( 1 ) The chant that fans of the British soccer team West Bromwich Albion use to show their support has a religious aspect: Since the 1970s, they have been singing Psalm 23, “The Lord's My Shepherd," as set to music by Jessie Seymour Irvine in 1871.
Free SpiritThe rise of God-neutral faith.
Free SpiritThe rise of God-neutral faith.
As with GSOH (“good sense of humor”), SBNR—or “spiritual but not religious”—began as a way of describing oneself on early internet dating platforms. And, just like a belief in one’s possession of a good sense of humor, SBNR is a pretty widespread phenomenon: Recent polls suggest that between a quarter and a third of Americans identify as “spiritual but not religious.”
In the US and Europe, there has been a general shift away from the assumption that formal religious practice is the only mode in which to express spirituality. While religiosity in a traditional sense is declining—with much made of the 2021 census in the UK showing that, for the first time, less than half the population identified as Christian—there has not been an equivalent increase in people believing that the material world is all that there is. Despite predictions to the contrary, this crisis of faith has not handed a victory to materialistic atheism.
It appears, then, that it is not our instinct for spirituality that has changed, just its expression. While church attendance is significantly lower than it used to be, it is notable that belief in the existence of God and the power of prayer has not fallen by anywhere near as much. A self-described spiritual person today is more likely to find their connection to the sacred in nature rather than in formal religious services.
The communal aspects of religious observance have proven difficult to replace. There is no weekly meeting place for the spiritual but not religious, no liturgy they can chant, no community of like-minded people with a shared focus of devotion. Unless, that is, they’re sports fans, in which case all these things are readily available, with chants replacing plainsong, and the stadium standing in for a cathedral.1 A comparison can also be made between religious faith and a call to climate action: Both are undergirded by the claim of an existential truth that demands a particular response. For the Abrahamic religions, the claim is that God exists, and so we should worship Him; for climate campaigners, the world is imperiled, and so we must take action to save it.
