Today, the thirst for spirituality is omnipresent and growing, whether among the religious or the secular. Indeed, “man is a metaphysical animal”, said the philosopher Schopenhauer, and André Comte-Sponville, a writer who is nonetheless an atheist, corroborates and adds that man is a “spiritual” animal[1]. This spirituality is expressed in a variety of ways, which we will distinguish here between religious and secular spirituality. Even more specifically than religious, let’s look at the characteristics of Christian spirituality versus secular spirituality, even if the latter does or does not exist. What are their singularities, differences and convergences, and is it possible to propose a non-dual third way out of this dynamic of polarization between Christian and secular spirituality?
In order to carry out our analysis, we first need to start from the same basis of understanding and the meanings of “Christian spirituality” and “secular spirituality”. The first term refers to “that which comes from the spirit” (according to the Larousse dictionary) in the Christian religion, to that which is immaterial, mystical (in the sense of the inexplicable part of God), but also to that which links interiority to exteriority when we want to be an example of Christianity, when we want to represent Jesus and live in Christ and in his Holy Spirit. Secular spirituality, on the other hand, would be the same as the first definition, but without God, Jesus or Christ, yet also with a desire to experience the presence of life and spirit (for yes, spirit is also accepted as real and existing) within us and all around us. The practices for achieving this are supposed to differ, but often overlap, such as art, silent retreat, listening to our singular voice and seeking inner peace, healing our psycho-emotional wounds, caring for our body (whether or not it’s considered a temple), rightly relating to others, etc.[2]. These practices are “part of the general movement of deinstitutionalization of religious sentiment – and not of an exit from religion – that is sweeping through our society”[3]. This means that the religious are moving closer and closer to more personal, personalized forms of spirituality, and that secularism, for its part, is increasingly taking on a spiritual dimension. But in what ways do these two points of view look at each other, and in what other ways do they look away from each other?
The differences in viewpoints between Christian and secular spirituality begin when we follow the concept of the distinction between “religious” and “spiritual”, between a way of perceiving the spirit outside us and a way of feeling it inside us. The religious would therefore be more external and the spiritual more internal. However, this acception seems very simplistic, and has long been used as an argument for moving away from religion, whereas in truth, as already stated above, society is not in the process of moving away from religion, but from the religious institution. What’s more, religion (including Christianity in this case) always has an inner practical side, and spirituality, rightly understood, always brings with it the dynamic of going out into the world (the outside world) to live out one’s love and make it even greater.
Another distinction we could make is that of personal decision. “What am I to do with my life when I alone decide?”[4]. The Christian person tends to see decision and choice as a function of a superior and absolute divine force, which it is best to follow and let oneself be carried along by, while the lay spiritual person believes rather in his or her total independence of individual choice. The former sees himself as an individual and often alone (with the spirit, yes, but an individual nonetheless), while the latter sees himself simply as a member, a part of a universal, absolute and transcendental body, and therefore never considers himself alone (for God and the Christian community would always be present). The idea of rising above the laws that govern nature and the world is specific to the religious, and very pronounced in Christianity, as opposed to the “naturalism, immanentism or materialism”[5] of the secularists, who believe only in the laws of this world. The former call themselves infinite beings who experience the finite world but are not part of it (“you are not of the world”, biblical verse in John 15:19), while the latter call themselves “finite beings open to the infinite”[6]. Christians would say that the spirit is the cause of everything, secularists declare: “The spirit is not the cause of nature. It is its result […]”[7].
In addition, there is a difference in relation to denomination. A religious person declares that they belong to a denomination (in this case, Christianity), while a lay person does not.
Finally, let’s raise another distinction that is rarely highlighted in spiritual circles: that of the inequality of socio-economic classes and their differing access to individual material comfort. Indeed, the individual dimension of secular spirituality is only possible in the soil of an economic system and a society that encourage the ability to be self-sufficient in order to survive. So, in so-called developed countries, this spirituality can and does flourish far more than in economically poor countries (or, more accurately, countries rich in natural resources but prevented, by global debt and banking, from accessing their wealth). Where people need others to survive, where the community (and therefore often churches) represent the first and last line of defence against the material and psychological suffering of lack, Christian spirituality (and religious spirituality in general) takes precedence over secular spirituality. It’s often only when our bellies are full that we can afford not to need the other (ecclesia, the Christian spiritual community, the etymological meaning of church) or the Other (i.e. God), and that we have the privilege of living only by our own choices, or that we have the energy and time to devote to metaphysical and individual concerns.
Let’s now look at some of the similarities between Christian and secular spirituality. First of all, it’s important to point out that there isn’t justone Christian spirituality, but many Christian spiritualities, depending not only on the whole panoply of Christian religious denominations (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, etc.), but also on all the existing sub-branches (Lutheran, Adventist, Mennonite, etc.).This is due not only to the whole panoply of Christian religious denominations (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, etc.), but also to all the existing sub-denominations (Lutheran, Adventist, Mennonite, Benedictine, Franciscan, Roman Catholic, Ethiopian Coptic, Russian Orthodox, etc.), as well as to the fact that each individual experiences spirituality in a singular way, and that there are ultimately as many spiritualities (and we could also say religions) as there are human beings on earth.
However, if we attempt to generalize, we can say that all “spiritual seekers think of balance as the fruit of non-separation”[8]. Indeed, in both cases, there is a unanimous desire to find a balance, a balance that can only be achieved when we rediscover a sense of unity, ontological or not, but unity nonetheless. This presupposes that the origin of spiritual suffering and the thirst for the spiritual stems from our condition of separation. Separation from what? It’s this that will diverge in meaning, but at least everyone agrees in concluding that we live in desolation every time this sense of separation arises and returns, through disconnection with nature and our environment, daily challenges and obstacles, traumas that make us dissociate our identity, feelings of guilt, anger, sadness and all the aspects that cut us off from the power of life in the present moment.
If we consider secular spirituality not as the offspring of the age of individualism that characterizes us, but as the expression of a spiritual quality of “individuation”[9], of regaining our inner sovereignty lost for centuries through the imposition of institutions (not only religious) on the free choice of the human being, then we can consider that this meeting point between our two perspectives is not only possible, but extremely salutary. Individuation would mark the death knell of individual material emancipation and individual spiritual emancipation, which aims to melt one’s ego completely and wholly for the collective good. This “spiritual relativism”, this “personal recomposition”[10] of spirituality can be found among Christians and secularists alike, and its propensity to marry unity in diversity is not to be confused with syncretism, which would be rather the action of mixing religions and making a personalized melting-pot, but without power, without rooting singularity and authenticity. But we mustn’t fall into the trap of believing ourselves to be autonomous and independent, for the human being is an interdependent being who can only function and fulfill himself or herself by being united with the whole of life.
Finally, this introduces our last example of the convergence of the two approaches: the connection to life, to the living; to the “living God” for Christians, to the living ecosystem for laypeople. God, the Creator, could be synonymous with life, and the ecosystem, Creation, could also be synonymous with life. So both Christian and secular spirituality are concerned with life, and place it at their deepest center.
In conclusion, although there are divergences and convergences between Christian spirituality and secular spirituality, the two terms can be considered independently as synonyms or even pleonasms. To speak of Christianity without spirituality deprives the former of all meaning and makes the Christian spiritually thirsty, and to speak of spirituality without its secular aspect of detachment from concepts, makes us follow a dogmatic God instead of the living God. God and the living do not follow each other by concept alone, but by experience and feeling. So there is a religious reality in secular spirituality, and a secular reality in religious spirituality. So a person who considers himself secular can sometimes be more religious than a religious person, and a religious person can be more secular than a secular person without even realizing it. However much we may wish to define ourselves in our religious or secular spirituality, only the Divine and life can fathom what our spirituality is and judge it. Calling ourselves “religious” or “secular” rather than feeling and living it, can sometimes distract us from the essence of religion or life. For God and life know no definition, are beyond religion or secularism, and if we really must put a definition to them, it could be that of not being able to be defined. God and life are beyond the finitudes of language and word. They are infinitude, and so they suffocate in the word, transform it or explode it in order to love better. They unite the spoken and the unspoken, in the center where word and silence have already said it all.
Perhaps one day we’ll be living in a world where the sacred and the profane no longer have to distinguish themselves in order to live the same sacred love (convergence of the sacred and the profane) of life. Perhaps one century we’ll be living in a world where words are no longer walls that close and enclose, but windows that open and liberate. For the word, like the human being, needs to be freed from stagnation and preconceived meaning, and is always “in motion, becoming, [supposed to come] from the mind, driven by the desire to go beyond its limits”[11]. And perhaps, for an eternity, we’ll live in an infinite, all-encompassing “oceanic feeling”[12] shared by everyone, human and animal alike, plant and mineral, and from this finally unified feeling, the love of life and the life of love will be able to blossom in all their splendour.
[1] André Comte-Sponville, L’esprit de l’athéisme, Paris, Le Livre de Poche, 2008, p. 143
[2] Ibid, p.129
[3] Jean-François Barbier-Bouvet, Les nouveaux aventuriers de la spiritualité , Paris, Médiaspaul, 2015, p. 127
[4] Ibid., p. 127
[5] André Comte-Sponville, The Spirit of Atheism , Paris, Le Livre de Poche, 2008, p. 146
[6] Ibid., p. 145
[7] Ibid., p. 148
[8] Jean-François Barbier-Bouvet, Les nouveaux aventuriers de la spiritualité , Paris, Médiaspaul, 2015, p. 131
[9] Ibid., p. 201
[10] Mariel Mazzocco, “Quelle spiritualité pour notre temps?” video capsule, Introduction to Christian Spirituality, Lesson 7
[11] Ibid.
[12] André Comte-Sponville, L’esprit de l’athéisme , Paris, Le Livre de Poche, 2008, p. 159
After monastic experience and extensive travel between Angola, Sweden and the United States, Claudio has deepened his understanding of cultures, religions and spiritual approaches. Life Coach and certified preacher at the United Methodist Church in Princeton (USA), he is currently pursuing pastoral training at the University of Geneva and within the Swiss United Methodist Church. Father of two, he joined the co-creation of Village Mosaïque in 2022.
