It is well known that many westerners today describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead define “spirituality as a life based not on external authorities and expectations but “in deep connection with the unique experiences of my self- in-relation.” Religion represents a life of “subordinating subjective-life to the ‘higher’ authority of transcendent meaning, goodness and truth, whilst the latter (spirituality) invokes the sacred in the cultivation of unique subject-life.” this is because subjective spirituality is individualistic. Though often practiced in community, it is not defined or disciplined by any community. The individual must be free “to relate in a pick-and-choose way to old and new religious narratives, constructing his or her own life-interpreting universe, loosely woven and therefore easy to change.”

Trend lines in the United States show that rising interest in “the sacred” is not a harbinger of religious revival among the 4% of the US population who identify as atheists. Rather it reflects a migration from organized religion, mainly Christianity, to a more self-defined spirituality. Europe is further down the trail of secularization, and yet it has seen a similar spike in people identifying as “spiritual but not religious.”

…Spirituality without religion is not just a vapid weigh station to atheism, particularly when most atheists affirm some sort of spiritual reality. Not even in post-Christian Europe is scientific naturalism the victor over religion. Instead, beliefs that would have been considered superstitious by Christians and scientists alike are considered scientific. Like American non-religious spirituals or nones, Europeans— with a much longer history of secularization— are not less “superstitious” than they have been in the past but actually more so.

Michael Horton, Shaman and Sage: The Roots of “Spiritual But Not Religious in Antiquity (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2024), 1–3.

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Post authored by:

• Michael Horton

  

  Dr. Horton has taught systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary California since 1998 and is ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America. He is also the founder of Sola Media and its associated endeavors: the White Horse Inn radio show and podcast, Modern Reformation magazine, Core Christianity, and Theo Global.

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