User:FULBERT/sandbox/Interspirituality

Interspirituality, also known as interspiritual, is an interfaith concept where a diversity of spiritual practices are embraced for common respect for the individual and shared aspects across a variety of spiritual paths.

History
Interspirituality comes from the work of Wayne Teasdale, who developed this term to reflect commonalities between religious traditions, specifically those that are spiritual in nature. These commonalities across religious practices do not erase differences in beliefs, rather they build community and sharing across practices, leading to the ultimate goal of more human responsiblity to one another and the planet as a whole. At its core, this is an "assimilation of insights, values, and spiritual practices" drawn from many different traditions that can be applied to one's own life to further personal, spiritual development.

Critique
While interspirituality is involved with common spiritual practices that, these are not synonymous with how religious traditions practice. As such, interspirituality should not be considered synonomous with interfaith work, in part because some spiritual practices may be considered antithetic to certain religious practice, thereby including elements that would not be acepted by some conservative approaches. The new insights that can be gained through aspects of other spiritual practices can be threatening to some faiths, as postmodern approaches to beliefs and practices can be challenging when individuals are encouraged to explore other practices to deepen one's own.