Summary
Title: Spiritual but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America
Author: Robert C. Fuller
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195146808
Pros:
• Covers wide variety of non-traditional beliefs
• Explores how religious and spiritual beliefs are evolving
Cons:
• Not all stated goals are addressed fully and some concepts are unclear
Description:
• Looks at how people can still be "spiritual" without also being "religious"
• Explores both contemporary and historical "non-traditional" movements
• Discusses how non-traditional beliefs impact traditional beliefs.
Book Review
Yet the reality is rather more complicated than that. A significant portion of the population (around twenty percent, according to Robert Fuller) deliberately eschews membership in organized religion, yet nevertheless considers itself to be deeply involved with spiritual matters. In his recent book, Fuller explores the dimensions of what it means to be "unchurched" in America while still being an active spiritual seeker.
Before any discussion of this can begin, however, it would help to know what is meant by the word "spiritual," and how does it actually differ from the term "religious"? Fuller writes:
- The confusion stems from the fact that the words "spiritual" and "religious" are really synonyms. Both connote belief in a Higher Power of some kind. Both also imply a desire to connect, or enter into a more intense relationship, with this Higher Power. And, finally, both connote interest in rituals, practices, and daily moral behaviors that foster such a connection or relationship. ...
These "active seekers" who pursue their spiritual development outside the realm of traditional, organized religion tend to have a number of characteristics in common:
- They value curiosity, intellectual freedom, and deciding for oneself what one believes, rather than simply receiving it from an established clergy - indeed, some consider organized religion to be antithetical to an authentic spirituality.
- With their emphasis on private experience rather than public ritual, they frequently seek a direct connection with the Divine through meditation and similar practices.
- They recognize the need to incorporate the teachings of science into one's spiritual views, rather than trying to ignore or outright deny them the way some religious traditions have attempted to do.
Most such seekers leave behind the myths of the particular traditions they were brought up in because they find themselves stifled by the insistence on orthodoxy, or because they are unable to reconcile the teachings of the religion with their own experiences. These experiences include the insights brought by science and certain values which are relatively modern, such as feminism.
