RELIGION

AND
SPIRITUALITY
Objectives:
 Define and describe the nature,
meaning, and implications of religion
and spirituality.
 Compare the traditional to modern
spirituality schools by getting
acquainted to them.
 Differentiate religion and spirituality.
 RELIGION
• is an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies and rules used to worship
a god or a group of gods.
• It is an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person
or group.
• Religion pervades many aspect of our everyday lives. Become part of
one’s identity renders not just as a sacred character but personal, too.
• Religion as a socially constructed realities means that the shape of
religion as an institution with beliefs, moral codes, practices, texts,
hierarchy and personalities is contingent upon the interaction of its
human agents with one another and their sociohistorical contexts.
How can we define religion?
• Religion derived from a Latin word religare(to bring together)
and relegere(to rehearse a painstakingly, as in the case of
collective rituals).
• We can define religion as a social reality in two ways:
Substantive- concerned what its constitutes
Functional- concerned with the social consequences of religion
• According to Emile Durkheim, religion is unified system of
beliefs and practices relative to sacred things that, that is to
say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which
unite into one single moral community.
 Nature and
Characteristics of a
Religion
ical Nature
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f Characteristics
of a Religion
 Nature
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ions and
Characteristics
of a Religion
 SPIRITUALITY
• Spirituality- is a broad concept with room for many perspectives. In
general, it includes a sense of connection to something bigger than
ourselves and typically involves a search for meaning.
• A universal human experience- something that touches us all, may
describe as sacred or transcendent or simply a deep sense of
aliveness and interconnectedness.
• Spirituality is typically conceptualized in more subjective,
individualistic terms. Has two themes:
The existence of a transcendent reality that is transpersonal in nature.
That this reality is “personal, existential and subjective, and involves a union
with non temporal.
References
• Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Durkheim E. 2001
• Introduction to the World Religions and Belief Systems. Cornelio et al.
2016
• Mystical, Religious, and Spiritual Experiences (Ralph W. Hood, Jr.)
• What is Spirituality:
https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/what-spirituality