Distinguishing between religion and spirituality: Listening to teenagers within the (RCCG) Pentecostal Churches

ABSTRACT

This article investigates how teenagers in the Pentecostal Church, particularly the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), distinguish between religion and spirituality. In addition to presenting the findings of this study, the article compares the teenage participants’ perceptions of these constructs to the findings of previous researchers, including Overstreet [“Spiritual vs. Religious: Perspectives from Today’s Undergraduate Catholics.” Journal of Catholic Education 14, no. 2 (2010): 238–262], Smith and Denton (Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005) and others. The study was carried out among 27 teenagers, aged between 13 and 15, who attend the RCCG, which is one of the Pentecostal denominations in England. Critical analysis of the interpretation of religion falls into these categories: substantive and functional beliefs and practice, ordinary classification, and legalistic rules of do’s and don’ts. Similarly, spirituality falls into the categories of personal belief in and connection with God, the outward expression of religion, and mystical experience. Similar to the extant researchers, the majority of the participants made a clear distinction between religion and spirituality, while the remainder argued that the terms are too closely intertwined to draw a clear distinction between them.

KEYWORDS:

• Teenage
• religion
• spirituality
• Black Majority Churches (BMCs)
• Pentecostal
• Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Racheal Adebayo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2597-1335

Notes on contributor

Racheal Adebayo (BTh, MACE – ECWA Theological Seminary; MA, University of Leicester; PhD, University of Warwick, United Kingdom) is a qualified teacher and a theologian. She had worked as a lecturer in various Theological institutions and ECWA Theological Seminary, Igbaja, Nigeria since 1992, and also served as the principal of the ECWA Theological Ibadan extension. She has also worked as a lecturer and a teacher of Social Sciences at many institutions across the Midland, England since 2007 and a member of many professional bodies.

Notes

1 Francis, The Values Debate; Pargament, The Psychology of Religion and Coping; Smith and Denton, Soul Searching.

2 Overstreet, “Spiritual vs. Religious: Perspectives from Today’s Undergraduate Catholics,” 238–62; Smith and Denton, Soul Searching; Francis, The Values Debate; Mason, Singleton and Webber, The Spirit of Generation Y; Vincett et al., “Young People and Performance Christianity in Scotland.” 275–90.

3 Vincett et al., “Young People and performance Christianity in Scotland".

4 Heelas and Woodhead, The Spiritual Revolution, 1.

5 Ibid.

6 Fuller, Spiritual, but Not Religious, 3.

7 Fleming, Overstreet and Chappe, “Measuring the Mission,” 237–63.

8 Weaver et al, “Trends in the Scientific Study of Religion, Spirituality, and Health,” 208–14; Francis, Laycock and Penny, “Distinguishing between Spirituality and Religion,” 43–67.

9 Weaver et al., “Trends in the Scientific Study of Religion, Spirituality, and Health.”

10 Berger, The Sacred Canopy; Hood, “Spirituality and Religion.”

11 Willson, “Exploring Travel and Spirituality”; Zinnbauer and Pargament, “Religiousness and Spirituality.”

12 Yob, “Images of Spirituality,” 112–26: 120.

13 Berger, “Some Second Thoughts on Substantive Versus Functional Definitions of Religion,” 125–33.

14 Tylor, Primitive Culture; James, The Varieties of Religious Experience; Pargament and Mahoney, “Spirituality,” 646–59.

15 Francis and Robbins, “Belonging without Believing,” 37–54.

16 Pargament, The Psychology of Religion and Coping.

17 Smith and Denton, Soul Searching.

18 Ibid.

19 Francis and Robbins, “Belonging without Believing,” 11.

20 Pargament, The Psychology of Religion and Coping; Zinnbauer and Pargament, “Religiousness and Spirituality.”

21 Hood, “Spirituality and Religion,” 241–64.

22 Berger, The Sacred Canopy; Hood, “Spirituality and Religion.”

23 Hardy, The Spiritual Nature of Man; Timothy and Conover, “Nature Religion, Self-Spirituality and New Age Tourism,” 139–55.

24 Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life; Timothy and Conover, “Nature Religion, Self-Spirituality and New Age Tourism.”

25 Francis, The Values Debate.

26 Smith and Denton, Soul Searching.

27 Robinson, “Behavioural Treatment of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity,” 52–57.

28 Kay and Francis, Drift from the Churches; Hay, and Nye, The Spirit of the Child.

29 Singleton, Mason and Webber, “Spirituality in Adolescence and Young Adulthood,” 247–62; Francis, The Values Debate; Dandelion and Collins-Mayo, eds. Religion and Youth.

30 Smith and Denton, Soul Searching.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid., 78.

33 Francis, The values Debate.

34 Vincett et al., “Young People and Performance Christianity in Scotland.”

35 Mason, Singleton and Webber, The Spirit of Generation Y.

36 Ibid.

37 Sveidqvist et al., “Who Am I, and Why Am I Here?,” 36–44.

38 Overstreet, “Spiritual vs. Religious.”

39 Adedibu, “Faith without Borders,” 93–113; Burgess, Knibbe and Quaas, “Nigerian-Initiated Pentecostal Churches as a Social Force in Europe,” 97–121.

40 Burgess, “Bringing Back the Gospel,” 439–49; Hunt, Religion in Western Society.

41 Rice and Ezzy, Qualitative Research Methods, 258.

42 Francis, The Values Debate.

43 Pargament, The Psychology of Religion and Coping, 11–12.

44 Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle, The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience.

45 Chryssides and Geaves, The Study of Religion.

46 Pargament, The Psychology of Religion and Coping.

47 Smith, “On ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism’ as Us Teenagers’ Actual, Tacit, De Facto Religious Faith,” 41–46.

48 Zinnbauer et al., “Religion and Spirituality,” 549–64.

49 Maton and Pargament, “The Roles of Religion in Prevention and Promotion,” 161–205.

50 Pargament, “The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality?" 3–16.

51 Maton and Pargament, “The Roles of Religion in Prevention and Promotion,” 161–205.

52 Burgess, Knibbe and Quaas, “Nigerian-Initiated Pentecostal Churches as a Social Force in Europe,” 97–121.

53 Sodestrom and Martinson, “Patients’ Spiritual Coping Strategies,” 41–45.

54 Francis, The Values Debate.

55 Overstreet, “Spiritual vs. Religious.”

56 Astin et al., “The spiritual life of college students,” 4.