This is the third installment of a three-part series on spirituality.
Spirituality In The Organization, Community and Church
BY Michael J. Murschel For The Courier News
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the cry went out across the nation for an increased sense of spirituality on a host of levels, including the workplace.
This call to return to a more meaningful relationship with one's vocation has continued since then, fueled in part by the views of a Web article at www.workplacespirituality.info:
"Today's employees are undergoing some unparalleled changes, such as outsourcing and restructuring. These work and cultural pressures have sparked a demand for a more meaningful work existence. This revelation may cause managers to take notice as workers start leaving in hoping of something more."
For the most part, we live in a post-literate and post-religious society. Post-literate because we look for information beyond traditional publications, relying on the Internet, podcasts and electronic media. We are post-religious because, for many, the experience of the divine or something greater than self can be found on an individual basis.
Hence, the rise in attention to spirituality.
But cultural paradigm shifts are rife in this new landscape. Not that many decades ago people were part of the fabric of organized religious bodies. In these communities, even those whose individual beliefs may have been freely expressed could share their experience, find a sounding board, and affirm their beliefs accordingly.
However, this new landscape puts responsibility on the individuals who increasingly live, work and play outside a community that validates their spirituality. That often leads to a smorgasbord of beliefs, an uncertainty of purpose or a feeling of disconnection from the world.
It used to be that pastors would admonish church members not to leave their faith at the church door when they left services, but to carry it out into the weekday world. The feeling that comes through a post-Sept. 11 world seems to be that an increasing number of corporations and organizations are providing that notion of spirituality for their associates.
Such groups always have had their own cultures based on service, profitability, market share, etc. The dilemma came from how one could hold on to faith in an environment that demanded adherence to a distinctly opposing body of practices.
It is no marketing shot gone wide that Amazon.com, as of this writing, listed 712 entries under the search string of spirituality and the workplace.
This was clarified by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, in a lecture given at Westminster Cathedral, London, on April 17. Titled The Spiritual and the Religious: Is the Territory Changing?, he cites a 2004 Bloomsbury imprint by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital: Wealth We Can Live By:
"And here is the salient point in response to what can be claimed for post-religious spirituality. The spiritual intelligence outlined by Zohar and Marshall perceives the interconnectedness of things and the consequent imperative of acting responsibly, acknowledging that level of interconnectedness. But it also begins with the assumption that human beings have ... already decided on the range of activities they will undertake, so that the only question is how to perform them more responsibly. Acquiring spiritual capital, as Zohar and Marshall clearly admit, is an aspect of acquiring sustainable wealth for the greatest possible number; hence the illustrative stories of how spiritually alert people in global organizations can improve the performance of the organization, qualitatively and even quantitatively."
So perhaps the larger question is whether spirituality on an organizational level comes full circle to our definition of religion. A worshipping group easily can be called religious. But what about a corporation that insists its employees follow set guidelines of world view and interaction?
Spirituality continues to be as elusive as quicksilver and no philosopher's stone will transmute it into a universally recognized thing of value. The responsibility for tempering this soft metal tool into something worthy of being wielded across one's life still remains in the hands, minds and souls of each of us.
This call to return to a more meaningful relationship with one's vocation has continued since then, fueled in part by the views of a Web article at www.workplacespirituality.info:
"Today's employees are undergoing some unparalleled changes, such as outsourcing and restructuring. These work and cultural pressures have sparked a demand for a more meaningful work existence. This revelation may cause managers to take notice as workers start leaving in hoping of something more."
For the most part, we live in a post-literate and post-religious society. Post-literate because we look for information beyond traditional publications, relying on the Internet, podcasts and electronic media. We are post-religious because, for many, the experience of the divine or something greater than self can be found on an individual basis.
Hence, the rise in attention to spirituality.
But cultural paradigm shifts are rife in this new landscape. Not that many decades ago people were part of the fabric of organized religious bodies. In these communities, even those whose individual beliefs may have been freely expressed could share their experience, find a sounding board, and affirm their beliefs accordingly.
However, this new landscape puts responsibility on the individuals who increasingly live, work and play outside a community that validates their spirituality. That often leads to a smorgasbord of beliefs, an uncertainty of purpose or a feeling of disconnection from the world.
It used to be that pastors would admonish church members not to leave their faith at the church door when they left services, but to carry it out into the weekday world. The feeling that comes through a post-Sept. 11 world seems to be that an increasing number of corporations and organizations are providing that notion of spirituality for their associates.
Such groups always have had their own cultures based on service, profitability, market share, etc. The dilemma came from how one could hold on to faith in an environment that demanded adherence to a distinctly opposing body of practices.
It is no marketing shot gone wide that Amazon.com, as of this writing, listed 712 entries under the search string of spirituality and the workplace.
This was clarified by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, in a lecture given at Westminster Cathedral, London, on April 17. Titled The Spiritual and the Religious: Is the Territory Changing?, he cites a 2004 Bloomsbury imprint by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital: Wealth We Can Live By:
"And here is the salient point in response to what can be claimed for post-religious spirituality. The spiritual intelligence outlined by Zohar and Marshall perceives the interconnectedness of things and the consequent imperative of acting responsibly, acknowledging that level of interconnectedness. But it also begins with the assumption that human beings have ... already decided on the range of activities they will undertake, so that the only question is how to perform them more responsibly. Acquiring spiritual capital, as Zohar and Marshall clearly admit, is an aspect of acquiring sustainable wealth for the greatest possible number; hence the illustrative stories of how spiritually alert people in global organizations can improve the performance of the organization, qualitatively and even quantitatively."
So perhaps the larger question is whether spirituality on an organizational level comes full circle to our definition of religion. A worshipping group easily can be called religious. But what about a corporation that insists its employees follow set guidelines of world view and interaction?
Spirituality continues to be as elusive as quicksilver and no philosopher's stone will transmute it into a universally recognized thing of value. The responsibility for tempering this soft metal tool into something worthy of being wielded across one's life still remains in the hands, minds and souls of each of us.
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