Nick Sano-Franchini (nicks5@vt.edu)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Mike Kirk-Kuwaye (mikekk@hawaii.edu)
University of Hawai’I-Mānoa
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What is “religion?”

What is “spirituality?”
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Where do our definitions come from?
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“What we have, then, from the
earliest years of the republic is a
collection of beliefs, symbols, and
rituals with respect to sacred things
and institutionalized in a
collectivity.”
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“…I would argue that the civil
religion at its best is a genuine
apprehension of universal and
transcendent religious reality as
seen in or, one could almost say, as
revealed through the experience of
the American people.”

From “Civil Religion in America” (1967)
Robert Bellah
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“. . . spirituality has to do with
the values that we hold most
dear, our sense of who we are
and where we come from, our
beliefs about why we are here—
the meaning and purpose that
we see in our work and our life—
and our sense of connectedness
to one another and to the world
around us.”
Cultivating the Spirit, p. 4
Students are interested in exploring notions of
meaning and purpose
 Growth in certain spiritual areas positively affects
academic, personal/emotional, and attitudinal
outcomes
 Meditation, contemplation, and self-reflection
(including asking “big questions”) can enhance
students’ spiritual development
 Religious commitment changes little during college,
but engagement declines

Definitions Clifford Geertz
Religion is (1) a system of
symbols (2) which acts to
establish powerful, pervasive
and long-lasting moods and
motivations in men (3) by
formulating conceptions of a
general order of existence and
(4) clothing these conceptions
with such an aura of factuality
that (5) the moods and
motivations seem uniquely
realistic.
from “Religion as a Cultural System”
Definitions
Paul Tillich
Faith is the state of
being ultimately
concerned: the
dynamics of faith
are the dynamics
of man’s ultimate
concern.
Dynamics of Faith, p.1.
Definitions
What we as scholars think of as religions,
philosophies, paths . . . etc., could be
construed as more or less formalized, more
or less coherent systems of valuation that
people call upon consciously and
unconsciously when making claims
regarding what happened, what caused it,
and whether or why it matters.
From ‘“Religion” in the Humanities and the Humanities in the
University’, Plenary address, American Academy of Religion,
October 30, 2010.
Ann Taves
What elements on/in
your campus or unit
foster questions of
meaning and
spirituality?
 How can we utilize
those in our advising to
be more studentcentered and process
oriented?
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