Spirituality: a notion in three parts

This train of thought on spirituality was prompted by an interesting study about spirituality and religion in America. The social scientists’ tools gave me a better idea of what Americans believe — and about the wide variety of beliefs that Americans count as “spiritual” or “religious.”

But no research can clarify what we’re talking about when we speak of “spirituality” and “religion.” That’s a logical or conceptual problem, not an empirical one.

It seems to me the idea of “spirituality” has three key features. A person who accepts the term accepts three notions:

(1) that a person can be influenced by forces,

(2) that it makes sense to speak of external and internal forces,

(3) that the internal forces are decisive.

If you accept all three, you're a spiritual person. I think that’s right. Perhaps friends will disagree.