Major study calls for spirituality in public life

A deeper understanding of spirituality is needed to address problems such as political alienation, the ecological crisis and the decline in trust in major public institutions, according to a new report from the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

The document, written by Dr Jonathan Rowson of the RSA after a two-year study, says the spiritual has been marginalised or even lost in debates between religion and aggressive secularism.

It disagrees, however, with the common notion of being “spiritual but not religious”, saying that “religions are the particular cultural, doctrinal and institutional expressions of human spiritual needs”. It does not see religion and spirituality as interchangeable.

The report, “Spiritualise: revitalising spirituality to address 21st century challenges”, states: “We need the spiritual to play a greater role in the public realm, because it highlights the importance of connecting personal and social and political transformation.” It continues: “Within organisations of all kinds, the spiritual deepens our vision of intrinsic motivation and gives structure and texture to human development and maturation.”

Dr Rowson sees spirituality as a counterweight to the “hegemony of instrumental and utilitarian thinking” by being able to critique the “fetishisation” of economic growth, for example. It also, he says, informs areas such as nursing, education, and social and environmental activism.

The report says that spirituality is ignored because it struggles to find clear expression and it recommends considering it under four headings: love (the promise of belonging), death (the awareness of being), self (the path of becoming and transcendence) and soul (the sense of beyondness). The report took in contributions from more than 300 experts.