Religion vs Spirituality: 7 Differences and Where They Overlap

The short answer: religion is usually a shared, organised tradition, with beliefs, scriptures, rituals, leaders and a community that gathers. Spirituality is the personal side of the search for meaning, connection and something larger than yourself, and it can happen inside a religion or outside one. The two overlap far more than they compete. Most people who call themselves religious also call themselves spiritual.

This piece starts from a popular list by life coach Dejan Davchevski, first published on Life Coach Code, which sets out seven contrasts between the two. We explain each of his points in plain terms, then add what surveys and research show, and where the list is fair or one-sided. Read it as one person’s view of a very old debate, not a final definition.

Religion and spirituality: simple definitions

Scholars rarely agree on exact wording, but a working distinction looks like this:

• Religion is communal and structured. It hands down a story about the world, moral teachings, practices such as prayer, fasting or pilgrimage, and an institution that keeps them going across generations.
• Spirituality is inward and experiential. It covers the feeling of awe, the sense that life has purpose, practices like meditation or quiet reflection, and the effort to live by deeper values.

Put simply, religion is often the house and spirituality the life lived inside it. Some people live that life without the house; others value the house because it keeps the life steady. Neither description is a judgment on which is better.

How many people are “spiritual but not religious”?

The phrase has become common enough to have its own abbreviation, SBNR. In a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, 27% of US adults described themselves as spiritual but not religious, up eight points in five years. Another 48% said they were both religious and spiritual, 6% religious but not spiritual, and 18% neither.

Pew’s larger 2023 study of spirituality, based on more than 11,000 adults, put the spiritual-but-not-religious group at 22%. It also found that 70% of Americans are spiritual in some way, 83% believe people have a soul or spirit beyond the body, and 81% believe something spiritual exists beyond the natural world. In other words, even as attendance at services falls in many Western countries, spiritual belief has not disappeared. It has partly moved out of institutions and into private life.

The seven contrasts, explained

Here are Davchevski’s seven points, in our own summary, each followed by a fair question to ask about it.

1. Obedience versus freedom

His first claim is that religion asks people to accept a set of rules and submit to them, while spirituality invites each person to follow their own heart and decide what they hold sacred. The fair question: many religious people describe their commitments as freely chosen, and rules can protect freedom as much as limit it, the way a promise to a partner shapes a life without imprisoning it.

2. Fear versus courage

The list says religion warns people about what to fear, while spirituality teaches them to act from love even when they are afraid. Fear-based preaching certainly exists. Yet “do not be afraid” is one of the most repeated lines in the Bible, and Buddhist teaching treats fear as something to understand, not obey.

3. Given truth versus discovered truth

Religion, in this view, hands believers a finished set of answers, while spirituality lets people find truth through their own experience and inner sense. That captures a real difference in emphasis between doctrine and personal insight. Still, mystics within every major faith, from Christian contemplatives to Sufi poets, have stressed direct experience for centuries.

4. Division versus unity

Davchevski argues that each religion claims its story is the right one, while spirituality sees the same truth running through all of them. History offers plenty of religious conflict to support the first half. But interfaith work, shared charities and the many common ethical teachings, such as versions of the golden rule, show that religions can also bring people together.

5. Dependence versus independence

The list suggests religion links a person’s worth to attending services and events, while spirituality teaches that happiness and worth are found within. This is the point where research complicates the picture most, as the next section shows: belonging to a community seems to be one of religion’s main benefits rather than a weakness.

6. Punishment versus karma

Here religion is said to threaten punishment for breaking rules, while spirituality sees every action producing its own consequence, like cause and effect. One irony is worth noting: karma is itself a religious teaching, central to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, each with its own understanding of it. It is not a neutral law outside religion.

7. Someone else’s path versus your own

Finally, the list says religions ask followers to walk in the footsteps of a founder or god, while spirituality lets people find their own route to wisdom. The author closes by suggesting every religion began as one person’s spiritual journey, and that all contain some truth. Many believers would agree with the second half, while seeing their tradition as more than a personal discovery.

What research says about each path

Studies cannot tell us which beliefs are true, but they can show how practice affects people’s lives. One of the best known is a 2016 study in JAMA Internal Medicine that followed 74,534 women in the Nurses’ Health Study. Those who attended religious services more than once a week had roughly a third lower risk of dying during the study period than those who never attended. Part of the link was explained by social support, lower rates of smoking and depression, and greater optimism.

That suggests much of the benefit comes from what organised religion provides socially: regular gatherings, people who notice when you are missing, shared rituals around birth, marriage and death. Solo spirituality can offer meaning, calm and moral focus, but it has to build community deliberately. Meditation groups, volunteering or a regular walk with friends can fill some of that space.

Research also points in the other direction for some people. Rigid, shame-heavy religious settings can harm mental health, and many who describe themselves as SBNR left religion because of such experiences. The quality of a community matters more than its label.

Common myths about religion and spirituality

• “Spiritual people don’t believe in anything.” Pew’s data show most hold clear beliefs, such as in a soul or a reality beyond the physical.
• “Religious people aren’t spiritual.” The largest single group in surveys says it is both.
• “Spirituality is a sect or cult.” Spirituality usually has no leader or membership at all. The danger signs of a manipulative group, such as isolation from family, demands for money and an unquestionable leader, can appear in religious and non-religious settings alike.
• “You have to choose one.” Many people move between the two during their lives, or blend them.

Finding your own balance

If you are trying to work out where you stand, a few questions help more than any list of contrasts. What gives your life meaning? Which practices leave you kinder and calmer? Where do you find people who support you? Some will find the answers in a church, mosque, temple or synagogue; others in nature, art, meditation or service. Davchevski’s list is a useful conversation starter about freedom and fear. It is at its best when it prompts honest reflection, and at its weakest when it treats all religion as rules and all spirituality as light.

Sources: Original list by Dejan Davchevski, Life Coach Code, shared via Expanded Consciousness; Pew Research Center (2017): More Americans now say they’re spiritual but not religious; Pew Research Center (2023): Spirituality Among Americans; Li et al., JAMA Internal Medicine (2016): Religious service attendance and mortality among women.

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