Spirituality is a relatively recent term used to refer to life in the Spirit and the experience of God. These concepts all have to do with radical openness to knowing God and to doing God's will. They do not separate spirituality from ethics, or reflection from action. For this reason, this confession of faith includes spirituality in the section on discipleship. Many religious traditions speak of spirituality, or experience of the divine.
People sometimes claim that all such experiences are really the same.
But at least two distinct streams can be identified in the history of Christian spirituality. In the stream influenced primarily by Greek philosophy, the goal is union with God, the individual's absorption into God. Loving the neighbor and following Christ are by-products of this union with God. The second stream is influenced more by biblical thought. The goal of its action and contemplation is communion with God, or covenant relationship with God.