{"id":58,"date":"2012-06-07T07:10:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T07:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard\/"},"modified":"2012-06-07T07:10:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T07:10:00","slug":"when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html","title":{"rendered":"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That is the best first line of a book I\u2019ve heard in years \u2013 especially a book on religion or theology: \u201cWhen someone tells me that they are \u2018Not religious, but very spiritual,\u2019 I want to punch them in the face\u2026 hard.\u201d\n

It\u2019s the opening line from the new book,\u00a0Dispirited: How Contemporary Spirituality Makes Us Stupid, Selfish, and Unhappy<\/i><\/a>, by author and teacher David Webster. The title caught my eye, as did this quick interview with the author at Religion Dispatches<\/a>.\u00a0A part of the\u00a0faculty at the University of Gloucestershire<\/a>\u00a0where he teaches religion, philosophy, and ethics, Webster eventually argues for an atheistic existentialism (according to his promotional material), which is a theological non-starter for me. Nevertheless his critique is an important one.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written elsewhere<\/a> that throwing out religion because a few bad people have abused it, is like banning baseball because of steroid abuse. It\u2019s a great sound byte, but a terrible strategy for the reasons Webster suggests: an a-religious Christianity is an invitation to a dumbed-down Christian faith, self-absorbed navel-gazing, and ultimately a failed attempt to embody the good news of the Christian Gospel. I think we need more religion, not less, but it needs to be good<\/i> religion. By good religion I\u2019m really talking about healthy churches that are focused on faithfulness to the way and worship of Jesus. Good religion can do the opposite of what Webster\u2019s book title suggests: it can make us smart, unselfish, and quite happy. I see it every day.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say that I recommend everyone read the book \u2013 I think existentialism is a dead end. However, I think the critique he makes of the \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d phenomenon is spot on. Here\u2019s a segment from the article.<\/p>\n

That the idea of being \u201cspiritual, but not religious\u201d is, at the very least, problematic. As I suggest in the book, mind-body-spirit spirituality is in danger of making us stupid, selfish, and unhappy.
<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stupid<\/b><\/em>\u2014because its open-ended, inclusive and non-judgemental attitude to truth-claims actually becomes an obstacle to the combative, argumentative process whereby we discern sense from nonsense. To treat all claims as equivalent, as valid perspectives on an unsayable ultimate reality, is not to really take any of them seriously. It promotes a shallow, surface approach, whereby the work of discrimination, of testing claims against each other, and our experience in the light of method, is cast aside in favour of a lazy, bargain-basement-postmodernist relativism.
<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Selfish<\/b><\/em>\u2014because the \u2018inner-turn\u2019 drives us away from concerns with the material; so much so that being preoccupied with worldly matters is somehow portrayed as tawdry or shallow. It\u2019s no accident that we see the wealthy and celebrities drawn to this very capitalist form of religion: most of the world realizes that material concerns do matter. I don\u2019t believe that we find ourselves and meaning via an inner journey. I\u2019m not even sure I know what it means. While of course there is course for introspection and self-examination, this, I argue, has to be in a context of concrete social realities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Unhappy<\/b><\/i>] Finally, I argue that the dissembling regarding death in most contemporary spirituality\u2014the refusal to face it as the total absolute annihilation of the person and all about them\u2014leaves it ill-equipped to help us truly engage with the existential reality of our own mortality and finitude. In much contemporary spirituality there is an insistence of survival (and a matching vagueness about its form) whenever death is discussed. I argue that any denial of death (and I look at the\u00a0longevity movements<\/a>\u00a0briefly too) is an obstacle to a full, rich life, with emotional integrity. Death is the thing to be faced if we are to really live. Spirituality seems to me to be a consolation that refuses this challenge, rather seeking to hide in the only-half-believed reassurances of \u2018spirit\u2019, \u2018energy\u2019, previous lives, and \u2018soul\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That is the best first line of a book I\u2019ve heard in years \u2013 especially a book on religion or theology: \u201cWhen someone tells me that they are \u2018Not religious, but very spiritual,\u2019 I want to punch them in the face\u2026 hard.\u201d It\u2019s the opening line from the new book,\u00a0Dispirited: How Contemporary Spirituality Makes Us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That is the best first line of a book I've heard in years - especially a book on religion or theology: "When someone tells me that they are 'Not\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That is the best first line of a book I've heard in years - especially a book on religion or theology: "When someone tells me that they are 'Not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-07T07:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.religiondispatches.org\/images\/managed\/dispirited_302.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html\",\"name\":\"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-07T07:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-07T07:10:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"That is the best first line of a book I've heard in years - especially a book on religion or theology: \\\"When someone tells me that they are 'Not\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/\",\"name\":\"Paperback Theology\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\",\"name\":\"Tim Suttle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Suttle\"},\"description\":\"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \\\"Straight Back to Kansas.\\\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026","description":"That is the best first line of a book I've heard in years - especially a book on religion or theology: \"When someone tells me that they are 'Not","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026","og_description":"That is the best first line of a book I've heard in years - especially a book on religion or theology: \"When someone tells me that they are 'Not","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html","og_site_name":"Paperback Theology","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","article_published_time":"2012-06-07T07:10:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.religiondispatches.org\/images\/managed\/dispirited_302.jpg"}],"author":"Tim Suttle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Tim_Suttle","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Suttle","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html","name":"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-06-07T07:10:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-06-07T07:10:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6"},"description":"That is the best first line of a book I've heard in years - especially a book on religion or theology: \"When someone tells me that they are 'Not","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/06\/when-someone-tells-me-that-they-are-not-religious-but-very-spiritual-i-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face-hard.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When someone tells me that they are \u201cNot religious, but very spiritual,\u201d I want to punch them in the face. Hard\u2026"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/","name":"Paperback Theology","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6","name":"Tim Suttle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Suttle"},"description":"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \"Straight Back to Kansas.\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}