The Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion

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As it stands, spirituality is usually understood as a belief in and connection to god(s), fate, or any sort of otherworldly consciousness of something ‘greater than us’. A great sense of this spirituality tends bring meaningfulness to many people, but meaningfulness is not exclusive to this, what I call, "supernal spirituality”. In fact, many find meaning in life without the supernatural end of spirituality, that is, a sensed connection to the natural world without a reliance on the supernatural to explain it: what can be called “secular spirituality”. When looking at only the sentiment behind both versions of spirituality, they are the quite similar. Both groups recognize a sacredness to life. The division between supernal and secular spirituality is therefore pointless. More importantly, this division has become aggressive, creating antagonists of one another. Neither side is blameless in the hostility, with labels like naivety and shallow-mindedness being tossed about. We of course exist in a world riddled with divisions; the pursuit of meaning, peace, and wisdom should be last to harbor hostility between groups. Bishop, J., in Secular Spirituality and the Logic of Giving Thanks, proposed a way to dissolve the disunion between these groups is to expand the …show more content…
In Lionel Corbett’s Psychology and the Sacred: Spirituality beyond Religion, he uses the word “numinous” as the quality of the encounter with the sacred. He explains that a numinous experience is any one that is perceived as holy. Corbett is apt to pull these numinous experiences away from the strictly religious ones. While it is true that plenty of people have numinous experiences within some religious context, he explains that many people, religious or not, have numinous experiences in the secular world, whether in dreams or deep in thought, or simply driving home from

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