Setting the Scene

When Albert Einstein was in his late fifties, he wrote an article called Physics and Reality in which he concluded that science rests on unknowable mysteries. Why does the universe show an elegant and beautiful form? Why does it seem to have a hidden structure that is comprehensible with conceptual theory and algebraic equations? From where or what do scientific laws come, and why do they seem to govern the physical world? These questions had brought Einstein to a conviction that the theories and formulae of scientific knowledge convey only part of reality. Beyond them, he surmised, lie the immeasurable, the inexplicable and even the miraculous.

You too have mysterious layers that science struggles to reach. Consciousness, subjectivity, meaning, purpose, and morality defy the objective lens of the scientist in part or whole. I will never know what it feels like to be you, nor you me, no matter how much science we learn. Furthermore, many of the deepest experiences in your life, such as the feeling of unconditional love or the sublime beauty of a natural scene, are impossible to fully describe in the words and numbers upon which science depends. They require more subtle modes of depiction. The areas that science struggles to reach and explain are the natural territory of spirituality – it thrives in the unknown and transcendental, and in the subjective depths of lived experience.

Science and spirituality have both separated from religion over the course of the modern era into different, yet complementary, domains of inquiry. Spirituality still draws on ideas and practices from organized religion, while taking a more experiential and eclectic ethos to its subject matter than the latter. In many ways, it can be seen as religion's unconventional and inquisitive younger sibling. To understand the formative give-and-take between spirituality and religion is an important first step towards making sense of the rest of the book, so it is to this topic that I turn first.

Comparing spirituality and religion

Organized religion combines sacred rituals, rules, beliefs, texts, and codes of behavior into a formally recognized social institution. The first religion that included a written scripture appeared in Ancient Egypt around 3000 BCE. Over the subsequent millennia, organized religion spread across the rest of the world, as civilizations grasped the varied benefits of structuring the spiritual impulse into manageable groups and hierarchies. Indeed the word hierarchy has religious origins – it comes from the Ancient Greek word hierarkhes, which means sacred rank.

The great religions of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all of which emerged between 500 BCE and 500 CE, perfected this system of formalizing and containing the spiritual life within circumscribed institutions. They all developed an explicit membership system, whereby a convert would state their allegiance, publicly become a member, and henceforth agree to adopt the conventions and rules of the collective. Membership of one religion precluded being a member of another, which meant clear boundaries were established between religious communities. In return for this loyalty and singular commitment to the group, members were promised a defined path to salvation or enlightenment.

Today, the major religions continue to use this group membership system. To become a member one must undergo a joining or conversion ritual, then adhere to the core beliefs and practices that are required for membership. In drawing together large numbers of individuals under an agreed set of conventions and a common purpose, religious groups are powerful structures indeed, and this power has historically been used for good and ill. The charitable and educational work of religious groups has been enduring and widespread, but the corruption of religion for violent or controlling ends has also been immense. Weighing these positive and negative effects against one another is hard, for they are not directly comparable in a quantifiable sense. Supporters of religion will tend to focus on the positive side, critics on the negative side, and arguments continue to this day.

Over the past four centuries, religion has been challenged by a more recent kind of experimental, de-institutionalized approach to matters of the sacred. Since the early twentieth century, it has been mainly referred to as spirituality. It includes the open exploration of topics such as ultimate purpose, transcendence, the divine, spiritual healing, yoga, meditation, states of consciousness, enlightenment, sacredness, prayer, love, ecstasy and the nature of the soul or higher self. In contrast to religion's emphasis on social stability and continuity, spirituality emphasizes exploration, transformation and growth. Correspondingly, at the center of religion one finds a strong focus on the past, in the shape of historical scripture and the upholding of traditions. In contrast, at the core of spirituality one finds a focus on the future, in ideas and practices that pertain to the realization of higher potentials in self and society.

In comparison to the communal framework provided by religion, the personalized approach of spirituality leads to more pluralism of belief, with individuals often drawing on multiple sources of inspiration. Although this may seem like a loose 'pick-n-mix' approach, it has been used productively by philosophy for centuries. Students and experts in philosophy find their own integration from the many theories and arguments in the field. It is neither expected nor desired that all philosophers should think the same, or come to the same conclusions. Indeed it is precisely the dynamic differences between them that keep philosophical ideas as living truths rather than dead dogma. This same kind of eclecticism invigorates spirituality, and keeps its ethos helpfully distinct from religion.

While many choose to pursue spirituality without affiliating to a religion, they are not mutually exclusive and can be combined in productive ways. Many liberal religious groups now accept the value of reaching out spiritually into areas beyond their own boundaries and practices. Notable examples are the Quakers, Unitarians, Liberal Anglicans, liberal strands of Sufism such as The Sufi Order; liberal Judaism exemplified by the Rabbi Michael Lerner's Network of Spiritual Progressives; as well as many moderate strands of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. These open and tolerant religious groups in the West tend to be less visible and vocal than the more exclusivist and fundamentalist sects, so the atheists and agnostics who look at religion from afar may well only hear the loud shouts of the hard-liners, and may miss the subtle and open messages that are...