The “Remarkable and Unexpected” Spiritual Inspiration From Today’s Younger Generations
How can we remain hopeful during these times we live in?
It’s a question Emmy Award-winning journalist Lisa Ling posed to Varun Soni, the dean of religious and spiritual life at the University of Southern California. In this exclusive Sunday Paper conversation, Ling, who is ever curious about expanding our spiritual lives, asked Soni with a big heart—and his responses gave us incredible hope. There is “a golden age of religious and spiritual life at USC,” Soni told Ling, and the younger generations are offering so much hope to us all.
A CONVERSATION WITH LISA LING AND VARUN SONI
Ling: In Holy Week, how can we practice calm and compassion, especially in light of everything happening in the world?
Soni: Whether we are Christian or not, Holy Week invites us to think deeply about the possibility of renewal in our lives at a time when we all need it most. While we can't always control what happens around us, we can control what happens inside of us. And so renewal begins within us, in our hearts and in our souls, because that's where we cultivate the kind of spiritual strength that replenishes us to take on the challenges of the world.
Ling: In what ways have college students, at least at USC, become more spiritual and even more religious in recent years?
Soni: What I'm seeing at USC right now is truly remarkable and unexpected. More than one-half of our students were not raised with religion, yet we are currently experiencing a "golden age" of religious and spiritual life at USC, with more students participating in religious and spiritual groups, practices, traditions, and communities than ever before. I believe that because so many students were raised without religion, they're coming to it a different way—proactively and intentionally, with an open mind and an open heart, driven by a deep spiritual curiosity—as a way of making meaning in their lives.
Ling: To what do you attribute that?
Soni: I think several forces are converging to make this a unique moment in American religious history. This generation of students lived through the pandemic, which was a profoundly clarifying experience that forced all of us to think about what matters to us and why. For many students raised without religion, the pandemic was a religious experience. All of our wisdom texts contain stories of floods, fires, and plagues, and those cataclysmic events challenge all of us to think deeply about how we act and move in the world, and this generation of students are doing that by re-engaging with religion.
Beyond that, we are living at a time of great anxiety and uncertainty—politically, environmentally, economically. During times of upheaval and disruption, many people look for a religious anchor to ground them and spiritual practices that remind them that they are part of a larger whole. Students realize that's what they need now, perhaps more urgently than any generation in recent memory.
Ling: What can we learn from what college students are doing, in terms of how they are practicing tolerance and acceptance of one another?
Soni: All of the world's great religious and spiritual traditions challenge us to see ourselves in each other, and what gives me hope is seeing how students learn about themselves by learning about each other. By showing up for interfaith events, and by walking alongside each other through triumph and tragedy, students aren't threatened by each other's faith traditions but rather are edified through them. We can all aspire to adopt that point of view - that your religion is as good for you as my religion is for me - as a way of going deeper into our own faith traditions. We don't need to agree on everything but we do need to coexist together, and the only way to do that is by knowing each other.
Ling: What are some ways that we can remain hopeful during these times?
Soni: Sometimes we think that our words describe our reality, but our words actually create our reality. That's why it is so important to be conscientious of our words to each other and to ourselves. If we are telling ourselves stories of hope, then we become hopeful. But if our self-talk is of hopelessness, then we will remain hopeless. We see the world as we see ourselves, and that's why self-reflection and storytelling are essential spiritual practices for all the world's religions.
Ling: In what ways are we all spiritual beings?
Soni: The famous Jesuit theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but rather we are spiritual beings having a human experience. That means that at our core, we are spiritual beings, and that our spiritual health is the primary driver of our well-being. And so, what does it mean to be spiritually healthy? I think it means that we cultivate and embrace practices and perspectives that empower us to make meaning, commune with nature, experience awe, find our North Star, tell new stories about ourselves and our world, and do the things we love with the people we love.
Lisa Ling is an award-winning journalist, author, producer, and mother. Learn more and follow her here.
Varun Soni is the Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. Learn more here.
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