Abstract

This chapter reviews the historical origins, primarily Occidental, that created the divide between the sacred-spiritual and the empirical world as depicted by Charles Taylor. The goal of this chapter is to provide a meta perspective of how historical collective cultural assumptions and the ensuing social forces they create have led to the assumed bifurcation of the sacred-spiritual from the material world. This has resulted in a perceived separation between the sacred-spiritual and material world, which has affected the ways in which individuals, and specifically scholars, have theoretically separated religion and spirituality. The chapter resolves by delineating how social science research suggests a connection and broad inter-dimensionality between religion and spirituality.