The Spirit Issue

Volume 10 Issue 7, March 2011

Tropes and notions of spirit and spirituality permeate our cultural practices and conceive contemporary notions of ritual community – the conflict of religion and spirituality. The quest for a non-institutional, personal form of faith is unavoidable. At a hyper-local level, the extreme school spirit that pervades this school could be seen as a form of idolatry.

Upon the development of a critical lens to hold against the prevailing beliefs and ideologies of parents and social institutions I, like many of my peers, turned from organized religion towards atheism. I endured a brief ‘religion sucks’ period that can be owed to my own personal immaturity and desire to rebel, but I now see the value of religious tolerance and the positive use of institutional religious faith.

Though defined by these institutions, the process of spirituality is one that is deeply personal. As the submissions included in this issue re!ect, attempts to rectify intangible concepts with one’s own value systems and practices can be a di$cult and trying process. Despite this diffculty, what is derived from this process becomes integral to our character.

Spirit can be a complex system of practices and theories, a personal notion of notions and attitudes, or entirely undeniable. Whether unpretentious or assertive, to know spirit is to know one’s self.

- Morgan Alan, Editor-in-Chief