Separating Spirituality From Religiosity: A Hylomorphic Attitudinal Perspective

It is truly a logical question to ask what spirituality is. We sustain this position as we review important corollaries from dualistic and hylomorphic views of human nature. We argue that in 2 I st century America we ought to be able to think of spirituality separately from religiosity and propose conceptual clarity is necessary to study spirituality. We uphold every person is a substance of two coherent principles, a body and a soul; the nature of which is spirituality. Spirituality's functions are intellect and volition and their proper ends are truth and goodness. We call on ethicists, theoreticians, researchers, and practitioners in health care disciplines to focus on the interaction between these aspects of spirituality. We define spirituality as an attitude toward life, making sense of life, relating to others, and seeking unity with the transcendent. We challenge the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) codification of spirituality and ask that it be reviewed or removed because spirituality is not equivocal to religiosity, germane to loss of faith, or a factor of cultural diversity. We insist that human individuals are born spiritual, not religious, and present distinctions between these notions at every juncture. We conclude that spirituality must be separated from religiosity if effective epistemic endeavors are to be achieved on either construct. We reject current conflations of "religious-spirituality."