Can spirituality be separated from a concept of God?

[Editor: This is an internal Trinity Health publication.]

Spirituality: A Godless Spirituality?

We can begin by asking a basic question: Can an atheist have a spirituality? Isn't some belief in God necessary if you want to be a spiritual person?

Not necessarily! Not, that is, if spirituality is about the workings of the human spirit and its ways in the world.

Every human person dreams, desires, gets disappointed, hurts, and hopes. And, in the process of living, we all try to make sense of it all. We want to understand what is happening in our lives. We strive for meaning and purpose in life. We try to make sense of our life and our world. That gives us a feeling of self-worth and purpose (mission) —and also helps us to cope along the way!

What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning.
(Barbara DeAngelis)

This fashioning of meaning and purpose is never complete, and whatever sense we make of our life and world is always being reaffirmed or challenged by life's events—it is constantly being fragmented, unraveled, and put back together again in a new way. Major turning points along life’s way are often called “conversions.” “I used to be a Republican but I now am more aligned with the Green Party.” Or, “I grew up a meat-eater but now I am a vegetarian and a member of PETA.” We keep growing in our personal identity.

Many people include in their world of meaning and purpose an understanding of God and nurture a relationship to God. Not everyone’s personal world of meaning and purpose, however, contains a reference to God or the divine. That is why atheists and agnostics can still have spirituality. Spirituality is about the ways of the human spirit in the world, for believers and nonbelievers alike.
Portions of the above were originally published in Health Progress. May-June 2005

Spirituality is that which gives meaning and purpose, allowing us to become the best of who we are.
Spirituality is the innate experience of relationships to God, to self, to others, to creation, that gives meaning and purpose to life.

Spirituality is the practice of staying consciously connected with what makes us alive with ourselves, with one another and with the great other.

From a meeting of Catholic Health Care leaders



Reflection Questions

What do I live for? What draws me, interests me, motivates me? (Purpose of mission)
Who is interested in the things that are important to me?
Who do I share this with? Who do I trust with matters of the heart? (Who is my soul-mate/)
When asked to list the Seven Wonders of the World by her teacher, the quiet little girl answered: “I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many." The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help."

The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:

to touch
to taste
to see
to hear
She hesitated a little more, and then

to feel
to laugh
and to love
It is far too easy for us to look at our human exploits and refer to them as "wonders" while we overlook all God has done for us, regarding them as merely "ordinary."

May you be reminded today of those things which are truly wondrous.