Just Finished Reading: Dispirited – How Contemporary Spirituality makes us Stupid, Selfish and Unhappy by David Webster (FP: 2011)

Yet another interesting and thought provoking book from Zero Publishing. The added attraction of this one was that I had no problem at all (this time) understanding exactly what the author was trying to get across! He certainly didn’t pull any punches – literally. He started his argument with a very (and I do mean very) strong initial statement – that when he hears people describe themselves as ‘not religious, but very spiritual’ he wants to punch them in the face – hard! You certainly can’t accuse him of being half-hearted! Now, I’ve heard similar statements myself though without anything like the kind of anger (and despair) felt by the author. Me, I was just confused though maybe not as confused as the person making the (on one level at least) understandable statement.

Rather inevitably the author starts with definitions – of spirit and spirituality – showing that some users of so-called modern spirituality clearly don’t know what they mean when they separate it so emphatically from religion. Of course they probably think they’re doing so for the best of reasons – to show that they’re not kooky or fundamental yet still believe in ‘something’ without being too specific (possibly so not to give ‘offence’). Also inevitably a great deal of the blame for the present state of affairs rests at the door of post-modernism where Truth is always relative and where there are many equally valid spiritual paths to be navigated along. Of course where nothing is right (or wrong) a pick-and-mix mentality is the result where the whole gamut of religious experience is available for plunder. Mixing Angels, Buddhism and Table-tapping? Why not – so long as it ‘works’ for the practitioners. Yet this approach means that any aspect of the belief that is, or becomes, in any way uncomfortable can happily be ditched. But uncomfortable or difficult aspects of beliefs are, the author maintains, integral to being a member of a religious group – most of the belief system can often be accommodated with relative ease but some parts are more difficult to come to terms with, they’re uncomfortable, they force you to do things, or think things or ponder things that you’d just rather not. They stretch you in ways that you’d just not rather be stretched. But that’s all part of the package deal. You can’t ditch original sin without ditching the whole thing.

But with the atomisation of belief you won’t have other members of your congregation criticising you for falling by the wayside (or helping keep you on the straight and narrow) because you’re a congregation of one or maybe of a few like-minded souls. Any disagreement breaks any kind of ad hoc group into smaller and smaller pieces. Nothing is debated for long because debate leads to disagreement and division. You don’t need to understand things you just need to believe in them. After all knowledge can lead to doubt which is pretty uncomfortable. Yet if our knowledge of our own beliefs is superficial at best how can they comfort us in times of need? In a nutshell the author is saying that if allow a pick-and-mix mentality to predominate in spiritual matters then those in actual search of something transcendent will singularly fail to achieve their admittedly muddled objective. Religion, even as an atheist arguing the point, is and should be difficult. Holding difficult beliefs makes us (potentially at least) work at understanding exactly what it is we believe, thus forcing us to exercise the old grey matter, becoming more sociable as we share our beliefs and doubts with like-minded believers and happier (again potentially) as we embed ourselves into a community dedicated to the support of its members. Modern so-called spirituality provides none of this. For those who cannot handle ‘regular’ religion for a plethora of reasons the fall-back of being ‘spiritual’ is no fall-back at all but a cop out, a lazy, unthinking and often pre-packaged response to the perceived need for something ‘more’ than mere materialism. It is, as the author maintains, a dead end. Recommended.