Is spirituality the same as religion? Or the opposite? Does it involve God? Or crystals, yoga, and Eastern Religions? Spirituality can be all or none of these depending on the person, which can make it difficult to define.
In response, I dedicated my academic career to developing a research-based definition of spirituality. It focuses on the shared human experience of Connectedness–the feeling of connection to something greater.
I began this work at the University of British Columbia and continued to refine the definition at Harvard Divinity School.
The most current definition goes as follows:
“Spirituality is a feeling of connection to something greater, or simply, Connectedness, which is inherently desired and experienced by cultivating a relationship with oneself, one’s community, one’s environment, and one’s orientation with the transcendent” (Sarah E. K. Lentz, 2018).