Christian Comment with Laura Huxford, First Church of Christ

I’VE recently been pondering the word ‘spirituality’ — a word in common usage nowadays, often indicating an enhanced sense of well-being.

Dictionary definitions contrast ‘spirituality’ with ‘materiality’ and most refer to God, though some definitions indicate that ‘spirituality’ may not necessarily have any connection with religion.

But can ‘spirituality’ as an idea be divorced from Spirit, which the Bible tell us is both a name for God and one that describes His/Her nature?

‘Spirituality’ as a term doesn’t actually occur in the Bible and, surprisingly, there are not many occurrences of ‘spiritual’ or ‘spiritually’ either.

The word ‘Spirit,’ on the other hand, abounds in the Bible.

The apostle John relates Jesus as saying, ‘God is Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:24).

Christ Jesus also said, ‘that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit’ (John 3:6), as if to show how different are the things of materiality from those of spirituality.

Paul echoes this in his letter to the Romans and adds: ‘For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace’ (Romans 8:6).

Here Paul brings out the importance of our state of mind — what is in our thinking.

Both materiality and spirituality are first and foremost states of thought, or ways of thinking and seeing our world and everything in it.

Material thinking, which may be derived from a belief that we are solely responsible for our own existence and in competition with each other for life’s necessities, may include a great deal of fear for oneself and one’s family.

Spiritual thinking, which turns to God, Spirit, as our sole consistent provider, leads thought to a different place, where attitudes of trust, joy, gratitude, kindness, respect, affection, honesty, and humanity find a natural home, and result in more loving behaviour toward ourselves and others.

As the founder of my church, the Christian religious leader Mary Baker Eddy, wrote in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, ‘Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love [God] propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth.’