It has been common in the past several decades to hear people declare they are spiritual but not religious. (I have said that myself on occasion!) It is helpful to understand the difference between these two concepts if you are contemplating working with a spiritual director in 2026 so that you can think about what you will want to focus on in that process.
Religion is the organized and structured system of beliefs and practices that make up the substance of a communal practice shared by many people. In this form, practitioners are led by trained leaders, priests or clergy who offer a pathway to the sacred using designated scriptures such as the Christian Bible, the Islam Quran, the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, the Buddhist Lotus Sutra, the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib, or the Taoist Tao Te Ching.
Religious practice and spirituality seek the same thing: a closer relationship with the divine. The fundamental difference is that religious practice is external, communal and structured, while spirituality is an internal and individual search for meaning and connection, not just with the divine, but to others in this shared experience of life on earth.
I believe it was spiritual writer Ronald Rolheiser who wrote about how every encounter with another human being is a divine encounter. In spiritual direction participants often explore this idea of how our partners, children, neighbors, friends and coworkers – literally everyone we travel with on this journey – can all be our teachers. These divine encounters are also funneled through our own individual perspective and become meaningful to us in the way in which we interpret or internalize them.
And finally, it goes without saying that you can be both spiritual and religious. In spiritual direction, our religious experiences can also be great fodder for discussion, as we explore what is meaningful in the context of our upbringing or practice and what we may find inspiring and helpful or difficult and troubling. Always, this exploration takes place through our own individual and internal experience: not what is right or wrong, but what resonates with us most deeply and helps us to open our minds and hearts more readily to the leading and support of the divine. ~ Syndie Eardly
