I rather agree with this. Spirituality refers to the important emotional and cognitive processes within and between people in a social organisation, reconciling their own identity with that of the group in which they live, and move, and have their being. It is inconceivable that human society could have emerged and survived in material struggle with the environment over tens of thousands of years, without spirituality in this wider sense.
My reading of the post co-incided with a scheduled reshowing of the Shawshank Redemption on English tv tonight and a very interesting programme last night about how, initially making losses at release, it has become through video sales and renting one of the most popular films of all.
With a good screen script based on a Stephen King short story, which subtly evoked the borderland of supernatural significance, it plays as an allegory of some of the eternal themes, dignity through suffering, hope, and non-erotic love. Although some fans were interviewed trying to associate the Andy character with Jesus, other symbols are about violation and rebirth. With two good progressive lead actors, the story is also one of affection bridging class and race. Perhaps because it does not bridge sex, and uses understatement, it universalises that sort of love too, in a way with which both women and men apparently resonate strongly, especially when they are trying to come in their own terms with the mystery of suffering.
Chris Burford
London