In today’s episode, two professors with different approaches to faith discuss the question: Can I be spiritual but not religious?
You’ll hear from Tim Muehlhoff, a professor of communications at Biola University, and Elizabeth Barrett, a lecturer in psychology at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). They discuss their spiritual and religious worldviews, how they define spirituality, and whether picking and choosing what we believe is liberating or harmful. Their conversation is moderated by Stephen Lloyd-Moffet, a professor of religious studies at Cal Poly.
This forum was held at Cal Poly in May 2024. Thank you to the forums team for making this event possible.
I'm a little fearful if we say spirituality is mixing and matching from certain religions, but there's no overall structure. ... I'm a little concerned that people have a propensity to say, "I like this, but I'm going to skip the really hard parts."
Why is it that Christianity meets both the head and the heart? I'm a little bit concerned when we talk about spirituality and use language like, "Well, this speaks to me." ... If there is a God, I want to know who that God is. And if there's a God, then my perception doesn't alter that. My preferences don't impact if there is a God.
I want to feel like I'm a part of something bigger than myself.
I don't trust myself to to always know what's best for me.
Fundamentally, [Christianity] is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But that has to be mediated. And I find a church to be helpful because I don't know if I trust myself.
In Christianity, I don't completely trust my desires because I have both good desires, and I also have desires that aren't good. I can't think of one discipline — my PhD, doing a black belt in kung fu — where I didn't have to do the really hard things. But a community encouraged me to do it, to get to the place that I really wanted to get to.
