Editing Spirituality (section)

===Modern spirituality===
{{See also|Western esotericism#18th, 19th and early 20th centuries|l1=History of Western esotericism|New Age|l2=New Age}}

Modern notions of spirituality developed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, mixing Christian ideas with [[Western esotericism|Western esoteric]] traditions and elements of Asian, especially Indian, religions. Spirituality became increasingly disconnected from traditional religious organizations and institutions. It is sometimes associated today with philosophical, social, or political movements such as [[liberalism]], [[feminist theology]], and [[green politics]].{{sfn|Snyder|Lopez|2007|pp=261–261}}

====Modern Roman religion====

{{See also|Roman Way to the Gods}}

In modern Roman neopagan spirituality, initiation is a central element that facilitates deeper spiritual development and access to sacred knowledge.<ref>Barbera, Giuseppe, Pietas: An Introduction to Roman Traditionalism, Mythology Corner, 2 June 2021, ISBN 978-0981759616.</ref> It is viewed as a transformative process, guiding the initiate through stages of spiritual growth. Initiation introduces the individual to the esoteric meanings of Roman myths, deities, and the concept of [[pax deorum]] (peace of the gods),<ref>Viotti, E.,La Via Romana agli Dèi: la storia, i miti, le fondamenta e i riti della religione romana oggi, Armenia, Milano, 2022, ISBN 9788834440438.</ref> aligning the individual with cosmic order. This process not only prepares the initiate for participation in rituals but also emphasizes personal alignment with the divine will. As such, initiation is both a rite of passage and a means to engage meaningfully with divine forces, ensuring the individual's spiritual preparedness to uphold the traditions of Roman religious practice.<ref>Barbera, Giuseppe, *Esoteric Aspects of Roman Tradition*, Elio Ermete Publisher, 29 April 2017. Language: Italian, Paperback, 128 pages, ISBN 8826425434, ISBN 978-8826425436.</ref>

====Transcendentalism and Unitarian Universalism====
[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803–1882) was a pioneer of the idea of spirituality as a distinct field.<ref>Schmidt, Leigh Eric. ''Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality''. San Francisco: Harper, 2005. {{ISBN|0-06-054566-6}}</ref> He was one of the major figures in [[Transcendentalism]], an early 19th-century [[Liberal Christianity|liberal Protestant]] movement, which was rooted in English and German [[Romanticism]], the Biblical criticism of [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] and [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]], the [[skepticism]] of [[David Hume|Hume]],<ref group=web name="Stanford-Transcendentlism">{{cite web |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/ |title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ''Transcendentalism'' |publisher=Plato.stanford.edu |access-date=2014-01-04 |archive-date=2010-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711124255/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Neoplatonism]].{{sfn|Remes|2014|p=202}}{{sfn|Versluis|2014|p=35}}
The Transcendentalists emphasized an intuitive, experiential approach to religion.<ref group=web name="Lewis">{{cite web|author=Jone Johnson Lewis |url=http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm |title=What is Transcendentalism? |publisher=Transcendentalists.com |access-date=2014-01-04|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627121243/http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm|archive-date=2014-06-27}}</ref> Following Schleiermacher,{{sfn|Sharf|1995}} an individual's intuition of truth was taken as the criterion for truth.<ref group=web name="Lewis" /> In the late 18th and early 19th century, the first translations of Hindu texts appeared, which were also read by the Transcendentalists, and influenced their thinking.<ref group=web name="Lewis" /> They also endorsed [[Universalism|universalist]] and [[Unitarianism|Unitarianist]] ideas, leading to [[Unitarian Universalism]], the idea that there must be truth in other religions as well since a loving God would redeem all living beings, not just Christians.<ref group=web name=" Lewis" /><ref group=web name="Andrews">{{cite web |url=http://archive.uua.org/re/other/andrews.html |title=Barry Andrews, ''The Roots Of Unitarian Universalist Spirituality In New England Transcendentalism '' |publisher=Archive.uua.org |date=1999-03-12 |access-date=2014-01-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054734/http://archive.uua.org/re/other/andrews.html |archive-date=2013-09-21 }}</ref>

====Theosophy, anthroposophy, and the perennial philosophy====
{{See also|Western esotericism}}

A major influence on modern spirituality was the [[Theosophical Society]], which searched for 'secret teachings' in Asian religions.{{sfn|McMahan|2008}} It has been influential on modernist streams in several Asian religions, notably [[Neo-Vedanta]], the revival of [[Theravada Buddhism]], and [[Buddhist modernism]], which have taken over modern western notions of [[Religious experience|personal experience]] and [[universalism]] and integrated them in their religious concepts.{{sfn|McMahan|2008}} A second, related influence was [[Anthroposophy]], whose founder, [[Rudolf Steiner]], was particularly interested in developing a genuine Western spirituality, and in the ways that such a spirituality could transform practical institutions such as [[Waldorf education|education]], [[biodynamic agriculture|agriculture]], and [[anthroposophical medicine|medicine]].<ref>{{cite book|last=McDermott|first=Robert|title=The Essential Steiner|year=2007|publisher=Lindisfarne|isbn=978-1-58420-051-2}}</ref><ref>''William James and Rudolf Steiner'', Robert A. McDermott, 1991, in ReVision, vol. 13 no. 4
[http://www.ciis.edu/Documents/Academic%20Departments/PCC/McDermott_William%20James%20and%20Rudolf%20Steiner.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203445/http://www.ciis.edu/Documents/Academic%20Departments/PCC/McDermott_William%20James%20and%20Rudolf%20Steiner.pdf|date=2015-09-23}}</ref> More independently, the [[spiritual science]] of [[Martinus Thomsen|Martinus]] was an influence, especially in Scandinavia.<ref>Ole Therkelsen: Martinus, Darwin and Intelligent design. A new Theory of Evolution, p. 7</ref>

The influence of Asian traditions on Western modern spirituality was also furthered by the [[perennial philosophy]], whose main proponent [[Aldous Huxley]] was deeply influenced by [[Swami Vivekananda|Swami Vivekananda's]] [[Neo-Vedanta]] and universalism,{{sfn|Roy|2003}} and the spread of social welfare, education and mass travel after [[World War II]].

====Neo-Vedanta====
{{main|Neo-Vedanta}}

An important influence on western spirituality was [[Neo-Vedanta]], also called ''neo-Hinduism''{{sfn|King|2002|p=93}} and ''Hindu Universalism'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Video: Gurus, Women, and Yoga: The Spiritual World of Hindu Universalism |url=https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2019/09/23/gurus-women-yoga |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=cswr.hds.harvard.edu |date=23 September 2019 |language=en}}</ref> a modern interpretation of [[Hinduism]] which developed in response to western [[colonialism]] and [[orientalism]]. It aims to present Hinduism as a "homogenized ideal of Hinduism"{{sfn|Yelle|2012|p=338}} with Advaita Vedanta as its central doctrine.{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}} Due to the colonisation of Asia by the western world, since the 19th century an exchange of ideas has been taking place between the western world and Asia, which also influenced western religiosity.{{sfn|McMahan|2008}} Unitarianism, and the idea of Universalism, was brought to India by missionaries, and had a major influence on neo-Hinduism via [[Ram Mohan Roy]]'s [[Brahmo Samaj]] and [[Brahmoism]]. Roy attempted to modernise and reform Hinduism, from the idea of Universalism.{{sfn|King|2002}} This universalism was further popularised, and brought back to the west as neo-Vedanta, by [[Swami Vivekananda]].{{sfn|King|2002}}

====Carl Jung====
[[Carl Jung]] placed a strong emphasis on the occult and spirituality. In his 1928 work "The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man," Jung wrote, "[T]he various forms of religion no longer appear to come from within, from the psyche; they seem more like items from the inventory of the outside world." Jung believed that something was missing in modern man, a sense of the mystical or the spiritual.<ref>Schneider, Stanley; Berke, Joseph H. (2008). "The Oceanic Feeling, Mysticism and Kabbalah: Freud's Historical Roots". ''Psychoanalytic Review''. '''95''' (1): 131–156. doi:[https://doi.org/10.1521/prev.2008.95.1.131 10.1521/prev.2008.95.1.131].</ref>

===="Spiritual but not religious"====
{{main|Spiritual but not religious}}
After the Second World War, spirituality and theistic religion became increasingly disconnected,{{sfn|Waaijman|2000|p=361}} and spirituality became more oriented on subjective experience, instead of "attempts to place the self within a broader ontological context".{{sfn|Saucier|Skrzypinska|2006|p=1259}} A new discourse developed, in which (humanistic) psychology, mystical and esoteric traditions and eastern religions are being blended, to reach the [[True self and false self|true self]] by [[self-disclosure]], free expression, and meditation.{{sfn|Houtman|Aupers|2007}}

The distinction between the spiritual and the religious became more common in the popular mind during the late 20th century with the rise of [[secularism]] and the advent of the [[New Age]] movement.  Authors such as Chris Griscom and [[Shirley MacLaine]] explored it in numerous ways in their books. [[Paul Heelas]] noted the development within New Age circles of what he called "seminar spirituality":<ref>Paul Heelas, ''The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996, p. 60. Cited in [[Anthony Giddens]]: ''Sociology''. Cambridge: Polity, 2001, p. 554.</ref> structured offerings complementing [[consumerism|consumer]] choice with spiritual options.

Among other factors, declining membership of organized religions and the growth of secularism in the [[Western culture|western world]] have given rise to this broader view of spirituality.<ref>Michael Hogan (2010). ''The Culture of Our Thinking in Relation to Spirituality''. Nova Science Publishers: New York.</ref> The term "spiritual" is now frequently used in contexts in which the term "religious" was formerly employed.{{sfn|Gorsuch|Miller|1999}} Both theists and atheists have criticized this development.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hollywood|first1=Amy|title=Spiritual but Not Religious: The Vital Interplay between Submission and Freedom|journal=Harvard Divinity Bulletin|date=Winter–Spring 2010|volume=38|issue=1 and 2|url=https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/spiritual-but-not-religious/|access-date=17 March 2021|publisher=Harvard Divinity School|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416001604/https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/spiritual-but-not-religious/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=David |first=Rabbi |url=https://ideas.time.com/2013/03/21/viewpoint-the-problem-with-being-spiritual-but-not-religious/ |title=Viewpoint: The Limitations of Being 'Spiritual but Not Religious' |publisher=TIME Ideas |access-date=2014-01-04 |date=2013-03-21 |archive-date=2013-12-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210050546/http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/21/viewpoint-the-problem-with-being-spiritual-but-not-religious/ |url-status=live }}</ref>