Truth and Spirituality

“ But I thought you agreed that Spirit was the good – the end of the whole process? I thought you religious people were all for spirituality?…didn’t we agree that God is a spirit? Don’t you worship him because he is pure spirit?” –  “Good heavens no! We worship him because he is wise and good. There’s nothing specially fine about being a spirit. The devil is a spirit”  

(Exchange between the devil-possessed Weston and Ransom, from the novel Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis) 

It’s 2021 and the New Atheist wild party that began in the 90s, through to the 2000s, has come to an end. Dawkins and co. have failed to convince with their insistence that science and rationality are all we really need to build an individual or collective life. In the aftermath, as before the movement began, many folk are interested in and open to something called spirituality. 

Pressing individual people I know for definitions has not been a great help in finding out precisely what’s meant by spirituality,  but – fair enough – perhaps not everything in this world can be neatly defined and categorised. It seems to be a recognition, or a hope, that this life of three score years and ten – plus a few more these days because of improved living conditions and advances in medicine – is not the end and that the thought of an individual consciousness dissolving into eternal non-being, seems unsatisfactory, to say the least. 

Perhaps also it’s the sense that this life we’re living now contains some kind of mystery, some kind of extra dimension, that science or psychology can’t adequately explain. We sometimes catch tantalising hints and suggestions of this when listening to music, reading poetry, admiring great works of art and so on. Maybe also the mystery of self-consciousness, or self-awareness, the ability to observe ourselves and our thoughts, to see a future self that could be better than the one we are now, is also a hint that we are more than a few bits and pieces of chemicals guided by blind chance and DNA alone. 

In my work as an independent funeral celebrant, I visit about 200 families every year, to discuss funeral arrangements and hear about the life and times of the deceased family member or friend. I conduct these services for people who have deliberately chosen not to have a church or clergy led service. It’s been surprising to discover that not many of these people have been committed to an atheistic or humanistic worldview. Very few have subscribed to the “after death is nothing at all” view and many of them have held a very firm belief in some kind of an after-life and the hope of friends and families being reunited. As far as it goes, I find this encouraging and positive, as an affirmation of a spiritual dimension means that we are also affirming ourselves to be spiritual beings, which, in turn, points us to the possibility of some kind of unseen spiritual force outside of ourselves. But how far does a belief in something called spirituality take us? 

This is where Christianity and the purpose and life of Jesus Christ begins to diverge from a more general search for spirituality. Christianity is not primarily the search for spiritual or mystical experiences, but a search for truth – truth about the reality of the human condition without God and the wonderful possibility of a life that is re-ordered, re-oriented and given purpose and meaning by an encounter with the man who is also God, Jesus Christ, The Way, The Truth and The Life. 

Of course, the mystical experience – a sense of the presence of God, of some kind of communication and interaction with him, is a hugely significant part of the Christian experience, but at its beginning, the Christian life is about admitting the truth about ourselves and our spiritual bankruptcy, despite the positive things we might be doing with our lives. It’s about realising that a life that excludes God is massively missing the point – that we were made to live in day by day relationship with God and to realise and embrace our dependence on him for everything. To receive from him all the resources we need to live the life that he calls us to live.  

At this point and in an outrageous and mischievous manner, I’m going to deliberately misquote and thus completely wreck a few passages from the bible. In all of the following quotes, I’ve removed the word truth and replaced it with spirituality: 

…and you will know spirituality, and spirituality will set you free.” (John 8, 32)

Behold, You desire spirituality in the innermost being, (Psalm 51,6)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, spirituality, and the life; (John 14, 6)

Do not let kindness and spirituality leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart. (Proverbs 3,3,)

Enough bible vandalism! If you would like to, re-read those passages, but use the correct word truth instead of spirituality. 

What are my pieces of advice or recommendations worth, above anyone else’s? I’m not a teacher, pastor, guru or anything of the kind – but if anyone were to ask me about this, my advice would be don’t be searching for spirituality, search for truth instead… and in the search for truth – who knows? – maybe you’ll find that you get a satisfying experience of spirituality thrown in… 

Pontius Pilate, the roman governor of Judea, who presided over the trial of Jesus and eventually – albeit reluctantly – handed him over for crucifixion, famously asked Jesus What is truth? I admire him for that question but how ironic that the man he had standing in front of him was Jesus Christ, The Way, the Truth and the Life…. 

Truth and spirituality are not opposed to one another, the one doesn’t exclude the other, but in the first instance, the search for spirituality needs to be focused on truth. We need a proper understanding of the problem associated with the human condition, rather as a physician is looking for an accurate diagnosis. Most religions probably consist of two things, broadly speaking, a sense that all is not well with us human beings, there is some kind of an underlying problem that needs addressing. They then, in their various ways, and depending on what they see as the diagnosis, suggest the cure for it. 

I contend that Christianity offers the most serious and devastating assessment of the problem but also the most wonderful and liberating cure, offering at it’s beginning a new birth, leading to a new life, in which that self knowledge of our own darkness of heart is not something that oppresses but leads into forgiveness, light, truth and beauty, despite the continued difficulties with this life. 

So don’t search for spirituality – at least not for the time being – search for truth instead. Search for ultimate truth in the person of Jesus Christ. Read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Pray, in a spirit of humility, of acknowledging that out of all that there is to know, you (and I) know only the tiniest of slivers, and ask God – whatever you have thus far perceived him to be – to give you the same experience those two disciples had, in the book of Luke, chapter 24 and verse 32. (you’ll come across the story as you make your way through) They had an encounter with Jesus, and even though they had initially failed to recognise him, they said to one another afterwards:

Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

In this amazing but understated episode, truth and spirituality merge and become essentially one experience, as Jesus Christ, who is The Truth walks with them, explains the plans and purposes of God to them, fitting all the pieces together. Imagine that – the man who is God, and truth himself, also speaking out words of truth and this, in turn, leading to the most satisfying experience of spirituality you could ever wish for, hearts burning with love and appreciation of the truth, and knowing that they have not just heard the words, but been together with him, walking and talking together with him on the way.