Dr. Michael Barber explains why “spiritual, but not religious” is a mistaken mindset in light of man’s social aspect and his dual nature of body and soul.
Transcript:
Host: Enrique in Texas, watching us on YouTube live, you are on with Michael Barber. Enrique, what’s your question?
Caller: Hello, I wanted to say first that I love your show, I listen to it like every day, and I wanted to ask about my friends. Well, my friends always say that they’re not spiritual but they–like they’re not religious, but they’re spiritual. And I often find myself not knowing what to say to that, and I was wondering if you had an answer to that.
Dr. Barber: They say that they are spiritual, right? And I would say, as Catholics we’re spiritual too, right? Catholic spirituality is crucial. I’d be more interested in why they want to oppose the notion of Christ or the Church or, you know, organized body of religion, because as humans, we’re not just spirit, we also have a body. And so if you’re going to have a faith, it can’t be something that is disembodied. It can’t be something that’s merely abstract. And it also can’t be something that’s merely individualistic, because as human beings, as Aristotle would say, we’re social animals, and so to imagine that you can somehow have spiritual beliefs, and not in any way relate to a larger community, a larger tradition, I would say that’s a kind of inhuman understanding. That would be problematic. Anyway, that’s my perspective.
Host: Enrique, does that help you?
Caller: Yeah, thank you.
Host: Oh very good. Great. Well, thanks for the call today.