Meanings of Christmas: Christmas Tells Us Why `Spirituality' Is Not Enough ; Religion Is out. Self-Fulfilment Is in. the Trouble with the Vogue for `Inner Development' Is That It Never Exposes Us to Any Reality beyond Ourselves

Williams, Rowan, The Independent (London, England)

THE ACCEPTED wisdom now is that we are mostly fed up with religion, but profoundly interested in spirituality. Only an embarrassed minority in Great Britain will admit to being religious; but being spiritual is fairly fashionable, as the bookshops will confirm in their curiously named "Mind, Body and Spirit" sections. Being spiritual is taking responsibility for your total health, learning how to use your deepest resources and to attune yourself to values beyond material success; while being religious is being bound to doctrinal formulae and - above all - patterns of external authority widely seen as abusive in various more or less dramatic ways.

This mantra, in one …

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Publication information: Article title: Meanings of Christmas: Christmas Tells Us Why `Spirituality' Is Not Enough ; Religion Is out. Self-Fulfilment Is in. the Trouble with the Vogue for `Inner Development' Is That It Never Exposes Us to Any Reality beyond Ourselves. Contributors: Williams, Rowan - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: December 24, 2001. Page number: 8. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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