Ecological spirituality – its value and limitations

Abstract

In the article I first explain the mutual relationships between concepts such as spirituality, religiosity, ecological spirituality, and new spirituality. I propose to exclude elementary ethics from the concept of spirituality and to include aspirational ethics. Next, sociological data is provided to show that in the last few decades a growing number of persons describe themselves as non-religious but spiritual. This data shows that at least within Western culture there is a growing trend in the direction of privatized forms of faith. Recent popes have described the spiritual state of the West in generally pessimistic terms, but a more optimistic evaluation also seems justified. Finally, I maintain that both new forms of spirituality and the spirituality of traditional religions have good prospects in the measure that they face the challenges of globalization and postmodernity, which is an “era of interpretation”.