Principle Ten: People become what they believe

It’s a strange situation. On the one hand, for instance, spirituality is recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as a basic human right. Yet, on the other, any overarching description of exactly what it consists of – especially one that would make sense at a popular level – remains hard to agree upon. So while there’s growing recognition and understanding that spiritual health is a vital ingredient of overall human wellbeing, at the same time there’s little consensus at either a popular or academic level around exactly what spirituality is.

For many years social scientists – psychologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, neurologists and criminologists – have been writing and talking about a range of important human themes such as shame, guilt, repentance, justice, stigma, punishment, retribution, desire, dignity, hope, mercy, reconciliation, atonement, forgiveness, love and restoration. Here though is the extraordinary thing. All these categories are exactly the same as those used by theologians and others who write about spirituality.

It’s extremely strange, therefore, that it’s taken us this long to begin to recognise the depth of this crossover. Perhaps this is because most of us are justifiably scared stiff by the abuses and excesses of religious fundamentalists who’ve hijacked so much of this language to push their agendas of exclusion; or to focus on theories about life beyond death, rather than working to find meaning, purpose and wellbeing in the here and now. Or maybe it’s because theologians speak a language that makes little practical sense to most of us, even those of us who choose a religious faith, and therefore we opt not to go anywhere near these issues for fear of revealing our lack of understanding.

Whatever its causes, the neglect of this vital public conversation around the importance of spirituality has cost society dearly. More than that, it’s a price that will only continue to rise until we find the courage to explore and articulate together a spirituality around issues such as education, youth work, social care, housing, the justice system, policing, poverty, and disenfranchisement.

We know that the old ‘pull yourself up by your own bootstraps’ approach to personal change rarely works. Many people in our society just don’t have any boots, let alone the straps to go with them! Real empowerment comes from a sense of awareness about who you are, why you’re here, and what your choices are. In the words of American psychologist, William James, ‘You’re not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.’

It is time that the old suspicion of faith and spirituality gave way to a more thoughtful recognition of, and proactive engagement with, its transformative power; whether that is via the pathway of traditional religion, in all its diversity, or a spiritual encounter outside of that context all together. But its hallmark is always an immediate and, more often than not, a lifelong impact on a person’s entire being.

Put differently, external transformation is never enough. The impact of poverty, disadvantage, and exclusion, cannot be addressed in any deep and sustainable manner unless we recognise that a sense of inner hope is an essential part of the response. Our challenge is to promote a culture that not only creates the opportunities, time, and space to explore this but, as part of that, to embrace a new openness to the transcendent and spiritual in their various forms, as a key part of that journey.

I recently had a conversation with a senior executive whose ethically-based multinational company has provided stable and sustainable employment on a mass scale in a number of UK towns over the last decades. She explained that it was common knowledge that although their commitment has significantly raised the level of the average household income and living conditions, as well as dramatically improved the local economies, funded schools and other social infrastructure over those same decades; the level of anti-social behaviour, drug and alcohol abuse, and crime has also steadily risen. Her conclusion: ‘prosperity does not create hope’.

Likewise, I have a friend who has served for years now as the senior director of adult social services for a large local authority. A few months ago, he explained to me that it had suddenly dawned on him that he’d never witnessed a single case of true personal transformation as an outcome of the work of statutory agencies. ‘We just don’t do that kind of work,’ he said. ‘Our work focuses on support rather than transformation, and the thing that worries me, if I’m honest, is whether we are inadvertently spreading generational dependency rather than empowerment for anyone.’

All this represents a giant weakness in all our policy making. It is time, therefore, that we had the courage to create the space for a national conversation about the relationship of spirituality to psychological and social change, because to deny its legitimacy and exclude it from public discourse is an act of self-deception.

It takes years to evaluate formally the outcomes of investment in the time, space, relationships and people to resource and facilitate the quest for spirituality. This, of course, is another of the reasons why it is so often overlooked. But at the same time, we all know that it is the people who have had the opportunity to answer those two big questions (Who are you? Why are you here?) who so often go on to become the best versions of themselves. People become what they believe!