Religious Involvement, Spirituality and Medicine : Subject Review and Implications for Clinical Practice

The words ‘religion’ & ‘spiritualism’ in a layman’s conception means some basic, age-old cultures and customs which acts as a binding force in a community. Religion is derived from the term "religo" which means "good faith," "ritual," and other similar meanings.Or it may have come The English word "religion" is derived from the Middle English "religioun" which came from the from the Old French "religion." It may have been originally derived from the Latin word Latin "relig re" which means "to tie fast." Religion organizes the collective spiritual experiences of a group of people into a system of beliefs and practices’. Religiosity’ refers to the extent and degree of adherence of an individual towards the core value and beliefs of a religion. ’Spirituality’ on the other hand means ‘breathe’. Spiritual is a much deeper aspect of religion. Spiritualism is more scientific and dynamic and its scope is much wider than religion .Spiritualism is concerned with metaphysical issues like the reason and purpose of life, transcendence from the mundane world, divine justice etc. Though on a holistic approach there may exist fundamental difference between religion and spirituality but spirituality is more or less regarded the same as that of religion because though the path of a formal religion may differ from spirituality, their aim coincide with each other. In other words religion is the formalized approach to spiritualism.