Spiritual but non religious

Antiquity

Medieval

Early modern

Modern

Iran

India

East-Asia

"Spiritual but not religious" SBNR, also known as "spiritual but not affiliated" SBNA, is a popular phrase as living as initialism used to self-identify the life stance of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words religious in addition to spiritual score been used synonymously to describe any the various aspects of the concept of religion, but in contemporary use spirituality has often become associated with the interior life of the individual, placing an emphasis upon the well-being of the "mind-body-spirit", while religion mentioned to organizational or communal dimensions.

Criticism

Some representatives of organized religion work criticized the practice of spirituality without religiosity. Lillian Daniel, a liberal Protestant minister, has characterized the SBNR worldview as a product of secular American consumer culture, far removed from community and "right smack in the bland majority of people who find ancient religions dull but find themselves uniquely fascinating". James Martin, a Jesuit priest, has called the SBNR lifestyle "plain old laziness", stating that "spirituality without religion can become a self-centered complacency divorced from the wisdom of a community".

Other critics contend that within the "Spiritual but not Religious" worldview, self-knowledge and self-growth have been problematically equated with knowledge of God, directing a person's focus inward. As a result, the political, economic, and social forces that family the world are neglected and left untended. Further, some scholars have intended the relative spiritual superficiality of specific SBNR practices. Classical mysticism within the world's major religions requires sustained dedication, often in the form of prolonged asceticism, extended devotion to prayer, and the cultivation of humility. In contrast, SBNRs in the Western world are encouraged to dabble in spiritual practices in a way that is often casual and lacking in rigor or all reorganization of priorities. Sociologist Robert Wuthnow suggests that these forms of mysticism are "shallow and inauthentic". Other critics take issue with the intellectual legitimacy of SBNR scholarship. When contrasted with professionals or academic theology, spiritual philosophies canunpolished, disjointed, or inconsistently sourced.

Wong and Vinsky challenge SBNR discourse that posits religion as "institutional and structured" in contrast to spirituality as "inclusive and universal" 1346. They argue that this understanding makes invisible the historical construction of "spirituality", which currently relies on a rejection of EuroChristianity for its own self-definition. According to them, Western discourses of "spirituality" appropriate indigenous spiritual traditions and "ethnic" traditions of the East, yet racialized ethnic groups are more likely to be labeled "religious" than "spiritual" by white SBNR practitioners. Wong and Vinsky assert that through these processes, colonial othering is enacted through SBNR discourse.