138 Wade Clark Roof
In the way I use the word in this chapter, “religion” refers to scripture, ritual, myths,
beliefs, practices, moral codes, communities, social institutions, and so forth – that is,
the outward and objectified elements of a tradition. The adjective “religious” implies
some degree of grounding on the part of an individual or community within such a
symbolic universe. Spirituality is more elusive and varying in its meaning, both histor-
ically and currently. In Christian usage the term derives from the Latinspiritus, breath,
fromspirare, to blow or breathe. By the twelfth century, Christian spirituality came to
refer more to the subjective life of faith as opposed to a more visible corporeality or
materiality (see Wulff 1997). Still more recently, the term has been broadened beyond
its traditional usage involving faith grounded in a tradition and affirmation of a tran-
scendent Deity to refer to the presence of the human spirit or soul, and the human
quest for meaning and experiential wholeness. Hence, the word “spiritual” when used
today may refer to the inner life that is bound up with, and embedded within, religious
forms, or much more loosely in keeping with humanistic psychology as a search on
the part of an individual for reaching, through some regimen of self-transformation,
one’s greatest potential. Anthropologically, it is assumed by many scholars that the
spiritual quest is rooted in the biological, psychological, and linguistic conditions of
human life and culture without which religion itself would be inconceivable (Torrance
1994). Given the history of the term and its current usage, we must proceed cautiously
recognizing its many nuances. At the same time, we should strive for as much clarity
and order as possible to assist sociologists in carrying out a more systematic analysis
of religion and spirituality, and in particular, the intimate relations between these two
realities.
I
InAfter Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 1950s, Robert Wuthnow argues that re-
ligion over the past half-century has undergone a major transition. He writes that “a
traditional spirituality of inhabiting sacred places has given way to a new spirituality of
seeking” and that “people have been losing faith in a metaphysic that can make them
feel at home in the universe and that they increasingly negotiate among competing
glimpses of the sacred, seeking partial knowledge and practical wisdom” (1998: 3). He
juxtaposes “dwelling” and “seeking” to emphasize the dramatic character of this tran-
sition. To dwell is to inhabit a sacred space, to feel at home and secure in its symbolic
universe. In dwelling, one finds order and meaning in established rituals and every-
day practices. To seek is to explore new spiritual vistas, to search for the sacred or for
epiphanies that point us in its direction. By its very character, the seeking mode involves
openness to a multiplicity of possibilities. Whereas the former is a model of habitation,
of groundedness and clear boundaries locating the sacred, the latter implies process,
movement, and expansiveness in a world that is anything but fixed. In one, spirituality
is cultivated through customary teachings and practices that anchor and sustain one
within an intact life-world; in the other, the search for new teachings and practices,
including often eclectic combinations, promises to uncover fresh meaning and new
moorings. The first conveys an image of settled life, the second that of a journey.
Wuthnow emphasizes that we should think of the two types of spirituality not in
opposition to one another but in a dialectical relationship. Fixed worlds can become
stifling, and thus generate a search for greater openness and freedom; and journeys