One of the saddest and most dangerous confusions about religion is that the important thing is to believe the “right” things.
Religious faith involves believing things which cannot be established by ordinary methods, for example the truth of sacred writings or statements about the supernatural. If such questions could be settled in the same way as, say, finding out whether there is a cat in the garage, or even whether there is life on Mars, faith would not be necessary. But they cannot. And so it is usually a matter of choice or personal conviction whether you believe, it’s not really a matter for discussion or observation.
Spirituality is something else. It’s not a matter of belief, more about how you conduct your life both inwardly and externally. If this were not true, how could we recognise that there are deeply spiritual people in all faiths? Think of any religious or spiritual figure you admire who holds beliefs different from yours: what you think of is perhaps their demeanour, their attitude to life and other people and the good they do. It is not the content of their faith you admire - obviously in this case you disagree with it. Moreover, the most spiritual are not necessarily the most theologically or ecclesiastically eminent in any tradition. People who sincerely dedicate their lives to spiritual practice are of course usually motivated by faith but how they actually live and the qualities they seek to cultivate in themselves are remarkably similar whatever their religious tribe. Wherever religion plays a valuable role in society it is not belief which creates value. An excess of faith without much spirituality is in fact the characteristic of zealots, fundamentalists and extremists of all stripes. People don’t fight about spirituality like they fight about faith.
It is thus possible to separate spirituality from the specifics of particular faiths, so perhaps it is possible to develop a useful notion of spirituality separate from faith altogether. I suggest that spirituality is the process of cultivating inner peace, a deeply necessary process for all of us anyway. Inner peace depends on how our thoughts, emotions, beliefs and desires react to events and other people. Without it, we can be buffeted around mentally and emotionally by external events and the quality of our lives becomes contingent on mere good luck. Spirituality is the process of training our inner lives to be still and calm no matter what.
If this is right, spirituality need have nothing to do with the supernatural or with spirits, but in this sense of cultivating inner peace it is simply the best way to live happily. The process of cultivation is similar to what dedicated spiritual people have always done in a religious context but now with a simpler, humanistic motivation. A religious objective can indeed still be the motivation, but it doesn’t have to be. And if we regarded spirituality in this way we might arrive at an understanding where spirituality was valued for its ability to help us all live happy lives, while faith traditions were valued for their approaches to spirituality rather than dividing us by belief.
