliocentrism in a book, and to be careful not to advocate heliocentrism as physically 

proven since the scientific consensus at the time was that the evidence for 

heliocentrism was very weak. The Church had merely sided with the scientific 

consensus of the time. Pope Urban VIII asked that his own views on the matter be 

included in Galileo's book. Only the latter was fulfilled by Galileo. Whether unknowingly 

or deliberately, Simplicio, the defender of the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic geocentric view in 

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was often portrayed as an 

unlearned fool who lacked mathematical training. Although the preface of his book 

claims that the character is named after a famous Aristotelian philosopher (Simplicius in 

Latin, Simplicio in Italian), the name "Simplicio" in Italian also has the connotation of 


"simpleton". Unfortunately for his relationship with the Pope, Galileo put the words of 

Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicio. Most historians agree Galileo did not act out of 

malice and felt blindsided by the reaction to his book. However, the Pope did not take 

the suspected public ridicule lightly, nor the physical Copernican advocacy. Galileo had 

alienated one of his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to 

Rome to defend his writings. 

The actual evidences that finally proved heliocentrism came centuries after Galileo: the 

stellar aberration of light by James Bradley in the 18th century, the orbital motions of 

binary stars by William Herschel in the 19th century, the accurate measurement of the 

stellar parallax in the 19th century, and Newtonian mechanics in the 17th century. 

According to physicist Christopher Graney, Galileo's own observations did not actually 

support the Copernican view, but were more consistent with Tycho Brahe's hybrid 

model where that Earth did not move and everything else circled around it and the Sun. 

British philosopher A. C. Grayling, still believes there is competition between science 

and religions and point to the origin of the universe, the nature of human beings and the 

possibility of miracles. 

Independence 

A modern view, described by Stephen Jay Gould as "non-overlapping magisteria" 

(NOMA), is that science and religion deal with fundamentally separate aspects of 

human experience and so, when each stays within its own domain, they co-exist 

peacefully. While Gould spoke of independence from the perspective of science, W. T. 

Stace viewed independence from the perspective of the philosophy of religion. Stace 

felt that science and religion, when each is viewed in its own domain, are both 

consistent and complete. 

The USA's National Academy of Science supports the view that science and religion are 

independent. 

Science and religion are based on different aspects of human experience. In science, 

explanations must be based on evidence drawn from examining the natural world. 

Scientifically based observations or experiments that conflict with an explanation 

eventually must lead to modification or even abandonment of that explanation. Religious 

faith, in contrast, does not depend on empirical evidence, is not necessarily modified in 

the face of conflicting evidence, and typically involves supernatural forces or entities. 

Because they are not a part of nature, supernatural entities cannot be investigated by 

science. In this sense, science and religion are separate and address aspects of human 

understanding in different ways. Attempts to put science and religion against each other 

create controversy where none needs to exist. 

According to Archbishop John Habgood, both science and religion represent distinct 

ways of approaching experience and these differences are sources of debate. He views 

science as descriptive and religion as prescriptive. He stated that if science and 


mathematics concentrate on what the world ought to be, in the way that religion does, it 

may lead to improperly ascribing properties to the natural world as happened among the 

followers of Pythagoras in the sixth century B.C. In contrast, proponents of a normative 

moral science take issue with the idea that science has no way of guiding "oughts". 

Habgood also stated that he believed that the reverse situation, where religion attempts 

to be descriptive, can also lead to inappropriately assigning properties to the natural 

world. A notable example is the now defunct belief in the Ptolemaic (geocentric) 

planetary model that held sway until changes in scientific and religious thinking were 

brought about by Galileo and proponents of his views. 

Parallels in Method 

According to Ian Barbour, Thomas S. Kuhn asserted that science is made up of 

paradigms that arise from cultural traditions, which is similar to the secular perspective 

on religion. 

Michael Polanyi asserted that it is merely a commitment to universality that protects 

against subjectivity and has nothing at all to do with personal detachment as found in 

many conceptions of the scientific method. Polanyi further asserted that all knowledge is 

personal and therefore the scientist must be performing a very personal if not 

necessarily subjective role when doing science. Polanyi added that the scientist often 

merely follows intuitions of "intellectual beauty, symmetry, and 'empirical agreement'". 

Polanyi held that science requires moral commitments similar to those found in religion. 

Two physicists, Charles A. Coulson and Harold K. Schilling, both claimed that "the 

methods of science and religion have much in common." Schilling asserted that both 

fields—science and religion—have "a threefold structure—of experience, theoretical 

interpretation, and practical application." Coulson asserted that science, like religion, 


"advances by creative imagination" and not by "mere collecting of facts," while stating 

that religion should and does "involve critical reflection on experience not unlike that 

which goes on in science." Religious language and scientific language also show 

parallels (cf. rhetoric of science). 

Dialogue 

The religion and science community consists of those scholars who involve themselves 

with what has been called the "religion-and-science dialogue" or the "religion-andscience 

field." The community belongs to neither the scientific nor the religious 

community, but is said to be a third overlapping community of interested and involved 

scientists, priests, clergymen, theologians and engaged non-professionals. Institutions 

interested in the intersection between science and religion include the Center for 

Theology and the Natural Sciences, the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, the 

Ian Ramsey Centre, and the Faraday Institute. 

Journals addressing the relationship between science and religion include Theology and 

Science and Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science. Eugenie Scott has written that the 

"science and religion" movement is, overall, composed mainly of theists who have a 

healthy respect for science and may be beneficial to the public understanding of 

science. She contends that the "Christian scholarship" movement is not a problem for 

science, but that the "Theistic science" movement, which proposes abandoning 

methodological materialism, does cause problems in understanding of the nature of 

science. 

The modern dialogue between religion and science is rooted in Ian Barbour's 1966 book 

Issues in Science and Religion. Since that time it has grown into a serious academic 

field, with academic chairs in the subject area, and two dedicated academic journals, 

Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science and Theology and Science. Articles are also 

sometimes found in mainstream science journals such as American Journal of Physics 

and Science. 

Philosopher Alvin Plantinga has argued that there is superficial conflict but deep 

concord between science and religion, and that there is deep conflict between science 

and naturalism. Plantinga, in his book Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, 

and Naturalism, heavily contests the linkage of naturalism with science, as conceived by 

Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and like-minded thinkers; while Daniel Dennett thinks 

that Plantinga stretches science to an unacceptable extent. 

Philosopher Maarten Boudry, in reviewing the book, has commented that he resorts to 

creationism and fails to "stave off the conflict between theism and evolution." Cognitive 

scientist Justin L. Barrett, by contrast, reviews the same book and writes that "those 

most needing to hear Plantinga's message may fail to give it a fair hearing for rhetorical 

rather than analytical reasons." 


Integration 

As a general view, this holds that while interactions are complex between influences of 

science, theology, politics, social, and economic concerns, the productive engagements 

between science and religion throughout history should be duly stressed as the norm. 

Scientific and theological perspectives often coexist peacefully. Christians and some 

non-Christian religions have historically integrated well with scientific ideas, as in the 

ancient Egyptian technological mastery applied to monotheistic ends, the flourishing of 

logic and mathematics under Hinduism and Buddhism, and the scientific advances 

made by Muslim scholars during the Ottoman empire. Even many 19th-century 

Christian communities welcomed scientists who claimed that science was not at all 

concerned with discovering the ultimate nature of reality. According to Lawrence M. 

Principe, the Johns Hopkins University Drew Professor of the Humanities, from a 

historical perspective this points out that much of the current-day clashes occur 

between limited extremists—both religious and scientistic fundamentalists—over a very 

few topics, and that the movement of ideas back and forth between scientific and 

theological thought has been more usual. 

To Principe, this perspective would point to the fundamentally common respect for 

written learning in religious traditions of rabbinical literature, Christian theology, and the 

Islamic Golden Age, including a Transmission of the Classics from Greek to Islamic to 

Christian traditions which helped spark the Renaissance. Religions have also given key 

participation in development of modern universities and libraries; centers of learning & 

scholarship were coincident with religious institutions – whether pagan, Muslim, or 

Christian. 


Bahá'í[edit] 

A fundamental principle of the Bahá'í Faith is the harmony of religion and science. 

Bahá'í scripture asserts that true science and true religion can never be in conflict. 

`Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religion, stated that religion without science 

is superstition and that science without religion is materialism. He also admonished that 

true religion must conform to the conclusions of science. 

Buddhism 

Buddhism and science have been regarded as compatible by numerous authors. Some 

philosophic and psychological teachings found in Buddhism share points in common 

with modern Western scientific and philosophic thought. For example, Buddhism 

encourages the impartial investigation of nature (an activity referred to as Dhamma- 

Vicaya in the Pali Canon)—the principal object of study being oneself. Buddhism and 

science both show a strong emphasis on causality. However, Buddhism doesn't focus 

on materialism. 

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, maintains that empirical scientific evidence 

supersedes the traditional teachings of Buddhism when the two are in conflict. In his 

book The Universe in a Single Atom he wrote, "My confidence in venturing into science 

lies in my basic belief that as in science, so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of 

reality is pursued by means of critical investigation." and "If scientific analysis were 

conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false," he says, "then we 

must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims." 

Christianity 

Most sources of knowledge available to early Christians were connected to pagan 

world-views. There were various opinions on how Christianity should regard pagan 

learning, which included its ideas about nature. For instance, among early Christian 

teachers, Tertullian (c. 160–220) held a generally negative opinion of Greek philosophy, 

while Origen (c. 185–254) regarded it much more favorably and required his students to 

read nearly every work available to them. 

Earlier attempts at reconciliation of Christianity with Newtonian mechanics appear quite 

different from later attempts at reconciliation with the newer scientific ideas of evolution 

or relativity. Many early interpretations of evolution polarized themselves around a 

struggle for existence. These ideas were significantly countered by later findings of 

universal patterns of biological cooperation. According to John Habgood, all man really 

knows here is that the universe seems to be a mix of good and evil, beauty and pain, 

and that suffering may somehow be part of the process of creation. Habgood holds that 

Christians should not be surprised that suffering may be used creatively by God, given 

their faith in the symbol of the Cross. Robert John Russell has examined consonance 

and dissonance between modern physics, evolutionary biology, and Christian theology. 


Christian philosophers Augustine of Hippo (354–30) and Thomas Aquinas held that 

scriptures can have multiple interpretations on certain areas where the matters were far 

beyond their reach, therefore one should leave room for future findings to shed light on 

the meanings. The "Handmaiden" tradition, which saw secular studies of the universe 

as a very important and helpful part of arriving at a better understanding of scripture, 

was adopted throughout Christian history from early on. Also the sense that God 

created the world as a self operating system is what motivated many Christians 

throughout the Middle Ages to investigate nature. 

Modern historians of science such as J.L. Heilbron, Alistair Cameron Crombie, David 

Lindberg, Edward Grant, Thomas Goldstein, and Ted Davis have reviewed the popular 

notion that medieval Christianity was a negative influence in the development of 

civilization and science. In their views, not only did the monks save and cultivate the 

remnants of ancient civilization during the barbarian invasions, but the medieval church 

promoted learning and science through its sponsorship of many universities which, 

under its leadership, grew rapidly in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries, St. Thomas 

Aquinas, the Church's "model theologian", not only argued that reason is in harmony 

with faith, he even recognized that reason can contribute to understanding revelation, 

and so encouraged intellectual development. He was not unlike other medieval 

theologians who sought out reason in the effort to defend his faith. Some of today's 

scholars, such as Stanley Jaki, have claimed that Christianity with its particular 

worldview, was a crucial factor for the emergence of modern science. 

David C. Lindberg states that the widespread popular belief that the Middle Ages was a 

time of ignorance and superstition due to the Christian church is a "caricature". 

According to Lindberg, while there are some portions of the classical tradition which 

suggest this view, these were exceptional cases. It was common to tolerate and 

encourage critical thinking about the nature of the world. The relation between 


Christianity and science is complex and cannot be simplified to either harmony or 

conflict, according to Lindberg. Lindberg reports that "the late medieval scholar rarely 

experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free 

(particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led. 

There was no warfare between science and the church." Ted Peters in Encyclopedia of 

Religion writes that although there is some truth in the "Galileo's condemnation" story 

but through exaggerations, it has now become "a modern myth perpetuated by those 

wishing to see warfare between science and religion who were allegedly persecuted by 

an atavistic and dogma-bound ecclesiastical authority". In 1992, the Catholic Church's 

seeming vindication of Galileo attracted much comment in the media. 

A degree of concord between science and religion can be seen in religious belief and 

empirical science. The belief that God created the world and therefore humans, can 

lead to the view that he arranged for humans to know the world. This is underwritten by 

the doctrine of imago dei. In the words of Thomas Aquinas, "Since human beings are 

said to be in the image of God in virtue of their having a nature that includes an intellect, 

such a nature is most in the image of God in virtue of being most able to imitate God". 

During the Enlightenment, a period "characterized by dramatic revolutions in science" 

and the rise of Protestant challenges to the authority of the Catholic Church via 

individual liberty, the authority of Christian scriptures became strongly challenged. As 

science advanced, acceptance of a literal version of the Bible became "increasingly 

untenable" and some in that period presented ways of interpreting scripture according to 

its spirit on its authority and truth. 

Perspectives on Evolution 

In recent history, the theory of evolution has been at the center of some controversy 

between Christianity and science. Christians who accept a literal interpretation of the 

biblical account of creation find incompatibility between Darwinian evolution and their 

interpretation of the Christian faith. Creation science or scientific creationism is a branch 

of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation 

narrative in the Book of Genesis and attempts to disprove generally accepted scientific 

facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology and 

biological evolution. It began in the 1960s as a fundamentalist Christian effort in the 

United States to prove Biblical inerrancy and falsify the scientific evidence for 

evolution. [109] It has since developed a sizable religious following in the United States, 

with creation science ministries branching worldwide. In 1925, The State of Tennessee 

passed the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of the theory of evolution in all 

schools in the state. Later that year, a similar law was passed in Mississippi, and 

likewise, Arkansas in 1927. In 1968, these "anti-monkey" laws were struck down by the 

Supreme Court of the United States as unconstitutional, "because they established a 

religious doctrine violating both the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. 

Most scientists have rejected creation science for several reasons, including that its 

claims do not refer to natural causes and cannot be tested. In 1987, the United States 


Supreme Court ruled that creationism is religion, not science, and cannot be advocated 

in public school classrooms. [112] In 2018, the Orlando Sentinel reported that "Some 

private schools in Florida that rely on public funding teach students" Creationism. 

Theistic evolution attempts to reconcile Christian beliefs and science by accepting the 

scientific understanding of the age of the Earth and the process of evolution. It includes 

a range of beliefs, including views described as evolutionary creationism, which accepts 

some findings of modern science but also upholds classical religious teachings about 

God and creation in Christian context. 

Reconciliation in Britain in The Early 20th Century 

In Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-twentieth-century Britain, 

historian of biology Peter J. Bowler argues that in contrast to the conflicts between 

science and religion in the U.S. in the 1920s (most famously the Scopes Trial), during 

this period Great Britain experienced a concerted effort at reconciliation, championed by 

intellectually conservative scientists, supported by liberal theologians but opposed by 

younger scientists and secularists and conservative Christians. 

These attempts at reconciliation fell apart in the 1930s due to increased social tensions, 

moves towards neo-orthodox theology and the acceptance of the modern evolutionary 

synthesis. 

In the 20th century, several ecumenical organizations promoting a harmony between 

science and Christianity were founded, most notably the American Scientific Affiliation, 

The Biologos Foundation, Christians in Science, The Society of Ordained Scientists, 

and The Veritas Forum. 


Roman Catholicism 

While refined and clarified over the centuries, the Roman Catholic position on the 

relationship between science and religion is one of harmony, and has maintained the 

teaching of natural law as set forth by Thomas Aquinas. For example, regarding 

scientific study such as that of evolution, the church's unofficial position is an example of 

theistic evolution, stating that faith and scientific findings regarding human evolution are 

not in conflict, though humans are regarded as a special creation, and that the 

existence of God is required to explain both monogenism and the spiritual component of 

human origins. Catholic schools have included all manners of scientific study in their 

curriculum for many centuries. 

Galileo once stated "The intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how to go to heaven, 

not how the heavens go." In 1981 John Paul II, then pope of the Roman Catholic 

Church, spoke of the relationship this way: "The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of 

the universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us with a scientific treatise, but in 

order to state the correct relationships of man with God and with the universe. Sacred 

Scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to 

teach this truth it expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the 

writer". 

Influence of A Biblical World View on Early Modern Science 

According to Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology 

in Christendom from the 19th century, a biblical world view affected negatively the 

progress of science through time. Dickinson also argues that immediately following the 

Reformation matters were even worse. The interpretations of Scripture by Luther and 

Calvin became as sacred to their followers as the Scripture itself. For instance, when 

Georg Calixtus ventured, in interpreting the Psalms, to question the accepted belief that 

"the waters above the heavens" were contained in a vast receptacle upheld by a solid 

vault, he was bitterly denounced as heretical. Today, much of the scholarship in which 

the conflict thesis was originally based is considered to be inaccurate. For instance, the 

claim that early Christians rejected scientific findings by the Greco-Romans is false, 

since the "handmaiden" view of secular studies was seen to shed light on theology. This 

view was widely adapted throughout the early medieval period and afterwards by 

theologians (such as Augustine) and ultimately resulted in fostering interest in 

knowledge about nature through time. Also, the claim that people of the Middle Ages 

widely believed that the Earth was flat was first propagated in the same period that 

originated the conflict thesis and is still very common in popular culture. Modern 

scholars regard this claim as mistaken, as the contemporary historians of science David 

C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers write: "there was scarcely a Christian scholar of the 

Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [earth's] sphericity and even know its 

approximate circumference." From the fall of Rome to the time of Columbus, all major 

scholars and many vernacular writers interested in the physical shape of the earth held 

a spherical view with the exception of Lactantius and Cosmas. 


H. Floris Cohen argued for a biblical Protestant, but not excluding Catholicism, influence 

on the early development of modern science. He presented Dutch historian R. 

Hooykaas' argument that a biblical world-view holds all the necessary antidotes for the 

hubris of Greek rationalism: a respect for manual labour, leading to more 

experimentation and empiricism, and a supreme God that left nature open to emulation 

and manipulation. It supports the idea early modern science rose due to a combination 

of Greek and biblical thought. 

Oxford historian Peter Harrison is another who has argued that a biblical worldview was 

significant for the development of modern science. Harrison contends that Protestant 

approaches to the book of scripture had significant, if largely unintended, consequences 

for the interpretation of the book of nature. Harrison has also suggested that literal 

readings of the Genesis narratives of the Creation and Fall motivated and legitimated 

scientific activity in seventeenth-century England. For many of its seventeenth-century 

practitioners, science was imagined to be a means of restoring a human dominion over 

nature that had been lost as a consequence of the Fall. 

Historian and professor of religion Eugene M. Klaaren holds that "a belief in divine 

creation" was central to an emergence of science in seventeenth-century England. The 

philosopher Michael Foster has published analytical philosophy connecting Christian 

doctrines of creation with empiricism. Historian William B. Ashworth has argued against 

the historical notion of distinctive mind-sets and the idea of Catholic and Protestant 


sciences. Historians James R. Jacob and Margaret C. Jacob have argued for a linkage 

between seventeenth century Anglican intellectual transformations and influential 

English scientists (e.g., Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton). John Dillenberger and 

Christopher B. Kaiser have written theological surveys, which also cover additional 

interactions occurring in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Philosopher of Religion, 

Richard Jones, has written a philosophical critique of the "dependency thesis" which 

assumes that modern science emerged from Christian sources and doctrines. Though 

he acknowledges that modern science emerged in a religious framework, that 

Christianity greatly elevated the importance of science by sanctioning and religiously 

legitimizing it in the medieval period, and that Christianity created a favorable social 

context for it to grow; he argues that direct Christian beliefs or doctrines were not 

primary sources of scientific pursuits by natural philosophers, nor was Christianity, in 

and of itself, exclusively or directly necessary in developing or practicing modern 

science. 

Oxford University historian and theologian John Hedley Brooke wrote that "when natural 

philosophers referred to laws of nature, they were not glibly choosing that metaphor. 

Laws were the result of legislation by an intelligent deity. Thus the philosopher René 

Descartes (1596–1650) insisted that he was discovering the "laws that God has put into 

nature." Later Newton would declare that the regulation of the solar system 

presupposed the "counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being." Historian 

Ronald L. Numbers stated that this thesis "received a boost" from mathematician and 

philosopher Alfred North Whitehead's Science and the Modern World (1925). Numbers 

has also argued, "Despite the manifest shortcomings of the claim that Christianity gave 

birth to science—most glaringly, it ignores or minimizes the contributions of ancient 

Greeks and medieval Muslims—it too, refuses to succumb to the death it deserves." 

The sociologist Rodney Stark of Baylor University, argued in contrast that "Christian 

theology was essential for the rise of science." 

Protestantism had an important influence on science. According to the Merton Thesis 

there was a positive correlation between the rise of Puritanism and Protestant Pietism 

on the one hand and early experimental science on the other. The Merton Thesis has 

two separate parts: Firstly, it presents a theory that science changes due to an 

accumulation of observations and improvement in experimental techniques and 

methodology; secondly, it puts forward the argument that the popularity of science in 

17th-century England and the religious demography of the Royal Society (English 

scientists of that time were predominantly Puritans or other Protestants) can be 

explained by a correlation between Protestantism and the scientific values. In his 

theory, Robert K. Merton focused on English Puritanism and German Pietism as having 

been responsible for the development of the scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th 

centuries. Merton explained that the connection between religious affiliation and interest 

in science was the result of a significant synergy between the ascetic Protestant values 

and those of modern science. Protestant values encouraged scientific research by 

allowing science to study God's influence on the world and thus providing a religious 

justification for scientific research. 


Confucianism and Traditional Chinese Religion 

The historical process of Confucianism has largely been antipathic towards scientific 

discovery. However the religio-philosophical system itself is more neutral on the subject 

than such an analysis might suggest. In his writings On Heaven, Xunzi espoused a 

proto-scientific world view. However, during the Han Synthesis the more anti-empirical 

Mencius was favored and combined with Daoist skepticism regarding the nature of 

reality. Likewise, during the Medieval period, Zhu Xi argued against technical 

investigation and specialization proposed by Chen Liang. After contact with the West, 

scholars such as Wang Fuzhi would rely on Buddhist/Daoist skepticism to denounce all 

science as a subjective pursuit limited by humanity's fundamental ignorance of the true 

nature of the world. After the May Fourth Movement, attempts to modernize 

Confucianism and reconcile it with scientific understanding were attempted by many 

scholars including Feng Youlan and Xiong Shili. Given the close relationship that 

Confucianism shares with Buddhism, many of the same arguments used to reconcile 

Buddhism with science also readily translate to Confucianism. However, modern 

scholars have also attempted to define the relationship between science and 

Confucianism on Confucianism's own terms and the results have usually led to the 

conclusion that Confucianism and science are fundamentally compatible. 


Hinduism 

In Hinduism, the dividing line between objective sciences and spiritual knowledge 

(adhyatma vidya) is a linguistic paradox. Hindu scholastic activities and ancient Indian 

scientific advancements were so interconnected that many Hindu scriptures are also 

ancient scientific manuals and vice versa. In 1835, English was made the primary 

language for teaching in higher education in India, exposing Hindu scholars to Western 

secular ideas; this started a renaissance regarding religious and philosophical thought. 

Hindu sages maintained that logical argument and rational proof using Nyaya is the way 

to obtain correct knowledge. The scientific level of understanding focuses on how things 

work and from where they originate, while Hinduism strives to understand the ultimate 

purposes for the existence of living things. To obtain and broaden the knowledge of the 

world for spiritual perfection, many refer to the Bhāgavata for guidance because it draws 

upon a scientific and theological dialogue. Hinduism offers methods to correct and 

transform itself in course of time. For instance, Hindu views on the development of life 

include a range of viewpoints in regards to evolution, creationism, and the origin of life 

within the traditions of Hinduism. For instance, it has been suggested that Wallace- 

Darwininan evolutionary thought was a part of Hindu thought centuries before modern 

times. The Shankara and the Sāmkhya did not have a problem with the theory of 

evolution, but instead, argued about the existence of God and what happened after 

death. These two distinct groups argued among each other's philosophies because of 

their sacred texts, not the idea of evolution. With the publication of Darwin's On the 

Origin of Species, many Hindus were eager to connect their scriptures to Darwinism, 

finding similarities between Brahma's creation, Vishnu's incarnations, and evolution 

theories. 

Samkhya, the oldest school of Hindu philosophy prescribes a particular method to 

analyze knowledge. According to Samkhya, all knowledge is possible through three 

means of valid knowledge 

1. Pratyakṣa or Dṛṣṭam – direct sense perception, 

2. Anumāna – logical inference and 

3. Śabda or Āptavacana – verbal testimony. 

Nyaya, the Hindu school of logic, accepts all these 3 means and in addition accepts one 

more – Upamāna (comparison). 

The accounts of the emergence of life within the universe vary in description, but 

classically the deity called Brahma, from a Trimurti of three deities also including Vishnu 

and Shiva, is described as performing the act of 'creation', or more specifically of 

'propagating life within the universe' with the other two deities being responsible for 

'preservation' and 'destruction' (of the universe) respectively. In this respect some Hindu 

schools do not treat the scriptural creation myth literally and often the creation stories 

themselves do not go into specific detail, thus leaving open the possibility of 


incorporating at least some theories in support of evolution. Some Hindus find support 

for, or foreshadowing of evolutionary ideas in scriptures, namely the Vedas. 

The incarnations of Vishnu (Dashavatara) is almost identical to the scientific explanation 

of the sequence of biological evolution of man and animals. The sequence of avatars 

starts from an aquatic organism (Matsya), to an amphibian (Kurma), to a land-animal 

(Varaha), to a humanoid (Narasimha), to a dwarf human (Vamana), to 5 forms of well 

developed human beings (Parashurama, Rama, Balarama/Buddha, Krishna, Kalki) who 

showcase an increasing form of complexity (Axe-man, King, Plougher/Sage, wise 

Statesman, mighty Warrior). In fact, many Hindu gods are represented with features of 

animals as well as those of humans, leading many Hindus to easily accept evolutionary 

links between animals and humans. In India, the home country of Hindus, educated 

Hindus widely accept the theory of biological evolution. In a survey of 909 people, 77% 

of respondents in India agreed with Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution, and 85 per 

cent of God-believing people said they believe in evolution as well. 

As per Vedas, another explanation for the creation is based on the five elements: earth, 

water, fire, air and aether. The Hindu religion traces its beginnings to the sacred Vedas. 

Everything that is established in the Hindu faith such as the gods and goddesses, 

doctrines, chants, spiritual insights, etc. flow from the poetry of Vedic hymns. The Vedas 

offer an honor to the sun and moon, water and wind, and to the order in Nature that is 


universal. This naturalism is the beginning of what further becomes the connection 

between Hinduism and science. 

Islam 

From an Islamic standpoint, science, the study of nature, is considered to be linked to 

the concept of Tawhid (the Oneness of God), as are all other branches of knowledge. In 

Islam, nature is not seen as a separate entity, but rather as an integral part of Islam's 

holistic outlook on God, humanity, and the world. The Islamic view of science and 

nature is continuous with that of religion and God. This link implies a sacred aspect to 

the pursuit of scientific knowledge by Muslims, as nature itself is viewed in the Qur'an as 

a compilation of signs pointing to the Divine. It was with this understanding that science 

was studied and understood in Islamic civilizations, specifically during the eighth to 

sixteenth centuries, prior to the colonization of the Muslim world. Robert Briffault, in The 

Making of Humanity, asserts that the very existence of science, as it is understood in 

the modern sense, is rooted in the scientific thought and knowledge that emerged in 

Islamic civilizations during this time. Ibn al-Haytham, an Arab Muslim, was an early 

proponent of the concept that a hypothesis must be proved by experiments based on 

confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence—hence understanding the scientific 

method 200 years before Renaissance scientists. Ibn al-Haytham described his 

theology: 

I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access 

to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for 

truth and knowledge. 

With the decline of Islamic Civilizations in the late Middle Ages and the rise of Europe, 

the Islamic scientific tradition shifted into a new period. Institutions that had existed for 

centuries in the Muslim world looked to the new scientific institutions of European 

powers. This changed the practice of science in the Muslim world, as Islamic scientists 

had to confront the western approach to scientific learning, which was based on a 

different philosophy of nature. From the time of this initial upheaval of the Islamic 

scientific tradition to the present day, Muslim scientists and scholars have developed a 

spectrum of viewpoints on the place of scientific learning within the context of Islam, 

none of which are universally accepted or practiced. However, most maintain the view 

that the acquisition of knowledge and scientific pursuit in general is not in disaccord with 

Islamic thought and religious belief. 

Ahmadiyya 

The Ahmadiyya movement emphasize that there is no contradiction between Islam and 

science. For example, Ahmadi Muslims universally accept in principle the process of 

evolution, albeit divinely guided, and actively promote it. Over the course of several 

decades the movement has issued various publications in support of the scientific 

concepts behind the process of evolution, and frequently engages in promoting how 

religious scriptures, such as the Qur'an, supports the concept. For general purposes, 

the second Khalifa of the community, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad says: 


The Holy Quran directs attention towards science, time and again, rather than evoking 

prejudice against it. The Quran has never advised against studying science, lest the 

reader should become a non-believer; because it has no such fear or concern. The Holy 

Quran is not worried that if people will learn the laws of nature its spell will break. The 

Quran has not 

prevented people 

from science, rather 

it states, "Say, 

'Reflect on what is 

happening in the 

heavens and the 

earth.'" (Al Younus) 

Jainism 

Jainism does not 

support belief in a 

creator deity. 

According to Jain 

doctrine, the 

universe and its 

constituents – soul, 

matter, space, time, 

and principles of 

motion have always 

existed (a static 

universe similar to 

that of Epicureanism 

and steady state 

cosmological 

model). All the constituents and actions are governed by universal natural laws. It is not 

possible to create matter out of nothing and hence the sum total of matter in the 

universe remains the same (similar to law of conservation of mass). Similarly, the soul 

of each living being is unique and uncreated and has existed since beginningless time. 

The Jain theory of causation holds that a cause and its effect are always identical in 

nature and hence a conscious and immaterial entity like God cannot create a material 

entity like the universe. Furthermore, according to the Jain concept of divinity, any soul 

who destroys its karmas and desires, achieves liberation. A soul who destroys all its 

passions and desires has no desire to interfere in the working of the universe. Moral 

rewards and sufferings are not the work of a divine being, but a result of an innate moral 

order in the cosmos; a self-regulating mechanism whereby the individual reaps the fruits 

of his own actions through the workings of the karmas. 


Through the ages, Jain philosophers have adamantly rejected and opposed the concept 

of creator and omnipotent God and this has resulted in Jainism being labeled as nastika 

darsana or atheist philosophy by the rival religious philosophies. The theme of noncreationism 

and absence of omnipotent God and divine grace runs strongly in all the 

philosophical dimensions of Jainism, including its cosmology, karma, moksa and its 

moral code of conduct. Jainism asserts a religious and virtuous life is possible without 

the idea of a creator god. 

History 

Perspectives from The Scientific Community 

In the 17th century, founders of the Royal Society largely held conventional and 

orthodox religious views, and a number of them were prominent Churchmen. While 

theological issues that had the potential to be divisive were typically excluded from 

formal discussions of the early Society, many of its fellows nonetheless believed that 

their scientific activities provided support for traditional religious belief. Clerical 

involvement in the Royal Society remained high until the mid-nineteenth century, when 

science became more professionalized. 

Albert Einstein supported the compatibility of some interpretations of religion with 

science. In "Science, Philosophy and Religion, A Symposium" published by the 

Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic 

Way of Life, Inc., New York in 1941, Einstein stated: 

Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the 

significance and loftiness of those super-personal objects and goals which neither 

require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and 

matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of 

mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and 

constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science 

according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For 

science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain 

value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only 

with evaluations of human thought and action: it cannot justifiably speak of facts and 

relationships between facts. According to this interpretation the well-known conflicts 

between religion and science in the past must all be ascribed to a misapprehension of 

the situation which has been described. 

Einstein thus expresses views of ethical non-naturalism (contrasted to ethical 

naturalism). 

Prominent modern scientists who are atheists include evolutionary biologist Richard 

Dawkins and Nobel Prize–winning physicist Steven Weinberg. Prominent scientists 

advocating religious belief include Nobel Prize–winning physicist and United Church of 


Christ member Charles Townes, evangelical Christian and past head of the Human 

Genome Project Francis Collins, and climatologist John T. Houghton. 

Studies on Scientists' Beliefs 

In 1916, 1,000 leading American scientists were randomly chosen from American Men 

of Science and 42% believed God existed, 42% disbelieved, and 17% had doubts/did 

not know; however when the study was replicated 80 years later using American Men 

and Women of Science in 1996, results were very much the same with 39% believing 

God exists, 45% disbelieved, and 15% had doubts/did not know. In the same 1996 

survey, for scientists in the fields of biology, mathematics, and physics/astronomy, belief 

in a god that is "in intellectual and affective communication with humankind" was most 

popular among mathematicians (about 45%) and least popular among physicists (about 

22%). In total, in terms of belief toward a personal god and personal immortality, about 

60% of United States scientists in these fields expressed either disbelief or agnosticism 

and about 40% expressed belief. This compared with 62.9% in 1914 and 33% in 1933. 

A 

survey conducted between 2005 and 2007 by Elaine Howard Ecklund of University at 

Buffalo, The State University of New York of 1,646 natural and social science 

professors at 21 US research universities found that, in terms of belief in God or a 

higher power, more than 60% expressed either disbelief or agnosticism and more than 


30% expressed belief. More specifically, nearly 34% answered "I do not believe in God" 

and about 30% answered "I do not know if there is a God and there is no way to find 

out." In the same study, 28% said they believed in God and 8% believed in a higher 

power that was not God. Ecklund stated that scientists were often able to consider 

themselves spiritual without religion or belief in god. Ecklund and Scheitle concluded, 

from their study, that the individuals from non-religious backgrounds disproportionately 

had self-selected into scientific professions and that the assumption that becoming a 

scientist necessarily leads to loss of religion is untenable since the study did not 

strongly support the idea that scientists had dropped religious identities due to their 

scientific training. Instead, factors such as upbringing, age, and family size were 

significant influences on religious identification since those who had religious upbringing 

were more likely to be religious and those who had a non-religious upbringing were 

more likely to not be religious. The authors also found little difference in religiosity 

between social and natural scientists. 

Since 1901–2013, 22% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews despite them 

being less than 1% of the world population. 

Between 1901 and 2000, 654 Laureates belonged to 28 different religions. Most (65%) 

have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference. Specifically 

on the science related prizes, Christians have won a total of 73% of all the Chemistry, 

65% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, and 54% in all Economics awards. Jews have won 

17% of the prizes in Chemistry, 26% in Medicine, and 23% in Physics. Atheists, 

Agnostics, and Freethinkers have won 7% of the prizes in Chemistry, 9% in Medicine, 

and 5% in Physics. Muslims have won 13 prizes (three were in scientific category). 

Many studies have been conducted in the United States and have generally found that 

scientists are less likely to believe in God than are the rest of the population. Precise 

definitions and statistics vary, with some studies concluding that about 1 ⁄3 of scientists in 

the U.S. 1 ⁄3 are atheists, 1 ⁄3 agnostic, and 1 ⁄3 have some belief in God (although some 

might be deistic, for example). This is in contrast to the more than roughly 3 ⁄4 of the 

general population that believe in some God in the United States. Other studies on 

scientific organizations like the AAAS show that 51% of their scientists believe in either 

God or a higher power and 48% having no religion. Belief also varies slightly by field. 

Two surveys on physicists, geoscientists, biologists, mathematicians, and chemists 

have noted that, from those specializing in these fields, physicists had lowest 

percentage of belief in God (29%) while chemists had highest (41%). Other studies 

show that among members of the National Academy of Sciences, concerning the 

existence of a personal god who answers prayer, 7% expressed belief, 72% expressed 

disbelief, and 21% were agnostic, however Eugenie Scott argued that there are 

methodological issues in the study, including ambiguity in the questions. A study with 

simplified wording to include impersonal or non-interventionist ideas of God concluded 

that 40% of leading scientists in the US scientists believe in a god. 

In terms of perceptions, most social and natural scientists from 21 American universities 

did not perceive conflict between science and religion, while 37% did. However, in the 


study, scientists who had experienced limited exposure to religion tended to perceive 

conflict. [47] In the same study they found that nearly one in five atheist scientists who are 

parents (17%) are part of religious congregations and have attended a religious service 

more than once in the past year. Some of the reasons for doing so are their scientific 

identity (wishing to expose their children to all sources of knowledge so they can make 

up their own minds), spousal influence, and desire for community. 

A 2009 report by the Pew Research Center found that members of the American 

Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) were "much less religious than the 

general public," with 51% believing in some form of deity or higher power. Specifically, 

33% of those polled believe in God, 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power, 

and 41% did not believe in either God or a higher power. 48% say they have a religious 

affiliation, equal to the number who say they are not affiliated with any religious tradition. 

17% were atheists, 11% were agnostics, 20% were nothing in particular, 8% were 


Jewish, 10% were Catholic, 16% were Protestant, 4% were Evangelical, 10% were 

other religion. The survey also found younger scientists to be "substantially more likely 

than their older counterparts to say they believe in God". Among the surveyed fields, 

chemists were the most likely to say they believe in God. 

Elaine Ecklund conducted a study from 2011 to 2014 involving the general US 

population, including rank and file scientists, in collaboration with the American 

Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The study noted that 76% of the 

scientists identified with a religious tradition. 85% of evangelical scientists had no 

doubts about the existence of God, compared to 35% of the whole scientific population. 

In terms of religion and science, 85% of evangelical scientists saw no conflict (73% 

collaboration, 12% independence), while 75% of the whole scientific population saw no 

conflict (40% collaboration, 35% independence). 

Religious beliefs of US professors were examined using a nationally representative 

sample of more than 1,400 professors. They found that in the social sciences: 23% did 

not believe in God, 16% did not know if God existed, 43% believed God existed, and 

16% believed in a higher power. Out of the natural sciences: 20% did not believe in 

God, 33% did not know if God existed, 44% believed God existed, and 4% believed in a 

higher power. Overall, out of the whole study: 10% were atheists, 13% were agnostic, 

19% believe in a higher power, 4% believe in God some of the time, 17% had doubts 

but believed in God, 35% believed in God and had no doubts. 

Farr Curlin, a University of Chicago Instructor in Medicine and a member of the 

MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, noted in a study that doctors tend to be 

science-minded religious people. He helped author a study that "found that 76 percent 

of doctors believe in God and 59 percent believe in some sort of afterlife." and "90 

percent of doctors in the United States attend religious services at least occasionally, 

compared to 81 percent of all adults." He reasoned, "The responsibility to care for those 

who are suffering and the rewards of helping those in need resonate throughout most 

religious traditions." 

Physicians in the United States, by contrast, are much more religious than scientists, 

with 76% stating a belief in God. 

According to the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture's report on 1,100 scientists 

in India: 66% are Hindu, 14% did not report a religion, 10% are atheist/no religion, 3% 

are Muslim, 3% are Christian, 4% are Buddhist, Sikh or other. 39% have a belief in a 

god, 6% have belief in a god sometimes, 30% do not believe in a god but believe in a 

higher power, 13% do not know if there is a god, and 12% do not believe in a god. 49% 

believe in the efficacy of prayer, 90% strongly agree or somewhat agree with approving 

degrees in Ayurvedic medicine. Furthermore, the term "secularism" is understood to 

have diverse and simultaneous meanings among Indian scientists: 93% believe it to be 

tolerance of religions and philosophies, 83% see it as involving separation of church 

and state, 53% see it as not identifying with religious traditions, 40% see it as absence 


of religious beliefs, and 20% see it as atheism. Accordingly, 75% of Indian scientists 

had a "secular" outlook in terms of being tolerant of other religions. 

According to the Religion Among Scientists in International Context (RASIC) study on 

1,581 scientists from the United Kingdom and 1,763 scientists from India, along with 

200 interviews: 65% of U.K. scientists identified as nonreligious and only 6% of Indian 

scientists identify as nonreligious, 12% of scientists in the U.K. attend religious services 

on a regular basis and 32% of scientists in India do. In terms of the Indian scientists, 

73% of scientists responded that there are basic truths in many religions, 27% said they 

believe in God and 38% expressed belief in a higher power of some kind. In terms of 

perceptions of conflict between science and religion, less than half of both U.K. 

scientists (38%) and Indian scientists (18%) perceived conflict between religion and 

science. 

According to Renny Thomas' study on Indian scientists, atheistic scientists in India 

called themselves atheists even while accepting that their lifestyle is very much a part of 

tradition and religion. Thus, they differ from Western atheists in that for them following 

the lifestyle of a religion is not antithetical to atheism. 


Overall Summary 

Over time, scientists and historians have moved away from the conflict thesis and 

toward compatibility theses (either the integration thesis or non-overlapping magisteria). 

Many experts have now adopted a "complexity thesis" that combines several other 

models, further at the expense of the conflict thesis. 

Public Perceptions of Science 

Global studies which have pooled data on religion and science from 1981–2001, have 

noted that countries with high religiosity also have stronger faith in science, while less 

religious countries have more skepticism of the impact of science and technology. The 

United States is noted there as distinctive because of greater faith in both God and 

scientific progress. Other research cites the National Science Foundation's finding that 

America has more favorable public attitudes towards science than Europe, Russia, and 

Japan despite differences in levels of religiosity in these cultures. 

A study conducted on adolescents from Christian schools in Northern Ireland, noted a 

positive relationship between attitudes towards Christianity and science once attitudes 

towards scientism and creationism were accounted for. 

A study on people from Sweden concludes that though the Swedes are among the most 

non-religious, paranormal beliefs are prevalent among both the young and adult 

populations. This is likely due to a loss of confidence in institutions such as the Church 

and Science. 

Concerning specific topics like creationism, it is not an exclusively American 

phenomenon. A poll on adult Europeans revealed that 40% believed in naturalistic 

evolution, 21% in theistic evolution, 20% in special creation, and 19% are undecided; 

with the highest concentrations of young earth creationists in Switzerland (21%), Austria 

(20%), Germany (18%). Other countries such as Netherlands, Britain, and Australia 

have experienced growth in such views as well. 

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center Study on the public perceptions on science, 

people's perceptions on conflict with science have more to do with their perceptions of 

other people's beliefs than their own personal beliefs. For instance, the majority of 

people with a religious affiliation (68%) saw no conflict between their own personal 

religious beliefs and science while the majority of those without a religious affiliation 

(76%) perceived science and religion to be in conflict. The study noted that people who 

are not affiliated with any religion, also known as "religiously unaffiliated", often have 

supernatural beliefs and spiritual practices despite them not being affiliated with any 

religion and also that "just one-in-six religiously unaffiliated adults (16%) say their own 

religious beliefs conflict with science." Furthermore, the study observed, "The share of 

all adults who perceive a conflict between science and their own religious beliefs has 

declined somewhat in recent years, from 36% in 2009 to 30% in 2014. Among those 

who are affiliated with a religion, the share of people who say there is a conflict between 


science and their personal religious beliefs dropped from 41% to 34% during this 

period." 

The 2013 MIT Survey on Science, Religion and Origins examined the views of religious 

people in America on origins science topics like evolution, the Big Bang, and 

perceptions of 

conflicts between 

science and religion. It 

found that a large 

majority of religious 

people see no conflict 

between science and 

religion and only 11% 

of religious people 

belong to religions 

openly rejecting 

evolution. The fact 

that the gap between 

personal and official 

beliefs of their 

religions is so large 

suggests that part of 

the problem, might be 

defused by people 

learning more about 

their own religious 

doctrine and the 

science it endorses, 

thereby bridging this 

belief gap. The study 

concluded that 

"mainstream religion 

and mainstream 

science are neither 

attacking one another 

nor perceiving a 

conflict." Furthermore, 

they note that this 

conciliatory view is 

shared by most 

leading science 

organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

(AAAS). 

A study collecting data from 2011 to 2014 on the general public, with focus on 

evangelicals and evangelical scientists was done in collaboration with the American 


Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Even though evangelicals only 

make up 26% of the US population, the found that nearly 70 percent of all evangelical 

Christians do not view science and religion as being in conflict with each other (48% 

saw them as complementary and 21% saw them as independent) while 73% of the 

general US population saw no conflict as well. 

Other lines of research on perceptions of science among the American public conclude 

that most religious groups see no general epistemological conflict with science and they 

have no differences with nonreligious groups in the propensity of seeking out scientific 

knowledge, although there may be subtle epistemic or moral conflicts when scientists 

make counterclaims to religious tenets. Findings from the Pew Center note similar 

findings and also note that the majority of Americans (80–90%) show strong support for 

scientific research, agree that science makes society and individual's lives better, and 8 

in 10 Americans would be happy if their children were to become scientists. Even strict 

creationists tend to have very favorable views on science. 

According to a 2007 poll by the Pew Forum, "while large majorities of Americans 

respect science and scientists, they are not always willing to accept scientific findings 

that squarely contradict their religious beliefs." The Pew Forum states that specific 

factual disagreements are "not common today", though 40% to 50% of Americans do 

not accept the evolution of humans and other living things, with the "strongest 

opposition" coming from evangelical Christians at 65% saying life did not evolve. 51% of 

the population believes humans and other living things evolved: 26% through natural 

selection only, 21% somehow guided, 4% don't know. In the U.S., biological evolution is 

the only concrete example of conflict where a significant portion of the American public 

denies scientific consensus for religious reasons. In terms of advanced industrialized 

nations, the United States is the most religious. 

A 2009 study from the Pew Research Center on Americans perceptions of science, 

showed a broad consensus that most Americans, including most religious Americans, 

hold scientific research and scientists themselves in high regard. The study showed that 

84% of Americans say they view science as having a mostly positive impact on society. 

Among those who attend religious services at least once a week, the number is roughly 

the same at 80%. Furthermore, 70% of U.S. adults think scientists contribute "a lot" to 

society. 

A 2011 study on a national sample of US college students examined whether these 

students viewed the science / religion relationship as reflecting primarily conflict, 

collaboration, or independence. The study concluded that the majority of 

undergraduates in both the natural and social sciences do not see conflict between 

science and religion. Another finding in the study was that it is more likely for students to 

move away from a conflict perspective to an independence or collaboration perspective 

than towards a conflict view. 

In the US, people who had no religious affiliation were no more likely than the religious 

population to have New Age beliefs and practices. 


IV. Faith and Rationality 

Faith and Rationality are two ideologies that exist in varying degrees of conflict 

or compatibility. Rationality is based on reason or facts. Faith is belief in inspiration, 

revelation, or authority. The word faith sometimes refers to a belief that is held with lack 

of reason or evidence, a belief that is held in spite of or against reason or evidence, or it 

can refer to belief based upon a degree of evidential warrant. 

Although the words faith and belief are sometimes erroneously conflated and used as 

synonyms, faith properly refers to a particular type (or subset) of belief, as defined 

above. 

Broadly speaking, there are two categories of views regarding the relationship between 

faith and rationality: 

1. Rationalism holds that truth should be determined by reason and factual 

analysis, rather than faith, dogma, tradition or religious teaching. 

2. Fideism holds that faith is necessary, and that beliefs may be held without any 

evidence or reason and even in conflict with evidence and reason. 

The Catholic Church also has taught that true faith and correct reason can and must 

work together, and, viewed properly, can never be in conflict with one another, as both 

have their origin in God, as stated in the Papal encyclical letter issued by Pope John 

Paul II, Fides et Ratio ("[On] Faith and Reason"). 

Relationship between faith and reason 


From at least the days of the Greek Philosophers, the relationship between faith and 

reason has been hotly debated. Plato argued that knowledge is simply memory of the 

eternal. Aristotle set down rules by which knowledge could be discovered by reason. 

Rationalists point out that many people hold irrational beliefs, for many reasons. There 

may be evolutionary causes for irrational beliefs — irrational beliefs may increase our 

ability to survive and reproduce. Or, according to Pascal's Wager, it may be to our 

advantage to have faith, because faith may promise infinite rewards, while the rewards 

of reason are seen by many as finite. One more reason for irrational beliefs can perhaps 

be explained by operant conditioning. For example, in one study by B. F. Skinner in 

1948, pigeons were awarded grain at regular time intervals regardless of their 

behaviour. The result was that each of pigeons developed their own idiosyncratic 

response which had become associated with the consequence of receiving grain. 

Believers in faith — for example those who believe salvation is possible through faith 

alone — frequently suggest that everyone holds beliefs arrived at by faith, not reason. 

The belief that the universe is a sensible place and that our minds allow us to arrive at 

correct conclusions about it, is a belief we hold through faith. Rationalists contend that 

this is arrived at because they have observed the world being consistent and sensible, 

not because they have faith that it is. 

Beliefs held "by faith" may be seen existing in a number of relationships to rationality: 

 

 

 

Faith as underlying rationality: In this view, all human knowledge and reason is 

seen as dependent on faith: faith in our senses, faith in our reason, faith in our 

memories, and faith in the accounts of events we receive from others. 

Accordingly, faith is seen as essential to and inseparable from rationality. 

According to René Descartes, rationality is built first upon the realization of the 

absolute truth "I think therefore I am", which requires no faith. All other 

rationalizations are built outward from this realization, and are subject to 

falsification at any time with the arrival of new evidence. 

Faith as addressing issues beyond the scope of rationality: In this view, faith 

is seen as covering issues that science and rationality are inherently incapable of 

addressing, but that are nevertheless entirely real. Accordingly, faith is seen as 

complementing rationality, by providing answers to questions that would 

otherwise be unanswerable. 

Faith as contradicting rationality: In this view, faith is seen as those views that 

one holds despite evidence and reason to the contrary. Accordingly, faith is seen 

as pernicious with respect to rationality, as it interferes with our ability to think, 

and inversely rationality is seen as the enemy of faith by interfering with our 

beliefs. 


Faith and reason as essential together: This is the Catholic view that faith 

without reason leads to superstition, while reason without faith leads to nihilism 

and relativism. 

Faith as based on warrant: In this view some degree of evidence provides 

warrant for faith. "To explain great things by small." 

Views of the Roman Catholic Church 

St. Thomas Aquinas, the most important doctor of the Catholic Church, was the first to 

write a full treatment of the relationship, differences, and similarities between faith—an 

intellectual assent—and reason, predominately in his Summa Theologica, De Veritate, 

and Summa contra Gentiles. 

The Council of Trent's catechism—the Roman Catechism, written during the Catholic 

Church's Counter-Reformation to combat Protestantism and Martin Luther's 

antimetaphysical tendencies. 


Dei Filius was a dogmatic constitution of the First Vatican Council on the Roman 

Catholic faith. It was adopted unanimously on 24 April 1870 and was influenced by the 

philosophical conceptions of Johann Baptist Franzelin, who had written a great deal on 

the topic of faith and rationality. 

Because the Roman Catholic Church does not disparage reason, but rather affirms its 

veracity and utility, there have been many Catholic scientists over the ages. 

Twentieth-century Thomist philosopher Étienne Gilson wrote about faith and reason [9] in 

his 1922 book Le Thomisme. His contemporary Jacques Maritain wrote about it in his 

The Degrees of Knowledge. 

Fides et Ratio is an encyclical promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 

1998. It deals with the relationship between faith and reason. 

Pope Benedict XVI's 12 September 2006 Regensburg Lecture was about faith and 

reason. 

Lutheran Epistemology 

Some have asserted that Martin Luther taught that faith and reason were antithetical in 

the sense that questions of faith could not be illuminated by reason. Contemporary 

Lutheran scholarship however has found a different reality in Luther. Luther rather 

seeks to separate faith and reason in order to honor the separate spheres of knowledge 

that each understand. Bernhard Lohse for example has demonstrated in his classic 

work "Fides Und Ratio" that Luther ultimately sought to put the two together. More 

recently Hans-Peter Großhans has demonstrated that Luther's work on Bibilical 

Criticism stresses the need for external coherence in right exegetical method. This 

means that for Luther it is more important that the Bible be reasonable according to the 

reality outside of the scriptures than that the Bible make sense to itself, that it has 

internal coherence. The right tool for understanding the world outside of the Bible for 

Luther is none other than Reason which for Luther denoted science, philosophy, history 

and empirical observation. Here a differing picture is presented of a Luther who deeply 

valued both faith and reason, and held them in dialectical partnership. Luther's concern 

thus in separating them is honoring their different epistemological spheres. 

Faith as Underlying Rationality 

Reformed Epistemology 

The view that faith underlies all rationality holds that rationality is dependent on faith for 

its coherence. Under this view, there is no way to comprehensively prove that we are 

actually seeing what we appear to be seeing, that what we remember actually 

happened, or that the laws of logic and mathematics are actually real. Instead, all 

beliefs depend for their coherence on faith in our senses, memory, and reason, because 

the foundations of rationalism cannot be proven by evidence or reason. Rationally, you 


can not prove anything you see is real, but you can prove that you yourself are real, and 

rationalist belief would be that you can believe that the world is consistent until 

something demonstrates inconsistency. This differs from faith based belief, where you 

believe that your world view is consistent no matter what inconsistencies the world has 

with your beliefs. 

Rationalist Point of View 

In this view, there are many beliefs that are held by faith alone, that rational thought 

would force the mind to reject. As an example, many people believe in the Biblical story 

of Noah's flood: that the entire Earth was covered by water for forty days. But objected 

that most plants cannot survive being covered by water for that length of time, a boat of 

that magnitude could not have been built by wood, and there would be no way for two of 

every animal to survive on that ship and migrate back to their place of origin. (such as 

penguins), Although Christian apologists offer answers to these and such issues, under 

the premise that such responses are insufficient, then one must choose between 

accepting the story on faith and rejecting reason, or rejecting the story by reason and 

thus rejecting faith. 


Within the rationalist point of view, there remains the possibility of multiple rational 

explanations. For example, considering the biblical story of Noah's flood, one making 

rational determinations about the probability of the events does so via interpretation of 

modern evidence. Two observers of the story may provide different plausible 

explanations for the life of plants, construction of the boat, species living at the time, and 

migration following the flood. Some see this as meaning that a person is not strictly 

bound to choose between faith and reason. 

Evangelical Views 

American biblical scholar Archibald Thomas Robertson stated that the Greek word pistis 

used for faith in the New Testament (over two hundred forty times), and rendered 

"assurance" in Acts 17:31 (KJV), is "an old verb to furnish, used regularly by 

Demosthenes for bringing forward evidence." Likewise Tom Price (Oxford Centre for 

Christian Apologetics) affirms that when the New Testament talks about faith positively 

it only uses words derived from the Greek root [pistis] which means "to be persuaded." 

In contrast to faith meaning blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of 

evidence, Alister McGrath quotes Oxford Anglican theologian W. H. Griffith-Thomas, 

(1861-1924), who states faith is "not blind, but intelligent" and "commences with the 

conviction of the mind based on adequate evidence...", which McGrath sees as "a good 

and reliable definition, synthesizing the core elements of the characteristic Christian 

understanding of faith." 

Alvin Plantinga upholds that faith may be the result of evidence testifying to the 

reliability of the source of truth claims, but although it may involve this, he sees faith as 

being the result of hearing the truth of the gospel with the internal persuasion by the 

Holy Spirit moving and enabling him to believe. "Christian belief is produced in the 

believer by the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit, endorsing the teachings of 

Scripture, which is itself divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. The result of the work of the 

Holy Spirit is faith." 

Jewish Philosophy 

The 14th Century Jewish philosopher Levi ben Gerson tried to reconcile faith and 

reason. He wrote, "The Torah cannot prevent us from considering to be true that which 

our reason urges us to believe." His contemporary Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas 

argued the contrary view, that reason is weak and faith strong, and that only through 

faith can we discover the fundamental truth that God is love, that through faith alone can 

we endure the suffering that is the common lot of God's chosen people. 


V. Christian Apologetics 

Christian Apologetics (Greek: ἀπολογία, "verbal defence, speech in defence") 

is a branch of Christian theology that attempts to defend Christianity against objections. 

Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the 

Apostle in the early church and Patristic writers such as Origen, Augustine of Hippo, 

Justin Martyr and Tertullian, then continuing with writers such as Thomas Aquinas and 

Anselm of Canterbury during Scholasticism. Blaise Pascal was an active Christian 

apologist before the Age of Enlightenment, and in the modern period, Christianity was 

defended through the efforts of many authors such as G. K. Chesterton and C. S. 

Lewis. In contemporary times Christianity is defended through the work of figures such 

as Robert Barron, Richard Swinburne, J. P. Moreland, Ravi Zacharias, Rabi Maharaj, 

Robert Hutchinson, John Lennox, Doug Wilson, Lee Strobel, Francis Collins, Henry M. 

Morris, Alister McGrath, Alvin Plantinga, Hugh Ross, Frank Turek, Greg Koukl, James 

White, David Wood, David Bentley Hart, Nabeel Qureshi, and William Lane Craig. 

Terminology and Origin 

The original Greek apologia (ἀπολογία, from ἀπολογέομαι, 

apologeomai, "speak in return, defend oneself") was a 

formal verbal defense, either in response to accusation 

or prosecution in a court of law. The defense of 

Socrates as presented by Plato and Xenophon was an 

apologia against charges of "corrupting the young, and 

… not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in 

other daimonia that are novel". 

In later use 

'apologia' sometimes took a literary form in early Christian 

discourse 

as an example of the integration of educated Christians into 

the cultural life of the Roman Empire, particularly during the "little peace" 

of the 3rd century, and of their participation in the Greek intellectual 

movement broadly known as the Second Sophistic. The Christian apologists of the early 

Church did not reject Greek philosophy, but attempted to show the positive value of 

Christianity in dynamic relation to the Greek rationalist tradition. 

In the 2nd century, apologetics was a defense or explanation of Christianity, addressed 

to those standing in opposition and those yet to form an opinion, such as emperors and 

other authority figures, or potential converts. The earliest martyr narrative has the 

spokesman for the persecuted present a defense in the apologetic mode: Christianity 

was a rational religion that worshiped only God, and although Christians were lawabiding 

citizens willing to honor the emperor, their belief in a single divinity prevented 

them from taking the loyalty oaths that acknowledged the emperor's divinity. 


The apologetic historiography in the Acts of the Apostles presented Christianity as a 

religious movement at home within the Roman Empire and no threat to it and was a 

model for the first major historian of the Church, Eusebius. Apologetics might also be 

directed to Christians already within the community explain their beliefs and justify 

positions. [8] Origen's apologetic Contra Celsum, for instance, provided a defense 

against the arguments of a critic dead for decades to provide answers to doubting 

Christians lacking immediate answers to the questions raised. Apologetic literature was 

an important medium for the formation of early Christian identity. 

In addition to Origen and Tertullian, early Christian apologists include Justin Martyr, 

Clement of Alexandria, and the author of the Epistle to Diognetus. Augustine of Hippo 

was a significant apologist of the Patristic era. Some scholars regard apologetics as a 

distinct literary genre exhibiting commonalities of style and form, content, and strategies 

of argumentation. Others viewed it as a form of discourse characterized by its tone and 

purpose. 

Biblical Basis 

R. C. Sproul, quoting the First Epistle of Peter, writes that "The defense of the faith is 

not a luxury or intellectual vanity. It is a task appointed by God that you should be able 

to give a reason for the hope that is in you as you bear witness before the world." The 

verse quoted here reads in full: "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always 

being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope 

that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect." 

Another passage sometimes used as a biblical basis for Christian apologetics is God's 

entreaty in the Book of Isaiah: "Come now, let us reason together." Other scriptural 

passages which have been taken as a basis for Christian apologetics include Psalm 19, 

which begins "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his 

hands," and Romans 1, which reads "For since the creation of the world God's invisible 

qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being 

understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." 

History 

Thomas Aquinas presented five ways, or arguments for God's existence, in the Summa 

Theologica, while his Summa contra Gentiles was a major apologetic work. Blaise 

Pascal outlined an approach to apologetics in his Pensées: "Men despise religion; they 

hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not 

contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it 

lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true." 

Christian apologetics continues in modern times in a wide variety of forms. The Roman 

Catholics: Bishop Robert Barron, G. K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Karl Keating, Michael 

Voris, Peter Kreeft, Frank Sheed, and Dr. Scott Hahn; the Anglican C. S. Lewis (who 

popularized the argument now known as Lewis's trilemma); the evangelical Norman 


Geisler; the Lutheran John Warwick Montgomery; and the Presbyterian Francis 

Schaeffer were among the most prolific Christian apologists in the 20th century, while 

Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til started a new school of philosophical apologetics 

called presuppositionalism, which is popular in Calvinist circles. 

Others include Douglas Groothuis, Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias, Hugh Ross, Lee 

Strobel, Hugo Anthony Meynell, Timothy J. Keller, R. C. Sproul, Alvin Plantinga, William 

Lane Craig, Francis Collins, Vishal Mangalwadi, Richard Bauckham, Craig Evans, 

Darrell Bock, Gary Habermas, James White, and John Lennox. 

Varieties 

There are a variety of Christian apologetic styles and schools of thought. The major 

types of Christian apologetics include historical and legal evidentialist apologetics, presuppositional 

apologetics, philosophical apologetics, prophetic apologetics, doctrinal 

apologetics, biblical apologetics, moral apologetics, and scientific apologetics. 


Historical and Legal Evidentialism 

A variety of arguments has been forwarded by legal scholars such as Simon Greenleaf 

and John Warwick Montgomery, by expert forensic investigators such as cold case 

homicide detective J. Warner Wallace, and academic historical scholars, such as Edwin 

M. Yamauchi. These arguments present a case for the historicity of the resurrection of 

Christ per current legal standards of evidence or undermining the pagan myth 

hypothesis for the origin of Christianity. 

Evidence for the historicity of the A. N. Sherwin-White states: 

For Acts, the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming. Yet Acts is, in simple terms and 

judged externally, no less of a propaganda narrative than the Gospels, liable to similar 

distortions. But any attempt to reject its basic historicity, even in matters of detail, must 

now appear absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted.... The agnostic type 

of form-criticism would be much more credible if the compilation of the Gospels were 

much later in time.... Herodotus enables us to test the tempo of myth-making, [showing 

that] even two generations are too short a span to allow the mythical tendency to prevail 

over the hard historic core. 

Defense of Miracles 

C. S. Lewis, Norman Geisler, [36] William Lane Craig and Christians who engage in 

jurisprudence Christian apologetics have argued that miracles are reasonable and 

plausible wherever an all-powerful Creator is postulated. 

Prophetic Fulfillment 

In his book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner argues that only God knows the future and 

that Biblical prophecies of a compelling nature have been fulfilled. Apologist Josh 

McDowell documents the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Christ, relating to his 

ancestral line, birthplace, virgin birth, miracles, death, and resurrection. Apologist Blaise 

Pascal believed that the prophecies are the strongest evidence for Christianity. He 

notes that Jesus not only foretold, but was foretold, unlike in other religions, and that 

these prophecies came from a succession of people over a span of four thousand 

years. 

Biblical Apologetics 

Biblical apologetics include issues concerned with the authorship and date of biblical 

books, biblical canon, and biblical inerrancy. Christian apologists defend and comment 

on various books of the Bible. Some scholars who have engaged in the defense of 

biblical inerrancy include Robert Dick Wilson, Gleason Archer, Norman Geisler and R. 

C. Sproul. There are several resources that Christians offer defending inerrancy in 

regard to specific verses. Authors defending the reliability of the Gospels include Craig 

Blomberg in The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, Mark D. Roberts in Can We Trust 

the Gospels? Richard Bauckham, Craig Evans and Darrell Bock. 


Philosophical Apologetics 

Philosophical apologetics concerns itself primarily with arguments for the existence of 

God, although they do not exclusively focus on this area. They do not argue for the 

veracity of Christianity over other religions but merely for the existence of a Creator 

deity. Omnipotence and omniscience are inferred in these arguments to greater or 

lesser degrees: some argue for an interventionist god, some are equally relevant to a 

Deist conception of god. 

They do not support hard polytheism, but could be used to describe the first god who 

created many other gods; however, the arguments are only relevant when applied to the 

first god (the First Cause, Pure Act and Unmoved Mover; it is a contradiction a priori to 

suppose a plurality of "Pure Acts" or "First Causes" or "Unmoved Movers"). 

These arguments can be grouped into several categories: 

1. Cosmological argument – Argues that the existence of the universe 

demonstrates that God exists. Various primary arguments from cosmology and 

the nature of causation are often offered to support the cosmological argument. 

2. Teleological argument – Argues that there is a purposeful design in the world 

around us, and a design requires a designer. Cicero, William Paley, and Michael 

Behe use this argument as well as others. 

3. Ontological argument – Argues that the very concept of God demands that there 

is an actual existent God. 


4. Moral Argument – Argues that there are objectively valid moral values, and 

therefore, there must be an absolute from which they are derived. 

5. Transcendental Argument – Argues that all our abilities to think and reason 

require the existence of God. 

6. Presuppositional Arguments – Argues that the basic beliefs of theists and 

nontheists require God as a necessary precondition. 

Other philosophical arguments include: 

 

 

Alvin Plantinga's argument that belief in God is properly basic, reformed 

epistemology. 

Pascal's wager, is an argument that posits that humans all bet with their lives 

either that God exists or that he does not. Pascal argues that a rational person 

should live as though God exists. 

In addition to arguments for the existence of God, Christian apologists have also 

attempted to respond successfully to arguments against the existence of God. Two very 

popular arguments against the existence of God are the hiddenness argument and the 

argument from evil. The hiddenness argument tries to show that a perfectly loving God's 

existence is incompatible with the existence of nonresistant nonbelievers. The argument 

from evil tries to show that the existence of evil renders God's existence unlikely or 

impossible. 

Presuppositional Apologetics 

Presuppositional apologetics is a Reformed Protestant methodology which claims that 

presuppositions are essential to any philosophical position and that there are no 

"neutral" assumptions from which a Christian can reason in common with a non- 

Christian. There are two main schools of presuppositional apologetics, that of Cornelius 

Van Til (and his students Greg Bahnsen and John Frame) and that of Gordon Haddon 

Clark. 

Van Til drew upon but did not always agree with, the work of Dutch Calvinist 

philosophers and theologians such as D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, Herman Dooyeweerd, 

Hendrik G. Stoker, Herman Bavinck, and Abraham Kuyper. Bahnsen describes Van Til's 

approach to Christian apologetics as pointing out the difference in ultimate principles 

between Christians and non-Christians and then showing that the non-Christian 

principles reduce to absurdity. In practice, this school utilizes what has come to be 

known as the transcendental argument for the existence of God. 

Clark held that the Scriptures constituted the axioms of Christian thought, which could 

not be questioned, though their consistency could be discussed. A consequence of this 


position is that God's existence can never be demonstrated, either by empirical means 

or by philosophical argument. In The Justification of Knowledge, the Calvinist theologian 

Robert L. Reymond argues that believers should not even attempt such proofs. 

Moral Apologetics 

Moral apologetics states that real moral obligation is a fact. Catholic apologist Peter 

Kreeft said, "We are really, truly, objectively obligated to do good and avoid evil." In 

moral apologetics, the arguments for man's sinfulness and man's need for redemption 

are stressed. Examples of this type of apologetic would be Jonathan Edwards's sermon 

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The Four Spiritual Laws religious tract 

(Campus Crusade for Christ) would be another example. 

Scientific Apologetics 

Many Christians contend that science 

and the Bible do not contradict each 

other and that scientific fact supports 

Christian apologetics. The Catechism of 

the Catholic Church states that "The 

question about the origins of the world 

and of man has been the object of many 

scientific studies which have splendidly 

enriched our knowledge... These 

discoveries invite us to even greater 

admiration for the greatness of the 

Creator." The theologian and 

mathematician Marin Mersenne used celestial mechanics as evidence in his apologetic 

work, while Matteo Ricci engaged in scientific apologetics in China. In modern times, 

the theory of the Big Bang has been used in support of Christian apologetics. 

Several Christian apologists have sought to reconcile Christianity and science in regard 

to the question of origins. Theistic Evolution claims that classical religious teachings 

about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological 

evolution and that the Creator God uses the process of evolution. 

Denis Lamoureux, in Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution states 

that "This view of origins fully embraces both the religious beliefs of biblical Christianity 

and the scientific theories of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution. It 

contends that the Creator established and maintains the laws of nature, including the 

mechanisms of a teleological evolution." The most radical example of a Christianevolutionary 

synthesis is the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, which was intended as 

apologetics to the world of science, but which was later condemned by the Catholic 

Church. 


Creationist Apologetics 

Creation apologetics include young Earth creationism, old Earth creationism, and 

theistic evolution. Young Earth creationists believe the Bible teaches that the Earth is 

approximately 6,000 years old, and reject the scientific consensus for the age of the 

Earth. Young Earth creationists also engage in Biblical apologetics with regard to 

various parts of the primordial history in Genesis 1–11 – such as the long life spans of 

people such as Methuselah, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. [72][73][74] Old Earth 

creationists believe it is possible to harmonize the Bible's six-day account of creation 

with the scientific evidence that the universe is 13.8 billion-years-old and Earth is 4.54 

billion-years-old. 

Other old Earth creationists, such as astrophysicist Hugh Ross, see each of the six days 

of creation as being a long, but finite period of time, based on the multiple meanings of 

the Hebrew word yom (day light hours/24 hours/age of time) and other Biblical creation 

passages. 

Experiential Apologetics 

Experiential apologetics is a reference to an appeal "primarily, if not exclusively, to 

experience as evidence for Christian faith." Also, "they spurn rational arguments or 

factual evidence in favor of what they believe to be a self-verifying experience." This 

view stresses experience that other apologists have not made as explicit, and in the 

end, the concept that the Holy Spirit convinces the heart of truth becomes the central 

theme of the apologetic argument. 

Major colleges and universities offering Christian apologetics programs: 

School Location Program Degrees Awarded 

Biola University 

Central India 

Theological 

Seminary 

Clarks Summit 

University 

Southern 

California, US 

Christian Apologetics 

Certificate, M.A. 

Itarsi, India Christian Apologetics M.Th., Ph.D. 

South Abington 

Township, PA, US 

Biblical Apologetics 

Denver Seminary Colorado, US Apologetics and Ethics 

Hong Kong 

Centre for 

Christian 

Apologetics 

Houston Baptist 

University 

Hong Kong 


M.A. 

M.A., M.Div. with 

Emphasis 

Certificate in Christian 

Apologetics 

Houston, TX, US Christian Apologetics M.A.A. 

New Orleans New Orleans, Christian Apologetics M.A., M.Div., D.Min., 


Baptist 


Seminary 

Louisiana 

Ph.D. 

Oklahoma 

Wesleyan 

University 

Bartlesville, 

Oklahoma 


M.A. 

Oxford Centre for 

Christian 

Apologetics 

Oxford, England 


M.Th., Doctoral 

Fellowships 

Westminster 


Seminary 

Philadelphia, US 

& London, 

England 

Apologetics 

M.Th. at London 

Campus, Doctoral, 

Masters, Certificate 

Programs at Philadelphia 

Campus 

South African 


Seminary 

Johannesburg, 

South Africa 

Apologetics 

MTh 

Southern Baptist 


Seminary 

Louisville, KY 

Apologetics/Apologetics & 

Worldviews 

Ph.D. 

Southern 

Evangelical 

Seminary 

Charlotte, North 

Carolina 

Apologetics/Scientific 

Apologetics 

Certificate, MA, MDiv, 

DMin 

Gimlekollen NLA 

College 

Kristiansand, 

Norway 

Communication, worldview 

and Christian apologetics 

Certificate, Bachelor 



VI. Anthroposophy 

Anthroposophy is the philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner that postulates the 

existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to 

human experience through inner development. More specifically, it aims to develop 

faculties of perceptive imagination, inspiration and intuition through the cultivation of a 

form of thinking independent of sensory experience, and to present the results thus 

derived in a manner subject to rational verification. Anthroposophy aims to attain in its 

study of spiritual experience the precision and clarity attained by the natural sciences in 

their investigations of the physical world. 

The philosophy has double roots in German idealism, a philosophical movement, and 

German mysticism and was initially expressed in language drawn from Theosophy. 

Steiner chose the term anthroposophy (from anthropo-, human, and Sophia, wisdom) to 

emphasize the humanistic orientation of his world-conception. 

Anthroposophical ideas have been applied practically in many areas including 

Steiner/Waldorf education, special education (most prominently through the Camphill 

Movement), biodynamic agriculture, medicine, ethical banking, organizational 

development, and the arts. The Anthroposophical Society has its international center at 

the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. 

Michael Shermer and Michael Ruse have termed anthroposophy's application in areas 

such as medicine, biology, and biodynamic agriculture to be pseudoscience; Olav 


Hammer and Tom Grote have termed anthroposophy "the most important esoteric 

society in European history." 

History 

The early work of the founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, culminated in his 

Philosophy of Freedom (also translated as The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and 

Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path). Here, Steiner developed a concept of free will 

based on inner experiences, especially those that occur in the creative activity of 

independent thought. 

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Steiner's interests turned to explicitly spiritual 

areas of research. His work began to interest others interested in spiritual ideas; among 

these was the Theosophical Society. From 1900 on, thanks to the positive reception 

given to his ideas, Steiner focused increasingly on his work with the Theosophical 

Society, becoming the secretary of its section in Germany in 1902. During the years of 

his leadership, membership increased dramatically, from a few individuals to sixty-nine 

Lodges. 

By 1907, a split between Steiner and the mainstream Theosophical Society had begun 

to become apparent. While the Society was oriented toward an Eastern and especially 

Indian approach, Steiner was trying to develop a path that embraced Christianity and 

natural science. The split became irrevocable when Annie Besant, then president of the 

Theosophical Society, began to present the child Jiddu Krishnamurti as the reincarnated 

Christ. Steiner strongly objected and considered any comparison between Krishnamurti 

and Christ to be nonsense; many years later, Krishnamurti also repudiated the 

assertion. Steiner's continuing differences with Besant led him to separate from the 

Theosophical Society Adyar; he was followed by the great majority of the membership 

of the Theosophical Society's German Section, as well as members of other national 

sections. 

By this time, Steiner had reached considerable stature as a spiritual teacher. He spoke 

about what he considered to be his direct experience of the Akashic Records 

(sometimes called the "Akasha Chronicle"), thought to be a spiritual chronicle of the 

history, pre-history, and future of the world and mankind. In a number of works, Steiner 

described a path of inner development he felt would let anyone attain comparable 

spiritual experiences. Sound vision could be developed, in part, by practicing rigorous 

forms of ethical and cognitive self-discipline, concentration, and meditation; in particular, 

a person's moral development must precede the development of spiritual faculties. 

In 1912, the Anthroposophical Society was founded. After World War I, the 

Anthroposophical movement took on new directions. Projects such as schools, centers 

for those with special needs, organic farms and medical clinics were established, all 

inspired by anthroposophy. 


In 1923, faced with differences between older members focusing on inner development 

and younger members eager to become active in the social transformations of the time, 

Steiner re-founded the Society in an inclusive manner and established a School for 

Spiritual Science. As a spiritual basis for the re-founded movement, Steiner wrote a 

"Foundation Stone Meditation" which remains a central meditative expression of 

anthroposophical ideas. 

Steiner died just over a year later, in 1925. The Second World War temporarily hindered 

the anthroposophical movement in most of Continental Europe, as the Anthroposophical 

Society and most of its daughter movements (e.g. Steiner/Waldorf education) were 

banned by the National Socialists (Nazis); virtually no anthroposophists ever joined the 

National Socialist Party. 

By 2007, national branches of the Anthroposophical Society had been established in 

fifty countries, and about 10,000 institutions around the world were working on the basis 

of anthroposophy. In the same year, the Anthroposophical Society was called the "most 

important esoteric society in European history." 

Etymology and Earlier Uses of The Word 

Anthroposophy is an amalgam of the Greek terms ἄνθρωπος (anthropos = "human") 

and σοφία (sophia = "wisdom"). An early English usage is recorded by Nathan Bailey 

(1742) as meaning "the knowledge of the nature of man." 

The first known use of the term anthroposophy occurs within Arbatel de magia veterum, 

summum sapientiae studium, a book published anonymously in 1575 and attributed to 

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. The work describes anthroposophy (as well as theosophy) 

variously as an understanding of goodness, nature, or human affairs. In 1648, the 

Welsh philosopher Thomas Vaughan published his Anthroposophia Theomagica, or a 

discourse of the nature of man and his state after death. 

The term began to appear with some frequency in philosophical works of the mid- and 

late-nineteenth century. In the early part of that century, Ignaz Troxler used the term 


"anthroposophy" to refer to philosophy deepened to self-knowledge, which he 

suggested allows deeper knowledge of nature as well. He spoke of human nature as a 

mystical unity of God and world. Immanuel Hermann Fichte used the term 

anthroposophy to refer to "rigorous human self-knowledge," achievable through 

thorough comprehension of the human spirit and of the working of God in this spirit, in 

his 1856 work Anthropology: The Study of the Human Soul. In 1872, the philosopher of 

religion Gideon Spicker used the term anthroposophy to refer to self-knowledge that 

would unite God and world: "the true study of the human being is the human being, and 

philosophy's highest aim is self-knowledge, or Anthroposophy." 

In 1882, the philosopher Robert Zimmermann published the treatise, "An Outline of 

Anthroposophy: Proposal for a System of Idealism on a Realistic Basis," proposing that 

idealistic philosophy should employ logical thinking to extend empirical experience. 

Steiner attended lectures by Zimmermann at the University of Vienna in the early 

1880s, thus at the time of this book's publication. 

In the early 1900s, Steiner began using the term anthroposophy (i.e. human wisdom) as 

an alternative to the term theosophy (i.e. divine wisdom). 

Spiritual knowledge and freedom 

Central Ideas 

Anthroposophical proponents aim to extend the clarity of the scientific method to 

phenomena of human soul-life and to spiritual experiences. This requires developing 

new faculties of objective spiritual perception, which Steiner maintained was possible for 

humanity today. The steps of this process of inner development he identified as 

consciously achieved imagination, inspiration and intuition. 

Steiner believed results of this form of spiritual research should be expressed in a way 

that can be understood and evaluated on the same basis as the results of natural 

science: "The anthroposophical schooling of thinking leads to the development of a nonsensory, 

or so-called supersensory consciousness, whereby the spiritual researcher 

brings the experiences of this realm into ideas, concepts, and expressive language in a 

form which people can understand who do not yet have the capacity to achieve the 

supersensory experiences necessary for individual research." 

Steiner hoped to form a spiritual movement that would free the individual from any 

external authority: "The most important problem of all human thinking is this: to 

comprehend the human being as a personality grounded in him or herself." For Steiner, 

the human capacity for rational thought would allow individuals to comprehend spiritual 

research on their own and bypass the danger of dependency on an authority. 


Steiner contrasted the anthroposophical 

approach with both conventional mysticism, 

which he considered lacking the clarity 

necessary for exact knowledge, and natural 

science, which he considered arbitrarily 

limited to investigating the outer world. 

Nature of The Human Being 

In Theosophy, Steiner suggested that human 

beings unite a physical body of substances 

gathered from (and that ultimately return to) 

the inorganic world; a life body (also called 

the etheric body), in common with all living 

creatures (including plants); a bearer of 

sentience or consciousness (also called the astral body), in common with all animals; 

and the ego, which anchors the faculty of self-awareness unique to human beings. 

Anthroposophy describes a broad evolution of human consciousness. Early stages of 

human evolution possess an intuitive perception of reality, including a clairvoyant 

perception of spiritual realities. Humanity has progressively evolved an increasing 

reliance on intellectual faculties and a corresponding loss of intuitive or clairvoyant 

experiences, which have become atavistic. 

The increasing intellectualization of consciousness, initially a progressive direction of 

evolution, has led to an excessive reliance on abstraction and a loss of contact with 

both natural and spiritual realities. However, to go further requires new capacities that 

combine the clarity of intellectual thought with the imagination, and beyond this with 

consciously achieved inspiration and intuitive insights. 

Anthroposophy speaks of the reincarnation of the human spirit: that the human being 

passes between stages of existence, incarnating into an earthly body, living on earth, 

leaving the body behind and entering into the spiritual worlds before returning to be born 

again into a new life on earth. After the death of the physical body, the human spirit 

recapitulates the past life, perceiving its events as they were experienced by the objects 

of its actions. A complex transformation takes place between the review of the past life 

and the preparation for the next life. 

The individual's karmic condition eventually leads to a choice of parents, physical body, 

disposition, and capacities that provide the challenges and opportunities that further 

development requires, which includes karmically chosen tasks for the future life. 

Steiner described some conditions that determine the interdependence of a person's 

lives, or karma. 


Evolution 

The anthroposophical view of evolution considers all animals to have evolved from an 

early, unspecialized form. As the least specialized animal, human beings have 

maintained the closest connection to the archetypal form; contrary to the Darwinian 

conception of human evolution, all other animals devolve from this archetype. The 

spiritual archetype originally created by spiritual beings was devoid of physical 

substance; only later did this descend into material existence on Earth. In this view, 

human evolution has accompanied the Earth's evolution throughout the existence of the 

Earth. 

The evolution of man, Steiner said, has consisted in the gradual incarnation of a 

spiritual being into a material body. It has been a true "descent" of man from a spiritual 

world into a world of matter. The evolution of the animal kingdom did not precede, but 

rather accompanied the process of human incarnation. Man is thus not the end result of 

the evolution of the animals, but is rather in a certain sense their cause. In the 

succession of types which appears in the fossil record-the fishes, reptiles, mammals, 

and finally fossil remains of man himself — the stages of this process of incarnation are 

reflected. 

Anthroposophy took over from Theosophy a complex system of cycles of world 

development and human evolution. The evolution of the world is said to have occurred 

in cycles. The first phase of the world consisted only of heat. In the second phase, a 

more active condition, light, and a more condensed, gaseous state separate out from 

the heat. In the third phase, a fluid state arose, as well as a sounding, forming energy. 

In the fourth (current) phase, solid physical matter first exists. This process is said to 

have been accompanied by an evolution of consciousness which led up to present 

human culture. 

Ethics 

The anthroposophical view is that good is found in the balance between two polar 

influences on world and human evolution. These are often described through their 

mythological embodiments as spiritual adversaries which endeavour to tempt and 

corrupt humanity, Lucifer and his counterpart Ahriman. These have both positive and 

negative aspects. Lucifer is the light spirit, which "plays on human pride and offers the 

delusion of divinity", but also motivates creativity and spirituality; Ahriman is the dark 

spirit that tempts human beings to "...deny [their] link with divinity and to live entirely on 

the material plane", but that also stimulates intellectuality and technology. Both figures 

exert a negative effect on humanity when their influence becomes misplaced or onesided, 

yet their influences are necessary for human freedom to unfold. 

Each human being has the task to find a balance between these opposing influences, 

and each is helped in this task by the mediation of the Representative of Humanity, also 

known as the Christ being, a spiritual entity who stands between and harmonizes the 

two extremes. 


Applications 

The applications of anthroposophy to practical fields include: 

Steiner/Waldorf Education 

This is a pedagogical movement with over 1000 Steiner or Waldorf schools (the latter 

name stems from the first such school, founded in Stuttgart in 1919) located in some 60 

countries; the great majority of these are independent (private) schools. Sixteen of the 

schools have been affiliated with the United Nations' UNESCO Associated Schools 

Project Network, which sponsors education projects that foster improved quality of 

education throughout the world. Waldorf schools receive full or partial governmental 

funding in some European nations, Australia and in parts of the United States (as 

Waldorf method public or charter schools) and Canada. 

The schools have been founded in a variety of communities: for example in the favelas 

of São Paulo to wealthy suburbs of major cities; in India, Egypt, Australia, the 

Netherlands, Mexico and South Africa. Though most of the early Waldorf schools were 


teacher-founded, the schools today are usually initiated and later supported by a parent 

community. Waldorf schools are among the most visible anthroposophical institutions. 

Biodynamic Agriculture 

Biodynamic agriculture, the first intentional form of organic farming, began in 1924, 

when Rudolf Steiner gave a series of lectures published in English as The Agriculture 

Course. Steiner is considered one of the founders of the modern organic farming 

movement. 

Anthroposophical Medicine 

Steiner gave several series of lectures to physicians and medical students. Out of those 

grew a complementary medical movement intending to "extend the knowledge gained 

through the methods of the natural sciences of the present age with insights from 

spiritual science." This movement now includes hundreds of M.D.s, chiefly in Europe 

and North America, and has its own clinics, hospitals, and medical schools. 

One of the most studied applications has been the use of mistletoe extracts in cancer 

therapy, but research has found no evidence of benefit. 

Special Needs Education and Services 

In 1922, Ita Wegman founded an anthroposophical center for special needs education, 

the Sonnenhof, in Switzerland. In 1940, Karl König founded the Camphill Movement in 

Scotland. The latter in particular has spread widely, and there are now over a hundred 

Camphill communities and other anthroposophical homes for children and adults in 

need of special care in about 22 countries around the world. Both Karl König, Thomas 

Weihs and others have written extensively on these ideas underlying Special education. 

Architecture 

Steiner designed around thirteen buildings in an organic—expressionist architectural 

style. Foremost among these are his designs for the two Goetheanum buildings in 

Dornach, Switzerland. Thousands of further buildings have been built by later 

generations of anthroposophic architects. 

Architects who have been strongly influenced by the anthroposophic style include Imre 

Makovecz in Hungary, Hans Scharoun and Joachim Eble in Germany, Erik Asmussen 

in Sweden, Kenji Imai in Japan, Thomas Rau, Anton Alberts and Max van Huut in the 

Netherlands, Christopher Day and Camphill Architects in the UK, Thompson and Rose 

in America, Denis Bowman in Canada, and Walter Burley Griffin and Gregory Burgess 

in Australia. 


ING House in Amsterdam is a contemporary building by an anthroposophical architect 

which has received awards for its ecological design and approach to a self-sustaining 

ecology as an autonomous building and example of sustainable architecture. 

Eurythmy 

Together with Marie von Sivers, Steiner developed eurythmy, a performance art 

combining dance, speech, and music. 

Social Finance and Entrepreneurship 

Around the world today are a number of banks, companies, charities, and schools for 

developing co-operative forms of business using Steiner's ideas about economic 

associations, aiming at harmonious and socially responsible roles in the world economy. 

The first anthroposophic bank was the Gemeinschaftsbank für Leihen und Schenken in 


Bochum, Germany, founded in 1974. Socially responsible banks founded out of 

anthroposophy in the English-speaking world include Triodos Bank, founded in 1980 

and active in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain and France. Cultura 

Sparebank dates from 1982 when a group of Norwegian anthroposophists start to grow 

the idea of having ethical banking but only in the late 90s the bank starts to operate as a 

savings bank in Norway. La Nef in France and RSF Social Finance in San Francisco 

are other examples. 

Harvard Business School historian Geoffrey Jones traced the considerable impact both 

Steiner and later anthroposophical entrepreneurs had on the creation of many 

businesses in organic food, ecological architecture and sustainable finance. 

Organizational Development, Counselling and Biography Work 

Bernard Lievegoed, a psychiatrist, founded a new method of individual and institutional 

development oriented towards humanizing organizations and linked with Steiner's ideas 

of the threefold social order. This work is represented by the NPI Institute for 

Organizational Development in the Netherlands and sister organizations in many other 

countries. Various forms of biographic and counselling work have been developed on 

the basis of anthroposophy. 

Speech and Drama 

There are also anthroposophical movements to renew speech and drama, the most 

important of which are based in the work of Marie Steiner-von Sivers (speech formation, 

also known as Creative Speech) and the Chekhov Method originated by Michael 

Chekhov (nephew of Anton Chekhov). 

Art 

Anthroposophic painting, a style inspired by Rudolf Steiner, featured prominently in the 

first Goetheanum's cupola. The technique frequently begins by filling the surface to be 

painted with color, out of which forms are gradually developed, often images with 

symbolic-spiritual significance. Paints that allow for many transparent layers are 

preferred, and often these are derived from plant materials. 

Other 

Other applications include: 

 

 

Phenomenological approaches to science, 

New approaches to painting and sculpture. 


John Wilkes' fountain-like flowforms, sculptural forms that guide water into 

rhythmic movement and are used both in water-purification projects and 

decoratively. 

Social Goals 

For a period after World War I, Steiner was extremely active and well known in 

Germany, in part because he lectured widely proposing social reforms. Steiner was a 

sharp critic of nationalism, which he saw as outdated, and a proponent of achieving 

social solidarity through individual freedom. A petition proposing a radical change in the 

German constitution and expressing his basic social ideas (signed by Herman Hesse, 

among others) was widely circulated. His main book on social reform is Toward Social 

Renewal. 

Anthroposophy continues to aim at reforming society through maintaining and 

strengthening the independence of the spheres of cultural life, human rights and the 

economy. It emphasizes a particular ideal in each of these three realms of society: 

1. Freedom in cultural life 

2. Equality of rights, the sphere of legislation 

3. Fraternity in the economic sphere 


Esoteric Path 

Paths of Spiritual Development 

According to Steiner, a real spiritual world exists, evolving along with the material one. 

Steiner held that the spiritual world can be researched in the right circumstances 

through direct experience, by persons practicing rigorous forms of ethical and cognitive 

self-discipline. Steiner described many exercises he said were suited to strengthening 

such self-discipline; the most complete exposition of these is found in his book How To 

Know Higher Worlds. The aim of these exercises is to develop higher levels of 

consciousness through meditation and observation. Details about the spiritual world, 

Steiner suggested, could on such a basis be discovered and reported, though no more 

infallibly than the results of natural science. 

Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the 

spiritual in the universe…. Anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential 

need of life, certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just 

as one experiences hunger and thirst. 

Steiner regarded his research reports as being important aids to others seeking to enter 

into spiritual experience. He suggested that a combination of spiritual exercises (for 

example, concentrating on an object such as a seed), moral development (control of 

thought, feelings and will combined with openness, tolerance and flexibility) and 

familiarity with other spiritual researchers' results would best further an individual's 

spiritual development. He consistently emphasised that any inner, spiritual practice 

should be undertaken in such a way as not to interfere with one's responsibilities in 

outer life. Steiner distinguished between what he considered were true and false paths 

of spiritual investigation. 

In anthroposophy, artistic expression is also treated as a potentially valuable bridge 

between spiritual and material reality. 

Prerequisites to and Stages of Inner Development 

A person seeking inner development must first of all make the attempt to give up certain 

formerly held inclinations. Then, new inclinations must be acquired by constantly 

holding the thought of such inclinations, virtues or characteristics in one's mind. They 

must be so incorporated into one's being that a person becomes enabled to alter his 

soul by his own will-power. This must be tried as objectively as a chemical might be 

tested in an experiment. A person who has never endeavored to change his soul, who 

has never made the initial decision to develop the qualities of endurance, steadfastness 

and calm logical thinking, or a person who has such decisions but has given up 

because he did not succeed in a week, a month, a year or a decade, will never 

conclude anything inwardly about these truths. 

Rudolf Steiner, "On the Inner Life": 


Steiner's stated prerequisites to beginning on a spiritual path include a willingness to 

take up serious cognitive studies, a respect for factual evidence, and a responsible 

attitude. Central to progress on the path itself is a harmonious cultivation of the following 

qualities: 

 

 

 

 

 

Control over one's own thinking 

Control over one's will 

Composure 

Positivity 

Impartiality 

Steiner sees meditation as a concentration and enhancement of the power of thought. 

By focusing consciously on an idea, feeling or intention the meditant seeks to arrive at 

pure thinking, a state exemplified by but not confined to pure mathematics. In Steiner's 

view, conventional sensory-material knowledge is achieved through relating perception 

and concepts. The anthroposophic path of esoteric training articulates three further 

stages of supersensory knowledge, which do not necessarily follow strictly sequentially 

in any single individual's spiritual progress. 

 

By focusing on symbolic patterns, images, and poetic mantras, the meditant can 

achieve consciously directed Imaginations that allow sensory phenomena to 

appear as the expression of underlying beings of a soul-spiritual nature. 


By transcending such imaginative pictures, the meditant can become conscious 

of the meditative activity itself, which leads to experiences of expressions of soulspiritual 

beings unmediated by sensory phenomena or qualities. Steiner calls this 

stage Inspiration. 

By intensifying the will-forces through exercises such as a chronologically 

reversed review of the day's events, the meditant can achieve a further stage of 

inner independence from sensory experience, leading to direct contact, and even 

union, with spiritual beings ("Intuition") without loss of individual awareness. 

Spiritual Exercises 

Steiner described numerous exercises he believed would bring spiritual development; 

other anthroposophists have added many others. A central principle is that "for every 

step in spiritual perception, three steps are to be taken in moral development." 

According to Steiner, moral development reveals the extent to which one has achieved 

control over one's inner life and can exercise it in harmony with the spiritual life of other 

people; it shows the real progress in spiritual development, the fruits of which are given 

in spiritual perception. It also guarantees the capacity to distinguish between false 

perceptions or illusions (which are possible in perceptions of both the outer world and 

the inner world) and true perceptions: i.e., the capacity to distinguish in any perception 

between the influence of subjective elements (i.e., viewpoint) and objective reality. 

Place in Western philosophy 

Steiner built upon Goethe's conception of an imaginative power capable of synthesizing 

the sense-perceptible form of a thing (an image of its outer appearance) and the 

concept we have of that thing (an image of its inner structure or nature). Steiner added 

to this the conception that a further step in the development of thinking is possible when 

the thinker observes his or her own thought processes. "The organ of observation and 

the observed thought process are then identical, so that the condition thus arrived at is 

simultaneously one of perception through thinking and one of thought through 

perception." 

Thus, in Steiner's view, we can overcome the subject-object divide through inner 

activity, even though all human experience begins by being conditioned by it. In this 

connection, Steiner examines the step from thinking determined by outer impressions to 

what he calls sense-free thinking. He characterizes thoughts he considers without 

sensory content, such as mathematical or logical thoughts, as free deeds. Steiner 

believed he had thus located the origin of free will in our thinking, and in particular in 

sense-free thinking. 

Some of the epistemic basis for Steiner's later anthroposophical work is contained in the 

seminal work, Philosophy of Freedom. In his early works, Steiner sought to overcome 

what he perceived as the dualism of Cartesian idealism and Kantian subjectivism by 

developing Goethe's conception of the human being as a natural-supernatural entity, 


that is: natural in that humanity is a product of nature, supernatural in that through our 

conceptual powers we extend nature's realm, allowing it to achieve a reflective capacity 

in us as philosophy, art and science. Steiner was one of the first European philosophers 

to overcome the subject-object split in Western thought. Though not well known among 

philosophers, his philosophical work was taken up by Owen Barfield (and through him 

influenced the Inklings, an Oxford group of Christian writers that included J. R. R. 

Tolkien and C. S. Lewis). 

Christian and Jewish mystical thought have also influenced the development of 

anthroposophy. 

Union of Science and Spirit 

Steiner believed in the possibility of applying the clarity of scientific thinking to spiritual 

experience, which he saw as deriving from an objectively existing spiritual world. Steiner 

identified mathematics, which attains certainty through thinking itself, thus through inner 

experience rather than empirical observation, as the basis of his epistemology of 

spiritual experience. 

Relationship to Religion 

Christ as The Center of Earthly Evolution 

Steiner's writing, though appreciative of all religions and cultural developments, 

emphasizes Western tradition as having evolved to meet contemporary needs. He 

describes Christ and his mission on earth of bringing individuated consciousness as 

having a particularly important place in human evolution, whereby: 

 

 

Christianity has evolved out of previous religions; 

The being which manifests in Christianity also manifests in all faiths and 

religions, and each religion is valid and true for the time and cultural context in 

which it was born; 


All historical forms of Christianity need to be transformed considerably to meet 

the continuing evolution of humanity. 

Spiritual science does not want to usurp the place of Christianity; on the contrary it 

would like to be instrumental in making Christianity understood. Thus it becomes clear 

to us through spiritual science that the being whom we call Christ is to be recognized as 

the center of life on earth, that the Christian religion is the ultimate religion for the earth's 

whole future. Spiritual science shows us particularly that the pre-Christian religions 

outgrow their one-sidedness and come together in the Christian faith. It is not the desire 

of spiritual science to set something else in the place of Christianity; rather it wants to 

contribute to a deeper, more heartfelt understanding of Christianity. 

Thus, anthroposophy considers there to be a being who unifies all religions, and who is 

not represented by any particular religious faith. This being is, according to Steiner, not 

only the Redeemer of the Fall from Paradise, but also the unique pivot and meaning of 

earth's evolutionary processes and of human history. To describe this being, Steiner 

periodically used terms such as the "Representative of Humanity" or the "good spirit" 

rather than any denominational term. 

Divergence from conventional Christian thought 

Steiner's views of Christianity diverge from conventional Christian thought in key places, 

and include gnostic elements: 

 

 

 

One central point of divergence is Steiner's views on reincarnation and karma. 

Steiner differentiated three contemporary paths by which he believed it possible 

to arrive at Christ: 

o 

Through heart-filled experiences of the Gospels; Steiner described this as 

the historically dominant path, but becoming less important in the future. 

o 

o 

Through inner experiences of a spiritual reality; this Steiner regarded as 

increasingly the path of spiritual or religious seekers today. 

Through initiatory experiences whereby the reality of Christ's death and 

resurrection are experienced; Steiner believed this is the path people will 

increasingly take. 

 

 

Steiner also believed that there were two different Jesus children involved in the 

Incarnation of the Christ: one child descended from Solomon, as described in the 

Gospel of Matthew, the other child from Nathan, as described in the Gospel of 

Luke. (The genealogies given in the two gospels diverge some thirty generations 

before Jesus' birth, and 'Jesus' was a common name in biblical times.) 

His view of the second coming of Christ is also unusual; he suggested that this 

would not be a physical reappearance, but that the Christ being would become 


manifest in non-physical form, visible to spiritual vision and apparent in 

community life for increasing numbers of people beginning around the year 1933. 

 

He emphasized his belief that in the future humanity would need to be able to 

recognize the Spirit of Love in all its genuine forms, regardless of what name 

would be used to describe this being. He also warned that the traditional name of 

the Christ might be misused, and the true essence of this being of love ignored. 

Judaism 

Rudolf Steiner wrote and lectured on Judaism and Jewish issues over much of his adult 

life. In the 1880s and 1890s, he was a fierce opponent of antisemitism and supported 

the unconditional acceptance, integration, and assimilation of the Jews in Europe. He 

also supported Émile Zola's position in the Dreyfus affair. Steiner emphasized 

Judaism's central importance to the constitution of the modern era in the West but 

suggested that to appreciate the spirituality of the future it would need to overcome its 

tendency toward abstraction. 

In his later life, Steiner was accused by the Nazis of being a Jew, and Adolf Hitler called 

anthroposophy "Jewish methods". The anthroposophical institutions in Germany were 

banned during Nazi rule and several anthroposophists sent to concentration camps. 

Important early anthroposophists who were Jewish included two central members on 

the executive boards of the precursors to the modern Anthroposophical Society, and 

Karl König, the founder of the Camphill movement, who had converted to Christianity. 

Martin Buber and Hugo Bergmann, who viewed Steiner's social ideas as a solution to 

the Arab–Jewish conflict, were also influenced by anthroposophy. 

There are numerous anthroposophical organisations in Israel, including the 

anthroposophical kibbutz Harduf, founded by Jesaiah Ben-Aharon, forty Waldorf 

kindergartens and seventeen Waldorf schools (stand as of 2018). A number of these 

organizations are striving to foster positive relationships between the Arab and Jewish 

populations: The Harduf Waldorf school includes both Jewish and Arab faculty and 


students, and has extensive contact with the surrounding Arab communities, while the 

first joint Arab-Jewish kindergarten was a Waldorf program in Hilf near Haifa. 

Christian Community 

Towards the end of Steiner's life, a group of theology students (primarily Lutheran, with 

some Roman Catholic members) approached Steiner for help in reviving Christianity, in 

particular "to bridge the widening gulf between modern science and the world of spirit". [1] 

They approached a notable Lutheran pastor, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, who was already 

working with Steiner's ideas, to join their efforts. Out of their co-operative endeavor, the 

Movement for Religious Renewal, now generally known as The Christian Community, 

was born. Steiner emphasized that he considered this movement, and his role in 

creating it, to be independent of his anthroposophical work, as he wished 

anthroposophy to be independent of any particular religion or religious denomination. 

Supporters 

Reception 

Anthroposophy's supporters include Pulitzer Prize-winning and Nobel Laureate Saul 

Bellow, Nobel prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, Andrei Bely, Joseph Beuys, Owen Barfield, 

architect Walter Burley Griffin, Wassily Kandinsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, Bruno Walter, 

Right Livelihood Award winners Sir George Trevelyan, and Ibrahim Abouleish, and child 

psychiatrist Eva Frommer. Albert Schweitzer was a friend of Steiner's and was 

supportive of his ideals for cultural renewal. 

Scientific Basis 

Though Rudolf Steiner studied natural science at the Vienna Technical University at the 

undergraduate level, his doctorate was in epistemology and very little of his work is 

directly concerned with the empirical sciences. In his mature work, when he did refer to 

science it was often to present phenomenological or Goethean science as an alternative 

to what he considered the materialistic science of his contemporaries. 

His primary interest was in applying the methodology of science to realms of inner 

experience and the spiritual worlds (Steiner's appreciation that the essence of science is 

its method of inquiry is unusual among esotericists), and Steiner called anthroposophy 

Geisteswissenschaft (lit.: Science of the mind, or cultural or spiritual science), a term 

generally used in German to refer to the humanities and social sciences; [102] in fact, the 

term "science" is used more broadly in Europe as a general term that refers to any 

exact knowledge. 

[Anthroposophy's] methodology is to employ a scientific way of thinking, but to apply this 

methodology, which normally excludes our inner experience from consideration, instead 

to the human being proper. 


Whether this is a sufficient basis for anthroposophy to be considered a spiritual science 

has been a matter of controversy. As Freda Easton explained in her study of Waldorf 

schools, "Whether one accepts anthroposophy as a science depends upon whether one 

accepts Steiner's interpretation of a science that extends the consciousness and 

capacity of human beings to experience their inner spiritual world." Sven Ove Hansson 

has disputed anthroposophy's claim to a scientific basis, stating that its ideas are not 

empirically derived and neither reproducible nor testable. 

Carlo Willmann points out that as, on its own terms, anthroposophical methodology 

offers no possibility of being falsified except through its own procedures of spiritual 

investigation, no intersubjective validation is possible by conventional scientific 

methods; it thus cannot stand up to positivistic science's criticism. Peter Schneider calls 

such objections untenable on the grounds that if a non-sensory, non-physical realm 

exists, then according to Steiner the experiences of pure thinking possible within the 

normal realm of consciousness would already be experiences of that, and it would be 

impossible to exclude the possibility of empirically grounded experiences of other 

supersensory content. 

Olav Hammer suggests that anthroposophy carries scientism "to lengths unparalleled in 

any other Esoteric position" due to its dependence upon claims of clairvoyant 

experience, its subsuming natural science under "spiritual science", and its 

development of what Hammer calls "fringe" sciences such as anthroposophical 


medicine and biodynamic agriculture justified partly on the basis of the ethical and 

ecological values they promote, rather than purely on a scientific basis. 

Though Steiner saw that spiritual vision itself is difficult for others to achieve, he 

recommended open-mindedly exploring and rationally testing the results of such 

research; he also urged others to follow a spiritual training that would allow them directly 

to apply the methods he used eventually to achieve comparable results. Some results of 

Steiner's research have been investigated and supported by scientists working to further 

and extend scientific observation in directions suggested by an anthroposophical 

approach. 

Anthony Storr stated about Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy: "His belief system is so 

eccentric, so unsupported by evidence, so manifestly bizarre, that rational skeptics are 

bound to consider it delusional.... But, whereas Einstein's way of perceiving the world by 

thought became confirmed by experiment and mathematical proof, Steiner's remained 

intensely subjective and insusceptible of objective confirmation." 

Religious Nature 

As an explicitly spiritual movement, anthroposophy has sometimes been called a 

religious philosophy. In 1998 People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools (PLANS) 

started a lawsuit alleging that anthroposophy is a religion for Establishment Clause 

purposes and therefore several California school districts should not be chartering 

Waldorf schools; the lawsuit was dismissed in 2012 for failure to show anthroposophy 

was a religion. In 2000, a French court ruled that a government minister's description of 

anthroposophy as a cult was defamatory. 

Statements On Race 

Anthroposophical ideas have been criticized from both sides in the race debate: 

From the mid-1930s on, National Socialist ideologues attacked the 

anthroposophical world-view as being opposed to Nazi racist and nationalistic 

principles; anthroposophy considered "Blood, Race and Folk" as primitive 

instincts that must be overcome. 

 

An academic analysis of the educational approach noted that "a naive version of 

the evolution of consciousness, a theory foundational to both Steiner's 

anthroposophy and Waldorf education, sometimes places one race below 

another in one or another dimension of development". 

In response to such critiques, the Anthroposophical Society in America published a 

statement clarifying its stance: 

We explicitly reject any racial theory that may be construed to be part of Rudolf Steiner's 

writings. The Anthroposophical Society in America is an open, public society and it 


ejects any purported spiritual or scientific theory on the basis of which the alleged 

superiority of one race is justified at the expense of another race. 



VII. Ecospirituality 

Ecospirituality connects the science of ecology with spirituality. It brings together 

religion and environmental activism. Ecospirituality has been defined as "a 

manifestation of the spiritual connection between human beings and the environment." 

The new millennium and the modern ecological crisis has created a need for 

environmentally based religion and spirituality. Ecospirituality is understood by some 

practitioners and scholars as one result of people wanting to free themselves from a 

consumeristic and materialistic society. Ecospirituality has been critiqued for being an 

umbrella term for concepts such as deep ecology, ecofeminism, and nature religion. 

Proponents may come from a range of faiths including: Islam; Christianity (Catholicism, 

Evangelicalism and Orthodox Christianity); Judaism; Buddhism and 

Indigenous traditions. Although many 

of their practices and 

beliefs may differ, a central claim is that there is "a 

spiritual dimension to our present ecological 

crisis." According to the 

environmentalist 

Sister Virginia Jones, "Eco-spirituality is 

about helping people 

experience 'the holy' 

in the natural world 

and to recognize their 

relationship as human 

beings to all creation. 

Ecospirituality has been influenced by the 

ideas of deep ecology, 

which is characterized 

by "recognition of the 

inherent value of all living 

beings and the use of this view in shaping 

environmental policies". Similarly to ecopsychology, it refers to the connections 

between the science of ecology and the study of psychology. 'Earth-based' spirituality is 

another term related to ecospirituality; it is associated with pagan religious traditions and 

the work of prominent ecofeminist, Starhawk. Ecospirituality refers to the intertwining of 

intuition and bodily awareness pertaining to a relational view between human beings 

and the planet. 

Origins 

Ecospirituality finds its history in the relationship between spirituality and the 

environment. Some scholars say it "flows from an understanding of cosmology or the 

story of the origin of the universe." There are multiple origin stories about how the 

spiritual relationship with people and the environment began. In Native America 

philosophy, there are many unique stories of how spirituality came to be. A common 

theme in a number of them is the discussion of a Great Spirit that lives within the 

universe and the earth represents its presence. 

Ecospirituality has also sprung from a reaction to the Western world's materialism and 

consumerism, characterized by ecotheologian Thomas Berry as a "crisis of 


cosmology." [13] Scholars have argued that "the modern perspective is based on science 

and focused on the human self with everything else being outside, resulting in the 

demise of the metaphysical world and the disenchantment with the cosmos." Therefore, 

ecospirituality originates as a rebuttal to the emphasis on the material as well as 

Western separation from the environment, where the environment is regarded as a set 

of material resources with primarily instrumental value. 

Ecological Crisis 

Ecospirituality became popularized due to a need for a reconceptualization of the 

human relationship with the environment. Terms such as environmental crisis, 

ecological crisis, climate change, global warming all refer to an ongoing global issue 

that needs to be addressed. Generally the ecological crisis is referring to the destruction 

of the earth’s ecosystem. What this encompasses is a highly controversial debate in 

scientific and political spheres. Globally we are faced with pollution of our basic needs 

(air, and water) as well as the depletion of important resources, most notably food 

resources. 

Annette Van Schalkwyk refers to the environmental crisis as “man-made”. It is arguably 

the result of a “mechanistic and capitalistic world view”. Whether it is man-made, or as 

some argue, a natural occurrence, humans are not helping. Pollution and depletion of 

resources play a major role in the ecological crisis. Bringing religion into the ecological 

crisis is controversial due to the divide between religion and science. Ecospirituality is 

prepared to acknowledge science, and work in tandem with religion to frame the 

environment as a sacred entity in need of protection. 

Mary Evelyn Tucker notes the importance of religion and ecology connecting with 

sustainability. Due to the environmental crisis, perceptions of sustainability are 

changing. Religion and ecology, and the way people experience ecospirituality, could 

contribute to this changing definition of sustainability. 

Research on ecospirituality 

Ecospirituality has been studied by academics in order to understand a clearer definition 

of what individuals label as ecospirituality and the framework in which they create this 

definition. One study focused on holistic nurses, who themselves characterize their 

profession as having a fundamentally spiritual nature and a sense of the importance of 

the environment. Researchers performed a phenomenological study where they 

assessed the nurses' ecospiritual consciousness. For the purpose of their study, they 

defined ecospiritual consciousness as "accessing a deep awareness of one's 

ecospiritual relationship." They then narrowed down their findings to the five principles 

of ecospiritual consciousness, which are: tending, dwelling, reverence, connectedness, 

and sentience. 

1. Tending was defined as "being awake and conscious," with "deep, inner selfreflection." 


2. Dwelling was defined as "a process of being with the seen and the unseen." 

3. Reverence was defined as "rediscovering the mystery present present in all 

creation and is embodied sense of the sacred," focusing on the earth. 

4. Connectedness was defined as an "organic relationship with the universe." 

5. Sentience was defined as "a sense of knowing." 

Another study looked at medical effects of ecospirituality by having patients with 

cardiovascular disease practice "environmental meditation" and log regular journal 

entries about their experiences. Researchers started out with the research question of, 

"What is the essence of the experience of ecospirituality meditation in patients with 

CVD?" CVD is an acronym for cardiovascular disease. From analyzing journal entries of 

participants, researchers abstracted four major themes of ecospirituality meditation: 

entering a new time zone, environmental reawakening, finding a new rhythm, and the 

creation of a healing environment. 

1. Entering a new time zone was described by researchers as "the expansion of 

time during meditation." 

2. Environmental Reawakening was described by researchers as "opened 

participants’ eyes to vistas not previously noticed" 


3. Finding a new rhythm was described by the researchers as "enhanced 

relationships with their family, friends, coworkers, and even their pets." 

4. The creation of a healing environment was described by the researchers as "With 

raised consciousnesses, they became aware of the choices they had regarding 

what types of intentions and energy that wanted to put out in their environment" 

This research was driven by the goal of raising awareness among healthcare 

professionals about ecospirituality and the medical importance of both self and 

environmental consciousness. Anecdotal evidence showed a decrease in blood 

pressure. However, the psychological benefits of environmental meditation were the 

main focus for the researchers. 

Dark Green Religion 

Dark Green Religion is one way in which people, both secular and religious, connect 

with nature on a spiritual level. Bron Taylor defines Dark Green Religion as "religion that 

considers nature to be sacred, imbued by intrinsic value, and worthy of reverent care" in 

his book Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. Nature 

religion is an overarching term of which Dark Green Religion is a part of. A key part of 

Dark Green Religion is the "depth of its consideration of nature." Dark Green Religion 

differs from Green Religion. Green Religion claims that it is a religious obligation for 

humans to be environmental stewards, while Dark Green Religion is a movement that 

simply holds nature as valuable and sacred. Spiritual types of Dark Green Religion 

include Naturalistic and Supernaturalistic forms of Animism and of Gaianism. The 

diverse views within Dark Green Religion are not without the idea that the earth is 

sacred and worthy of care. The perceptions of Dark Green Religion are global and 

flexible. Taylor's use of the word 'Dark' gestures toward these negative possibilities. 

According to Taylor, Dark Green Religion has the possibility to "inspire the emergence 

of a global, civic, earth religion." Dark Green, Green and Nature Religions are arguably 

all a part of ecospirituality. The term ecospirituality is versatile and overarching. 

Ecofeminism and Spirituality 

The umbrella term "ecospirituality" covers the feminist theology called Ecofeminism. [27] 

The term ecofeminism was first coined by the French writer Françoise D'Eaubonne in 

her book, Le Féminisme ou la Mort in order to name the connection between the 

patriarchal subjugation of women and the destruction of nature. In it, she argues that 

women have different ways of seeing and relating to the world than men. These 

differences can give rise alternative insights on interactions between humans and the 

natural world when women's perspectives are considered. The suppression and control 

of woman and the natural world are connected. On the ecofeminist view, women are 

controlled because they are thought to be closer to primitive nature. By understanding 

the connection between femininity and nature and by exploring feminine ways of seeing 

and relating, ecofeminism asserts that humans can realize positive ways of interacting 

with the natural world and with each other. 


Ecofeminism and Christianity on The Ecological Crisis 

A significant figure in Christian ecofeminism is Rosemary Radford Ruether. Ruether 

argues that feminism and ecology share a common vision, even though they use 

different languages. In her work, Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth 

Healing Ruether provides three recommendations on ways to move forward with 

repairing and "healing" the ecological crisis. The first recommendation is that "the 

ecological crisis needs to be seen not just as a crisis in the health of 

nonhuman ecosystems, polluted water, contaminated skies, 

threatened climate change, deforestation, extinction of 

species, important as all these realities are. Rather 

one needs to see the interconnections between the 

impoverishment of the earth and the impoverishment 

of human groups, even as others are enriching 

themselves to excess." The second 

recommendation is that "a healed ecosystem – 

humans, animals, land, air, and water together – 

needs to be understood as requiring a new way of 

life, not just a few adjustments here and there." The 

third and final recommendation is that the need for a new 

vision 

is necessary: "one needs to nurture the emergence of a new 

planetary vision and communal ethic that can knit together people across religions and 

cultures. There is rightly much dismay at the role that religions are playing in right-wing 

politics and even internecine violence today. But we need also to recognize the 

emergence of new configurations of inter-religious relations." 

Ecofeminism and Christianity in Liberation Theology 

According to Ivone Gebara, in Latin America, particularly in Christian Churches in Brazil, 

it is difficult to be a feminist, but more difficult to be an ecofeminist. Gebara explains 

ecology as one of the "deepest concerns of feminism and ecology as having a deep 

resonance or a political and anthropolocial consequence from a feminist perspective." 

Gebara believes that it is the task of different groups of Latin American women to 

"provide a new order of meaning including marginalized people." This task is both 

challenging and political. Gebara says: "We can choose the life of the planet and the 

respect of all living beings or we choose to die by our own bad decisions." 

Ecospirituality and Paganism 

World Religions and Ecospirituality 

Paganism is a nature-based religion that exists in a multitude of forms. There is no 

official doctrine or sacred text that structures its practice. Due to its lack of structure, 

many Pagans believe that it should be used as a tool to combat the current ecological 


crisis because it is flexible and can adapt to the environment's needs. Ecospirituality 

advocates contend that an ecology-based religion that focuses on the nurturing and 

healing of the earth is necessary in modernity. As paganism is already based in nature 

worship, many believe it would be a useful starting point for ecospirituality. In fact, 

neopagan revivals have seen the emergence of pagan communities that are more 

earth-focused. They may build their rituals around advocacy for a sustainable lifestyle 

and emphasize complete interconnectedness with the earth. Paganism understands 

divine figures to exist not as transcendent beings, but as immanent beings in the 

present realm, meaning that their divine figures exist within each of us, and within 

nature. Many pagans believe in interconnectedness among all living beings, which 

allows them to foster moments of self-reflection before acting. These pagan ideals 

coincide with ecospirituality because pagans understand the environment to be part of 

the divine realm and part of their inner self. Therefore, in their view, harming the 

environment directly affects their wellbeing. Pagans have already recognized the 

importance of incorporating environmental ideologies with their own religious beliefs. 

The Dragon Environmental Network is a pagan community based in the UK. They are 

committed to practicing "eco-magic" with the intention of recognizing the earth as 

sacred and divine. Their four goals are as follows: 

1. Increase general awareness of the sacredness of the Earth. 

2. Encourage pagans to become involved in conservation work. 

3. Encourage pagans to become involved in environmental campaigns. 

4. Develop the principles and practice of magical and spiritual action for the 

environment. 

Paganism combines religion with environmental activism. Pagans organize protests, 

campaigns, and petitions with the environment in mind while staying true to their 

religious beliefs. Bron Taylor, argues that their core Pagan beliefs greatly improves their 

environmental activism. Additionally, the Pagan community has recently released a 

statement on the ecological crisis. It explains that Pagans lead lives that foster 

“harmony with the rhythms of our great Earth" and that they view the Earth as their 

equal in stating “we are neither above nor separate from the rest of nature”. It states 

that we are part of a web of life, and are fully interconnected with the biosphere. This 

connection to all living beings is seen as spiritual and sacred. 

And in turn it provides a framework that Pagans can use to combine their religious 

beliefs with environmental activism. It calls for a return to ancient understandings of the 

earth by listening to ancient wisdom. It asks Pagans to practice their religion in all 

aspects of their lives in order to give the Earth room to heal. The statement concludes 

by stating “building a truly sustainable culture means transforming the systems of 

domination and exploitation that threaten our future into systems of symbiotic 

partnership that support our ecosystems”. 


Ecospirituality and Christianity 

Most Christian theology has centered on the doctrine of creation. According to Elizabeth 

Johnson, in recent years, this has led to growing ecological awareness among 

Christians. The logic of this stance is rooted in the theological idea that since God 

created the world freely, it has an intrinsic value and is worthy of our respect and care. 

In 1990, Pope John Paul II wrote a letter on ecological issues. He concluded the letter 

with a discussion of Christian belief and how it should lead to ethical care of the earth. 

He ended the letter with the principle "respect for life and the dignity of human person 

must extend also to the rest of creation." 

The doctrines of Christ that Christians follow also have the potential for ecological 

spirituality for they support interpretations that are consistent with ecospirituality. 


According to Elizabeth Johnson, Jesus' view of the Kingdom of God included earthly 

wellbeing. According to Thomas Berry, Christians recognize a need for an Earth Ethic. 

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, has 

organized major religion and science symposia on water issues across Europe, the 

Amazon River and Greenland. He has issued statements – including a joint statement 

with John Paul II in 2002 – calling destruction of the environment "ecological sin." 

Bishop Malone, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has said: "The 

Church stands in need of a new symbolic and affective system through which to 

proclaim the Gospel to the modern world." In the ecotheology of the late Thomas Berry, 

he argues that Christians often fail to realize that both their social and religious 

wellbeing depend on the wellbeing of Earth. Earth provides sustenance for physical, 

imaginative and emotions, and religious wellbeing. In Thomas Berry's view, the 

Christian future will depend on the ability of Christians to assume their responsibility for 

Earth's fate. An example of such responsibility-taking can be seen in the founding of an 

association called "Sisters of Earth," which is made up of nuns and laywomen. This 

network of women from diverse religious communities is significant, both for the 

movement of general concern for the natural world and for the religious life in Christian 

contexts. 

Ecospirituality and Hinduism 

Many teachings in Hinduism are intertwined with the ethics of ecospirituality in their 

stress on environmental wellbeing. The Hindu text called the Taittariya Upanishad refers 

to creation as offspring of the Supreme Power, paramatman. Thus, the environment is 

related to something that is divine and therefore deserves respect. Since the late 1980s 

when the negative effects of mass industrialization were becoming popularized, India 

instituted administrative policies to deal with environmental conservation. These policies 

were rooted in the ways that the Hindu religion is tied to the land. 

In the Hindu text Vajur Veda (32.10), God is described as being present in all living 

things, further reinforcing the need to show respect for creation. Passages such as this 

lead some Hindus to become vegetarian and to affirm a broader type of ecospiritual 

connection to the Earth. Vishnu Purana 3.8.15. states that, "God, Kesava, is pleased 

with a person who does not harm or destroy other non-speaking creatures or animals." 

This notion is tied in with the Hindu concept of karma. Karma means that the pain 

caused to other living things will come back to you through the process of reincarnation. 

Ecospirituality can also be seen in the Prithivi Sukta which is a "Hymn to Mother Earth." 

In this text, the Earth is humanized into a spiritual being to which humans have familial 

ties. Through ecospirituality, the notion of praising and viewing the Earth in this way 

brings about its strong connections to Hinduism. 

Ecospirituality and Jainism 

Contemporary Jaina fatih is “inherently ecofriendly.” In terms of the ecological crisis, 

Jains are “quite self-conscious of the ecological implications of their core teachings.” 


Jain teachings center on five vows that lead to reverse the flow of or release karma. 

One of these vows is ahimsa or non-violence. Ahimsa “is said to contain the key to 

advancement along the spiritual path (sreni). This requires abstaining from harm to any 

being that possesses more than one sense” The principles of the Jaina tradition are 

rooted in environmental practices. The Jaina connection to nature is conducive to 

ecospirituality. 

Ecospirituality and Islam 

Some scholars argue that while looking at the scriptural sources of Islam, you can see it 

is an ecologically orientated religion. Looking at textual sources of Islam, the shari'a 

preach a number of environmentally focused guidelines to push environmentalism, in 

particular, "maintenance of preserves, distribution of water, and the development of 

virgin lands." Much of Muslim environmentalism is a result of the Qur'anic stress of 


stewardship which is explained through the Arabic concept khilafa. A quote translated 

from the hadith states, "verily, this world is sweet and appealing, and Allah placed you 

as vice-regents thereinl he will see what you do." Within the Islamic faith, there is a set 

importance to following the messages set forth in scripture, therefore the 

environmentalism spoken through them has led to a spirituality around the environment. 

This spirituality can also be seen with Qur'anic concept of tawhid, which translates to 

unity. Many Muslim environmentalists see this meaning spiritually as "all-inclusive" 

when in relation to the Earth. 

A majority of Muslim writers draw attention to the environmental crisis as a direct result 

of social injustice. Many argue that the problem is not that, "humans as a species are 

destroying the balance of nation, but rather that some humans are taking more than 

their share." Muslim environmentalists such as Fazlun Khalid, Yasin Dutton, Omar 

Vadillo, and Hashim Dockrat have drawn a correlation between the capitalist nature of 

the global economy to being un-Islamic and essentiality leading to ecological crisis. 

The issues of environmental degradation are especially important to Muslims as 

majority of Muslims live in developing countries where they see the effects of the 

ecological crisis on a daily basis. This has led to conferences discussing Islam and the 

environment to take place in Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as the introduction of 

environmental nongovernmental organizations. 

Ecospirituality and Buddhism 

Buddhism has been around for hundreds of years, however with the modern knowledge 

on topics such as global warming, many Buddhist scholars have looked back at how 

Buddhist teaching would respond to the environmental crisis and created what is called 

Green Buddhism. One of the key players in this introduction was Gary Snyder who 

brought to light where Buddhist practice and ecological thinking intertwine. Green 

Buddhism made waves in the 1980s when they publicly address the ecological crisis to 

create awareness and in 1989 when the Dalai Lama won a Noble Peace Prize for the 

proposed introduction of Tibet as an ecological reserve. Buddhism has been open to 

working with other world religions to combat the environment crisis seen at an 

international conference for Buddhist-Christian studies that addressed the environment. 

Although Green Buddhism has not commented much on technical issues such as air 

and water pollution, they use their spirituality to focus heavily on "rich resources for 

immediate application in food ethics, animal rights, and consumerism." 


VIII. References 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality 

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion 

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_between_religion_and_science 

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_and_rationality 

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_apologetics 

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophy 

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecospirituality 

8. http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/spirituality.pdf 

9. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/impact-spirituality.pdf 

10. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1127651.pdf 

11. http://ejbo.jyu.fi/pdf/ejbo_vol9_no2_pages_17-21.pdf 


Notes 

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Attachment A 

An Introduction to Spiritual Development 


Spiritual Development 1 

An Introduction to Spiritual Development 

William G. Huitt 

Jennifer L. Robbins 

Citation: Huitt, W., & Robbins, J. (2003). An introduction to spiritual development. Paper presented 

at the 11th Annual Conference: Applied Psychology in Education, Mental Health, and Business, 

Valdosta, GA, October 3. Retrieved [date], from 

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/spirituality.pdf 

This paper provides an overview of spiritual development in children and youth and describes 

the role of schooling in this domain. The first section explains important terms and establishes 

the importance of spirituality in as a component of life success. The second section discusses 

some important issues regarding the development of spirituality. A review of how to stimulate 

and assess spiritual development is also included. 

Spirituality is a difficult concept to define. While it has been explored throughout human 

history as one of the three fundamental aspects of human beings (i.e., body, mind, spirit) (Huitt, 

2003), there is widespread disagreement as to its origin, functioning, or even importance (Huitt, 

2000). However, in a broad perspective, spirituality deals fundamentally with how we approach 

the unknowns of life, how we define and relate to the sacred. 

Spirituality is considered by many psychologists to be an inherent property of the human 

being (Helminiak, 1996; Newberg, D’Aquili, & Rause, 2001). From this viewpoint, human 

spirituality is an attempt to understand and connect to the unknowns of the universe or search for 

meaningfulness in one’s life (Adler, 1932/1980; Frankl, 1959). Likewise, Weaver and Cotrell 

(1992) propose that spirituality “refers to matters of ultimate concern that call for releasing the 

passions of the soul to search for goals with personal meaning” (p.1). Other definitions include a 

relationship with the sacred (Beck & Walters, 1977), “an individual's experience of and 

relationship with a fundamental, nonmaterial aspect of the universe” (Tolan, 2002). Others view 

soul or spirit as a description of the “vital principle or animating force believed to be within 

living beings” (Zinn, 1997, p. 2) or “the very source of energy” that lives within each person 

(Chee, 2002, p. 11). Danesh (1994) suggests that when individuals study their human spirituality 

it provides an opportunity to connect to a larger source of energy and power, thereby impacting 

our ideas of who we are. It is this exploration of the meaningfulness of our lives and our 

relationships to ourselves, to others, to nature, or to a higher power that is considered the essence 

of spirituality (Hamilton & Jackson,1998; Hay & Nye, 1998). One can engage in a search in any 

or all of these areas simultaneously (Collins, 1998). This may or may not involve a relationship 

with God, Goddess, Creator, Great Spirit, Universal Mind, etc. However, it does involve a quest 

for a relationship with, or understanding of, the essential or non-material as compared to the 

concrete or material. 

There are essentially three broad categories of belief regarding humankind’s spirituality: 

naturalism, pantheism, and theism (Copan, 2001). Naturalists believe spirituality and definitions 

of what is sacred exist as a natural operation of the human mind and that our spirituality ceases to 

exist along with our physical body (Maslow, 1983). Pantheists believe that God exists in 

everything and that the entire universe is either God or an expression of His nature (Levine, 

1997). Theists believe that humankind’s spirituality results from a non-material soul, created by 

God, and destined to continue to exist after the material body ceases to function (Collins, 1998).


Solomon (2002) suggests that a belief in a Creator or Great Spirit is not necessary as atheists or 

skeptics can express their spirituality through a philosophical inquiry that is demonstrated in a 

thoughtful love for life. 

This discussion of the essence of human spirituality links the topic to religion. However, 

there is an important distinction. Whereas spirituality is a consideration of meaning or ultimate 

purpose, religion refers to the organized, institutionalized set of beliefs, teachings, and practices 

that are established to connect groups of individuals to a particular expression of spirituality 

(Tolan, 2002). One can be spiritual without being religious (e.g., a seeker of a relationship with 

the Creator without belonging to a particular practice of that relationship). Alternatively, one can 

be religious without being spiritual (e.g., practicing a particular set of rituals or attending a 

specific worship service without establishing a relationship with the sacred, non-material aspects 

of the universe). This distinction is an important part of the discussion of spiritual development 

in the context of schooling. Coles (1990) provides extensive detail on the difference between 

children’s interpretation of the signs, symbols, and rituals of their religious upbringing and their 

quest to provide meaning to their lives. He suggests, however, that these are not independent, as 

a child’s spiritual journey is done within the context of an individual’s religious (or nonreligious) 

training. 

Meeting the directive of the United States Constitution to maintain neutrality between 

secular and religious views (Segars & Jelen, 1998) does not mean that we must omit all 

discussions of human spirituality from our public institutions. That is hardly neutral. It does 

mean, however, that we must be careful to allow a full discussion of spiritual development that 

includes the views of both those who believe in a Supreme Creator, God, or Great Spirit and 

those who do not. It also means that we must treat the wisdom found in the various religious 

scriptures with equality, rather than in a parochial, biased manner. Wilson (2000) suggestes this 

is possible by focusing on those spiritual and moral goals that are needed for lasting human 

happiness using findings from both science and religious scripture. 

While this discussion of connecting spiritual development to a belief in a God or 

Universal Spirit may be an important issue to the majority of scientists who identify themselves 

as unbelievers (Larson & Witham, 1998), it is certainly not an issue for the majority of the 

American public. Gallup (1993) reports that 94% of adult Americans believe in God or a 

universal spirit, although less than 50% attend religious services on a regular basis (Gallup 

International, 1999). Similar results are found throughout the industrialized world (Huddleston, 

1993). The number of people who identify themselves as believers but express no specific 

religious identification almost doubled in the U.S. in the 1990s (from 8% to 14%) (Gallup 

International, 1999). This now makes the unchurched 29.4 million American adults the third 

largest group of believers in America, after Roman Catholicism (50.9 million) and Baptists (33.8 

million). It is interesting to note that measures of increased interest in spirituality have increased 

at the same rate as leaving organized religion (Marler & Hadaway, 2002). This discrepancy 

between beliefs and practice may be one reason that people seem to be seeking spirituality 

(Taylor, 1994). Hout and Fischer (2002) believe this growth of unchurched believers in the U.S. 

is a result of dissatisfaction with the manner in which Christian views have been expressed in the 

public discourse. 

What is clear is that whether the topic of spirituality and its various interpretations is 

addressed from the perspective of science, religious observers, or unaffiliated believers, it is 

considered important by the American public. In addition, spirituality and related processes of


spiritual development such as a profession of faith, prayer, or regular attendance at religious 

services have been related to a wide-range of important outcomes such as: 

• lower blood pressure (Koenig, 1999), 

• improved physical health (Koenig, McCullough, Larson, 2001; Levin, 2001), 

• healthier lifestyles and less risky behavior (Koenig, 1999), 

• improved coping ability (Pargament, 1997), 

• less depression (Koenig, 1999), 

• faster healing (Dossey, 2002; Koenig, 2002), 

• lower levels of bereavement after the death of a loved one (Walsh, King, Jones, 

Tookman & Blizard, 2002), 

• a decrease in fear of death (Ardelt, 2000), and 

• higher school achievement (Ginsburg & Hanson, 1986). 

Similarly, Kass (2002) indicates that a lack of spiritual development leads to serious 

issues, such as overeating, risky behavior, low self-esteem, and poor health. In fact, Koenig 

(2002) reports that the data on the relationship of spirituality and health are so conclusive that 

nearly two-thirds of American medical schools taught required or elective courses on religion, 

spirituality, and medicine in 2001. 

Educators today know the impact that issues such as health, levels of self-esteem, and 

choices in non-academic behavior can have on a student’s ability to learn. Based on the 

connection between one’s spiritual development and these various outcome measures, it might 

seem obvious that spirituality should be a topic addressed in schools. However, many activities 

normally associated with spiritual development are not the type that educators can advocate in a 

public school setting. 

Fortunately, there are alternatives by which spiritual development can be addressed 

without crossing the critical line separating religion and public activity. We need only to look to 

modern business practices to see that this can be done. For example, businesses in this country 

are facing the need to address meaningfulness and important relationships with their employees 

(Gooden, 2000). Today’s more educated and skilled workforce is increasingly demanding 

“more autonomy in work, more satisfaction from work, and more meaningful 

engagement at work. Those leaders who understand and are sensitive to the need for 

meaning, and who value environments that help workers realize their potential, are likely 

to be more in tune with the new environment than are those who are insensitive to these 

trends” (p.47). 

Page (2000) reports that the most successful companies develop a vision for the business that is 

“holistic and congruent, encompassing the church, the family, the community, and the 

institution.” (p.83). 

Educators would do well to learn from these experiences. Attempts by schools to develop 

an approach to spirituality that does not consider all of the relevant influences on the lives of 

children and youth is doomed to failure as a result of conflicts among values and purposes that 

are certain to arise (Kessler, 2000). Fowler’s (1981) faith development theory addresses the 

impact that spirituality has on learning. This aspect of the total being has been historically 

neglected in education theory and practice. Neglecting the spiritual nature of humans is to


“ignore an important aspect of human experience and avenue of learning and meaning-making” 

(Tisdell, 2001, p. 3). The implication is that learning must be made meaningful if it is to be 

relevant. The challenge lies in identifying what is meaningful for individual human beings and 

addressing it in a manner in our public institutions that is acceptable to all strands of our society. 

In summary, spirituality addresses such questions as: 

1. How can we increase meaning in our lives, in general, and my life, in particular? 

2. Who are we as human beings? Where did we come from? How are we related? 

3. Are we in control of our lives or is our destination a result of fate? 

4. Where did the universe come from? What are its origins? 

5. Is there a God (in whatever way we define or know a Supreme Being)? 

6. What is our relationship to God or the Creator, if there is one? 

7. Is there a continuity of life after this life? If so, what is it like? 

These questions are fundamental to understanding human beings and our relationships to 

each other and the rest of the universe (Moody & Carroll, 1997). To the extent that we carefully 

consider these questions and answer them to our ability and satisfaction, we can say that we are 

in the process of developing in the spiritual domain. Of special importance, from the perspective 

of this paper, is the role of science in addressing these questions. At a minimum science should 

be able to identify the available choices in addressing human spirituality and provide evidence as 

to the impact of making different choices on the lives of individuals and groups. 

The Development of Human Spirituality 

As with every other area of human development there are diverse viewpoints on how 

spiritual development occurs. Hay (2000), a zoologist, believes that spiritual experiences are a 

part of natural selection because they hold some type of survival value. He cites data showing a 

spiritual dimension in every known human society or culture. 

Alternatively, Sullivan (1993) believes that one component of spiritual development is 

the intimacy with which people are involved with their life experiences. “Many of the so-called 

larger-than-life people…are profoundly present to the continuum of their lives…Thus some die 

at seventy with an experiential age of seventeen while others are closer to a hundred and seventy, 

so intimate are they with the happenings of their lives” (p. 1). This theme has been studied 

extensively from the perspective of existential psychology (May, 1958). Some of the most 

important qualities of a well-developed adult are a willingness to take intentional control over 

one’s life and to have the courage to put intentions into action. The development of these 

qualities must be addressed in early childhood (Erikson, 1950). 

There are numerous outlines of spiritual development from specific religious traditions 

(Wilson, 1991). Differentiating the process of spiritual development from any specific religious 

development is challenging, but not impossible. A number of researchers have developed generic 

descriptions of spiritual (or faith) development that can be used in public schools (Moody & 

Carroll, 1998; Peck, 1998a, 1998b). Perhaps the most well-know description is by Fowler 

(1981). He uses the term faith which he defined as “a person’s way of seeing him- or herself in 

relation to others against a backdrop of shared meaning and purpose” (p. 4). 

Fowler (1981) takes an analytical approach to the development of spirituality with clear 

progressive divisions. While these six stages parallel Piaget’s cognitive-development stages and


Kohlberg’s stages of moral-development, progression through each stage is not a chronological 

guarantee (Gathman & Nessan, 1997). The attractive aspect of Fowler’s theory for our purpose is 

that, while no specific higher power is the defining factor of whether one can apply these stages 

to one’s life, a connection to something greater than self is a must (see Table 1). 

According to Fowler (1981), prior to the development of faith, an infant has an 

undifferentiated faith where he or she is beginning to interact with adults and learn about the 

social, built, and natural environment. Stage I typically begins around age three to seven years, 

and involves the imagination of the inner-child, which is filled with fantasy and free of logic. An 

early awareness of life’s mysteries (i.e. death, sexuality, and cultural taboos) exists at this stage, 

which is referred to as intuitive-projective faith. Ironically, the inner child concept promotes 

listening to one’s inner thoughts. Nurturing this type of simplistic self-actualization is one aspect 

of spiritual development. The increase in the ability to think concretely is what brings this stage 

to a close. The image of a divine power being parent-like is symbolic of the child’s limited 

experiences (Anderson, 2001). 

As cognitive abilities increase with the development of concrete operational thinking, the 

child has the potential to evolve to stage II, the mythic-literal faith stage. It is in this stage that 

the world is viewed in terms of opposites like good and bad. In addition, authorities have 

unquestionable knowledge, and truth is provided in the simple form of stories that instill core 

beliefs (Gathman & Nessan, 1997). The focus on acknowledgement of authority indicates a low 

functioning of self-awareness and an increase in focus on the relationship with others. 

Stage III, or the synthetic-conventional faith stage, is marked by the impact of external 

forces, such as school, work, friends, and media. Balancing these influences is the focus of this 

stage. The push to conform causes internal conflict, as conformity can mean going against core 

beliefs. Ironically, critical examination of beliefs and values does not exist. The aspect of 

spirituality that is being addressed in this stage is the relationship to others. The conflicts 

between self and the newly introduced relationships lead to the end of stage III, due to the 

development of critical thinking skills (Fowler, 1981). As one breaks away from authority, the 

need to think independently creates a search for validation by others who have similar views 

(Anderson, 2001). Self-actualization and increased connection to others is required in order to 

determine the similarities between self and sub-groups of society. 

Individuative-reflective faith, stage IV, is a highly intellectual stage (Fowler, 1981). This 

marks the beginning of a unique and quirky worldview. The potential to be influenced by others 

is diminishing as thinking independently means the desire for peer approval has narrowed to a 

specific subgroup. Symbols have lost their mythical meanings as the person evolves into an 

abstract thinker, which leads to an understanding of just how complex life is. The newfound 

appreciation for the gray areas leads to the completion of this stage. It is the beginning of 

balancing the relationships between self, others, and a higher power. 

The kind of understanding that is present in stage V is conjunctive faith. A second naïveté 

exists as an increased appreciation for the power of symbols and myths develops. A return to the 

inner-child that values direct experience, while learning to affirm other’s beliefs, is indicative of 

conjunctive faith. The motivating factor at this level of faith is acquiring the rewards for personal 

dedication and obedience to the spiritual rules, or the carrot-at-the-end-of-the-stick (Gathman & 

Nessan, 1997). A new level of understanding leads to the resolution of black-and-white thinking, 

“which provides a sense of peace about the fact that there is no such thing as complete control


Table 1. Fowler’s Stages of Faith 

Stage Typical Age Defining Qualities Influences Major Antecedents to 

Transition 

Infancy Mutuality, trust, and Interaction with important Development of language and 

preimages of the background adults and environment imagination 

of life 

0. Undifferentiated 

Faith 

I. Intuitive- 

Projective Faith 

II. Mythic-Literal 7-15, 

although 

some adults 

remain in 

this stage 

III. Synthetic- 

Conventional 

IV. Individuative- 

Reflective 

3-7 Fantasy-filled, imitative 

phase; free of logic; focus on 

episodic interactions 

15-21, 

plus some 

adults 

Young Adult 

V. Conjunctive Mid-life and 

beyond 

VI. Universalizing 

Faith 

Few ever 

reach 

Concrete operational 

interpretation of beliefs and 

observances of community; 

worldview of good and bad 

Formation of personal 

identity and shaping of 

personal definition of faith 

Unique, individualistic 

worldview 

Value direct experience 

while affirming others’ 

beliefs 

Disciplined activist seeking 

to make tangible impact on 

transforming the social order 

Interaction with important 

adults through stories, role 

playing, etc. providing 

episodic knowledge 

Authorities, including 

parents, teachers, religious 

and community leaders 

External sources such as 

school, work, friends, 

media and personal 

reflection 

Independent critical 

thinking; beginning of 

balance of self, others, and 

higher power 

Increasing appreciation of 

symbols and myths; 

meaningful learning 

experiences 

Consciousness of complex 

universal issues; loss of 

egocentric focus 

Development of concrete 

operational thinking 

Development of critical thinking 

Internal conflict between 

personal beliefs and social 

expectations 

Desire to integrate worldviews 

of self and others 

Desire to reconcile the 

untransformed world and the 

personally-developed 

transforming vision and loyalties


and being right does not mean others must be wrong” (Anderson 2001, p. 2). The characteristics 

that a person possesses at this level of spiritual maturity are parallel with the type of maturity that 

comes with age. For example, according to Jung (1981) the first half of life is influenced more 

by biology whereas the second half of life is more influenced by culture. The cultural aims of 

mid-life and beyond strive to create a world of peace, justice, and beauty–a world fit for future 

generations–and have come to fruition by the maturation of the spirit (McFadden & Gerl, 1990). 

This is similar to Erikson’s (1950) contention that generativity is an important issue in midlife. 

Again, the recurring theme of meaning motivates learning. Fowler (1981) states that few 

individuals attain the kind of consciousness of complex issues such as social justice and loss of 

egocentric focus that is needed to spiritually progress to universalizing faith, or stage VI. The 

above stated consciousness, plus a life dedicated to those issues, is what distinguishes those in 

stage six from stage five. Examples given by Fowler are Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., 

Mahatma Gandhi, and Thomas Merton. 

Several researchers such as Coles (1990) as well as Hay and Nye (1998) believe that 

Fowler’s (1981) approach is too cognitive in its orientation. They support an approach that 

would put more emphasis on emotion and awareness. In fact, Hay and Nye suggest that 

“relational consciousness” describes the essence of spirituality. Relational consciousness is a 

type of metacognitive activity that describes ever increasing consciousness of growth and 

opportunity consequences for the individual. In this context, development is considered moving 

from simple to complex, from naïve to sophisticated, or from insecurity to confidence in terms of 

the relational aspects of self, others, nature, God, or universal unknowns. This is a continuous, 

rather than discontinuous, process as described by Fowler (1981). There is a similar discussion of 

continuous versus discontinuous development in cognition (Vygotsky, 1978; Piaget, 1950/2001) 

and emotion (Plutchik, 1980; Erikson, 1950) and it is no surprise that we see it in the discussion 

of spiritual development. 

Spiritual Development Activities 

There is little doubt that the development of the human spirit is an important issue to be 

addressed if we consider the individual in a holistic perspective. Götz (1997) and Palmer (1998) 

propose that the place to start is with the teacher’s spiritual development. As with any other 

topic, one cannot teach what one has not developed. 

Where should educators start in this process? One approach may lie in an analysis of 

one’s development of faith as described by Fowler (1981). A second might be a consideration of 

the contexts of spiritual development defined by Hay and Nye (1998) [self, others, nature, 

God/Creator] or to the elements of spirituality defined by Hamilton and Jackson (1998) [selfawareness, 

interconnectedness, and a relationship to a higher power]. These are relatively 

complex tasks and likely to require some assistance from a knowledgeable mentor or at least 

involvement in a study group. This means that educators will require some specialized training to 

address the demands of developing and implementing a spiritual development curriculum. 

Teacher training institutions should consider making a course in spiritual development a part of 

the preservice teacher training program. For teachers who are already in the field, school districts 

need to provide inservice training programs through workshops or conference attendance. 

One of the first steps educators can take to address the spiritual development of their 

students is to build an environment conducive to learning (Kessler, 2000). This would call for 

educators to reassess the ultimate goal of education. It would also require that schools coordinate


Table 2. Pathways to the Soul 

Pathway Description Found in Other Theories 

Describes a quality of relationship that is profoundly caring, is Erikson (1950) —Need for Belongingness 

resonant with meaning, and involves feelings of belonging, or of (especially to something larger than oneself); 

being truly seen and known; may experience deep connection to Gardner (2000) —Interpersonal Intelligence 

themselves, to others, to nature, or to a higher power. 

(connection to others) 

Yearning for 

Deep 

Connection 

Longing for 

Silence and 

Solitude 

Search for 

Meaning and 

Purpose 

Hunger for 

Joy and 

Delight 

As a respite from the tyranny of “busyness” and noise, silence 

may be a realm of reflection, of calm or fertile chaos, an avenue of 

stillness and rest for some, prayer or contemplation for others. 

Exploration of big questions, such as “Why am I here?” “Does my 

life have a purpose? “What is life for?” “What is my destiny?” and 

“Is there a God?” 

Can be satisfied through experiences of great simplicity, such as 

play, celebration, or gratitude; also describes the exaltation 

students feel when encountering beauty, power, grace, brilliance, 

love, or the sheer joy of being alive. 

Creative Drive Is part of all the gateways; students feel the awe and mystery of 

creating, whether developing a new idea, a work of art, a scientific 

discovery, or an entirely new lens on life. 

Urge of 

Transcendence 

Need for 

Initiation 

The desire to go beyond perceived personal limits; includes not 

only the mystical realm, but experiences of the extraordinary in 

the arts, athletics, academics, or human relations. 

Deals with rites of passage for the young—guiding adolescents to 

become more conscious about the irrevocable transition from 

childhood to adulthood. 

Gardner (2000) —Intrapersonal Intelligence 

Gardner (2000) —Existential Intelligence 

Csikszentmihalyi (1998) — Flow in 

Consciousness 

Sternberg (1988) — Creative Intelligence 

Maslow (1983) —Transcendence 

Campbell (1972); Schlegel & Barry (1980) – 

Initiation


with families, religious organizations, and other community institutions to provide a full range of 

spiritual development activities appropriate for the individual’s developmental readiness. 

Requirements of neutrality in public institutions suggests a division of spiritual activities 

into two categories, non-school and school. For children and youth, non-school activities can 

vary widely, depending upon one’s parents’ beliefs. As stated previously, Coles (1990) shows a 

child’s spiritual journey is done within the context of an individual’s religious (or non-religious) 

training. For the vast majority of Americans, this would mean a focus on building a connection 

between the individual and a Greater Being. Activities such as prayer, meditation, reading of 

sacred texts, singing songs, and rituals all enhance knowledge of the relationship between a 

person and the Creator (Stonehouse, 1998). While prayer, meditation, and rituals cannot be 

implemented into the public school setting, time and space can be allotted to allow the students 

to practice these activities if they wish. Silence (Kessler, 2000) is an excellent example of 

providing students with an opportunity to reflect on their accomplishments, lessons learned, 

personal moments, people served, or communicate with a higher power, all of which help the 

student develop the conscious relationships. 

Activities that increase self-awareness, strengthen relationships with others, and build a 

connection to the universe, while remaining free of religious doctrine, are more appropriate for a 

school setting. Due to the current demands on educators, appropriate activities can and should be 

incorporated into all classrooms, regardless of subject area, rather than developing courses 

specifically focused on spiritual development. 

Kessler (2000) suggests there are seven pathways to the soul that express a particular 

yearning on the part of the individual. Each individual is likely to express at least one of these 

yearnings if provided an opportunity in a conducive environment. Table 2 shows these seven 

pathways. As shown in the table, each separate pathway has been discussed by other authors. 

What makes Kessler’s approach unique is that she advocates establishing an environment where 

a person’s most intimate questions and desires can be addressed. While group activities can be 

implemented, it is more important to provide a wide range of activities that will allow the 

individual student preferences to emerge. From Kessler’s perspective, we should be guided by 

individual expressions of students rather than focused on a particular theory. She also suggests 

that spirituality can be seen in a number of different curriculum areas when issues of 

meaningfulness and connectivity are addressed. 

Each of the pathways described by Kessler (2000) can be used to address the different 

levels of faith development described by Fowler (1981) or the contents of spirituality described 

by Coles (1990) or Hay and Nye (1998). A key is to address each of the pathways in a manner 

appropriate for the developmental level of the individual. This can be done through 

implementation of a “spiral approach” as shown in Figure 1. Each of the pathways can be used at 

the intuitive-projective level, again at the mythical-literal level, and so on. As the individual 

explores the different pathways at increasingly progressive levels, the core pathway of deep 

personal meaning becomes more developed. 

For example, if the teacher were addressing the pathway of creativity at the intuitiveprojective 

level she could tell simple stories of connecting to self, others, nature, the Creator, or 

unknowns and have the child draw a picture and explain it. It is especially important to connect 

with the child’s imagination at this stage. 

At the mythical-literal level the teacher could have children read more complex stories 

that address children’s specific concerns. The teacher would ask the child to look for logical 

consistencies and inconsistencies and try to explain them. Another activity that might be useful


at this stage is “gratitude-in-a-jar.” Gratitude-in-a-jar can be purchased or created as a quick 

method for aiding students to showing appreciation for personal talents, positive experiences, or 

awareness of environmental issues. The jar contains small slips of paper that have comments 

printed on them designed to generate discussion, reflection, and curiosity. An example of a 

gratitude-in-a-jar comment is “Today I make a distinction between what I can control and what I 

can let go of.” Language arts teachers can create gratitude-in-a-jar comments that utilize terms 

that will be covered during the year, or literary quotations from novels that will be read. 

Environmental Science teachers could create gratitude-in-a-jar comments that create an 

appreciation for elements of nature. Again, it is important to address the different contexts of 

spirituality at each stage. 

Figure 1: A Spiral Approach to Spiritual Development


The thought for a day activity developed by Huitt (1999) is another lesson that could be 

used at this stage. The concept behind the thought for a day is “to demonstrate that our 

cultural/historical and religious backgrounds provide us with generic knowledge about how to 

think and behave in our modern world, and to practice learning to apply these in specific 

situations in our daily lives” (Huitt, p. 1). Quotations from a variety of sources, both secular and 

religious, can be discussed at the beginning of each day as a stimulus to encourage students to 

focus on developing a particular virtue or value for that day. This can be supported by 

discussions at home or in the community by having similar thoughts or quotations presented on 

billboards, on marquees, in newspapers, etc. 

An activity at the synthetic-conventional that can help students develop meaning and 

purpose is for them to complete self-focused surveys. These can be fun while provoking the 

student to evaluate his or her self-knowledge. The Index of Core Spiritual Experiences 

(INSPIRIT) online evaluation is an excellent example (Kass, 1996). As the name indicates, this 

questionnaire measures the experiences of the spiritual core. In addition to the survey, students 

can review the spiritual boosters that are made available at the INSPIRIT website. 

Another assessment that can provide insight into one’s inner self is the assessment of 

signature strengths described Seligman (2002). Seligman and his colleagues have identified 24 

strengths related to 6 categories of virtues found in all cultures: (1) wisdom and knowledge, (2) 

courage, (3) love and humanity, (4) justice, (5) temperance, and (6) spirituality and 

transcendence. Adult and youth versions of the assessment instrument are available. 

Spiritual journaling, whereby students are encouraged to write their beliefs and 

experiential knowledge of themselves, can be used at any stage to increase and/or document 

spiritual progress. Ideally, this can be done in an English or Language Arts class to afford the 

educator an opportunity to assess writing skills. Integrating a spiritual journal into a career class 

could be a technique for increasing the student’s awareness of personal tastes, views, and talents 

all of which are needed for making a career choice. The educator should guide the student by 

listing the purposes and grading criteria for the journal, providing the student with clear 

expectations. Questions such as, “What do you like most about yourself,” can stimulate selfreflective 

critical thinking while providing the educator a view of how the students see 

themselves. Limiting or prohibiting classroom sharing may be necessary in order to create an 

environment conducive to meaningful contribution in the journal. 

Individuative-reflective, conjunctive, and universalizing stages would normally be 

addressed in adulthood. However, the same concept applies. Different activities can be provided 

that encourage the individual to address increasingly complex issues to resolve (i.e., require 

increased levels of differentiation and integration). While it is important to provide opportunities 

for all children and youth to experience activities in all pathways, it is likely that mature adults 

will begin to select those pathways with which they have had some sort of positive experience. If 

parents and educators have done their job well, adults will be able to make their selections based 

on their own experiences rather than on only those promoted by their society or culture. 

Hopefully, this will result in the individual continuing to select activities that can impact spiritual 

development. If not, there is likely to be little growth beyond the mythical-literal or syntheticconventional 

stages of childhood and youth. 

All activities appropriate for use in the educational setting are meaningless if the climate 

is not conducive to learning. Having educators, administrators, and school boards that understand 

the impact a student’s spiritual status can have on the student’s ability to meet the school’s


objectives is crucial. If these activities are implemented without a commitment and desire to 

truly touch the student in a meaningful way, then the activities are not likely to have the desired 

impact. Thus, prior to integrating any type of spiritual development program into the classroom, 

the foundation must be laid for a solid understanding of the value of, and the need for, spiritual 

development. 

Measuring, Assessing, and Evaluating Spirituality 

It is important that we address the question “Are students making progress in the spiritual 

domain?” Fortunately, “We can regard spiritual growth as having the same basis as any other 

form of growth, and can evaluate it accordingly, in terms of its contributions to our quality of 

life” (Lucas, 1999, p. 3). 

Understanding the difference between assessing, measuring, or evaluating any aspect of 

learning is the precursor to implementation (Dietel, Herman, & Knuth, 1991). For the purposes 

of this discussion, assessment refers to any type of data collection process, whether qualitative or 

quantitative. On the other hand, measurement refers to the quantifying of data, and evaluation 

addresses the comparison of that data to a standard. All have a place in spiritual development and 

will be discussed. 

One of the most important aspects of assessing spiritual development is making certain 

that there is a true representation of the full range of knowledge, attitudes, and skills that 

comprise this domain. That is one of the main reasons for providing children and youth with 

opportunities to engage each of the pathways discussed by Kessler (2000) and having students 

consider all of the contexts described by Coles (1990) and Hay and Nye (1998). If students are 

not provided an opportunity to express themselves in a pathway or context that truly interests 

them, our understanding of any particular individual will be severely restricted. 

Another important issue relates to evaluating student progress. While we might expect 

that most children would begin to move from the intuitive-projective level to the mythical-literal 

at some time during the early elementary grades (Fowler, 1981), if some do not they should not 

be considered developmentally delayed. If Fowler is correct, and human beings evolve spiritually 

at different rates, then assessment must be based on individual progress rather than achieving a 

minimum milestone. It is, therefore, more important to establish methods of data collection and 

feedback that provide the student and parents with meaningful data to guide further progress than 

to use the data for comparison to a normative standard. 

While Fowler (1981) did not write Stages of Faith to serve as a spiritual assessment tool, 

the very nature of the stages provides a framework for assessment. Spirituality can be evaluated 

by documenting the stage at which a student is currently functioning. Methodologies for creating 

an assessment to be used with Fowler’s stages could be spiritual essays, stage-specific questions, 

or a combination of both. If the goal is for the student to advance through the stages, then 

assessing the current stage of faith could actually be a motivator for advancement to the next 

stage (Hodge, 2001). 

There are several instruments developed by experts for assessing one’s spirituality in a 

manner other than that described by Fowler (1981). Paper/pencil instruments are the most widely 

used methods of collecting data on spiritual development (Hodge, 2001). The dilemma with 

many assessment tools is that they can alter the reality of the person’s perspective due in part to 

the limitations of the questions asked. In addition, questionnaires function under the premise that 

the participant has the literary ability to process the terms and understand the concept posed.


One example of a quantitative spiritual assessment tool is the previously mentioned Index 

of Core Spiritual Experiences (INSPIRIT) developed by Kass (1996). The focus of his study was 

the impact of spirituality on health. INSPIRIT is a self-test that provides quantitative results of a 

connection with one’s spiritual core. While there are concerns with this type of assessment tool, 

the instrument is widely used and can bring the participant to a greater level of self-awareness. 

The test does refer to a Supreme Being, but provides the participant with a definition that can be 

applied to other belief systems. The INSPIRIT test does address the relationship between self 

and others. Integrating INSPIRIT into the classroom setting would be simple and the results 

possibly meaningful to the participants. However, the scope of the participant’s spiritual 

knowledge may be limited. 

Another established quantitative assessment tool is the Spiritual Well-Being Scale 

(Buffor, Paloutzian, & Ellison, 1991; Paloutzian & Ellision, 1982). This assessment tool has two 

dimensions: religious and existential. It is a 20-item self-administered test that yields a total 

score, a religious well-being summed score, and a summed score for the existential well-being. It 

has a test-retest reliability of .93; the internal consistency coefficients ranged from .94 to .89 in 7 

different studies (Bufford, Paloutzian, & Ellison). 

Berg (1997) developed an online assessment instrument based on the work of McSherry 

(1987). The instrument provides scores for strength of religious belief, spiritual injury, and a 

series of scores for types of stress. No reliability data are available for the instrument. 

Qualitative measures that are more oriented to open-ended questions and focus more on 

process can be used to supplement forced-choice data. Kessler (2000) suggests having students 

anonymously ask “mystery questions” dealing with topics they are curious or worried about or 

simply wonder about. A first step when working with groups is to spend some time developing a 

sense of trust among the students. Rules must be established and practiced so that, when the 

facilitator reads an anonymously-provided question and solicits students’ thoughts, others show 

respect and consideration. A review of student questions provides the facilitator with an 

overview of the types of issues that are of interest to a particular group. Having students reflect 

what they have learned about these important questions at the end of unit or course that deals 

with these topics can be a valuable resource for evaluating student learning. 

Hodge (2001) provides an overview of qualitative assessment tools developed by Nino 

(1997), Pruyser (1993), and Fitchett’s (1993). Nino’s spiritual quest is based on 10 items that 

lead the participant to create a detailed autobiographical story. Pruyser’s model includes seven 

categories: things that are sacred, hope and trust, commitment, thankfulness, guilt, 

connectedness, and purpose in life and work. When utilizing this instrument, the instructor 

listens to students’ stories, asking questions that relate to the seven themes. Fitchett’s approach 

also focuses on seven areas: beliefs and meaning, vocation and consequences, experiences and 

emotion, courage and growth, ritual and practice, community, authority and guidance, which 

provide an understanding of the student’s spirituality in a broader context. In each case, the 

authors include items that relate to the three domains discussed by Hamilton and Jackson (1998): 

a relationship to one’s self, a relationship to others, and a relationship to a Higher Power. 

Hodge (2001) proposes a spiritual framework for the purpose of counseling. His twodimensional 

framework has a narrative and an interpretive aspect. The narrative framework is 

composed of three questions that provide information on the subject’s religious or spiritual 

tradition and experience. The interpretive anthropological framework is multidimensional and 

provides data on the subject’s understanding or explanation of his or her spiritual beliefs and 

activities. The interpretive portion is made up of six topical questions that focus on affect,


behavior, cognition, communion, conscience, and intuition. The use of this framework requires a 

significant amount of time and commitment to explore the strengths of an individual as a 

spiritual being. However, the collection of the data and a person’s identification of spiritual 

strengths is, in itself, a potentially successful intervention. 

Hummel and Huitt (1994) use the phrase “what you measure is what you get” to convey 

an important relationship between assessment and instruction. If specific data are not collected, 

reviewed, and shared, it is unlikely that the outcomes related to the data will continue to be 

viewed as important. It is therefore critical that educators think about the type of data related to 

spiritual development that is both pertinent and available for sharing with others. Deciding 

exactly what is to be measured of a person’s spirituality is challenging. Referencing the 

assessment to the five aspects of spirituality (self, others, nature, unknowns of the universe, and 

Creator) is a logical choice. Measuring a person’s self-knowledge can be done with a selfadministered 

survey or a one-on-one interview. This aspect of spirituality is likely related to the 

domains of personal style and affect or values. Assessing the development of the second aspect, 

relationships with others, can be more varied. Observing the way a student interacts and having 

the student reflect about those observations or utilizing surveys asking about an individual’s 

views of one another are just two examples of tools that can be created to capture the 

development of that part of spirituality. This aspect is likely related to development in other 

domains described in the Brilliant Star model (Huitt, 1999) such as family, friends, and 

social/cultural. The third aspect, relationship to nature, and the fourth, relationships to the 

unknowns of the universe, can be assessed in similar ways through observation and personal 

reflection. 

The last aspect (relationship to God, Creator, Supreme Being, Great Spirit, etc.) is far 

more difficult to address. Due to what has been interpreted as the constitutional demand of 

maintaining neutrality between organized religious and public policy as well as the reality of 

respecting diverse religious backgrounds in the United States (Eck, 2001), focusing on the 

development of a relationship between the human being and a higher power may be seen as 

inappropriate. However, the essence of this relationship can be addressed by looking at the 

connection between self and the unknowns. The teacher might organize surveys or interviews, or 

have students compose essays that can be used to foster an awareness of how a person feels 

about his or her personal fate or the future. Examining the relationship to a Greater Being could 

be an option for those individuals who have a desire to express that conviction. 

A primary benefit of stating a desired outcome in measurable terms is for the teacher to 

stay focused on the goal and for the student to understand what is important. An example of this 

might be to have each student identify one new attribute or personality characteristic about himor 

herself that was not previously identified and document how this quality affects the 

individual’s self-concept. There are myriad issues to consider at this point. For example, does a 

measurable term mean an obligation to provide a score? Is it more appropriate to simply 

document thoughts, attitudes, and behavior using qualitative data? 

After collecting all the information, what do the data mean to the process of spiritual 

development? One activity might be for the teacher to provide students and parents with data on 

student consideration of spiritual issues. For example, an instructor can demonstrate an impact 

on self-knowledge if it can be documented that 98% of all students completing the spiritual 

development assessment were able to identify one new quality of their personality of which they 

were not previously aware. Statements of how the self-actualization affected the student’s 

perception of self, treatment of others, and a new found ability to deal with the future could be


indicators of how valuable spiritual education can be. Examples of behavioral outcomes of this 

consideration is the number of students who become involved in spiritually-related activities 

such as prayer, joining a group, or selecting and supporting social causes. 

In summary, there are a wide variety of approaches to assessing, measuring, and 

evaluating children’s and youth’s spiritual development that can be used in a public school 

setting. Probably more of an issue is whether there are appropriate activities that can be used in 

schools to address development in this domain. 

Summary and Conclusions 

Humankind’s spirituality has been an element of every known society and culture. This 

paper has provided an overview of empirical research that demonstrates one’s spiritual 

development leads to a variety of positive outcomes and its neglect can have a detrimental effect. 

Fowler (1981) indicates spiritual advancement is conducive to becoming more accepting of 

others, more confident, and more caring. The development of student’s level of faith or 

spirituality can be documented and assisted using classroom-based activities that are neutral with 

respect to any specific religion or belief system. Other social institutions, such as private 

businesses, are seeing a need to address worker’s spiritual needs in the workplace and are finding 

ways to do so. 

If one of the goals of education is to stimulate the desire of the pupil to continue seeking 

knowledge after leaving the formal school setting, connecting the need for that knowledge to 

one’s essence and existential meaning is an important activity (Weaver & Cotell, 1992). Postman 

(1995) believes that engaging in learning activities without meaning has no purpose and it is our 

spirituality that provides the meaningful need to learn. Reaching the spirit of a person during the 

formal educational process would increase the chances that the individual would make learning a 

custom spanning the entire lifespan. 

To omit the topic of human spirituality completely from our public institutions separates 

those institutions from the very people who support them. Addressing spiritual development in a 

manner that is constitutionally appropriate and acceptable to a wide variety of parents will 

require much wisdom and tact. However, the potential impact on the preparation of children and 

youth for successful living in the 21 st century would suggest a need to get started immediately.


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Attachment B 

The Impact of Spirituality on Mental Health 


In the past decade or so, researchers across a 

range of disciplines have started to explore 

and acknowledge the positive contribution 

spirituality can make to mental health. 

Service users and survivors have also identified 

the ways in which spiritual activity can 

contribute to mental health and wellbeing, 

mental illness and recovery. 

The impact of spirituality 

on mental health 

A review of the literature

Acknowledgments 

This report was written by Dr Deborah Cornah on behalf of the 

Mental Health Foundation. 

Research supervision was provided by Iain Ryrie, Director of Mental 

Health Research. The Foundation is grateful to Mary Ellen Coyte, 

Graeme Sandell and Dr Andrew McCulloch for their comments.

Contents 

Contents 

Executive Summary 2 

1. Background 6 

1.1 Definitions of spirituality 6 

1.2 Spirituality and mental health 7 

1.3 Aims of report 8 

2. Consequences of spiritual activity for mental health 9 

2.1 Spirituality and depression 10 

2.2 Spirituality and anxiety 12 

2.3 Spirituality and PTSD 14 

2.4 Spirituality and schizophrenia 15 

2.5 Spirituality and suffering 16 

3. Factors mediating the relationship between 

spirituality and mental health 18 

3.1 Coping styles 18 

3.2 Locus of control / attributions 20 

3.3 Social support 21 

3.4 Physiological impact 22 

3.5 Architecture and the built environment 23 

4. Limitations of the research 25 

4.1 Over-reliance on quantitative research 25 

4.2 Lack of distinction between religion and spirituality 26 

4.3 Population biases 26 

4.4 Divine intervention? 27 

5. Implications and Recommendations 28 

5.1 For Practice 28 

5.2 For Research 30 

6. Conclusion 32 

7. Further information and support 33 

8. References 34 

The impact of spirituality upon mental health 

1

Executive summary 

Executive Summary 

Background 

In the past decade or so, researchers across a range of disciplines have started to explore and 

acknowledge the positive contribution spirituality can make to mental health. Service users and 

survivors have also identified the ways in which spiritual activity can contribute to mental health and 

wellbeing, mental illness and recovery. This report reviews the evidence and explores the impact that 

some expressions of spirituality can have as part of an integrative approach to understanding mental 

health and wellbeing. 

Mental health problems 

Anecdotal, quantitative and qualitative evidence all point to a positive (although often modest) 

relationship between spirituality and mental health in relation to a number of mental health problems. 

Depression is the most common mental health problem in the UK and has been the focus of much of 

the research exploring the relationship between spirituality and mental health. The evidence shows 

a positive association between church attendance and lower levels of depression amongst adults, 

children and young people. It also shows that belief in a transcendent being is associated with reduced 

depressive symptoms. 

Similar research has examined the relationship between spirituality and anxiety or stress. Quantitative 

research demonstrates reduced levels of anxiety in a number of populations, including medical 

patients in later life, women with breast cancer, middle aged people with cardiac problems and those 

recovering from spinal surgery. Qualitative research also demonstrates that yoga and meditation are 

also associated with improvements in mental health and reductions in anxiety. 

There is an emerging literature examining the association between spirituality and post-traumatic stress 

disorder (PTSD). One review found 11 studies that reported links between religion, spirituality, and 

trauma-based mental health problems. A review of these 11 studies produced three main findings. First, 

these studies show that religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people 

in dealing with the aftermath of trauma. Second, they show that traumatic experiences can lead to a 

deepening of religion or spirituality. Third, that positive religious coping, religious openness, readiness 

to face existential questions, religious participation, and intrinsic religiousness are typically associated 

with improved post-traumatic recovery. 

Similarly, the evidence exploring spirituality with schizophrenia is also relatively scarce. However, one 

review of the literature concluded that “religion plays a central role in the processes of reconstructing 

a sense of self and recovery”. Another found that for individuals who share the same religious values as 

their family, religiosity can be a cohesive and supporting factor. Others have found that people with a 

diagnosis of schizophrenia find hope, meaning and comfort in spiritual beliefs and practices. 

2 

The impact of spirituality upon mental health

Executive summary 

Not all research exploring the association of spiritual or religious activity and anxiety shows a beneficial 

effect of the former on the latter. Rather, it seems to depend to some extent on the way in which 

spirituality is expressed. For example, increased mental health problems are often found amongst those 

with a strict religious upbringing. 

Some also find that their religious or spiritual beliefs are not understood or explored within mental 

health services. For many, clinicians either ignore an individual’s spiritual life completely or treat their 

spiritual experiences as nothing more than manifestations of psychopathology. 

Mechanisms 

Some of the research exploring the association between spirituality and mental health attempts to 

understand the mechanisms through which potential benefits may occur. Mechanisms most often 

discussed are: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

coping styles 

locus of control 

social support and social networks 

physiological mechanisms, and 

architecture and the built environment 

Findings show that a collaborative approach to religious coping (i.e. the individual collaborates with 

‘God’ in coping with stress) is associated with the greatest improvement in mental health. 

Similarly, perceiving negative events as externally caused and positive events as internally caused is 

widely regarded as an ‘optimistic’ attributional style and is generally associated with better mental 

health. One review of the literature has suggested that religious beliefs may allow a person to reframe 

or reinterpret events that are seen as uncontrollable, in such a way as to make them less stressful or 

more meaningful. 

The support individuals derive from the members, leaders and clergy of religious congregations 

is widely considered one of the key mediators between spirituality and mental health. As with 

other forms of social support, spiritual or religious support can be a valuable source of self-esteem, 

information, companionship and practical help that enables people to cope with stress and negative 

life events or exerts its own main effects. 

Some researchers have argued that certain expressions or elements of spirituality may positively affect 

various physiological mechanisms involved in health. Emotions encouraged in many spiritual traditions, 

including hope, contentment, love and forgiveness, may serve the individual by affecting the neural 

pathways that connect to the endocrine and immune systems. 

A final mechanism that may mediate the relationship between spirituality and mental health is the 

environment. As well as specific ‘spiritual’ buildings and architecture – such as churches, temples or 

mosques – nature, art and music may all have an impact upon mental health. 


3


In short, the proposed benefits of the association are probably the result of a collection of inter-related 

and interacting factors, some of which have been addressed in the literature and some of which may 

yet need to be discovered. These may well interact with a number of individual factors, including a 

person’s pre-existing mental health status, their age, their gender or their cultural background. 

Limitations 

Although the evidence generally supports the notion that spirituality is beneficial for mental health, the 

research does have limitations. 

One of the key shortcomings in the field is that it relies almost exclusively on quantitative measures, 

which may not fully access the meaning spiritual activity has for the individual. Quantitative research 

tends to try and isolate the impact of one activity (e.g. church attendance) upon another (e.g. level of 

depression), which may not always capture the rich and complex interactions of other factors on any 

association found. 

A further methodological limitation of the research is that it focuses on the effects of spirituality on 

mental health problems. Few studies address the mechanisms through which spirituality may promote 

good mental health and wellbeing in populations without those problems. 

A conceptual limitation of the field relates to definitions used. Whilst there is recognition that there 

are differences between religion and spirituality, the distinction between the two is often blurred, with 

much of the research using measures of religious practice as a proxy. 

In summary, research exploring the association of spirituality with mental health generally displays a 

range of methodological and conceptual shortcomings. These need to be addressed before we can 

deepen and extend the evidence base. Methods need to be combined and sample selection should 

reflect the diversity of spiritual expression that exists in the UK, in order that the maximum potential 

benefits of spirituality are available to as many individuals as possible. 

4 



Recommendations 

Those working in mental health services should: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

ask service users about their spiritual and religious needs upon entry to the service and throughout 

their care and treatment 

help service users to identify those aspects of life that provide them with meaning, hope, value 

and purpose 

ensure that all service users including those who do not regard themselves as spiritual or religious 

are offered the opportunity to speak with a chaplain or other spiritual leader if desired 

provide good access to relevant and appropriate religious and spiritual resources 

offer or make available safe spaces where users can pray, meditate, worship or practice their faith 

provide opportunities for service users to discuss their spirituality or religion with others 

build strong and effective links with religious and spiritual groups in the local community 

avoid pathologising, dismissing or ignoring the religious or spiritual experiences of service users. 

Further research should: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

acknowledge the socio-demographic, social and health factors that are known to be risk factors for 

certain mental health problems 

ensure that the methodologies employed are those most appropriate to answer the questions 

being addressed 

include service users, wherever possible, in the design, conduct and analysis of research projects 

be sufficiently well designed to identify mediating factors that are exclusive to spiritual or religious 

activity and how they relate to other dimensions of being human (emotional, psychological, social, 

intellectual) 

take into account the range of demographic variables that could moderate or mediate the 

relationship between spirituality and mental health 

develop measures of religion and spirituality that cut across a range of religious traditions without 

robbing those traditions of their distinctive and substantive characteristics 

consider using spiritual or religious activity as an outcome measure and to explore the impact of 

mental health on different expressions of spirituality 

explore the impact and effectiveness of the ‘healing’ dimensions of different spiritual activities. 


5

Background 

1. Background 

1.1 Definitions of spirituality 

Spirituality is a word used in an abundance of contexts that means different things for different people 

at different times in different cultures. Although expressed through religions, art, nature and the built 

environment for centuries, recent expressions of spirituality have become more varied and diffuse. This 

is reflected in the range of vocabulary used to describe spirituality. Some of the more common themes 

in the literature describe it using one or more of the following elements: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

a sense of purpose 1 

a sense of ‘connectedness’ – to self, others, nature, ‘God’ or Other 1 

a quest for wholeness 2 

a search for hope or harmony 3 

a belief in a higher being or beings 1 

some level of transcendence, or the sense that there is more to life than the material 

or practical 4 , and 

those activities that give meaning and value to people’s lives. 

Underlying many of those themes is an assumption that an intrinsic (often sub-conscious) human 

activity is one of trying to make sense of the world around us and of our meaning and place within it 5;6;7 . 

In this context, “spirituality” becomes the vehicle through which that meaning is sought, and can vary 

according to age, gender, culture, political ideology, physical or mental health and myriad other factors. 

For some, that vehicle is religion. The most recent Census (Office for National Statistics, 2001) states that 

the UK population includes approximately 42 million people who describe themselves (nominally or 

otherwise) as Christian, 1.5 million Muslims, over 500,000 Hindus, 340,000 Sikhs, over 250,000 Jews and 

a significant number of smaller religious communities. Within each of these groups, there is a vast range 

of traditions and practices through which spirituality is experienced or expressed. Much of the research 

on spirituality and mental health focuses on the observable and/or measurable elements of religious 

expression, such as attendance at church, temple, mosque or synagogue, or time spent in prayer/ 

meditation. However, for others – including the 9 million UK citizens who say they don’t have a religion 

– spirituality takes many other forms. 

Swinton recognises that spirituality has broadened in meaning into “a more diffuse human need that 

can be met quite apart from institutionalised religious structures” 8 . He identifies it as the outward 

expression of the inner workings of the human spirit and his definition of spirituality is the one that will 

be used for the purposes of this report: 

6 


Background 

“Spirituality is that aspect of human existence that gives it its ‘humanness’. It concerns the structures of 

significance that give meaning and direction to a person’s life and helps them deal with the vicissitudes 

of existence. As such it includes such vital dimensions as the quest for meaning, purpose, selftranscending 

knowledge, meaningful relationships, love and commitment, as well as [for some] a sense 

of the Holy amongst us.” 9 

This description supports the view that humans are social, biological, emotional, physical and spiritual 

beings and any understanding of the relationship between spirituality and mental health exists within 

that integrative context. 

1.2 Spirituality and mental health 

In the past couple of decades, an holistic approach to understanding individuals has paved the way for 

research to explore spirituality as one dimension of the cognitive, emotional, behavioural, interpersonal 

and psychological facets that make up a human being. Although a connection between spirituality and 

mental health has been recognised in Eastern ideologies (such as Buddhism) for many centuries 10 , the 

historical split between religion and science in the West has resulted in a relatively recent interest in the 

field in the UK. 

This interest in the relationship between spirituality and mental health is being explored in a number 

of ways. Researchers in a range of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, theology, nursing and 

gerontology, are exploring the connections between various elements of these two areas of human 

existence 11-17 . Service users and survivors as well as those in various faith communities are also adding 

their voices to the evidence base and identifying the ways in which spirituality can contribute to 

mental health and wellbeing, mental illness and recovery 18-20 . 

Swinton argues that spirituality is an intra-, inter- and trans-personal experience that is shaped and 

directed by the experiences of individuals and of the communities in which they live out their lives 8 . 

In other words there are internal, group, community and transcendent elements to spirituality. Thus, 

its interaction with a person’s mental health is likely to be complex, interactive and dynamic. Although 

some research tends to look for a simple linear relationship between certain expressions of spirituality 

and narrowly-defined mental health outcomes, this report recognises the value of an integrated 

approach to understanding a person’s mental health and assumes that relationships between the two 

are likely to be bi-directional, interactive and open to influence from other factors. 

Inevitably, though this report is limited by the nature of the research so far on spirituality and mental 

health. It therefore reflects to some extent the content and tone of a research base which is largely 

quantitative, largely related to the Christian religion, and almost entirely based on the assumption that 

what is at work is a mediating factor between spirituality and mental health rather than a direct spiritual 

phenomenon. As such the research tends to reduce spiritual experience to a set of behavioural or social 

indicators. 


7

Background 

1.3 Aims of report 

In light of that, the principal aim of this report is to explore the outcomes and consequences of 

spiritual belief or activity for mental health. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is identified and 

explored in relation to a number of mental health problems. Some of the factors that influence, 

mediate or contribute to the relationship between spirituality and mental health are explored before 

the limitations of the evidence are identified. The implications of the research for policy, practice 

and further research are established in the final section, alongside some key recommendations for 

individuals, sectors and services with an interest in spiritual and/or mental health care. 

This report is not a systematic review. The very nature of spirituality means that it cannot be captured 

within the parameters of wide generalisations, nor is it statistically quantifiable in the ways that 

traditional scientific methods might desire it to be 8 . In depth qualitative research can delve into the 

meaning and relevance of spirituality for individuals not always accessible by questionnaire or survey 

measures. Therefore a balanced approach to reviewing the literature is required. To maximise the extent 

to which the research may be useful for individuals and practitioners, the literature search focused 

on research conducted in the UK in recent years. As well as articles published in academic journals, a 

search of relevant ‘grey’ literature was conducted. Websites of mental health organisations and different 

faith communities were searched using the terms ‘mental health’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘religion’. Where 

organisations did not have a website, contact was made via telephone and any relevant literature sent 

by post. A larger international literature review including work from North America would be useful. 

One consequence of this search strategy, alongside the other constraints involved in writing this report 

(time and length), is that it resulted in an emphasis on spiritual expressions that are of a predominantly 

Christian tradition. This is because, despite the increasing awareness of spirituality as a broad concept 

that may or may not be related to religious organisations or traditions, much of the research defines 

it in terms of religiosity. The main reason for this is that it may be easier to conceptualise or measure 

organised religion, frequency of attendance, family history and satisfaction with certain religious 

beliefs into a study 21 . Although this is a limitation of much of the research in the field (see section 4) 

examples from non-religious or non-Christian traditions are cited wherever possible. The bias in the 

research towards Christianity may exist for a variety of reasons including cultural issues, researcher 

and institutional bias, lack of knowledge and awareness, accessibility of traditions and subjects and 

prejudice. 

8 


2. Consequences of spiritual activity 

for mental health 

Consequences of spiritual activity for mental health 

For over a century, the benefits of spiritual activity for physical health have been recognised and 

documented 22 . At the most rudimentary level, some kinds of spiritual activity seem to make you live 

longer. A recent meta-analysis of 42 studies examining the association between mortality (from any 

cause) and spiritual activity demonstrates that people with a high religious involvement were likely to 

die older than their non-religious counterparts 23 . Other research has pointed to the benefit of spiritual 

activity for those with cardiovascular disorders 24, AIDS 25 and a number different cancers 17;26;27 . 

The way that professionals perceive the relationship between spirituality and mental health is less 

clearly focused on the benefits. In a recent survey, 45% of mental health professionals felt that religion 

could lead to mental ill health and 39% thought that religion could protect people from mental ill 

health 18 . This uncertainty is in part due to the fact that historically, the association between the two has 

not always been regarded as a positive one. Freud called religion “the universal obsessional neurosis 

of humanity” 28 and others have argued that the relationship between mental health, religion and 

spirituality has “at best been uneasy and at worst non-existent.” 18 . One theologian has claimed that 

religion is psychiatry’s “last taboo” 29 and many argue that this view is endorsed by a lack of attention to 

spirituality in both psychiatric textbooks and mental health services 8;18;22 . 

Recently, this situation has started to change. In the past decade or so, theologians (usually grounded 

in a Christian worldview) have started to write at length about the association between mental 

health and spirituality 18 and the dissociation between the two is being increasingly questioned by 

professionals in other disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, nursing and gerontology 30;31 . Equally, 

if not more importantly, service users, survivors and carers are adding their voices to the argument 

that mental health and spirituality are intrinsically linked and that individuals from all of these sectors 

should communicate with and learn from one another 32 . For example, in 1997, the Mental Health 

Foundation conducted the first national user-led survey of its kind and found that over half of service 

users had some form of spiritual belief and that these beliefs were positive and important to them in 

terms of their mental health. Following this, service users were asked to describe the role spiritual and 

religious beliefs and activity had in their lives and themes that emerged included the importance of 

guidance; a sense of purpose; comfort; grounding; the allowance of expression of personal pain and 

the development of an inner love and compassion for others 19;33 . All of these were regarded as positive 

for mental health. 

The emerging evidence generally supports this shift in perspective and points towards a protective or 

beneficial effect of religious or spiritual activity for mental health 15;34;35 . Although this relationship changes 

depending on how spirituality is expressed or which aspects of it are measured, positive associations 

have been found between some styles of religion/spirituality and general wellbeing, marital satisfaction 

and general psychological functioning 36 . Factors proposed to mediate these effects are examined in 

section 3. Similarly, some research shows that certain spiritual or religious activity can have an effect on 

the mental health of those experiencing depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress or schizophrenia and 

it is to that research that we now turn. 


9


In examining such research it is of course necessary to bear in mind the limitations of psychiatric 

diagnosis as regards reliability and comparability across different research methodologies, diagnostic 

instruments etc and validity in terms of people’s actual lived experience. Whilst it is understandable that 

research has been done in relation to specific diagnosed mental health problems this of course has its 

limitations in understanding mental health and spirituality as a whole. 

2.1 Spirituality and depression 

Depression is the most commonly experienced mental health problem by people in the UK 37;38 and it 

manifests itself in different ways and to various degrees. It is characterised by one or more of a number 

of symptoms, including feelings of sadness or misery, unexplained tiredness and fatigue, the feeling 

that even the smallest tasks are almost impossible, a loss of appetite for food, sex or company, excessive 

worry, feeling like a failure, unjustified feelings of guilt, feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness, sleep 

problems and physical symptoms such as back pain or stomach cramps. 

Given its prevalence in the UK population, affecting 1 in 6 people at some point in their lives, much 

of the research exploring the relationship between spirituality and mental health has focussed on 

depression. Nonetheless, it offers valuable insight into the relationship between spirituality and 

other mental health problems. Swinton argues that depression, often characterised by feelings of 

hopelessness, lack of meaning or purpose in life and low self-esteem, is by its very nature linked with 

what many people understand as spirituality 8 . He describes a small but in-depth piece of qualitative 

research that involved interviewing six people who had experienced depression for at least two years. 

The purpose of the investigation was to create a rich description of their experiences and to discover 

the importance of spirituality for those with depression 8 . 

One of the central themes to arise from the research was the importance of having a meaning or 

purpose in life. One of the defining features of depression can be a transient or stable loss of these 

facets of a person’s life and for the participants in Swinton’s study, this loss – and its associated 

rediscovery – were central aspects of both depression and spirituality. This reflects what others have 

documented in the literature 39-41 and what Burnard has argued is the central concept in defining 

spiritual care 42 . Meaning enables people to cope: 

“I don’t depend on there being direct, individual meaning in my particular circumstances or situation 

or all the bad things that happen to me. I’m quite happy to live with the idea that, you know, in a 

fallen world there are things that happen to people just sort of through chance and circumstance. But 

what one does need to believe is that all of that is happening in an ultimately meaningful framework.” 

(Participant in research, Swinton, 2001, p112 8 ) 

A loss of that meaning can remove from an individual the power to cope with life’s difficulties: 

“When I’m in a phase that I’m able to believe that there is a God who gives meaning to that universe, 

then I have hope. But there have been spells when I haven’t been able to believe that, and that has 

been absolutely terrifying. That’s been falling into the abyss.” (Ibid, p113) 

Depression can also lead a person to question everything they have previously found security in: Why 

am I here? What’s the point of living? In these situations, the things that once helped a person make 

sense of their life seem to disappear: 

10 



“It was like looking out on a landscape that was total desolation; where once there had been growth 

and possibilities, now there was just nothing… words can’t really describe it. Like, I was looking at 

things that I had seen a hundred times before and they looked different. I could see them but I couldn’t 

feel them.” (Ibid, p114) 

In questioning, doubt arises about the things that have previously given an individual their meaning 

and purpose. These are key elements of life that tend to disappear from view during depressive 

episodes. Many religious and spiritual traditions make the claim of offering individuals meaning and 

purpose amidst an otherwise confusing or depressing existence. One of the key contributions of 

spirituality in the lives of these individuals, therefore, may be the power it offers to restore meaning, 

purpose and hope to their lives. 

One way in which meaning can be recovered through spirituality in the lives of people with depression 

is through understanding and empathy. For all of the participants in Swinton’s study, and for those in 

other user-led research 15;19;43 , understanding and empathy are core vehicles through which the distress 

of depression can be alleviated. Although on occasions service users say they feel misunderstood by 

religious or mental health professionals, when understanding and empathy are offered, they seem very 

powerful indeed: 

“I’ve been in the depths of despair where it’s like ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t believe this anymore.’ In fact, I said 

that once to my community nurse. He wasn’t a Christian. I talked a lot about faith and Christianity then, 

and… eh… you know, I was at the state when I was suicidal and he was basically trying to keep me 

going. [laughs]. I said, ‘I don’t believe it any more.’ and he said, ‘you know that’s not true, because you do 

believe it, and that’s what’s kept you going and you’ve got to hang onto that.’ And I found that quite… 

erm… amazing, that someone who didn’t really believe in religion was able to use that, ‘cause he knew 

I did… he didn’t agree with me. He didn’t say ‘yeah there’s nothing there’, because that wouldn’t be 

what I would need to hear at the time.” (Swinton, 2001, p127) 

Another important source of meaning and hope is found in spiritual traditions common to most 

religions, including liturgy, worship and prayer. It seems that when depression leads people to struggle 

intellectually with their faith, the elements of ritual, symbol and habit associated with these traditions 

are able to “carry a person through” their worst moments. 

“Even though, intellectually and emotionally you may have all sorts of doubts and turmoils, you are 

able sort of outwardly to share in the liturgy of the mass, and by that, erm… it’s sort of an acted out 

statement of faith even when your mind and your emotions may not be able totally to provide faith.” 

(Ibid, p128) 

As well as Swinton’s work and other qualitative user-led research, there are a number of quantitative 

studies that explore the relationship between certain aspects of spirituality and depression. Hodges 

describes four dimensions of spirituality – meaning of life, intrinsic values, belief in transcendence and 

spiritual community – and argues that each of these dimensions has an inverse linear relationship with 

depression 21 . 


11


For those who find meaning or purpose in life through religion or spirituality, church attendance is 

often (although not always) associated with lower levels of depression and this is true for both adults, 

children and young people 44 . One way of understanding this effect is the possibility that some faith 

communities promote social inclusion (either passively or actively), which affects both incidence of 

and coping with depression. This possible mechanism will be examined in more depth in section 3. 

Similarly, most of the research shows that people involved in religions that encourage internalisation of 

a set of values are at substantially reduced risk of depression, compared to those who attend a church 

because of obligation or duty 22;45 . One study found that for every 10-point increase in a person’s intrinsic 

religiosity, there was a 70% increase in recovery from depressive symptoms after physical illness 46 . 

Similar findings have been found amongst those who believe in a transcendent being or higher 

power 47-49 and amongst those who belong to a community with others who share their values and offer 

support 50 . 

In short, the overall conclusion drawn by much of the research is that many expressions and elements 

of spirituality are helpful in reducing depressive symptoms and/or increasing general wellbeing 1;51 . The 

mechanisms through which these effects may occur are discussed in Section 3. 

2.2 Spirituality and anxiety 

Similar research has examined the relationship between spirituality and anxiety or stress. The symptoms 

commonly associated with anxiety can be emotional, intellectual, physical and/or social. These include 

feelings of shame, grief or aloneness; difficulty concentrating or an inability to learn new details; 

increased breathing and pulse rate, difficulty sleeping and problems with eating; social apprehension, 

isolation or withdrawal and irritability or unusual levels of aggression. In addition, Swinton argues that 

stress and anxiety can have spiritual symptoms, including: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

a loss of meaning in life 

obsessional religious thoughts and actions 

feelings of alienation and indifference 

loss of previous spiritual belief 

no sense of the future 

fear of death 

fear of the consequences of ‘sins’ or religiously-defined ‘bad’ behaviour and/or 

an inability to focus on ‘God’ or to meditate 8 

12 



One of the more common areas of research in the literature explores the association between anxiety 

and spirituality amongst individuals who have chronic or life-threatening illnesses. For example, in one 

study, heart transplant patients that attended church frequently reported less anxiety and had higher 

self-esteem than those who attended less frequently 22 . Similarly, one study explored whether spiritual 

involvement and beliefs and spiritual coping mechanisms could account for any of the variation in 

anxiety among women within one year’s diagnosis of cervical cancer. They found that anxiety was more 

common in those who did not use positive spiritual coping mechanisms, and that this was especially 

true for younger women and those with more advanced stages of the disease 52 . Reduced levels of 

anxiety associated with spiritual activity have also been found in other populations, including medical 

patients in later life 53 , women with breast cancer 54 , middle aged people with cardiac problems 55 and 

those recovering from spinal surgery 56 . 

One of the spiritual activities that was commonly measured in these populations was prayer and/or 

meditation. These are activities that users of mental health services have also associated with improved 

mental health. For example, in the Somerset Spirituality Project 19 , one interviewee said that prayer was 

her coping mechanism: 

“God became a friend… everything, I discussed with God… [He] put up with loads… it’s how I 

survived.” (p32) 

Yoga and meditation are also associated with improvements in mental health and reductions in 

anxiety in the qualitative literature. Despite this, there has been little quantitative research examining 

the association between yoga/meditation and anxiety. A recent systematic review found eight 

studies that specifically explored the impact of yoga on anxiety and concluded that although the 

results were encouraging, the extent of the methodological inadequacies meant that further research 

was necessary 57 . A similar conclusion was reached in a study published after the systematic review, 

which aimed to evaluate potential effects of Iyengar Hatha yoga on perceived stress and associated 

psychological outcomes in women with anxiety disorders. Women attended twice-weekly yoga classes, 

each lasting 90 minutes. Compared to those allocated to the waiting list control group, women who 

participated in the yoga-training demonstrated pronounced and significant improvements in perceived 

stress, state and trait anxiety, well-being, vigour, fatigue and depression. Physical well-being also 

increased and those subjects suffering from headache or back pain reported marked pain relief. Salivary 

cortisol (a measure of stress) decreased significantly after participation in a yoga class 58 . 

Not all research exploring the association of spiritual or religious activity and anxiety shows a beneficial 

effect of the former on the latter. Rather, it seems to depend to some extent on the way in which 

spirituality is expressed. For example, increased anxiety is often found amongst those with a strict 

religious upbringing 59 and emotional distress is also greater in those who fall into Genia’s 60 spiritual 

typologies of dogmatic or underdeveloped spirituality. In contrast, those who are categorised as 

spiritually growth-oriented or transitional tend to have lower rates of anxiety 61 . 

Overall, the picture is not yet complete. Many investigations of this relationship have used 

measures of spirituality that do not reflect its complexity nor control for other potential mediating 

variables. Although the general sense is one of optimism for the role spirituality can play in helping 

to reduce symptoms and feelings of anxiety, further research is required to establish the true nature 

of that relationship. 


13


2.3 Spirituality and PTSD 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a delayed reaction to an abnormal, traumatic life experience, 

such as war, terrorism, a car or aircraft accident, a natural disaster, or physical, sexual, emotional or 

psychological abuse 62 . Anecdotal evidence suggests that religion and spirituality are highly valuable to 

people in times of crisis, trauma and grief, and a recent systematic review of articles in the Journal of 

Traumatic Stress reached similar conclusions 35 . 

There is not a wealth of research examining the association between spirituality and PTSD in the 

UK, but there is an emerging literature from America. For example, Shaw et al’s 2005 review of the 

literature found 11 studies that reported links between religion, spirituality, and trauma-based mental 

health problems. A review of these 11 studies produced three main findings. First, these studies show 

that religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people in dealing with the 

aftermath of trauma. Second, they show that traumatic experiences can lead to a deepening of religion 

or spirituality. Third, that positive religious coping, religious openness, readiness to face existential 

questions, religious participation, and intrinsic religiousness are typically associated with improved 

post-traumatic recovery 63 . 

One spiritual pathway that has been shown to reduce stress and related symptoms in war survivors is 

meditation on a word or phrase with spiritual significance (sometimes called a mantra) 64 . Researchers in 

one study asked 62 service users to engage in this type of meditation for 90 minutes per week, for five 

weeks. They concluded that mantra repetition significantly reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety and 

anger, as well as improving quality of life and spiritual wellbeing 64 . Although the authors recognized 

that a larger sample and a control group were necessary “in order to substansiate the benefits of this 

type of meditation”, possible mechanisms that may underlie this effect were not fully explored. 

One strand of research suggests that the effects of trauma on mental health may be better 

understood by taking a broader perspective that includes resilience and recovery as well as damage 

and symptomatology 13 . This broader view allows for the possibility of positive outcomes following 

the experience of trauma, such as self-discovery, renewed sense of meaning in life and increased 

inner strength 13 . This shift of including positive outcomes of trauma has led to research that explores 

factors that allow or encourage this growth to occur. For example, one study used structural 

equation modelling (a statistical test that enables the contribution of many variables to be explored 

simultaneously) to test a model for understanding post-traumatic growth 65 . A sample of 174 bereaved 

caregivers for people with HIV/AIDS completed questionnaires that explored which factors had a 

positive relationship with personal growth. Spirituality and social support were linked with posttraumatic 

growth, although a lack of qualitative data means it was hard to understand precisely the 

ways in which these factors interacted. 

14 



One qualitative study examined themes associated with sustaining recovery among women with 

co-occurring disorders who had survived trauma 66 . In semi-structured interviews, 27 female trauma 

survivors described the influences they considered most important in sustaining and hindering their 

recovery. Seven themes emerged from this analysis, four of which supported recovery and three that 

served as obstacles. Those that supported recovery and encouraged post-traumatic growth were 

connection, self-awareness, a sense of purpose and meaning, and spirituality. The women in this study 

reported that, although caring relationships provided important supports for sustained recovery, some 

of these same relationships increased emotional stress and conflict and thus may impede recovery. 

Important directions for future research are suggested in the literature. These focus on the need for 

more fine-grained analysis of religion and spirituality variables, together with longitudinal research 

designs, that allow more detailed exploration of the links between religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic 

growth. 

2.4 Spirituality and schizophrenia 

Within psychiatry, schizophrenia is seen as a severe and enduring mental illness characterised by 

disruption in cognition, perception and emotion. This may affect language, thought, perception, 

affect and a person’s sense of self. The array of symptoms can include psychotic manifestations, such 

as hearing internal voices or experiencing other sensations not connected to an obvious source 

(hallucinations) and assigning unusual significance or meaning to normal events or holding fixed 

false personal beliefs (delusions). No single symptom is definitive for diagnosis; rather, the diagnosis 

encompasses a pattern of signs and symptoms, in conjunction with impaired occupational or social 

functioning 67 . 

For many living with schizophrenia, religion and spirituality have an important and positive role. One 

review of the literature looking at religious and spiritual coping amongst individuals with chronic 

schizophrenia concluded that “religion plays a central role in the processes of reconstructing a sense of 

self and recovery” 68 . Another found that individuals who share the same religious values as their family, 

religiosity can be a cohesive and supporting factor 22 . Others have found that people with schizophrenia 

find hope, meaning and comfort in spiritual beliefs and practices 68-70 . 

However certain religious expressions of spirituality may become part of the problem as well as part 

of the recovery. Some individuals are helped by their faith community, uplifted by spiritual activities, 

comforted and strengthened by their beliefs. Others are rejected by their faith community, burdened 

by spiritual activities, disappointed and demoralized by their beliefs 68 . 

Some also find that their religious or spiritual beliefs are not understood or explored within mental 

health services. For many, clinicians either ignore an individual’s spiritual life completely 71 or treat their 

spiritual experiences as nothing more than manifestations of psychopathology 8;72 . This is a theme that 

emerged in the Somerset Spirituality Project 19 : 

“Whatever I had to sort out was a religious existential problem and to them it was classic schizophrenia.” 

(p49) 

Service users in the Project gave several accounts of experiences that could be interpreted as either 

spiritual or psychotic. For example: 


15


“There were things going on inside of my spirit and my soul that were certainly beyond anything I’d 

ever experienced.” (p49) 

“The experience was one of both hell and heaven… the very worst depths of despair, but also some 

moments of joy. There was quite a lot of religious content… I felt as if I was being physically crucified 

and it was not just the sort of experience of crucifixion, it was all the deaths that man has ever known 

and all that I could ever imagine… that was horrendous and… through it ran a kind of intellectual 

commentary almost to the effect of… what Jesus went through, all mankind has been through.” (p50) 

The concern expressed by individuals in the Somerset Spirituality Project is echoed in other qualitative 

research. For example, Swinton’s account of ‘David’, a 26 year old man diagnosed with schizophrenia, 

cautions those working in mental health services against ignoring the importance and value of an 

individual’s spirituality in their recovery: 

“For David , his spirituality is the form of language he uses to express his inner search for meaning, 

purpose and value. Both his normal and his delusional experiences are expressed in the language of 

spirituality, that is, the language which he uses to express that which is of most importance to him. 

Even David’s delusions may be more than “mere pathology.” ’(Swinton, 2001, p149 8 ) 

Religion and spirituality are relevant in the lives of many people with schizophrenia and in many cases 

seem to offer valuable benefits to living with and recovering from the illness. However, the exact 

nature of those benefits and the mechanisms through which they operate are not fully understood 

or researched. Further exploration is needed in order to understand when, why and for whom certain 

expressions of spirituality are helpful. 

2.5 Spirituality and suffering 

For some people, the impact of experiencing a mental health problem has been described as 

redemptive or transformational, in the sense that it has ultimately led to a greater sense of selfdiscovery 

or empowerment 20 . This is in spite of, or even because of the negative aspects of the 

experience. In this way, the suffering often associated with mental health problems is reinterpreted in a 

way that sees the whole experience as a journey or pilgrimage that fosters hope: 

“Nonetheless I am convinced that depression can be a pilgrimage; an arduous journey in which one 

must be prepared to be broken in order to live again (or indeed in some cases to live for the first time).” 

(Inglesby, 2004, in Barker et al, 2004 20 , p119) 

This perspective resonates with some of the ways in which different religions have understood 

suffering. For example, Buddhism locates suffering at the heart of the world and of the human 

condition. It argues that suffering exists both physically (in pain, sickness, injury and eventually death) 

and psychologically (through sadness, fear, anxiety and disappointment). This is the first of four ‘noble 

truths’ in Buddhism; the second argues that suffering has its origins in attachments to transient things 

and an ignorance thereof. The third claims that the cessation of suffering is attainable through breaking 

these attachments and the fourth noble truth identifies the gradual (eightfold) path to this process. 

From this perspective, any suffering encountered in relation to a mental health problem can ultimately 

lead to ‘self-improvement’ and, eventually, Nirvana: “the freedom from all worries, troubles, complexes, 

fabrications and ideas.” 73 

16 



Other religions take different views of suffering. For example, Christianity teaches that suffering is to be 

expected in life and the Bible pays a great deal of attention to its existence. One book of the Bible, Job, 

deals exclusively with the issue. However, unlike Buddhism, it does not present suffering as the ‘natural 

order’ of things. Rather, it presents the notion that all suffering is the consequence of ‘evil’ and the 

antithesis of ‘heaven’ where “[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or 

mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 74 

Although Christianity teaches that suffering exists, it also suggests that it has the power to be 

transformational and empowering through at least two mechanisms. Firstly, suffering enables a believer 

to identify with the suffering of Christ and secondly, it produces perseverance, character and, ultimately, 

hope 75 . For some, the suffering associated with a mental health problem is reinterpreted in light of 

such teachings. This may offer a believer comfort, understanding or simply an ability to hope that the 

situation won’t last forever: 

“I have learned with the assistance of others who share my faith that God has given me an opportunity 

to share deeply in His pain of rejection, humiliation, and loneliness along with the debilitating 

symptoms of my suffering so that I may have “exceeding joy” when “His glory is revealed.” He has 

chosen me to bear in my mind, body and heart the sufferings of a painful suffering so that I can have 

the opportunity to participate in a trial of the soul. Because of the grave misunderstandings that most 

people have about Bipolar Disorder (also called “manic depression”) I have become alienated from my 

husband, his family, my parish priest, my fellow parishioners and my friends. At the same time, God has 

provided everything that I have needed to endure this great trial according to His will for me.” 76 

As the above quote shows, some individuals are able to reinterpret their suffering in a way that 

brings purpose and meaning to their lives. However, others may be more vulnerable to interpreting 

their suffering in less positive ways, particularly if they hold spiritual beliefs that encourage internal 

attributions (or causes) for negative events (see Section 3.2). 

It seems that some expressions of spirituality are more effective than others in promoting good mental 

health and enabling people to cope when their mental health deteriorates. Although for some, the 

benefit is believed to come from divine intervention, help or control, the benefits of spirituality for 

mental health may also occur through different pathways or mechanisms. Some of the mediators most 

commonly discussed in the literature are the focus of the next section. 


17

Factors mediating the relationship between spirituality and mental health 

3. Factors mediating the relationship 

between spirituality and mental health 

Some of the research exploring the association between spirituality and mental health attempts to 

understand the mechanisms through which potential benefits may occur. That is, rather than assuming 

that effects of spiritual or religious activity reflect the intervention of a divine being or god, other factors 

may explain and account for those effects. Mechanisms most often discussed are: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

coping styles 

locus of control 

social support and social networks 

physiological mechanisms, and 

architecture and the built environment. 

3.1 Coping styles 

Religious coping has been conceptualised as a mediator to account for the relationship between 

spirituality and mental health, particularly in times of stress. Pollner 77 suggests that a person’s 

relationship with a divine or imagined ‘Other’ can have a major impact on their coping abilities: 

“Religious texts and symbolism provide many resources for personifying the divine as an other who can 

be engaged internationally for support, guidance and solace…” (Pollner, 1989, p3 77 ) 

Others have built upon this suggestion and developed a typology of religious coping that include 

collaborative, deferring and self-directing styles 78-80 . The collaborative style refers to an individual who 

enters into a collaboration with God when problems arise. God is seen as a partner in the problemsolving 

process and the responsibility for a solution is perceived by the individual to be a shared 

process. A deferring approach is one in which individuals take a passive role in the resolution of 

problems, trusting God to fully resolve the problem without their intervention. The self-directing person 

assumes full responsibility for their problem solving and is theoretically based on the belief that God 

has provided (or will provide) the skills necessary for successful coping 81 . 

This model for assessing and measuring religious coping has generated considerable research. 

One review concluded that the collaborative religious approach to coping is typically helpful and 

beneficial for mental health, whereas deferring and self-directing styles have yielded mixed results 81 . 

That said, there have also been some criticisms of the research. Firstly, many of the problems or 

stressors participants are coping with in the research are constant, rather than transient or variable (e.g. 

coping with the death of a loved one or facing terminal illness). Secondly, the stressors in question 

are significant life events. For many, the relationship between spirituality and mental health may be 

mediated by coping with minor or day-to-day stresses that are not typically measured in this field. 

Thirdly, most studies tend to ask respondents to report retrospectively on coping strategies that they 

used and fourthly, despite that, many studies assess current mental health as the outcome 81 . 

18 



One study addresses these four limitations using a prospective design that asks individuals to describe 

how they cope with major and minor life stresses 81 . Using structural equation modelling, they 

found that collaborative and deferring styles of coping were differentially linked to mental health. 

Collaborative styles led to favourable mental health outcomes, including improved mental health 

and reduced mental distress. Deferring styles were associated with reduced positive affect and life 

satisfaction when faced with major life stressors. 

A different study has examined these coping styles in relation to recovery from serious mental illness 

and assessed which, if any, facilitate the recovery process most effectively 71 . As well as collaborative, 

deferring and self-directing coping styles, they describe a fourth style called “Plead”. This is a coping 

style characterised by an individual’s refusal to accept the status quo and their petitioning for God 

to intervene in a miraculous way in order to bring about personally desirable outcomes. This use 

of pleading and bargaining for a miracle has generally been linked to greater distress and is often 

considered a maladaptive style of religious coping 71;78 . Participants were asked questions about their 

mental state, their religious beliefs, including the extent to which they base important decisions in life 

on religious faith, religious delusions, religious problem-solving techniques and their personal vision of 

recovery. Findings indicated that the collaborative approach to religious coping was associated with 

greater involvement in recovery-enhancing activities, compared to the other three coping styles, and 

the authors suggest that this is reflective of increased empowerment in individuals using this method 

of coping. Exclusive reliance on either self-directed coping or ‘Plead’ coping was associated with poorer 

outcomes in relation to recovery and a number of possible explanations for that finding are proposed. 

One of them, which is also proposed to mediate the association between spirituality and other mental 

health problems, is the way in which spiritual or religious beliefs can affect an individual’s attributions or 

their locus-of-control perceptions 34 . 


19


3.2 Locus of control / attributions 

One of the ways in which an individual makes sense of the world is the way in which they interpret and 

give meaning to events or experiences. Proposed causes – or attributions – for events have long been 

considered important mediators of mental health, and research exploring the association between 

attributional style and various mental health problems still flourishes today 11;47;82-87 . Perceiving negative 

events as externally caused and positive events as internally caused is widely regarded as an ‘optimistic’ 

attributional style and is generally associated with better mental health, in comparison to individuals 

with the opposite attributional style 34 . Similarly, an internal locus-of control – whereby an individual 

believes that they have some power over a given outcome – is usually associated with better mental 

health than an external locus of control 84 . 

One review of the literature has suggested that religious beliefs may allow a person to reframe or 

reinterpret events that are seen as uncontrollable 22 , in such a way as to make them less stressful or 

more meaningful. For example, some religious traditions that believe in the concept of an all-powerful, 

all-controlling God would encourage an individual who didn’t get a job that they had really hoped for 

that “it wasn’t God’s will”. This could reframe a situation in which an individual might otherwise blame 

themselves or feel disempowered through a lack of control. Attributing negative events to forces 

outside of oneself may also lead to a more optimistic attributional style. Indeed, one study showed that 

the more fundamental the religious beliefs of an individual, the more likely they were to be ‘optimistic’ 

– that is, that negative events are “God’s will” (rather than anyone’s fault), and positive events are a 

reward or consequence of “obedience” or “good” behaviour 88 . As mentioned earlier, this attributional style 

may help some individuals to make sense of the suffering associated with a mental health problem. 

The interaction of spiritual, cognitive and emotional factors will probably contribute to an individual’s 

likelihood of interpreting suffering in this way. 

On occasions, some forms of spirituality can encourage an attributional style that is damaging for 

mental health, especially for those who are already vulnerable to mental ill health. For example, some 

strands of fundamentalist Christianity have regarded mental illness as the “work of the devil” requiring 

demons to be “delivered” from a person’s body 72;89 . Although most Christian churches aim to be 

compassionate and understanding, service users still occasionally find a lack of both virtues in some 

settings: 

“…I don’t think anybody in their right mind would label themselves as psychotic; it’s like labelling 

yourself as a criminal or anti-Christ…” (Somerset Spirituality Project, 2002, p45) 19 

Although in the main, a lack of understanding within religious organisations is due to confusion or 

uncertainty concerning the causes and contributions to mental health problems, some traditions 

interpret negative events as a consequence of “sin” or God’s judgment 89;90 . This leads to an internal and/ 

or uncontrollable attributional style, which may help to explain why increased anxiety is often found 

amongst those with a strict religious upbringing 59 or those with a guilt- or punishment-based view of 

God 22 . 

20 



3.3 Social support 

The support individuals derive from the members, leaders and clergy of religious congregations 

is widely considered one of the key mediators between spirituality and mental health 91 . As with 

other forms of social support, spiritual or religious support can be a valuable source of self-esteem, 

information, companionship and practical help that enables people to cope with stress and negative 

life events or exerts its own main effects 92 . Loewenthal 93 (in Swinton, 2001 8 ) describes some of the 

specific ways the spiritual community appear to provide support. These include: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

protecting people from social isolation 

providing and strengthening family and social networks 

providing individuals with a sense of belonging and self-esteem, and 

offering spiritual support in times of adversity. 

In addition to these benefits, religious or spiritual support may provide more beneficial support than 

other social or cultural networks 91 . Hill argues that members of other social networks may be fluid or 

transitory, whereas support gathered from a religious or spiritual network can accompany an individual 

from birth to death. Although people who belong to that network may change over time, people 

belonging to a given faith community: 

“…can count on the assistance of a group of like-minded individuals who share a set of values and a 

worldview, even in the most difficult of circumstances such as serious illness, aging or death…” (p.69) 

This is consistent with the qualitative data recorded in the Somerset Spirituality Project described 

earlier 19 . Many interviewed found the company and support of others from the same faith helpful: 

“I mean I have become fairly OK at looking after myself and I have such a lot of people in the 

church that support me and would worry about me if they didn’t hear from or see me that I 

suppose I am not in as much danger… as some people might be… I don’t know what I would 

do without them really.”(p35) 

“Church is like a family… it’s like going back to meet old friends… everyone there shaking my hand. ‘Oh 

I hear you’ve been ill… but we’ll get through this together’… it’s very much one big family really.” (Ibid.) 

As well as the spiritual community offering a source of social capital, the effects of support may be 

further strengthened by its religious content, such as an awareness of prayers being offered or the 

belief that God is working through others 91 . 

Another potentially powerful source of support for many involved in spiritual or religious activity is 

the leader, leaders or clergy associated with the spiritual community. One systematic review exploring 

the association of spirituality with recovery from post-traumatic stress argues that leaders of religious 

communities are “front-line mental health workers” for many individuals in the United States 35 . Work in 

the UK draws similar conclusions, recognising that spiritual leaders can provide much support for those 

using mental health services, but cautioning that religious professionals may need training to more 

fully understand the nature of mental health and wellbeing and mental health problems 18 . For many, 

spiritual leaders play a very powerful role in helping people feel supported: 


21


“One woman was relieved at a point of much personal distress because a clergyman made her feel 

less guilty. She and at least one other just appreciated a minister ‘being there’ when they had been 

in distress. One talked about receiving counselling from her minister which had been useful and one 

was grateful that a lay-preacher had listened to her doubts… In some cases the priest had been so 

supportive that they were seen as a friend.”(Somerset Spirituality Project p36) 19 

The willingness of spiritual leaders to embrace the importance of their role in promoting mental health 

is reflected in a number of movements in the UK. For example, the Church of England (2003) General 

Synod 94 debated mental health and responded to the Government’s White Paper reforming the Mental 

Health Act. Two of the points included in their motion specifically related to leaders’ roles in caring for 

the mental health of those in their parish: 

“The Synod 

• 

• 

urge parishes and deaneries to develop their pastoral care of those with mental illness and their 

carers and welcome the decision to produce Promoting Mental Health: a Training Resource for 

Pastoral Care as a means of equipping them to do so; and 

commend the ministry of the mental health chaplains in promoting the well-being and needs of 

mental health users and their carers.” 

Similarly, the Jewish Association for the Mentally Ill (JAMI) 95 is a faith-based community also established 

by religious leaders to support service users with severe and enduring mental health problems, as well 

as their carers, friends and family. JAMI runs a drop-in centre, a hospital outreach programme and an 

extensive array of social and cultural activities. 

The role of social support in promoting and maintaining good mental health is well established in 

the literature 96-100 . One mechanism through which spirituality may benefit individuals’ mental health is 

through the provision of consistent and regular spiritual, physical and emotional support, particularly in 

times of stress or grief. 

3.4 Physiological impact 

Some researchers have argued that certain expressions or elements of spirituality may positively affect 

various physiological mechanisms involved in health 34;101 . Emotions encouraged in many spiritual 

traditions, including hope, contentment, love and forgiveness, may serve the individual by affecting 

the neural pathways that connect to the endocrine and immune systems 34 . Negative emotions that 

are actively discouraged in many religions, like anger or fear, trigger the release of the neurotransmitter 

norepinephrine and of the endocrine hormone cortisol. Sustained levels of these can lead to inhibition 

of the immune system, increased risk of infection, elevated blood pressure and increased risk of stroke 

and cardiovascular disease. 

22 



Meditation and silent prayer may reduce the levels of norepinephrine and cortisol, thus reducing 

feelings of stress and the mental health problems associated with it. This possibility is supported by 

research that shows an association between yogic activity and improvements in stress, anxiety, posttraumatic 

stress disorder, depression and stress-related medical illnesses 102 . Specifically, it suggests 

that 30 minutes of daily yoga practice enhances well-being, mood, attention, mental focus and stress 

tolerance for these individuals 103 . That research proposes a physiological model that employs specific 

breathing techniques that can improve heart rate variability, which in turn has been linked with 

improvements in mental health outcomes 104 . 

3.5 Architecture and the built environment 

A final mechanism that may mediate the relationship between spirituality and mental health is 

the environment. Although many people find spiritual expression through outdoor pursuits, such 

as snowboarding or mountain walking 105 , others find solace in the significance of specific ‘spiritual’ 

buildings and architecture, such as churches, temples or mosques. This is expressed by an interviewee 

in the Somerset Spirituality Project: 

“While I’ve been ill?… sometimes I find just going into a church… some churches have an aura… you 

can go and pray. I can always find that with [name of church] it has an atmosphere.” (p30) 

This sense that architecture can have a spiritual impact is also reflected in the language associated with 

religious buildings. In many temples, synagogues and churches, the ‘inner sanctum’ (or ‘holy of holies’) is 

traditionally symbolic of the closed room, only accessible to priests and those with divine authority. In 

fact, many Christian temples and churches are imbued with symbolism throughout their design. Hani 106 

asserts that “the walls and the columns of the traditional Christian church represent Heaven and Earth 

and… a cathedral is a visual encyclopaedia illustrating Creation”. 

The size of a building can also be very powerful. In many contexts, some individuals find that large 

spaces or buildings instil in them a sense of their own insignificance which, paradoxically, makes them 

feel bigger, greater or more ‘connected’. This has long been expressed through art, nature and music, all 

of which can be important vehicles of spirituality for many people. 

This sense of ‘connectedness’ – to other people, to oneself or to ‘God’ or ‘Other’ – may be an important 

factor that underpins many expressions of spirituality. Although there are one or two published articles 

on the therapeutic power of religious architecture 107;108 , and it is considered an important element of 

design in the development of sacred spaces 109 , further research is required to discover how the built 

environment can be used most effectively to enhance mental health. 


23


In summary, there is no shortage of research exploring the association between spirituality and mental 

health. The proposed benefits of the association are probably the result of a collection of inter-related 

and interacting factors, some of which have been addressed in the literature and some of which 

may yet need to be discovered. The precise mechanisms through which the beneficial effects occur 

– different styles of coping, adopting a positive locus-of-control, having ‘ready-made’ support network 

in times of stress or physiological responses to spiritual activities – may well interact with a number 

of individual factors, including a person’s pre-existing mental health status, their age, their gender or 

their cultural background. Anyone with an interest in mental health, including those from religious or 

spiritual communities, should familiarise themselves with the potential mediators of the relationship 

between spirituality and mental health. Armed with such knowledge, individuals may be one step 

closer to understanding and accessing a more effective approach to improving both their own and 

others’ mental health. 

24 


Limitations of the research 

4. Limitations of the research 

Although the quantitative, qualitative and anecdotal evidence all support the notion that spirituality 

is generally beneficial for mental health, the research does have some limitations. Even aside from 

the range of perspectives concerning what constitutes spirituality 8;34;110-112 , including the idea that its 

meaning is so diverse that to have a universal definition is potentially damaging 113 , there are a number 

of considerations that should be addressed when assessing the relationship between spirituality and 

mental health. 

4.1 Over-reliance on quantitative research 

One of the key limitations of much of the research in the field is that it relies exclusively on quantitative 

measures, which may not fully access the meaning spiritual activity has for the individual. Quantitative 

research tends to try and isolate the impact of one activity (e.g. church attendance) upon another (e.g. 

level of depression), which may not always capture the rich and complex interactions of other factors 

on any association found. The over reliance upon self-report measures may also exclude certain groups 

for whom spirituality is important but who may not articulate that through pen and paper measures, 

such as those with learning disabilities 114 , people for whom English is not a first language or those who 

cannot or do not want to reduce their spirituality to a series of items on a questionnaire. 

Qualitative research, such as the Somerset Spirituality Study Project 19 , is vital as it highlights the 

relationships within and between different aspects of spirituality. It also offers insight into the 

complexity of the association between spirituality and mental health and also how experiences 

may be differently interpreted. For example, that research showed that there is a potentially narrow 

line between hallucination and vision, which could lead to people either being seen as “psychotic” 

or “spiritual” depending on the interpretation of their experiences. Qualitative research may also be 

more amenable to understanding how people experiencing distress might be better supported and 

understood, particularly within faith communities and mental health services. 

To gain a fuller understanding of the association between spirituality and mental health, researchers 

need to use a combination of methodologies that allow the complexities of the field to be explored. 


25


4.2 Lack of distinction between religion and spirituality 

There is recognition (at least theoretically) that there are differences between religion and spirituality 

and that either can be practised without the necessary involvement of the other. Operationally, 

however, the distinction between religious practices and spirituality is often blurred, with much of 

the research using measures of religious practice as a proxy for spirituality 22 . Although this is possibly 

a reflection of pragmatic funding or measurement issues, it leads to an over-emphasis of Christian 

traditions in much of the literature. For example, one study that found lower levels of depression in 

participants with deeply held religious values 115 used exclusively Christian language in their survey. 

Others have argued that participants who rejected this language may have held equally spiritual values 

that may have gone unrecognised due to the terminology used in the operationalisation 21 . 

One challenge for researchers is to disaggregate the concepts of religion and spirituality and to more 

systematically analyse the effects of different expressions of spirituality on mental health 34 . 

4.3 Population biases 

Much of the research in the field focuses on the effects of spirituality on mental health problems and 

few studies address the mechanisms through which spirituality may promote good mental health 

and wellbeing in populations without those problems. As shown earlier, some aspects of spirituality 

have been demonstrated in relation to depression 1;17;116;117 , anxiety 52;57;118-121 , post-traumatic stress 

disorder 13;35;62;65;66;122 and schizophrenia 68;69;123 . Research has also examined the links between spirituality and 

other mental health problems, including addiction and substance abuse 124 , anti-social behaviour 125;126 

and personality disorders 127 . 

Despite the substantial amount of evidence linking spirituality with improved mental health in people 

with these problems, a literature search using the terms “religion” or “spirituality” with “mental wellbeing” 

yielded no results at all. It appears that the benefits of spiritual activity for those without mental health 

problems is an undervalued arena of research and an untapped source of potential for those wishing to 

improve their general mental health and wellbeing. 

Similarly, very rarely has spirituality been explored in populations who may not use spiritual 

terminology to describe themselves, or who may not regard themselves as spiritual at all. Research 

populations are either recruited from religious establishments or faith communities, which introduces 

an implicit bias into the data. Whilst it is easy to understand that research in self-professed “non-spiritual” 

or non-religious individuals may be more complex than with those who profess to hold religious 

beliefs, research should attempt to discover those aspects of life that give meaning to individuals that 

are beyond the traditional parameters of religion. 

26 



4.4 Divine intervention? 

A further issue concerns the way in which results are interpreted. Although some studies do find 

statistical differences between groups concerning the impact of spiritual activity on mental health, 

there is an inherent assumption in the literature that what is at work is a mediating factor, rather than 

a “direct” spiritual phenomenon, per se. To illustrate this point, imagine a respondent says that prayer 

for healing alleviates their depressive symptoms and all measures appear to support his view. Typically, 

researchers assume that this can be explained by one or more of mediating variables (e.g. changing 

attributional style) rather than by any direct impact of spirituality on mental health. Swinton 8 argues 

that “while it may be true that spirituality manifests itself through social and psychological processes, 

there is no evidence to support the assumption that is all it is.” (p85) 

Research into the possibility that there is a ‘non-empirical’ dimension that contributes to the association 

between spirituality and mental health is, by its very nature, laden with methodological issues. 

Nonetheless, there is a theoretical framework that mirrors many religious and theological traditions, 

which assumes that spirituality actually connects an individual with the divine and that it is this 

connection that mediates any effect of spirituality on mental health 128 . 

Studies adopting this framework tend to be concerned with the impact of intercessory prayer (IP) 

on certain health outcomes. For example, one study examined the impact of IP on anxiety levels 

in students 129 . All participants were prayed for by one of the experimenters using a nondirective 

method of prayer where no specific requests were made. Those being prayed for completed anxiety 

questionnaires on a daily basis. The results showed significant reductions in anxiety scores for those 

receiving IP, but not for those who were not prayed for. This is typical of a number of other studies in 

the field 130-133 . 

Such research has led to a debate in the UK about the effect of intercessory prayer on health 134-138 , with 

some arguing that studies are methodologically flawed 139 , statistically erroneous 140 poorly designed 141 or 

inherently unethical 142 . Others have conducted studies finding no differences between groups 143-145 , and 

others have found mixed results 130;146;147 . 

In summary, the research exploring the association of spirituality with mental health needs to consider 

a number of methodological shortcomings before it can claim to provide conclusive answers. Methods 

need to be combined and sample selection should reflect the diversity of spiritual expression that 

exists in the UK, in order that the maximum potential benefits of spirituality are available to as many 

individuals as possible. 


27

Implications and recommendations 

5. Implications and Recommendations 

Much of the research described in this review has implications for practice in mental health services 

and faith communities. It also leaves a number of questions unanswered that further research could 

address. Some of those implications are summarised here, with subsequent recommendations 

outlined in bold type. 

5.1 For Practice 

The key implication from the research is that the potential benefits of spiritual and religious expression 

and activity for mental health should not be overlooked by those in mental health services. However, 

for many, this is exactly what appears to happen. Qualitative research describes the way in which 

religious and spiritual experiences of service users are pathologised, ignored or dismissed by many 

working in mental health services 19;31 and psychiatry is accused of being prejudiced against spirituality 

“owing to assumptions that it is not an area which is deemed credible in terms of research.” (Swinton, 

2001, p42) 8 Psychiatrists themselves recognise that it is hard to discuss issues of spirituality and religion 

with colleagues because they “cannot be accommodated within the model of mind on which so much 

of psychiatry is founded.” 6 

Fortunately, the tide does appear to be turning. The special interest group (SIG) in spirituality and 

psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) is currently the college’s fastest-growing SIG 148 and 

a paper by the chair of the RCP SIG suggests that psychiatrists need only “show genuine interest in, and 

respect for, whatever the patient ventures to confide [about their spiritual or religious beliefs].” 6 

One way in which those working in mental health services can embrace the importance of spirituality 

to mental health is to consider a person’s religious or spiritual beliefs during assessment. Assessment 

of an experiential and transcendent phenomenon such as spirituality requires sensitivity, creativity and 

an unbiased approach 5 and some have suggested that those working in mental health services assess 

their own spiritual beliefs, values and biases before initiating a spiritual assessment in order to remain 

non-judgmental 5;6;149 . 

There are a number of barriers to obtaining an individual’s spiritual history, which may need 

consideration by those working in and planning local and national mental health services. 

These include: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

a lack of time 

a lack of training 

concern about stepping outside one’s area of expertise 

discomfort with the subject 

worries about imposing beliefs on the service user, and 

a lack of interest or awareness 150 

28 



Further considerations are presented in a paper examining the dilemmas of spiritual assessment for 

nurses in the UK 151 , although they are relevant for other professionals working in the mental health 

sector. These include difficulties with the definition of spirituality and its impact on assessment (see also 

McSherry et al, 2004 16 ); how and when to conduct the spiritual assessment; who should assess; should 

the assessment be continuous or ‘one-off’; the practicalities of assessment and the ethics of attempting 

to assess such a sensitive and personal dimension of an individual’s life. 

Some of these issues are addressed in qualitative research that incorporates service users’ points of 

view 15;18;19 . It argues that changing the attitudes of those working in mental health services would be 

helped by a “more proactive response to spirituality and religion in mental health units.” 

Recommendations they make for those working in mental health services include: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

asking service users about their spiritual and religious needs upon entry to the service and 

throughout their care and treatment 

helping users to identify those aspects of life that provide them with meaning, hope, 

value and purpose 

ensuring that all service users including those who do not regard themselves as spiritual 

or religious are offered the opportunity to speak with a chaplain or other spiritual leader if 

desired 

providing good access to relevant and appropriate religious and spiritual resources 

offering or making available safe spaces where users can pray, meditate, worship or 

practice their faith 

providing opportunities for service users to discuss their spirituality or religion with others 

building strong and effective links with religious and spiritual groups in the local 

community 

avoid pathologising, dismissing or ignoring the religious or spiritual experiences of service 

users 

Many working in mental health services are aware of the links between mental health, spirituality 

and religion. However, the nature of those links is less precisely understood: the relationship can be 

considered as positive, negative, inconsistent or unpredictable. The same can be said for many people 

working in faith communities or providing pastoral or spiritual care. In one study in the UK, 44% of 

religious leaders thought that mental ill health might lead to greater religious belief; 52% believed that 

religion may lead to mental ill health; 45% thought that mental ill health could reduce religious belief; 

22% thought that religion might protect people from mental ill health; 39% thought that religion might 

be a way to sublimate psychological problems and just 1% thought that there was no link between 

mental health and religion or spirituality. In addition, two thirds thought that mental ill health could 

confuse people about their religious faith and practice 18 . One conclusion to draw from studies such 

as these is the need for an increased awareness amongst leaders in faith communities of the 

potential benefits of spiritual expression for mental health. 


29


Others in faith communities also have an increasingly important role in working to increase the 

understanding of mental health issues and challenging stigma and discrimination 72 . Rethink suggest 

that this can be achieved by making places of worship and activities accessible to all. 

The Somerset Spirituality Project 19 also identified a number of recommendations that are consistent 

with those outlined above. It recommended that people in all spiritual, religious and faith 

communities should offer practical help and support to people with mental health problems as 

well as recognising and promoting the value of spiritual places and buildings. 

One of the most powerful outcomes of the research looking at the association between spirituality and 

mental health is the implications it has for those working in mental health services, religious or spiritual 

communities or the voluntary sector. However, in order to complete the picture that is beginning to 

emerge in this field, there are also a number of considerations that should be taken into account by 

researchers across many disciplines. 

5.2 For Research 

The research described earlier has clearly demonstrated that spirituality is a multidimensional concept 

and needs to be assessed accordingly. Therefore, researchers who investigate spirituality and 

mental health outcomes should acknowledge the socio-demographic, social and health factors 

that are known to be risk factors for certain mental health problems 22 . 

Similarly, a multi-methodological approach to understanding the complex and interactive nature of 

spirituality and mental health may yield more helpful and informative results than studies attempting to 

isolate simple linear relationships. Researchers should ensure that the methodologies they employ 

are those most appropriate to answer the questions being addressed. 

For those researchers interested in exploring the association between spirituality and certain mental 

health problems should involve service users, wherever possible, in the design, conduct and 

analysis of research projects 15;18;152 . Research involving other samples would provide greater insights 

into the potential benefit of spiritual activity for general mental health and wellbeing. 

Section three summarised some of the mechanisms proposed in the literature to account for the 

apparent beneficial effect of spirituality on mental health. However, an important question for 

researchers is whether spirituality is the only context in which such mechanisms may operate, 

or whether other social activities would also render similar positive effects 34 . Studies should be 

sufficiently well designed to identify mediating factors that are exclusive to spiritual or religious 

activity and how they relate to other dimensions of being human (emotional, psychological, 

social, intellectual). Such work should explore how spirituality can support good mental health as well 

as potentially preventing or ameliorating mental illness. 

Similarly, few studies have explored how factors such as race, culture, socio-economic status and 

religious preference affect the association between spirituality and mental health. Research should 

take into account the range of demographic variables that could moderate or mediate the 

relationship between spirituality and mental health. 

30 



Much of the current research in this field is characterised by implicit or explicit assumptions founded 

in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Along with the acknowledged but unresolved difficulties associated 

with defining spirituality (as opposed to religion), this results in research that is biased or inapplicable 

to people who choose to express their spiritual in a non-Christian way. A challenge for researchers 

is to develop measures of religion and spirituality that cut across a range of religious traditions 

without robbing those traditions of their distinctive and substantive characteristics 34 . 

The literature on the connection between spirituality and mental health has focused almost exclusively 

on religion or spirituality as predictors of health outcomes. However, as Hill and others have argued 8;20;91 , 

different health issues may also affect a person’s spirituality. As such, research should consider using 

spiritual or religious activity as an outcome measure and to explore the impact of mental health 

on different expressions of spirituality. 

Finally, given that many aspects of religion and spirituality are concerned with healing, wholeness 

and wellness (rather than necessarily with ‘cure’), further research should explore the impact and 

effectiveness of the ‘healing’ dimensions of different spiritual activities. 


31

Conclusion 

6. Conclusion 

Spirituality is a concept that evades simplistic definition, categorisation or measurement and yet it 

affects the social, emotional, psychological and intellectual dimensions of our lives. This report has 

reviewed some of the evidence linking spirituality and religious expression with different aspects of 

mental health and, in particular, different mental health problems. The evidence is equivocal; some 

expressions of spirituality are helpful, in some ways, some of the time. These tend to be expressions of 

spirituality that encourage personal empowerment, that affirm and embrace diversity and that promote 

the importance of emotions such as hope, forgiveness and purpose. Other aspects of spirituality 

seem to have no effect on mental health or, in some cases, can lead to feelings of guilt, shame or 

powerlessness, which can be damaging or harmful to a person’s mental health. Overall, however, the 

general consensus in the literature seems to be one of cautious optimism about the role spirituality can 

play in promoting and maintaining good mental health. 

Many factors are proposed to account for these benefits. Spirituality can affect a person’s coping styles 

or their locus of control perceptions. It can also provide access to a network of social support and 

increase social capital, both of which are widely acknowledged to promote and sustain emotional 

and psychological wellbeing. Some expressions of spirituality affect the lifestyle and may encourage 

individuals to limit illness-related behaviours, such as smoking, drinking excessive alcohol and 

overeating, or to increase health-related behaviours such as meditation, exercise and helping others. 

Aspects of religious architecture and the built environment may also serve to mediate the effects of 

spirituality on mental health. 

The evidence is not without its limitations and this review has identified some of the major criticisms 

of research to date. An over-reliance on quantitative studies that look for a simplistic linear relationship 

between discrete variables also tends to operationalise spirituality solely in Judeo-Christian terms. This 

leads to biases in the samples involved in the research and makes assumptions that may be irrelevant 

or offensive to individuals whose spirituality finds expression in other ways. One assumption that is 

often intrinsic in the research is that effects of spirituality on mental health are entirely explainable 

through psychological or social mechanisms. An emerging group of researchers are challenging that 

assumption and exploring ways to measure the so-called ‘non-empirical’ dimension of spirituality. 

The research starts to sketch out a picture of the ways in which spirituality may affect mental health. 

A number of implications and recommendations are presented that aim to pinpoint ways in which a 

fuller, more colourful picture of that relationship may be created. The involvement of service users and 

carers is a vital contribution to that picture and as their voices resonate alongside those of researchers 

across many disciplines, and those involved in various mental health services, the contribution of 

spirituality in relation to mental wellbeing may be established. 

32 


Further information and support 

7. Further information and support 

Further information can be found in the following publications. 

Strategies for Living 33 

Mental Health Foundation, 2000. ISBN 1-903645-72-6 

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications 

Knowing our own Minds 32 



Taken Seriously (The Somerset Spirituality Project) 19 



Spirituality and Mental Health Care: Rediscovering a Forgotten Dimension 8 

John Swinton. Jessica Kingsley, 2001. ISBN 1-85302-804-5 

http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/ 

Mind Guide to Spiritual Practices 153 

Sara Maitland. Mind, 2004. ISBN 1-903567-41-6 

http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/ 

Promoting Mental Health: A Resource for Pastoral and Spiritual Care 94 

Church of England 

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/socialpublic/homeaffairs/mentalhealth/parishresource.pdf 

Spirituality and Mental Illness 72 

Rethink, 2004 

http://www.rethink.org/document.rm?id=690 


33

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37

About the Mental Health Foundation 

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Attachment C 

Transformative Learning Theory and Spirituality 


Journal of Instructional Research | Volume 2 (2013) 30 

Theoretical, Review & Reflection Articles 

Transformative Learning Theory and Spirituality: 

A Whole-Person Approach 

Gary Piercy 

Spirituality is gaining popularity within academics as discussions regarding the importance of spirituality within 

leadership and education increases. A biblical anthropology embraces human nature as physical, emotional, 

cognitive, and spiritual with recognition that adults are capable of learning within each of those realms. Embracing 

humans are spiritual beings necessitates the inclusion of spirituality in discussions related to how humans 

come to know. Mezirow’s transformative learning theory provides an understanding the nature of adult learning 

and serves as the foundation upon which to build a whole-person approach to adult learning that includes spirituality. 

Defining spirituality as the quest for life-meaning and self-awareness for a higher purpose demonstrated 

through efforts to achieve the common good for all, offers a working definition by which to establish learning 

goals. Creating learning strategies that touch the human spirit allows educators greater opportunities for transformative 

learning to occur. 

Mezirow’s dialogue concerning adult transformative 

learning theory continues to spark discussion 

regarding how adults learn. For Mezirow, 

learning involves adult learners engaging in critical 

reflection concerning their existing frames of reference 

(Mezirow & Associates, 2000). This internal 

dialogue allows adult learners the opportunity to 

examine assumptions and beliefs to determine their 

validity in light of new information. In addition to 

critical reflection, transformative learning theory 

recognizes the importance of reflective discourse 

with others. Merriam (2004) observed that critical 

reflection requires a higher level of cognitive development 

than many adults ever achieve resulting 

in a call to “expand the theory of transformational 

learning to include more ‘connected,’ affective, 

and intuitive dimensions on an equal footing with 

cognitive and rational components” (p. 66-67). In 

agreement, Mezirow (2004) acknowledged the need 

“to elaborate on the crucially important roles and 

relationships of affective, intuitive, and imaginative 

dimensions” of transformative learning (p. 70). 

Others have joined the conversation regarding 

various dimensions and approaches to transformative 

learning theory. Baumgartner (2001) described 

four approaches that theorists and interpreters 

employ with regard to transformative learning 

theory including Freire’s emancipatory approach, 

Mezirow’s cognitive-rational approach, Daloz’s 

developmental approach, and Dirkx and Healy’s 

spiritual approach. Each of these approaches offers 

insight into transformative learning; however, 

grand canyon university

Piercy 31 

including spirituality as part of the learning process 

provides opportunities for the development 

of a whole-person approach to adult learning. An 

examination of spirituality in learning requires an 

understanding of the nature of adult learners and 

learning, the aspects and development of spirituality, 

and learning strategies to enhance spirituality in 

education moving toward a whole-person approach 

to the transformative learning process. 

The Adult Learner and Learning 

The Adult Learner as a Spiritual Being 

Schauffele and Baptiste (2000) acknowledge the 

Judeo-Christian Bible as a credible source and contend 

that learning theory should incorporate a biblical 

understanding of human nature. Citing Genesis 

1:26-27, Schauffele and Baptiste, maintained that 

humans are unique from other living creatures because 

God created humans in his own image. Thus, 

the Christian view of human nature includes the idea 

that humans are spiritual beings (Schauffele & Baptiste, 

2000). Furthermore, based on Jesus’ words 

recorded in Mark 12.30, “love the Lord your God 

with all your heart and with all your soul and with 

all your mind and with all your strength” (NIV), 

Schauffele and Baptiste maintained that human nature 

includes a minimum of four realms including 

physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual. Such 

a view reflects Dewey’s picture of the whole person 

as intellectual, social, moral, and physical (as cited 

by Schauffele & Baptiste). 

This biblical perspective of human nature provides 

a framework for understanding whole-person 

learning. According to Schauffele and Baptiste 

(2000), adult learners are capable of learning or 

knowing by way of experience through any one 

or combination of these four realms. The extent 

of knowledge gained may vary from one realm to 

another; however, these realms of human nature 

become a means by which adult learners come to 

know. As adult learners come to know a thing by 

means of one or more of these realms, they begin 

to incorporate their knowledge habitually into their 

lives. Thus, recognizing the multiple dimensions of 

human nature requires the development of a learning 

theory that encompasses the whole person. 

Adult Learning 

A simple definition of learning is a change in 

behavior (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). Thus, in 

a broad sense, learning involves the development 

of “repeatable strategies which are habitually acted 

upon in order to achieve what the subject perceives 

to be the best possible ends” (Schauffele & Baptiste, 

2000, p. 451). The differences among key learning 

theories are identifiable when examining the determining 

factors for recognizing the best possible 

end. For example, the behaviorist recognizes the 

environment as the determining factor for the best 

possible end (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). The 

cognitivist recognizes the natural abilities of “organization, 

logic and a priori principles of truth” 

as the determining factor for the best possible ends 

(Schauffele & Baptiste, 2000, p. 451). The social 

constructivist maintains that people learn as they 

socially engage in dialogue and activities concerning 

common tasks or problems (Merriam & Caffarella, 

1999). Situated learning theorists recognize 

communities of practice and social cognitivists recognize 

various personal factors such as physical, 

emotional, and cognitive as determining the best 

possible end (Schauffele & Baptiste, 2000). 

Each of these learning theories seems to base 

assumptions on an either or premise. That is, learning 

occurs either as an external process between 

learners and their environment or as an internal 

psychological process of acquiring and elaborating 

on information (Illeris, 2003). However, using 

Schauffele and Baptiste’s (2000) model of human 

nature causes a dilemma in the light of the possibility 

that learning occurs in all four levels of human 

nature (physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual). 

Therefore, it is necessary to approach learning 

with a theory that includes multiple dimensions of 

learning. 

Illeris (2003) provided a learning model that allows 

for external and internal learning by recognizing 

that external and internal interactions are active 

aspects of the learning process. Illeris’ model 

begins with the process of external interaction between 

learners and their environment. The internal 

process involves the interaction between reason and 

emotion. Illeris depicted this model as an inverted 

triangle demonstrating the interaction of three dimensions 

of learning. Each point of the triangle 

represents one of the three dimensions. The lower 

point of the inverted triangle represents the environment 

while each of the other points represents 

cognition and emotion. The foundational claim of 



the theory is that these three dimensions will always 

interactively process information in order to 

create learning. 

Through the cognitive dimension, learners are 

able to build upon their knowledge and understanding 

by constructing the ability to manage the challenges 

of everyday life, which gives learners the 

capacity to function. The emotional dimension 

includes the “mental energy, feelings, and motivation” 

securing the learners ability to reason, which 

enables the development of sensibility (Illeris, 2003, 

p. 399). The environmental dimension is the external 

dimension involving the interaction of learners 

with people, places, and events. It is through this 

external dimension that learners integrate into their 

communities resulting in the learners’ ability to socialize. 

Thus, the three dimensions of learning create 

a field of learning that encompasses “the development 

of functionality, sensibility, and sociality” 

(Illeris, 2003, p. 399). Thus, Illeris’ learning model 

and Schauffele and Baptiste’s (2000) understanding 

of human nature provide a foundation for developing 

a strategy for whole-person learning. Building 

on this foundation requires understanding the aspects 

and development of spirituality. 

Understanding Spirituality 

Definitions of Spirituality 

Reaching a consensus regarding the definition 

of spirituality is a difficult challenge. In fact, Tisdell 

(2002) indicated that though many offer definitions 

for spirituality, they all seem to be incomplete. 

For example, Bean (2000) viewed spirituality as 

creating meaning out of life’s experiences. Vogel 

(2000) recognized spirituality as being “drawn to 

visions of justice, compassion, righteousness, and 

peace…embrac[ing] more than the material and 

mundane, or the here and now” (p. 18). According 

to Vella (2000), every learning event is a moment 

in which spiritual development occurs. Further, 

Tisdell (2008) described spirituality as part of the 

life journey that leads an individual toward wholeness. 

Moreover, Hill and Johnston (2003) defined 

spirituality within a given context by equating responsibility 

for stewardship of the earth as spiritual. 

Furthermore, as difficult as spirituality is to define, 

it remains an indispensable part of adult development 

by providing meaning and coherence to life’s 

journey (Mulqueen & Elias, 2000). Yet, despite the 

variety of definitions for spirituality, several concepts 

that seem to reoccur in the literature including 

a consciousness of a higher power, interconnectedness 

with all people and all creation, and a development 

of self-awareness (Tisdell, 2001; Zeph, 2000). 

Thus, drawing from many sources, a working definition 

of spirituality could include the quest for lifemeaning 

and self-awareness for a higher purpose 

demonstrated through efforts to achieve the common 

good for all. 

As noted above, human nature consists of at 

least four realms including physical, emotional, 

cognitive, and spiritual. Citing Dirkx, Baumgartner 

(2001) noted that appealing to the spiritual dimensions 

of adult learners requires the use of imagination 

as transformative learning surpasses a rational 

approach to include a “soul-based learning that emphasizes 

feelings and images” (p. 18). Thus, a primary 

aspect of spirituality is the role of emotion in 

transformative learning. 

Emotions 

Goleman’s (2006) work regarding emotional intelligence 

has brought the concepts of emotions to 

the forefront by recognizing that emotions are the 

impulses to act that are shaped by experiences and 

cultures. Like Goleman, Illeris’ (2003) recognized 

the importance of the interaction of cognition and 

emotion in the learning process. Dirkx (2001) also 

affirmed the significance of emotions noting that 

emotions can either help or hinder learning. Adult 

educators often overlook the emotional aspects of 

human nature viewing teaching and learning as primarily 

a rational and cognitive process. However, 

citing Damasio and LeDoux, Taylor (2001) wrote, 

“recent research has revealed that emotions are indispensable 

for rationality, such that one cannot reason 

without emotions or feelings” (p. 219). 

The field of neurobiology traditionally regards 

reason as a higher order function of the brain while 

emotion is a lower order function of the brain (Taylor, 

2001). However, it seems a more prominent relationship 

exists between the functions of the brain 

relating reason and emotions. Parrot and Schulkin 

noted, “emotions anticipate future needs, prepare 

for actions, and even prepare for thinking certain 

types of thoughts” (as quoted in Taylor, p. 222). 

These findings also coincide with Dirkx (2001) who 

viewed emotions as fundamental aspects of how 

adults make sense of their daily lives. 


Piercy 33 

Within the brain, chemical transmissions continuously 

and simultaneously process information 

from both conscious and unconscious sources 

(Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). This information 

within the brain travels from one neuron to the next 

neuron through chemical molecules known as neurotransmitters 

that move information throughout 

the brain through an intricate and multifaceted system. 

Consequently, human feelings, emotions, and 

reason continually interact within the brain as the 

neurotransmitters deliver information throughout 

the brain. For example, one might have to make a 

decision with regard to relocating to a new city for 

a new employment opportunity. As the process of 

evaluating the situation takes place, the individual 

considers the job and the location of the job, which 

could elicit specific feelings. If the emotional attachment 

to the city is positive, the individual might 

have euphoric feelings resulting in a smile. If the 

emotional attachment to the city were negative, the 

feelings would be the opposite. Thus, emotions are 

influential in the cognitive process (Taylor, 2001) 

Goleman (2006) affirmed the relationship between 

the cognitive and the emotional noting that 

humans have a rational mind (thinking) and an 

emotional mind (feeling) which interacts to create 

the mental life. Citing Merriam and Caffarella and 

Taylor, Dirkx (2001) supported these findings by 

noting that, 

‘Brain-based’ theories and the concept 

of ‘emotional intelligence’ suggest that 

emotion and feelings are deeply interrelated 

with perceiving and processing information 

from our external environments, storing 

and retrieving information in memory, 

reasoning, and the embodiment of 

learning. (p. 68) 

Citing Johnson-Laird and Oatley, Taylor (2001) wrote, 

Without emotions, individuals are unable 

to co-ordinate their behavior, respond to 

emergencies, prioritize goals, prepare for 

proper action and make progress towards 

goals – incapable of filling the gaps often 

found in the slow and error-prone process 

of objective rationality. (p. 223) 

The emotional dimension of human nature 

serves as an important component of the learning 

process as both emotions and reason interrelate in 

order to promote learning. In addition, emotions 

often serve as the catalyst for reflection as adults begin 

exploring their feelings leading toward transformative 

learning. Barlas (2001) found that “intense 

emotional content of learning experiences served… 

to trigger reflective learning by directing focus on 

assumptions that underlie frames of reference” (p. 

4). Barlas’ research was in the context of learningwithin-relationship, 

which is a second aspect of 

spirituality. 

Relationships 

Recalling the various definitions of spirituality, 

one definition worth revisiting is the idea of the 

interconnectedness of all people as relationships 

among adult learners is vital to the learning process 

(Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). Adults entering into 

various learning environments often find camaraderie 

with other adult learners as helpful and stimulating. 

Encouraging, supportive, and trusting learning 

environments are indispensable for reasonable 

discourse. Nouwen described this as a hospitable 

environment in which people become friends (as 

cited in Wickett, 2000). As adult learners begin 

sharing their lives and experiences with one another, 

they may create a context of compassion and 

trust, through which they are able to discuss differing 

perspectives on topics of interest. This type of 

safe environment provides opportunities for learners 

to examine the strengths and weaknesses of 

their personal frames of reference, as well as those 

of others. 

Another benefit of a safe and trusting learning 

environment is that it allows for a sense of unity in 

diversity. The diversity of perspectives among adult 

learners within a given context serves to provide 

differing approaches and opinions that enrich the 

learning experience for everyone. Though engaging 

in discourse with those of differing perspectives 

may cause some adult learners to feel uncomfortable, 

establishing a safe and trusting learning environment 

enables adults to participate in the learning 

experience regardless of their feelings. These 

safe and trusting environments offer occasions for 

uninhibited and genuine dialogue, enabling adults 

to achieve superior meaning-making opportunities, 

which enables spiritual development. This learn- 



ing-within-relationship provides opportunities for 

adults to learn along with others as both the context 

and process of learning serve as important components 

of critical reflection that leads to transformative 

learning (Barlas, 2001). 

According to Yorks and Kasl (2002), one of the 

primary preconditions for establishing trusting relationships 

through which transformative learning 

may occur is empathy. While empathy may be easily 

assumed within groups with similar interests, 

backgrounds, and experiences, such groups do not 

provide many diverse experiences and therefore 

may not evoke transformative learning. Yorks and 

Kasl referred to this as the “paradox of diversity” 

(p. 186). The paradox is that the more diverse the 

experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives of the 

members of the group, the more likely the relationships 

will produce transformative growth. On the 

other hand, such diversity may indicate the group 

will be unable to empathize with one another thus 

creating a context that may actually inhibit growth 

and transformation. 

Nevertheless, as adult learners develop compassion 

and empathy for one another, the mutual and 

emotional support provides a safety net for critical 

reflection and for transformative learning as emotions 

are often the catalysts for promoting transformative 

learning. Learning-in-relationships allows 

empathetic adults to “discuss…and process…emotions 

and feelings, both as a precursor to critical reflection 

and as a stimulus for critical reflection and 

perspective transformation” (Barlas, 2001, p. 6). 

Caring communities of learning are also vital in 

the actual process of transformative unlearning as 

the process of abandoning previously held frames 

of reference might be emotionally painful. Boyd 

and Myers noted that as adults unlearn previously 

held practices, they often feel a sense of loss, as previous 

ideals that provided certainty and security are 

no longer valid (as cited in Macdonald, 2002). Such 

loss requires adult learners, along with their instructors, 

to serve as collaborators, who share concerns 

regarding this loss of certainty and security within 

the process of transformation. 

Adult educators assist learners in creating an 

empathetic context for learning-in-relationships by 

maintaining a safe and trusting environment. This 

allows adult learners to share their individual life 

experiences with confidence that mutual respect 

will prevail. Through this discourse, adult learners 

have an opportunity to share their unique and 

diverse life experiences while developing empathy 

and emotional support for one another resulting in 

a deepening appreciation for different perspectives 

(Barlas, 2001). Not only should the adult educator 

create this empathetic culture, it is also necessary 

for educators to focus on building positive relationships 

with their students. 

Vella (2000) offered a “spirited epistemology” 

which recognizes adult learners as “Subjects (capitalized…in 

order to emphasize the primacy of the 

learner) of or decision makers in their own learning” 

(p. 7). As such, adult learners take responsibility 

for their own learning and their own lives. 

Thus, spirited epistemology is learner-centered and 

as such assumes the accountability of the instructor 

to the student as the instructor assumes a moral obligation 

to facilitate the goals of the student. 

Vella (2000) provided various principles and 

practices for instructors to implement for developing 

a learner-centered adult education program. 

The first principle is dialogue. Through dialogue, 

educators provide guidance to discussions through 

which learners are able to share their experiences 

and knowledge with others. As the dialogue continues, 

the instructors provide substantive comments 

and information in order to assist the learners in 

adding new information to their existing knowledge. 

Dialogue that centers on the learners’ needs 

also provides instructors with vital information concerning 

content relevance and learning processes. 

The second principle is respect, which “guides 

not only the design of learning and the learning 

tasks, but also every aspect of educators’ encounters 

with adult learners” (Vella, 2000, p.12). As instructors 

come to know the life situation of adult learners, 

they are able to come to respect those learners’ 

contexts, experiences, and perspectives. One way 

of gaining information concerning the lives of adult 

learners is through a learning needs assessment before 

entering into the learning situation. Such an 

assessment provides the instructor with important 

information regarding the learner’s background, interests, 

and learning needs. 

The third principle is accountability, which is 

the foundational value of a spirited epistemology 

as the teacher is accountable to the learner by way 

of the learning design or learning covenant (Vella, 

2000). Spirited epistemology does not necessarily 

mean the subject matter concerns spiritual matters. 


Piercy 35 

However, the nature of the relationship between 

the instructor and adult learners creates an opportunity 

for spiritual growth through the interactions 

between instructor and learner (Wickett, 2000). 

Through a learning covenant, instructors and learners 

establish mutually agreed upon learning objectives 

and the implementation of strategies useful 

for accomplishing those objectives. The learning 

covenant also includes establishing of timelines, 

identifying resources, and outlining principles for 

assessment. 

Just as creating a learning environment of hospitality 

is essential in learning relationships among 

learners, the same hospitality is equally important 

in the relationship between instructors and learners. 

Quoting Nouwen, Wickett (2000) wrote, “hospitality 

is not an invitation to adopt the lifestyle of the 

host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find 

his own [life]” (p. 42). Developing this type of relationship 

with learners requires instructors to resign 

control and allow learners the opportunity to learn 

and to make mistakes. Achieving this type of abandonment 

requires a trusting relationship between 

instructors and learners and a belief that learners 

want to achieve success (Wickett, 2000). 

Vella’s (2000) fourth principle involves forging 

new relationship between instructors and learners in 

which both become equal partners in the learning 

experience. Working together as partners allows 

instructors and learners to advance one another’s 

learning. Citing Gravett, who based her comments 

on Bakhtin’s theory, Vella (2000) wrote this new 

relationship: 

implies that teacher, learner, and knowledge 

are in a dynamic, reciprocal unity 

- dialogic teaching is proposed as transformative 

exchange, in which teachers and 

learners are involved in a co-learning and 

co-teaching process, thereby cultivating 

the development of an authentic community 

of learners, characterized by sharing 

and support, along with cognitive challenge. 

(p. 14) 

Citing Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule, 

Vogel (2000) provided a dynamic image describing the 

relationship of instructor to learner as that of a midwife. 

The imagery comes from the biblical account 

of the Hebrew midwives who stood between Pharaoh’s 

order to kill all infant boys without regard for their own 

lives and safety. Using this imagery, adult educators 

assist learners in creating new ways of thinking and 

new ways of doing (Vogel, 2000). Thus, in the role of 

a midwife, the instructors do not replicate themselves; 

rather, they nurture “knowledge, values, creativity, and 

growth” (Vogel, 2000, p. 24). The relationships forged 

within adult learning contexts enable adults to explore 

new ideas and reflect upon previously held assumptions 

within safe and trusting environments. Both emotions 

and relationships play a significant role in spirituality. 

The significance of emotions and relationships requires 

an understanding of how spirituality develops in 

adulthood. 

Spiritual Development 

English (2000) promoted three components of 

authentic spiritual development relating to adult learning. 

The first component of spiritual development is a 

strong sense of self. Such spiritual self-awareness is an 

understanding of what one believes in, cares about, and 

values (Zohar, 2005). Adults engaging in continuous 

or lifelong learning environments often develop personal 

relationships with other adults within the same 

environment. Such rich relationships provide adult 

learners opportunities to develop “a stronger sense of 

self, which is integral to spiritual development” (English, 

2000, p. 30). In addition, as adult learners develop 

meaningful relationships with instructors, they often 

feel a sense of value, which also contributes to a strong 

sense of self. With a strong sense of self, the student 

constructs a solid foundation upon which they are able 

to confidently take risks and grow. 

Referring to Jung, Cranton and King (2003) described 

this strong sense of self as “the development 

of the whole person, indivisible and yet distinct from 

the general collective psychology” as a “lifelong process 

of individuation” (p. 33). Individuation, along 

with authenticity and transformative learning form an 

escalating journey. As adult learners are real, or authentic 

with themselves, they begin seeing their values 

and beliefs as being different from others. Then they 

begin the process of transformation leading to further 

authenticity leading again to further individuation and 

transformation (Cranton & King, 2003). 

Dirkx (2001) also connected spirituality and a 

sense of self by arguing, “personally significant and 

meaningful learning is fundamentally grounded in and 

is derived from the adults’ emotional, imaginative connection 

with the self and with the broader social world” 



(p. 64). Engaging in various educational contexts often 

evokes strong emotional expressions from adult learners. 

Adults returning to the classroom often describe 

their experiences using words depicting emotions such 

as fear or dread (Dirkx, 2001). This suggests that emotions 

and feelings significantly affect the adult’s sense 

of self and learning processes. Thus, just as emotions 

and relationships serve as primary aspects of spirituality 

for adult learners, both also serve to aid in furthering 

spiritual development within adult learners. 

English’s (2000) second component of spiritual 

development involves caring, concern, and outreach 

to others. Spiritually developed individuals recognize 

that all of creation is interdependent and for this 

reason take responsibility to care for others as well as 

all of creation (Hill & Johnston, 2003). Zohar (2005) 

affirmed the ability to demonstrate compassion as an 

important principle of spiritual development. Adults’ 

lives improve as they give of themselves to strengthen 

and affirm others. Encouraging one another, learning 

from one another, and affirming one another enhances 

spiritual development. Further, spiritual development 

creates and awareness within adults that something 

greater than themselves exists (Zeph, 2000). This 

awareness affects the choices they make and their 

commitment to the good of all. It creates a realization 

and desire within adults to reach out to others to serve 

their local communities, society, and the greater world 

for the common good of all people. 

English’s (2000) third component of spiritual development 

involves continually constructing meaning 

and knowledge. Through relationships and various 

experiences in life, adults are continually constructing 

meaning. As adults grow in their understanding 

of their lives, they become aware that “life is greater 

than… [their] sphere of influence and that… [their] future 

is bound up with that of others” (English, 2000, p. 

30). The recognition that they are a part of something 

greater than themselves provides adult learners a tremendous 

opportunity for further spiritual development 

as they engage in meaning making. Zohar (2005) referred 

to this as holism, which includes the understanding 

that everyone is part of the world system and what 

one does, thinks, values, and feels affects the entire 

world and thus everyone bears a responsibility to fulfill 

his or her part. 

In addition to English’s (2000) components of spiritual 

development, Fowler’s (1974) work in the area of 

faith development provided a connection between spiritual 

development and cognitive development. Fowler 

described spiritual development as a journey beginning 

with faith that depends upon the faith of others such as 

parents or other authority figures. The next step in the 

journey depicts faith that depends upon the faith of the 

community, such as a church or synagogue. Finally, 

many adults develop a faith that is uniquely their own, 

capable of dealing with life issues. 

Other researchers also connect spiritual development 

with cognitive development. Citing cognitive development 

theorists such as Belenky, Clincy, Basseches, 

and Keegan; Mulqueen and Elias (2000) wrote, “what 

is striking about these theories…is that, for a person 

to reach the highest stage of cognitive development, a 

‘transformation’ of sorts, represented by a commitment 

to values and beliefs, is required” (p. 2). Referring to 

Perry’s study of cognitive development among Harvard 

and Radcliffe undergraduates during their four years of 

college, Mulqueen and Elias (2000) offered four stages 

of cognitive development. The first stage is Dualism 

in which adult learners divide meaning into two sets – 

good or bad, right or wrong. The second stage is Multiplicity 

during which, adult learners begin to trust their 

own instincts and opinions becoming less dependent 

upon authority figures. The third stage is Relativism 

in which, adult learners begin accepting the opinions 

of others only after researching, analyzing, and comparing 

for themselves the evidence supporting said 

opinions. The fourth stage is Commitment at which 

point adult learners begin engaging “in dialectical logic 

and paradoxical thinking by being committed deeply 

in values and yet open to learn” (p. 2). Adults capable 

of engaging in dialectical thinking are able to discuss 

and entertain ideas and worldviews different from their 

own without being threatened. 

Merriam (2004) echoed the concept that dialectical 

thinking is a higher level of cognitive development. 

Though Merriam is not connecting dialectical thinking 

to spiritual development, she does connect dialectical 

thinking to the more mature adult. If higher-level 

cognitive development is more likely among more mature 

adults, then it is also possible that this higher level 

of cognitive thinking coincides with spiritual development 

in adults. Mulqueen and Elias (2000) noted that 

in later stages of adulthood, “psychological and cognitive 

development impels a person to focus on the inner/ 

spiritual self” (p. 2). Thus, a connection exists between 

spiritual development and cognitive development and 

spiritual development and maturity. As adults mature, 

the possibility exists for deeper cognitive development 

as well as deeper spiritual development. 


Piercy 37 

Incorporating human spirituality is a necessary 

part of a whole-person approach to adult education. 

Educators often overlook human spirituality even 

though it is ever present (Tolliver & Tisdell, 2002). 

Educators in the twentieth century prepared learners 

for blue-collar jobs. However, the current knowledge 

economy requires educators to prepare learners to be 

innovative, critical thinkers who are confident in their 

abilities and ideas (Vella, 2000). Further, Vella (2000) 

vehemently wrote, “unless we teach one another as 

spiritual, human beings, we will continue to feed a 

domination system that will be our death” (p. 15). 

Therefore, educators should begin viewing spiritual dimensions 

of human nature in the same way they view 

cognitive dimensions of human nature. The task thus 

becomes how to include not only the cognitive, but also 

the spiritual in learning strategies and design. 

Strategies for Enhancing 

Spirituality in Education 

Establishing a Framework 

Cranton (2002) identified seven guidelines for establishing 

a learning environment promoting transformative 

learning including: 

• An activating event that typically exposes a 

discrepancy between what a person has always 

assumed to be true and what has just been experienced, 

heard, or read; 

• Articulating assumptions, that is, recognizing 

underlying assumptions that have been uncritically 

assimilated and are largely unconscious; 

• Critical self-reflection, that is, questioning and 

examining assumptions in terms of where they 

came from, the consequences of holding them, 

and why they are important; 

• Being open to alternative viewpoints; 

• Engaging in discourse, where evidence is 

weighed, arguments assessed, alternative perspectives 

explored, and knowledge constructed 

by consensus; 

• Revising assumptions and perspectives to make 

them more open and better justified; 

• Acting on revisions, behaving, talking, and 

thinking in a way that is congruent with transformed 

assumptions or perspectives. (p. 66) 

While there are no teaching methods that guarantee 

transformative learning (Cranton, 2002), these 

methods serve as guidelines that are easily adaptable 

for developing a strategy to include spirituality 

in education. 

Schauffele and Baptiste (2000) argued that human 

beings are able to learn and come to know something 

through any or all of the four dimensions of human nature 

(physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual). Citing 

Shamblin and Hess, Schauffele and Baptiste (2000) 

wrote: 

Although students’ cognitive and spiritual 

dimensions are not as…accessible to 

teachers as students’ physical and emotional 

spheres, it is arguable that the 

effects achieved through alterations of 

these metaphysical domains are significantly 

more lasting and profound than 

those achieved through merely physical 

domains. (p. 456) 

Dirkx (2001) agreed arguing, “personally 

significant and meaningful learning is fundamentally 

grounded in and derived from the adult’s emotional, 

imaginative connection with the self and 

with the broader social world” (p. 64). In light of 

the close connection between all realms of human 

nature and considering the importance of the spiritual 

dimensions in meaning-making, adult educators 

must utilize learning strategies and designs that 

will affect the spiritual aspects of adult learners in 

order to create lasting and deeper learning experiences. 

Working with Images 

According to Dirkx (2001), “emotions are often associated 

with voices or images that emerge within an 

individual’s consciousness” (p. 65). As such, emotions 

and feelings become a language that bridges the gap 

between the soul and the outside world (Dirkx, 1997). 

Adults engaging in learning activities may discover 

emerging images from emotional connections made 

with the text of life. In educational circles, examples 

of the text of life may include various forms of communication 

including print, speech, and media. Consequently, 

as adult learners interact with the text of life, 

images bridge the gap between the outside world and 

the spiritual dimensions. These images often communicate 

deeper objectives, behaviors, and feelings apart 

from reason (Dirkx, 2001). The imagination then becomes 

the means of communication for an ongoing dialogue 

of the spiritual dimension and the outside world 

grand canyon university 



and as such becomes the link that adult learners use to 

establish a relationship with the soul. Learning to work 

with emotions and to identify images that evoke emotions 

allows adult learners to tap into a powerful inner 

aspect of their being. Therefore, the work of the soul 

is learning that involves recognizing, elaborating, and 

differentiating the various emerging images as the process 

of increasing the ability to gain deeper understandings 

of experiences in adult education (Dirkx, 2001). 

The imaginal method provides learners the opportunity 

to engage in Cranton’s (2002) activating event. 

Exposing learners to various viewpoints, differing 

opinions, or new information engages the emotions of 

learners as they reconcile new voices, ideas, and concepts 

with their previously held assumptions. According 

to Cranton, “whenever possible, we should…present 

ideas from more than one point of view…[and] seek 

out controversial or unusual ways of understanding a 

topic” (p. 67). 

Journaling and Narrative 

In order to reach this deeper level within adult 

learners, educators may incorporate many different 

designs or strategies into their learning tasks. Dirkx 

(2001) recommended several strategies for working 

with images including journal writing and narrative. 

Journal writing provides an avenue for critical reflection 

allowing adults to review events and experiences 

in life for the purpose of meaning-making. Through 

journaling, adult learners record and process their experiences 

and the emerging emotional images resulting 

from reflection leading toward deeper level learning. 

Thus, narrative journaling enables adult learners an avenue 

for the development of self-awareness as well as 

an increased awareness of others (Smith, 2009). The 

connection between journaling and Cranton’s (2002) 

guidelines is evident in that journaling offers opportunities 

for adult learners to articulate their assumptions, 

to engage in critical self-reflection, and to engage in an 

ongoing conversation with the self. The journal is thus 

a personal story leading to another strategy important 

in working with image, the narrative. 

Narrative enables adult learners to make sense of 

their experiences and understanding their self. Quoting 

Rossiter, Clark (2001) wrote, “the self… [is] ‘an unfolding 

story’ in that ‘as we understand the world and 

our experiences narratively, so also do we understand 

and construct the self as narrative” (p. 87). Through the 

unfolding story, adults begin constructing coherence 

coming to an understanding of the constantly changing 

self. Using imagination, the narrative connects the 

experiences of the story to the learners’ emotions thus 

creating deep and memorable learning. 

Narrative works well within Cranton’s (2002) 

guidelines regarding openness to alternative points of 

view. Cranton admitted that openness to the viewpoints 

of others could be difficult. However, the employment 

of role-play offers learners opportunities to begin identifying 

with alternative ideas in a non-threatening way. 

Role-play coincides well with narrative since both involve 

the use of real and imagined story to convey an 

experience. However, in order to successfully explore 

and be open to alternative points of view it is necessary 

to establish a safe learning environment. 

Creating Safe Learning Environments 

Adult learners learn within relationships; however, 

in order for such learning to take place instructors must 

create a learning environment in which adult learners 

are able to express themselves without fear. This provides 

for another of Cranton’s (2002) guidelines, which 

is an opportunity for students to engage in discourse. 

According to Vogel (2000), a hospitable space necessitates 

welcoming differing opinions and ideals and the 

protection of the right of everyone assume responsibility 

for what they will share and what they will learn. 

Thus, the instructor is responsible to make certain 

that such a safe and hospitable environment not 

only exists, but also continues. Maintaining safety, 

trust, and honor within the learning context is necessary 

to promote a climate of mutual respect that 

encourages divergent dialogue. 

Learning covenants offer one way for establishing 

a safe learning environment. Such a covenant can be 

between two individuals or within a group. Learning 

covenants establish conditions within particular contexts 

applying to all parties involved within the covenant. 

Instructors and learners alike agree on the conditions 

of the covenant providing a sense of community 

ownership important in the promotion of transformative 

learning (Baumgartner, 2001). Such a covenant 

could include commitment to and responsibility for 

the hospitable learning environment, respect for others, 

agreed upon benefits and sanctions, and an evolutionary 

nature of the group (Vella, 2000). These types 

of conditions enable both instructors and learners to 

understand the requirements for learning activities as 

well as the requirements regarding attitudes and behaviors. 

Establishing these types of requirements informs 

everyone within the learning context what constitutes 


Piercy 39 

acceptable and unacceptable protocol. Though both 

adult educators and learners are responsible for maintaining 

a safe learning environment, ultimately it is the 

instructor that makes certain such an environment actually 

exists. 

Learning-within-relationship also provides a context 

for adult learners to engage in yet another of Cranton’s 

(2002) guidelines. That is, through safe and trusting 

learning environments, adult learners are able to 

revise their previously held assumptions while exposing 

themselves to the divergent perspectives of others. 

Barlas (2001) found adult learners from diverse cultures 

began realizing the importance of compassionate 

support and the encouragement of the instructor during 

the transformation process. Additionally, Macdonald 

(2002) noted that unlearning can cause great emotional 

stress and therefore necessitates the support of others. 

Thus, adults learning within a context of safety, trust, 

and honor with other adults create an environment of 

encouragement, strength, and support in which transformative 

learning may occur. 

Cranton’s (2002) guidelines also include acting on 

revisions. This is in keeping with Merriam and Caffarella’s 

(1999) definition of learning as a change in 

behavior. Thus, adult learners and instructors should 

incorporate learning tasks designed to reflect the new 

learning. Instructors may also allow for individual or 

group projects within the classroom or offer opportunities 

to engage in activities within the community 

(Cranton, 2002). 

Further Strategies 

English (2000) provided three informal learning 

strategies including mentoring, self-directed learning, 

and dialogue. First, mentoring allows adult instructors 

and learners alike become partners in the learning 

process. Mentoring provides an opportunity for two 

individuals to “be and become” (English, 2000, p. 30- 

31). Because mentoring can take place in any context, 

it allows for deeper level relationships with a goal of 

helping learners realize their full potential (English, 

2000). The relationship of the mentor and the mentee 

becomes a relationship of mutual respect and reciprocity 

as they share knowledge, understanding, and life 

experiences from which the other may glean resulting 

in the enrichment of both. 

Second, self-directed learning (SDL) allows learners 

to gain a strong sense of self as they engage in 

learning activities that are meaningful to their own life 

experiences. SDL offers opportunities to develop selfunderstanding 

and awareness, which reflect spiritual 

development (English, 2002; Zohar, 2005). SDL programs 

provide opportunities for adult learners to create 

a support network of instructors and learners in order 

to foster further development that could accommodate 

spiritual and cognitive development concurrently. 

Third, engaging in dialogue as an informal strategy 

for spiritual development provides opportunities 

for meaningful exchanges between adult learners and 

their instructors. From time to time, learners and instructors 

may find that setting aside the formalities of 

educational protocol opens avenues leading to deeper 

levels of learning. This is in keeping with Brookfield’s 

(2005) critical theory in which the dominant ideology 

(in this case that of the instructor) may inhibit creativity. 

However, as learners and instructors dissolve the 

barriers of formality and domination they are able to 

encourage the development of a collaborative partnership 

(English, 2002). Such a partnership also reflects 

the spirit of the midwife educator that Vogel (2000) 

envisioned. Further, informal dialogue provides opportunities 

for spontaneity and the freedom to ask the 

fundamental “why” questions, both of which enhance 

spiritual development (Zohar, 2005). 

Conclusion 

There is a “general consensus that humans are 

spiritual beings who seek to make meaning out of life 

and their experiences” (Gillen & English, 2000, p. 88). 

In light of this, adult educators must work to develop 

theories and strategies designed to engage the spirit of 

adult learners so that they might gain deeper knowledge 

and understanding regarding life’s experiences. 

This requires theorists and practitioners in the field 

of adult education to continue working toward the development 

of learning theories designed to engage the 

whole person including the physical, emotional, cognitive, 

and spiritual. 

Two important aspects of spirituality in adult learners 

are the role of emotions and the role of relationships. 

Emotions and relationships are important in understanding 

spirituality and they are important in the development 

of spirituality in adulthood. Further, providing 

safe and secure learning environments allows adult 

learners to explore new ideas and engage in transformative 

learning by learning-within-relationships with those 

from differing cultural and social backgrounds, which 

enables learners to realize both their interconnectedness 

and their interdependence both of which relate to spirituality 

and spiritual development (Love, 2001). 




The importance of relationships between adult 

learners is second only to the relationship between 

the instructor and adult learners. This relationship becomes 

the mutual responsibility of both the instructor 

and the learner as it offers a context for mutual development. 

Through learning covenants and mentoring, 

adult educators and students engage in reciprocal 

learning allowing opportunities for further whole-person 

development. 

Implementing theory to practice becomes the 

heart of assimilating spirituality and education. Individuals 

can actively engage spiritual dimensions in 

adult education contexts offers opportunity for deeper 

level transformative learning as educators connect 

reason and emotion. Cranton’s (2002) transformative 

teaching strategies allow for such engagement within 

various learning tasks designed to incorporate wholeperson 

learning. Dirkx’s (2001) imaginal method offers 

insight concerning how adults are able to establish 

a “meaningful connection between the text and…life 

experiences” resulting in deeper level learning (p. 69). 

Finally, mentoring, self-directed learning, and dialogue 

all providing opportunity for further spiritual development 

(English, 2000). 

Adult are learning on many levels including formal, 

informal, traditional, and non-traditional formats 

for both personal and professional development. 

Mezirow and Associates (2000) transformative learning 

theory serves as a solid foundation upon which to 

build a learning theory that embraces the development 

of the whole-person. Understanding spirituality and 

spiritual development provides an opportunity for adult 

educators to capitalize on opportunities to develop the 

understanding of transformative theory and to create 

rich learning environments in which adult learners 

to grow. 

Author Biography 

Gary W. Piercy holds a Ph.D. in Applied Management 

and Decision Sciences from Walden University, 

as well as Bachelor and Master of Arts 

degrees in Biblical Languages from Southwestern 

Assemblies of God University and Assemblies of 

God Theological Seminary, respectively. Currently 

a lead faculty member in Grand Canyon University’s 

College of Doctoral Studies and serves as dissertation 

Chair for many doctoral learners, Dr. Piercy has 

taught at Lonestar College (TX) and Central Bible 

College (MO). Dr. Piercy has lectured in the U.S. 

and abroad on leadership and organizational topics. 


Piercy 41 

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Attachment D 

The Place of Spirituality 

in Organizational Theory 


EJBO Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies Vol. 9, No. 2 

The Place of Spirituality in 

Organizational Theory 

By: Arnaldo Oliveira 

OLIVEIRA@HAWAII.RR.COM 

Abstract 

Spirituality in the American workplace 

has been receiving increasing 

attention by the popular literature. 

However, the issue has received 

little consideration from management 

scholars. Although there are 

several definitions of spirituality, 

this paper discusses it as a cultural 

phenomenon that might influence 

organizational behavior. The 

investigation of spirituality in the 

workplace demands the examination 

of organization theory and some of 

its concepts. Open systems, institutional 

isomorphism, open fields, institutionalism, 

and neo-institutional 

theories are examined. Spirituality 

should not be neglected as a legitimate 

organizational topic of study, 

and more research on the impact of 

spirituality in the workplace should 

be conducted. 

Introduction 

The term spirituality infers a number 

of conclusions and may firmly imply some 

form of religious connotation. Several 

authors have offered a variety of definitions 

of spirituality: Some with atheistic 

and materialistic constructions (Dehler 

& Welsh, 1994; Mitroff & Denton, 

1999a; Ashmos & Duchon, 2000), and 

others with pantheistic and deistic visions 

(Benner, 1989; Mohamed, Hassan 

& Wisnieski, 2001). To Griffin (1988), 

for example, spirituality is an inherent 

human characteristic that does not intrinsically 

infer any religious meaning: 

Spirituality in this broad sense is not 

an optional quality which we might elect 

not to have. Everyone embodies a [sic] 

spirituality, even if it be a nihilistic or materialistic 

spirituality. It is also, of course, 

customary to use spirituality in a stricter 

sense for a way of life oriented around 

an ultimate meaning and around values 

other than power, pleasure, and possession. 

(pp. 1-2) 

According to Mitroff and Denton, 

(1999a), spirituality is “the basic feeling of 

being connected with one’s complete self, 

others, and the entire universe” (p.86). 

Dehler and Welsh (1994) defined spirituality 

as “a specific form of work feeling 

that energizes action” (p. 19). Ashmos 

and Duchon (2000) discussed spirituality 

in the context of community work, and 

Benner (1989) believed that spirituality 

involves the process of establishing and 

maintaining a relationship with God. 

Mohamed, Hassan, and Wisnieski 

(2001), highlighted the fact that several 

scholars (Harlos, 2000; Shafranske & 

Malony, 1990) defended the importance 

of defining the conceptual differences between 

spirituality and religiosity. Thus, 

in their view, spirituality may be personal, 

inclusive, and positive, whereas religiosity 

might be external, exclusive, and negative. 

Supporting the recommendation of 

Mahamed et al., in a two-year empirical 

study based on both face-to-face interviews 

and survey questionnaires, Mitroff 

and Denton (1999b) found that 60 percent 

of the participants viewed religion 

as an inappropriate form of expression, 

whereas spirituality was interpreted as 

a proper subject for the workplace. In 

addition, their research indicated that 

employees expect organizations to cultivate 

some type of spirituality within 

their members in order to produce high 

quality products and services. However, 

taking a different direction, Mohamed et 

al. claimed that the attempt to differentiate 

between spirituality and religiosity is 

merely artificial. As an alternative to this 

unnecessary dichotomy, they proposed 

that the concept of spirituality should 

be added to the five-factor psychological 

model of personality, the “Big Five,” as its 

sixth dimension. Their justification, nevertheless, 

attempted to find support in 

the facts that the concept of spirituality 

is not in opposition to other well-established 

psychological constructs and that 

the Big Five has already been linked to 

job performance. Mohamed et al. also 

speculated that spirituality, managerial 

behavior and, job performance are, 

to some extent, interconnected, which 

could explain some of the variances in job 

performance that have not yet been elucidated 

by the Big Five. 

Although the literature has provided 

ample interpretations for spirituality, the 

definition used in this article, in a broad 

sense, refers to people’s values and meanings, 

which sometimes might incorporate 

religious beliefs as well. Further, this 

premise also infers that spirituality might 

carry strong cultural connotations. 

Discussion 

A New Paradigm 

In recent years, the place of spirituality 

in organizations has been increasingly 

considered by (a) managers, (b) executives, 

(c) employees, and (d) researchers 

to be essential to the organization's 

interactions with employees, customers, 

and the community (Ashmos & Duchon, 

2000; Conger, 1994; Dehler & Welsh, 

1994; Hansen, 2001). However, little 

attention has been paid in the literature 

to the investigation of spirituality as a 

cultural phenomenon that might influence 

organizational behavior and induce 

organizational change. Therefore, few 

change models that embraced some sort 

of spiritual element (Senge, 1990; Covey, 

1989) became an alternative. 

17 http://ejbo.jyu.fi/


A number of studies (Graber & Johnson, 2001; Griffin, 

1988; Hall, 1996; Hansen, 2001; Rifkin, 1995) indicated that 

changes in individuals, demographics, and organizations represent 

the major influencing forces forging a new workplace 

paradigm, which demands more integrative approaches to life 

and work. Founded on these change phenomena, Rifkin (1995) 

concluded that societies must devise a new labor contract featuring 

shorter workweeks, so people could dedicate more time 

to other parts of their life and place more value in the time allocated 

to volunteer and community work. 

Hall (1996) predicted drastic changes in the organizations 

of the 21st century. He speculated that individuals rather than 

organizations would control careers and that success would be 

measured in terms of psychological fulfillment rather than financial 

accomplishment. In addition, he suggested that both 

managers and employees should start facilitating the transition 

to this new paradigm by putting more meaning on relationships 

in the workplace. 

Besides the gradual importance on personal satisfaction 

highlighted by Hall, other relevant factors may also impose new 

challenges to the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. For example, 

the demographic changes that have been occurring in the 

United States for the last decades and, in particular, the rise of an 

ethnically diverse workforce might have influenced the reshaping 

of relationships in various organizational levels. According 

to Hansen (2001), a number of conditions have contributed to 

accentuate the human needs and desires for relationships, balance, 

and community concern, which also have led to a shifting 

on the emphasis from a dominating market standpoint to 

a more human-needs approach. As a result, some corporations 

have paid more attention to the needs of certain groups of employees 

for benefits such as childcare, long-term care, and wellness 

programs. 

According to Palmer (2001), spirituality at the workplace 

has been trending up. To highlight his viewpoint, he mentioned 

that large corporations such as Intel, Wal-Mart, Xerox, Ford, 

Nike, and Harley-Davidson have supported spirituality in their 

work environments. Organizations could become more successful 

if they thoroughly meet their members’ needs, which also 

include allowing individuals to express their spirituality. Supporting 

this premise, Mitroff and Denton (1999a) concluded 

that spirituality is fundamental to the human experience and 

therefore should make part of the organizational culture. They 

proposed a new organizational paradigm that (a) embodies 

concepts such as the existence of a supreme power, (b) pledges 

responsibility to multiple stakeholders, and (c) paves the path 

for businesses to take the evolutionary step of changing from 

values-based companies into spiritually-based organizations. 

Organizational Theory and Spirituality 

To investigate how spirituality integrates and influences organizational 

behavior not only as a personality dimension, as 

proposed by Mohamed et al. (2001), but as a reflection of people’s 

values and meanings, this paper also highlights the theory of 

organizations and some of its concepts such as (a) open systems, 

(b) institutionalism, (c) neo-institutionalism, (d) organizational 

fields, (e) institutional isomorphism, and (f ) culture. Another 

relevant reason for revisiting organizational models was offered 

by Yiannis (2002), who examined the relationship between organization 

theory and the practices of academics, managers, and 

organizational consultants in the sense that what can be verified 

in practical ways. As he put into context: 

In the area of organizational studies, there is a pressing need 

to explore, understand and codify the relationship between 

theories, developed mostly by academics and popularized by 

consultants and gurus, and the actions of practicing managers. 

This is important because on it rests vital issues of management 

education and learning, and even more importantly, the basis 

on which business is conducted. Yet, the relationship between 

organizational theory and the practice of managers and other 

organizational participants has remained one of the most elusive 

and recalcitrant. (p. 134) 

Organizational theory. Several studies (DiMaggio & 

Powell 1991; DiMaggio, 1998; Olivier, 1991) focused on how 

organizations influence their environments and how organizations 

actively contribute to the social construction of these environments. 

As a result, the process by which organizational 

environments are constituted, reproduced, and transformed has 

become a relevant issue for management research. 

The open systems views of organizations. Organizations 

function like living organisms and prosper when all their subsystems 

support their strategic designs. Therefore, a major role 

for the leadership of these organizations is to align, or realign, 

strategy with the demands of their surrounding environments 

(Overholt, Connally, Harrington, & Lopez, 2000). In other 

words, the open systems approach views organizations receiving 

inputs from their environments, and in turn, affecting those 

environments by the transformed outputs that are the organizational 

products. The open systems theory is based on “the idea 

that the whole of a system is more important than the sum of 

its parts” (Senge et al., 1999, p.138). According to Overholt et 

al. (2000), the open systems theory possesses four basic principles: 

1. Organizations are living systems that are ever-changing 

and adapting to their external environment 

2. Organizations are dynamic internally, with all subsystems 

anticipating, responding, or reacting to changes within the organization 

3. Organizations organize around their corporate survival 

strategy, exploiting and filling niches in the markets 

4. Organizations must be internally congruent or consistent 

to maximize efficiency and effectiveness (p. 39) 

Institutional isomorphism and organizational fields. Chang, 

Williams, Griffith, and Young (1998) investigated how open 

systems organizations create institutional isomorphism. They 

affirmed that churches, as open systems organizations, allow 

their external surroundings, which comprises (a) suppliers, (b) 

consumers, (c) regulators, and (d) social conditions, to permeate 

their internal environment. As a result, organizational behavior 

assumes here a major responsive characteristic to facing the 

conditions created in the external environments. The greater 

the interaction of the organization with the surrounding environment, 

the more likely its organizational model absorbs the 

structures, norms, and practices from the most central relationships 

in its environment. 

According to DiMaggio and Powell (1991), the perennial 

feedback process between internal and external generates a homogenizing 

effect in organizations, which they termed “institutional 

isomorphism.” In other words, institutional isomorphism 

refers to the phenomenon by which organizations lose some of 

their distinctive characteristics in terms of behavior, structure, 

and culture, and come to resemble one another (Stout & Cormode, 

1998). 

Organizations emerge in environments surrounded by 

other institutions that overlap, interact, and collide with them. 

Thus, DiMaggio and Powell (1991) proposed the concept of 

“organizational fields” to explain this larger world of surrounding 

institutions. Cormode (1998) explained that organizations 



producing similar services and products, working with similar 

suppliers, and under similar regulatory conditions form an organizational 

field. Organizational fields and isomorphism both 

offer a theoretical basis to explain how organizations might influence 

each other. 

Institutional theory and neo-institutionalism. Institutional 

theory has played a sine qua non role in explaining the processes 

by which distinct forms of organizing prevail within an organizational 

field (Cormode 1998, DiMaggio & Powell, 1991; 

Stout & Cormode, 1998). Another significant contribution of 

institutional theory is the examination of how organizations 

adopt structures, processes, and ideas based on external influences 

rather than on efficiency (Lawrence, 1999). The study 

of institutional theory has been fundamental to explain the 

isomorphism of organizational fields and the establishment of 

institutional norms (Kondra & Hinings, 1998). The process 

of creating organizational norms occurs through normative, 

coercive, and mimetic processes (DiMaggio & Powell, 1991). 

In addition, values and beliefs external to the organization ultimately 

contribute to determine organizational norms. Thus, 

organizations may conform to the rules and requirements of 

their organizational field. 

Recent contributions to institutional theory (DiMaggio & 

Powell, 1991; DiMaggio, 1998; Scott, 1994) discriminated between 

the old and new approaches of institutional theory. The 

old institutionalism emphasizes issues of conflicting interests 

and values, whereas the new institutionalism stresses the promotion 

of isomorphism and argues for conformity within a field 

(DiMaggio, 1998) 

DiMaggio (1998), for example, distinguished three new 

forms of institutionalisms: (a) rational-action, (b) social-constructivist, 

and (c) mediated-conflict. Rational-action neoinstitutionalism 

explains how organizational structures and 

norms influence the elements of individual rational actions, 

which are actors, interests, and preferences. Social-constructivist 

neo-institutionalism proposes that all elements of rationalaction 

models are socially constructed. Mediated-conflict neoinstitutionalism 

focuses on the way the government and other 

organizations mediate conflict among groups with distinctive 

interests. Selznick (1996) who expressed his concerns about 

the course and ethos of the new institutionalism affirmed: 

The “new institutionalism” in the study of organizations has 

generated fresh insights as well as interesting shifts of focus. 

The underlying continuities are strong, however, because both 

the “old” and the “new” [sic] reflect a deeply internalized sociological 

sensibility. (p. 274) 

The cultural factor. The term culture infers a number of 

conclusions. However, Brake, Walker and Walker (1995) defined 

culture as a set of value orientations that represents the 

central core of meanings in human societies. Value orientations 

dictate preferences in life and explain how people behave, think, 

and believe. These value orientations or underlying elements of 

culture are quasi-static patterns that people learn as they grow 

up and that interact in their social groups. Therefore, culture influences 

actions, decisions, modi operandi and vivendi, feelings, 

and thoughts. Further, culture plays a major role in configuring 

the perception mechanisms that allow individuals to interpret 

themselves, others, organizations, and the world. 

Organizational Theory and Spirituality 

According to Mohamed et al. (2001), organizational theories 

and models that ignore the spiritual dimension will remain 

deficient. As they put it into context: “Our current models of 

micro and macro behavior do not account for spirituality and 

its affects and, as such, some of these models may be misleading 

or incomplete” (p. 647). 

Graber and Johnson (2001) discussed the rationality of 

the spiritual dimension in organizational life. They concluded 

that the search for spiritual growth and fulfillment should not 

be separated from work because of the challenge of balancing 

personal, subjective, and unconscious elements of individual 

experience with rationality, efficiency, and personal sacrifices 

demanded by organizations. Other authors (Bickham, 1996; 

Conger, 1994; Marcic, 1997) also defended organizational designs 

that embody a sense of community and spirituality and 

discussed the leadership potentials of incorporating spiritual 

values into the management field. Bickham (1996) claimed that 

when spirituality is cultivated in the workplace, a creative energy 

is unlocked. Conger (1994) suggested that the definition 

of leadership should include the spiritual dimension. Thus, this 

expanded and new characterization of leadership could contribute 

to the development of a work life that benefits the organization, 

its members, and the community. Marcic (1997) recommended 

the incorporation of spiritual values into the modern 

theory of organizing as an alternative for reengineering and 

downsizing initiatives. 

Mitroff and Denton (1999b) identified five different organizational 

models founded on religion or spirituality. The 

religious-based organization is either positive toward religion 

and spirituality or positive toward religion but negative toward 

spirituality. Evolutionary organizations begin with an affiliation 

with a particular religion and later adopt principles that are 

more ecumenical. The recovering organization works similarly 

to institutions like the Alcoholics Anonymous as a way to foster 

spirituality. In socially responsible organizations, the founders 

are guided by spiritual principles that they apply directly to their 

business. Philosophical principles that are not related to any 

particular religion or spirituality guide the founders and leaders 

of values-based organizations. Mitroff and Denton suggested 

that these five models might offer major change alternatives for 

the organizational theory and for some of the recent management 

remedies, as each model is born after the occurrence of 

a critical event. Thus, the impulse to pursue spirituality comes 

from the desire to successfully overcome crises. 

Conclusions 

Recently, the issue of spirituality at the workplace in the 

United States has been receiving an increasing attention in the 

popular literature. A study (Mitroff & Denton, 1999a) indicating 

how Americans feel about spirituality in the workplace 

as well as several popular books on spiritual management and 

leadership (Bickham, 1996; Conger, 1994; Marcic, 1997) have 

been published. Many authors (Graber & Johnson, 2001; Griffin, 

1988; Hall, 1996; Hansen, 2001; Rifkin, 1995) examined 

the factors that have concurred to the rise of spirituality in the 

American workplace First, irreversible global changes contributed 

to forming the desires for a new workplace paradigm. Second, 

a workforce with multiple ethnicities brought new insights 

to the American workplace. Third, several studies (Conger, 

1994; Marcic, 1997; Mitroff & Denton, 1999a; Mohamed et 

al., 2001; Palmer, 2001) suggested that spirituality is a critical 

human need and definitely should be part of organizational culture. 

Finally, organizations realized they could become more 

successful by meeting their members’ needs and allowing them 

to express their spirituality. 

Although spirituality in the workplace has become popular, 



the subject has received little attention from management scholars. 

Nevertheless, the investigation of spirituality in the workplace 

requires a careful examination of organization theory and 

some of its concepts because essential topics of management 

and the very basis on which business is conducted lie in them. 

For instance, neo-institutionalism, based on social constructivism, 

proposed that all organizational elements are derived from 

and constructed by the social environments surrounding organizations. 

Another example is culture as a significant factor 

influencing how organizations adopt structures, processes, and 

ideas. It explains the behavior, way of thinking, and beliefs of 

social groups. The essence of culture is neither visible nor tangible, 

whereas it is the shared underlying assumptions that people 

use to understand others and themselves. 

If the tenets of open systems, institutional, and neo-institutional 

theories hold, and if spirituality is a cultural phenomenon, 

then spirituality might influence organizational behavior 

and culture. As a result, organizational theories and models 

that ignore the spiritual dimension will remain incomplete. Although 

not based on the above hypothesis, other authors (Bickham, 

1996; Conger, 1994; Marcic, 1997) defended new organizational 

paradigms that incorporate spirituality and a sense of 

community. For example, Mitroff and Denton (1999b) identified 

five different organizational models founded on religion or 

spirituality and proposed a new structure embedded in spiritual 

values. 

Spirituality should not be neglected as a legitimate topic of 

study. Current models and theories do not consider spirituality 

and its effects, and some of these models might be misleading 

or incomplete. Corporate culture should make a place for spiritual 

expression, which may take many different forms, resulting 

in benefits such as a better workplace, an improved quality of 

products and services, and a satisfied workforce. 

Recommendations 

Although, research on the impact of spirituality in the workplace 

has been lacking, future studies should consider a number 

of important issues. Future investigations should focus on the 

implications of spirituality for organizational behavior for example. 

Another important topic would be the study of spirituality 

as a cultural phenomenon. Further, it could be appropriate to 

examine the relationship between spirituality and personality. 

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Arnaldo Oliveira 

Ph.D. 

1508 Pensacola St. 403 

Honolulu 

Hawaii, 96822 

U.S.A. 

Email: aoliveira@hawaii.rr.com 

Arnaldo Oliveira holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Change and a Ph.D. in organization and management with a specialization 

in Finance. He is now a business consultant in the nonprofit sector. 






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Q-4 2018 



Vol. V 2019 Organizational Development 

XVII The Board of Directors Q-1 2019 

XVIII The Inner Circle Q-2 2019 

XIX Staff & Management Q-3 2019 

XX Succession Planning Q-4 2019 

XXI The Budget* Bonus #1 

XXII Data-Driven Resource Allocation* Bonus #2 

Vol. VI 2020 Missions 

XXIII Critical Thinking Q-1 2020 

XXIV 

The Advocacy Foundation 

Endowments Initiative Project 

Q-2 2020 

XXV International Labor Relations Q-3 2020 

XXVI Immigration Q-4 2020 

Vol. VII 2021 Community Engagement 

XXVII 

The 21 st Century Charter Schools 

Initiative 

Q-1 2021 

XXVIII The All-Sports Ministry @ ... Q-2 2021 

XXIX Lobbying for Nonprofits Q-3 2021 

XXX 

XXXI 

Advocacy Foundation Missions - 

Domestic 

Advocacy Foundation Missions - 

International 

Q-4 2021 

Bonus 


Vol. VIII 

2022 ComeUnity ReEngineering 

XXXII 

The Creative & Fine Arts Ministry 

@ The Foundation 

Q-1 2022 

XXXIII The Advisory Council & Committees Q-2 2022 

XXXIV 

The Theological Origins 

of Contemporary Judicial Process 

Q-3 2022 

XXXV The Second Chance Ministry @ ... Q-4 2022 

Vol. IX 2023 Legal Reformation 

XXXVI The Fifth Amendment Project Q-1 2023 

XXXVII The Judicial Re-Engineering Initiative Q-2 2023 

XXXVIII 

The Inner-Cities Strategic 

Revitalization Initiative 

Q-3 2023 

XXXVIX Habeas Corpus Q-4 2023 

Vol. X 2024 ComeUnity Development 

XXXVX 

The Inner-City Strategic 

Revitalization Plan 

Q-1 2024 

XXXVXI The Mentoring Initiative Q-2 2024 

XXXVXII The Violence Prevention Framework Q-3 2024 

XXXVXIII The Fatherhood Initiative Q-4 2024 

Vol. XI 2025 Public Interest 

XXXVXIV Public Interest Law Q-1 2025 

L (50) Spiritual Resource Development Q-2 2025 


LI 

Nonprofit Confidentiality 

In The Age of Big Data 

Q-3 2025 

LII Interpreting The Facts Q-4 2025 

Vol. XII 2026 Poverty In America 

LIII 

American Poverty 

In The New Millennium 

Q-1 2026 

LIV Outcome-Based Thinking Q-2 2026 

LV Transformational Social Leadership Q-3 2026 

LVI The Cycle of Poverty Q-4 2026 

Vol. XIII 2027 Raising Awareness 

LVII ReEngineering Juvenile Justice Q-1 2027 

LVIII Corporations Q-2 2027 

LVIX The Prison Industrial Complex Q-3 2027 

LX Restoration of Rights Q-4 2027 

Vol. XIV 2028 Culturally Relevant Programming 

LXI Community Culture Q-1 2028 

LXII Corporate Culture Q-2 2028 

LXIII Strategic Cultural Planning Q-3 2028 

LXIV 

The Cross-Sector/ Coordinated 

Service Approach to Delinquency 

Prevention 

Q-4 2028 


Vol. XV 2029 Inner-Cities Revitalization 

LXIV 

LXV 

LXVI 

Part I – Strategic Housing 

Revitalization 

(The Twenty Percent Profit Margin) 

Part II – Jobs Training, Educational 

Redevelopment 

and Economic Empowerment 

Part III - Financial Literacy 

and Sustainability 

Q-1 2029 

Q-2 2029 

Q-3 2029 

LXVII Part IV – Solutions for Homelessness Q-4 2029 

LXVIII 

The Strategic Home Mortgage 

Initiative 

Bonus 

Vol. XVI 2030 Sustainability 

LXVIII Social Program Sustainability Q-1 2030 

LXIX 

The Advocacy Foundation 

Endowments Initiative 

Q-2 2030 

LXX Capital Gains Q-3 2030 

LXXI Sustainability Investments Q-4 2030 

Vol. XVII 2031 The Justice Series 

LXXII Distributive Justice Q-1 2031 

LXXIII Retributive Justice Q-2 2031 

LXXIV Procedural Justice Q-3 2031 

LXXV (75) Restorative Justice Q-4 2031 

LXXVI Unjust Legal Reasoning Bonus 


Vol. XVIII 2032 Public Policy 

LXXVII Public Interest Law Q-1 2032 

LXXVIII Reforming Public Policy Q-2 2032 

LXXVIX ... Q-3 2032 

LXXVX ... Q-4 2032 


The e-Advocate Monthly Review 

2018 

Transformational Problem Solving January 2018 

The Advocacy Foundation February 2018 

Opioid Initiative 

Native-American Youth March 2018 

In the Juvenile Justice System 

Barriers to Reducing Confinement April 2018 

Latino and Hispanic Youth May 2018 


Social Entrepreneurship June 2018 

African-American Youth July 2018 


Gang Deconstruction August 2018 

Social Impact Investing September 2018 

Opportunity Youth: October 2018 

Disenfranchised Young People 

The Economic Impact of Social November 2018 

of Social Programs Development 

Gun Control December 2018 

2019 

The U.S. Stock Market January 2019 

Prison-Based Gerrymandering February 2019 

Literacy-Based Prison Construction March 2019 

Children of Incarcerated Parents April 2019 

African-American Youth in The May 2019 

Juvenile Justice System 


Racial Profiling June 2019 

Mass Collaboration July 2019 

Concentrated Poverty August 2019 

De-Industrialization September 2019 

Overcoming Dyslexia October 2019 

Overcoming Attention Deficit November 2019 

The Gift of Adversity December 2019 

2020 

The Gift of Hypersensitivity January 2020 

The Gift of Introspection February 2020 

The Gift of Introversion March 2020 

The Gift of Spirituality April 2020 

… 


The e-Advocate Quarterly 

Special Editions 

Crowdfunding Winter-Spring 2017 

Social Media for Nonprofits October 2017 

Mass Media for Nonprofits November 2017 

The Opioid Crisis in America: January 2018 

Issues in Pain Management 

The Opioid Crisis in America: February 2018 

The Drug Culture in the U.S. 

The Opioid Crisis in America: March 2018 

Drug Abuse Among Veterans 

The Opioid Crisis in America: April 2018 

Drug Abuse Among America’s 

Teens 

The Opioid Crisis in America: May 2018 

Alcoholism 


The e-Advocate Journal 

of Theological Jurisprudence 

Vol. I - 2017 

The Theological Origins of Contemporary Judicial Process 

Scriptural Application to The Model Criminal Code 

Scriptural Application for Tort Reform 

Scriptural Application to Juvenile Justice Reformation 

Vol. II - 2018 

Scriptural Application for The Canons of Ethics 

Scriptural Application to Contracts Reform 

& The Uniform Commercial Code 

Scriptural Application to The Law of Property 

Scriptural Application to The Law of Evidence 


Legal Missions International 



Vol. I 2015 

I 

II 

God’s Will and The 21 st Century 

Democratic Process 

The Community 

Engagement Strategy 

Q-1 2015 

Q-2 2015 

III Foreign Policy Q-3 2015 

IV 

Public Interest Law 

in The New Millennium 

Q-4 2015 

Vol. II 2016 

V Ethiopia Q-1 2016 

VI Zimbabwe Q-2 2016 

VII Jamaica Q-3 2016 

VIII Brazil Q-4 2016 

Vol. III 2017 

IX India Q-1 2017 

X Suriname Q-2 2017 

XI The Caribbean Q-3 2017 

XII United States/ Estados Unidos Q-4 2017 

Vol. IV 2018 

XIII Cuba Q-1 2018 

XIV Guinea Q-2 2018 

XV Indonesia Q-3 2018 

XVI Sri Lanka Q-4 2018 


Vol. V 2019 

XVII Russia Q-1 2019 

XVIII Australia Q-2 2019 

XIV South Korea Q-3 2019 

XV Puerto Rico Q-4 2019 


Vol. VI 2020 

XVI Trinidad & Tobago Q-1 2020 

XVII Egypt Q-2 2020 

XVIII Sierra Leone Q-3 2020 

XIX South Africa Q-4 2020 

XX Israel Bonus 

Vol. VII 2021 

XXI Haiti Q-1 2021 

XXII Peru Q-2 2021 

XXIII Costa Rica Q-3 2021 

XXIV China Q-4 2021 

XXV Japan Bonus 

Vol VIII 2022 

XXVI Chile Q-1 2022 


The e-Advocate Juvenile Justice Report 

______ 

Vol. I – Juvenile Delinquency in The US 

Vol. II. – The Prison Industrial Complex 

Vol. III – Restorative/ Transformative Justice 

Vol. IV – The Sixth Amendment Right to The Effective Assistance of Counsel 

Vol. V – The Theological Foundations of Juvenile Justice 

Vol. VI – Collaborating to Eradicate Juvenile Delinquency 


The e-Advocate Newsletter 

Genesis of The Problem 

Family Structure 

Societal Influences 

Evidence-Based Programming 

Strengthening Assets v. Eliminating Deficits 

2012 - Juvenile Delinquency in The US 

Introduction/Ideology/Key Values 

Philosophy/Application & Practice 

Expungement & Pardons 

Pardons & Clemency 

Examples/Best Practices 

2013 - Restorative Justice in The US 

2014 - The Prison Industrial Complex 

25% of the World's Inmates Are In the US 

The Economics of Prison Enterprise 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons 

The After-Effects of Incarceration/Individual/Societal 

The Fourth Amendment Project 

The Sixth Amendment Project 

The Eighth Amendment Project 

The Adolescent Law Group 

2015 - US Constitutional Issues In The New Millennium 


2018 - The Theological Law Firm Academy 

The Theological Foundations of US Law & Government 

The Economic Consequences of Legal Decision-Making 

The Juvenile Justice Legislative Reform Initiative 

The EB-5 International Investors Initiative 

2017 - Organizational Development 

The Board of Directors 

The Inner Circle 

Staff & Management 

Succession Planning 

Bonus #1 The Budget 

Bonus #2 Data-Driven Resource Allocation 

2018 - Sustainability 

The Data-Driven Resource Allocation Process 

The Quality Assurance Initiative 

The Advocacy Foundation Endowments Initiative 

The Community Engagement Strategy 

2019 - Collaboration 

Critical Thinking for Transformative Justice 

International Labor Relations 

Immigration 

God's Will & The 21st Century Democratic Process 

The Community Engagement Strategy 

The 21st Century Charter Schools Initiative 

2020 - Community Engagement 


Extras 

The Nonprofit Advisors Group Newsletters 

The 501(c)(3) Acquisition Process 

The Board of Directors 

The Gladiator Mentality 

Strategic Planning 

Fundraising 

501(c)(3) Reinstatements 

The Collaborative US/ International Newsletters 

How You Think Is Everything 

The Reciprocal Nature of Business Relationships 

Accelerate Your Professional Development 

The Competitive Nature of Grant Writing 

Assessing The Risks 



About The Author 

John C (Jack) Johnson III 

Founder & CEO 

Jack was educated at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Rutgers 

Law School, in Camden, New Jersey. In 1999, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue 

greater opportunities to provide Advocacy and Preventive Programmatic services for atrisk/ 

at-promise young persons, their families, and Justice Professionals embedded in the 

Juvenile Justice process in order to help facilitate its transcendence into the 21 st Century. 

There, along with a small group of community and faith-based professionals, “The Advocacy Foundation, Inc." was conceived 

and developed over roughly a thirteen year period, originally chartered as a Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Educational 

Support Services organization consisting of Mentoring, Tutoring, Counseling, Character Development, Community Change 

Management, Practitioner Re-Education & Training, and a host of related components. 

The Foundation’s Overarching Mission is “To help Individuals, Organizations, & Communities Achieve Their Full Potential”, by 

implementing a wide array of evidence-based proactive multi-disciplinary "Restorative & Transformative Justice" programs & 

projects currently throughout the northeast, southeast, and western international-waters regions, providing prevention and support 

services to at-risk/ at-promise youth, to young adults, to their families, and to Social Service, Justice and Mental 

Health professionals” everywhere. The Foundation has since relocated its headquarters to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and been 

expanded to include a three-tier mission. 

In addition to his work with the Foundation, Jack also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law & Business at National-Louis 

University of Atlanta (where he taught Political Science, Business & Legal Ethics, Labor & Employment Relations, and Critical 

Thinking courses to undergraduate and graduate level students). Jack has also served as Board President for a host of wellestablished 

and up & coming nonprofit organizations throughout the region, including “Visions Unlimited Community 

Development Systems, Inc.”, a multi-million dollar, award-winning, Violence Prevention and Gang Intervention Social Service 

organization in Atlanta, as well as Vice-Chair of the Georgia/ Metropolitan Atlanta Violence Prevention Partnership, a state-wide 

300 organizational member, violence prevention group led by the Morehouse School of Medicine, Emory University and The 

Original, Atlanta-Based, Martin Luther King Center. 

Attorney Johnson’s prior accomplishments include a wide-array of Professional Legal practice areas, including Private Firm, 

Corporate and Government postings, just about all of which yielded significant professional awards & accolades, the history and 

chronology of which are available for review online. Throughout his career, Jack has served a wide variety of for-profit 

corporations, law firms, and nonprofit organizations as Board Chairman, Secretary, Associate, and General Counsel since 1990. 

www.TheAdvocacyFoundation.org 

Clayton County Youth Services Partnership, Inc. – Chair; Georgia Violence Prevention Partnership, Inc – Vice Chair; Fayette 

County NAACP - Legal Redress Committee Chairman; Clayton County Fatherhood Initiative Partnership – Principal 

Investigator; Morehouse School of Medicine School of Community Health Feasibility Study - Steering Committee; Atlanta 

Violence Prevention Capacity Building Project – Project Partner; Clayton County Minister’s Conference, President 2006-2007; 

Liberty In Life Ministries, Inc. – Board Secretary; Young Adults Talk, Inc. – Board of Directors; ROYAL, Inc - Board of 

Directors; Temple University Alumni Association; Rutgers Law School Alumni Association; Sertoma International; Our 

Common Welfare Board of Directors – President)2003-2005; River’s Edge Elementary School PTA (Co-President); Summerhill 

Community Ministries; Outstanding Young Men of America; Employee of the Year; Academic All-American - Basketball; 

Church Trustee. 


www.TheAdvocacyFoundation.org

The Gift of Spirituality

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