clark strand, spirituality vs. religion, tricycleThe spirituality versus religion debate may be coming to a close—and if it isn’t, maybe Clark Strand comes close to making it so. At the very least he exposes the question for the red herring that it is.

We’ve discussed the debate plenty on this blog with plenty of references and responses to other bloggers (see Barbara O’Brien’s post) but, according to Tricycle contributing editor Clark Strand, the question isn’t a useful one. He writes this today for the Washington Post‘s “On Faith” blog:

For all our worry, it seems we never really get anywhere with the question. Why? Perhaps because, no matter how you ask the question, at bottom it remains fundamentally flawed. Can you have spirituality without religion? religion without spirituality? It’s like asking if you can have a head without a heart–or vice versa. Some of us try to get by with just one or the other, but it never works out very well.

For more on the spirituality vs. religion debate, check out scholar Robert Bellah’s “The R Word” and Huston Smith’s “Spirituality vs. Religion.”