A Closer Look: Definition of Spirituality

Coming up with one single definition of spirituality is going to be impossible. The sheer number of definitions the dictionary gives for spirituality, spiritual, and spirit is a prime example of how our present culture struggles to settle on a clear definition of spirituality. 

When you look at the definition of spirituality, it quickly becomes clear that it is hard to put a finger on just what the word or concept really means.

• Spirituality is defined as "The state, quality, manner, or fact of being spiritual."
• This definition, therefore, means that we need to look up spiritual.
• Spiritual is defined as “of, relating to, consisting of, or affecting the spirit.” Okay…so what is the spirit? 
• At least six entries attempt to define spirit as it relates to spirituality. Perhaps the best two are:  1. the life principle, esp. in human beings, originally regarded as inherent in the breath or as infused by a deity   2. soul (sense )

So, the dictionary provides us with some idea of the definition of spirituality... in fact, it provides us with a lot of them. The problem is, these concepts are still intangible and don't necessarily give us a full picture of the definition of spirituality.

Quest To Be Spiritual

 These days it seems trendy to be spiritual. 

• Celebrities claim that yoga and health food aid in their spirituality. 
• Books and movies like Eat Pray Love, in which a woman in a mid-life crisis eats her way through Rome and tries to find herself while trying on Hindu spirituality in India, top the charts. 
• There are way more than 57 varieties of many religions, so the average person in search of religious spirituality often has no clue where to begin. 
• Arguments take place all the time about the differences and similarities between religion and spirituality.

All this can suggest that no one really knows what the definition of spirituality is... but everyone wants to find it.

Exploring the Soul and Spirituality

The major religions of the world teach that the soul is the part of the human person that is eternal, meaning that when the body dies, the soul lives on. 

• Connecting the above definitions, we could then use the dictionary definition of spirit as "The soul, considered as departing from the body of a person at death." 
• In this case, then, perhaps the definition of spirituality consists of a person’s thoughts, words, and actions that take place with the soul in mind – that are done not thinking just about the present life, but also of the life to come.
• Within this definition, many types of spiritualities exist, meaning that the types of thoughts, words, and actions done that focus on the soul can vary with different spiritualities. 

Religion and Spirituality

Many people look to religion to try to find the definition of spirituality - but does that really clear things up any more?

Every religion has its own broad spirituality, and within those broad categories hundreds of types of spiritualities exist. 

For example, within Christianity are found the broad categories of Catholic and Protestant.  Each of those can be broken into smaller categories – various denominations, including Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and many others exist within Protestantism

• In Catholicism, we find the various spiritualities of different saints, including Benedictine spirituality from Saint Benedict and Ignatian (or Jesuit) spirituality from St. Ignatius of Loyola. 
• A component of Benedictine spirituality is hospitality, while Jesuit spirituality includes a strong focus on the intellectual.  The thoughts, words, and actions of St. Benedict and St. Ignatius would have had different flavors, but both men were focused on the eternal, and thus lived out their lives and spiritualities to that end.  And that is just one example – the world is full of different types of spirituality.  

It can be so hard to put a precise definition on spirtuality. It is a complicated word.