Spirituality is, in a narrow sense, a concern with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, concerning as it does eternal verities regarding Man's ultimate nature, is often contrasted with the temporal or the worldly. The central defining characteristic of spirituality is a sense of connection to a much greater whole which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. As with some forms of religion, the emphasis of spirituality is often on personal experience. It may be an expression for life perceived as higher, more complex or more integrated with one's worldview, as contrasted with the merely sensual.

The spiritual and the religious

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An important distinction needs to be made between spirituality in religion and spirituality as opposed to religion.

In recent years, spirituality in religion often carries connotations of the believer's faith being more personal, less dogmatic, more open to new ideas and myriad influences, and more pluralistic than the faiths of established religions. It also can connote the nature of a believer's personal relationship or "connection" with their god or belief system, as opposed to the general relationship with the Deity understood to be shared by all members of that faith.

More on [ Spirituality ]

L.A. Times - Religious News

A story of shock, chaos and bravery unfolds in Ft. Hood shooting
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Eyewitnesses say the gunman sat and appeared to pray before calmly firing on his comrades. Officials say he got 100 rounds off before civilian officers brought him down in a firefight. In the end, the shooting rampage at Ft. Hood came down to a gunfight between two civilian base police officers toting standard sidearms and a 39-year-old psychiatrist armed with .357 Magnum and a pistol equipped with laser sighting and extra bullets, officials said.
American Muslims express fear, frustration after Ft. Hood shootings
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The news that the suspect is one of their own brings up familiar feelings. Besides fears of retribution, they're tired of sensing pressure to apologize for someone else's 'maniacal brutality.' The news made Nihad Awad sick to his stomach.
Messages from the past become easy to read
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
USC researchers are producing crisp images of inscriptions and artifacts from biblical Israel and other Near Eastern locales and putting the pictures online. Four thousand years ago, a government bureaucrat in Mesopotamia jotted down a tally of slave laborers on a clay tablet.

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

November 6, 2009: The Church and the Fall of the Wall
fred yi Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:12:13 -0000
"If any event ever merited the description of miracle," says the Rev. Christian Fuhrer, it was the 1989 revolution that reunited East and West Germany, "a revolution that grew out of the church."
November 6, 2009: The Rev. Christian Fuhrer Extended Interview
fred yi Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:10:47 -0000
Twenty years ago, a nonviolent movement emerged from the sanctuary of historic St. Nikolai Evangelical Lutheran Church in Leipzig. It was rooted, according to its pastor, in weekly prayers for peace and readings from the Sermon on the Mount that countered "the reality of political hopelessness."
November 6, 2009: Health Care and the Common Good
fred yi Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:08:54 -0000
Hastings Center bioethicist and philosopher Daniel Callahan says the common good as a moral value should be the foundation for American health care reform, but it has been largely absent from the current public debate.

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