Spirituality once meant the clergy's turf; now it often means leaving church behind
Early Christians used the word for a life steered by the Holy Spirit. By the 13th century it could mean the property and power of priests. Today it usually describes a private search for meaning, frequently outside any religious institution, and researchers still cannot agree on a definition.
The root is the Latin spiritus, which could mean breath, soul, ghost, courage or vigour and is related to the verb for breathing. The Vulgate used it to render the Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruach. Spiritual reached English via 12th-century Old French, and spirituality came through Middle French from Late Latin spiritualitas.
Kees Waaijman describes the traditional sense as a re-forming of the person toward an original shape, the image of God, guided by a model: the Torah for Jews, Christ for Christians, the Buddha for Buddhists, the Prophet for Muslims. Ancient Rome framed it largely as keeping the pax deorum, the peace of the gods, through communal rites, though myths and Pythagorean writings such as the Golden Verses also encouraged self-examination. Bergomi even finds a non-religious, enlightened strand of spirituality in late antiquity.
The word's meaning kept shifting. Terms translatable as spirituality appear from the 5th century but only became common late in the Middle Ages. In the 11th century it came to mean the mental side of life against the material. Two hundred years later it took on a social meaning, the domain of clergy versus secular power, and a psychological one covering motives and inner feelings. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was linked with mysticism and quietism and picked up a negative tinge, alongside a split between higher and lower forms.
The 19th and 20th centuries blended Christian ideas with Western esotericism and Asian, especially Indian, religions, loosening the tie to institutions. Houtman and Aupers see modern spirituality as a mix of humanistic psychology, mysticism and Eastern traditions, sometimes allied with feminist theology or green politics. That breadth creates problems for study: a review by McCarroll found twenty-seven explicit definitions with little agreement among them.
Source: Spirituality
