Ma`rifat Adyan

Despite the common claim in psychological and sociological studies that spirituality and religion are separate or opposed, it remains unclear to what extent this dichotomy reflects lived religious experience and to what extent it constitutes a theoretical construct. This article aims to investigate the origins, development, and implications of this dichotomy by employing a systematic critical review to collect, refine, and analyze key sources, and, at the interpretive level, by drawing on Reinhart Koselleck’s conceptual history approach to reconstruct the semantic evolution of “spirituality” in relation to “religion.” The research data include contemporary texts from psychology, sociology, and religious studies spanning 1950 to 2020. A critical examination of these works indicates that the religion/spirituality dichotomy has largely been a product of humanistic psychological theorizing and post-secular sociological frameworks and has served a conceptual function in explaining modern religious transformations. In contrast, contemporary religious studies have moved toward a continuum-based and non-oppositional understanding, emphasizing the overlap between spiritual and religious dimensions. The study concludes that the religion–spirituality opposition is more an analytical construct within modern human sciences discourse than a reflection of social reality.