SPIRITUALITY AS A FORM OF RELIGIOUS MORALITY

Abstract

Religiousness of people who perceive themselves as believers, but who do not participate or rarely participate in religious practice, takes a form of spirituality when in their own perception they do no harm to others, which in turn is interpreted as abiding by the rules of Christian morality. Striving for perfection is both a religious attitude and spirituality in one due to both internal consciousness of one’s imperfection, as well as external consciousness of the imperfection of other people (49% believe that there are good and bad people depending on the circumstances).

Moreover, these people treat religiousness and morality as private matters which cannot be governed by any institutions, including the Catholic Church. Extending the perception of God to a concept of impersonal “higher power” leads to a situation where the belief in destiny understood in an esoteric way is present even in declarations of deeply devout people who participate in religious practice systematically. As a result of that the concept of sacrum is also extended and includes any forms of life and existence in the universe, interpreted in a religious sense (pantheism and panentheism), as well as the rule of common good (supermorality) which is entailed in the conviction that one cannot break this order, so do evil. Moreover, the anthropomorphisation in the world of nature results in moral values taking the form of pan-morality and being transferred to the whole world of nature. They cover not only people, but also the nature itself.