What's the difference between religion and spirituality? This is the second most frequently asked question I get as a scholar of religion, next to “Oh, so you're a minister.” And to be honest, folks tend to be disappointed by my answer to both.

When it comes to the religion versus spirituality question, that is often because my answer focuses less on defining the terms and more on the question itself. I am fascinated by what is really going on in people’s thought worlds when they want me to distinguish between religion and spirituality in the first place.

This week, I'm thinking through my own experiences alongside Robert A. Orsi’s Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them (Princeton University Press, 2005).

If you like the episode, don’t forget to share it with a friend and follow me @imanabdk on socials.

Welcome to the Grounded podcast with your host, Dr. Iman. This is a space where the intellectual meets the spiritual. I'm a professor, scholar of religion, and someone trying to find her footing. I will introduce you to the people, discussions, and schools of thought that have changed how I see the world. Together we'll seek clarity, not in passivity or bypassing, but in intuition, critique, and imagination. Some episodes are just me reflecting on where I'm finding my footing. Others draw more closely from my own research on religion and spirituality, tracing where I've seen others find theirs. And sometimes we're joined by experts, friends, and even you, the listeners, learning with each other and seeking rootedness together.

In this episode, you can hear me talking about the very new season of life that I am in and how I'm finding grounding in abeautoful question asked by Katherine McKittrick and Eugenia Zuroski, where do you know from?

---

References

I did the reading so you don't have to, but of course I want you to too ;)

Zuroski, Eugenia. "Where Do You Know From?: An Exercise in Placing Ourselves Together in the Classroom." MAI: Feminism (2020).