[lbo-talk] Question re: Religion vs "spirituality"

Jeffrey Fisher jeff.jfisher at gmail.com
Thu Dec 1 05:46:03 PST 2005


On 11/30/05, joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> >I define spirituality as spoiled or frustrated
> >solidarity, but that won't convince anyone who isn't already convinced.
> >
> I think that's a great definition -- given the current conditions.

i haven't had time to peruse lbo-talk in ages, and when i finally do get back, lookie what i find! :)

i don't know about the definition. it has its appeal, but it seems reductive, to me. in my religion classes, i will often do an exercise at the beginning of the course where i ask the students to try to define religion. every single time we have to address the "spirituality" thing, which always means a hostility to institutionalized religion - a hostility, btw, that is ill-informed and to be honest mainly lazy in the case of these 19 and 20 year olds. interestingly, we have enough True Believer christians that there will often be one or perhaps two people decrying "spirituality" as a kind of wannabe religiosity, religion light, etc. etc.

j

-- The easy way seems hard; The perfect square has no corners. - Tao Te Ching (41) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20051201/18c9db59/attachment.htm>



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