Lesson 8: Questions about Spirituality
I have written and put aside five essays for this post. Each time I finished one, someone brought up concerns I had not addressed.
I finally decided to simply report what friends were telling me, as their questions seemed more important than my intellectual answers. They reveal we are in a period of great change. I have never had so many people talk to me openly about what they believe or do not believe. Usually, creeds are mentioned, but rituals and social positions come up as well.
I also have never had so many people report having life-shaking religious experiences. They talk about having no words to explain being literally overpowered emotionally and physically. These happen totally unexpectedly while doing something ordinary like going on a walk, receiving Communion, or witnessing the birth of a child. The recipients come away feeling “there is something bigger happening out there “ that forces them to be more honest about themselves.
Most make some reference to Donald Trump, usually about his exposing troubling conflicts between Christians. They are seeking solace in a more satisfactory spiritual life.
Those talking to me most frequently say they “find God in nature” or “feel they are in church” while walking in the woods, fishing, or hunting. For some, it’s running in the zone, contemplating icons or other forms of religious art, meditating before a candle or a campfire, or using Zen or other Buddhist practices. Very often it involves music.
At this point, I’m uneasy about the lack of content in the conversations. Religious life is described as a continuing journey or search. Finding it difficult to put their experiences into words, people resort to feelings rather than thoughts. “Compassion” will be used, but, again, it’s a plastic word people can fill in any way they please nowadays.
The lessons learned seem to be brought to the experience rather than being inspired by them. The spiritual exercise or happening endorses what you already believe or want to believe.
For instance, when people report a sunset or a hike conveys the harmony in all of God’s creation, I wonder why it doesn’t provoke thoughts about survival of the fittest. Why does feeling one with nature inspire a desire to preserve every species rather than the need to overpower he weak in a dog-eat-dog environment? The content seems to come from some other place. That’s what I want to address in the coming weeks.
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Thanks Fritz, possibly also it would be of interest to (y)our readers to have specifics of:
‘I finally decided to simply report what friends were telling me, as their questions seemed more important than my intellectual answers’.
What are these specific comments/questions from your friends please?
Now you have raised them i am keen to read same.
cheers for 2026 ciao paul
I pretty much covered the kind of comments in the essay, Paul. The questions are those raised in my mind more than those posed by my friends. Although I’m hearing from far more than usual. they usually offer a very brief comment with something like interest in hearing what I’m going to say. It’s not the in-depth stuff I usually get . I was trying to convey that recognizing that there’s something significant going on now is more important than examining the past. Spirituality raises concerns, but people seem to have a hard time expressing what they are.