TODAY’S WORLD: Why Spirituality Matters in the Digital Age

By Klaus Döring

A modern society is defined as a social structure characterized by a market-based economy, a democratic political system, and autonomous knowledge-producing institutions that develop empirical-analytical sciences.

However one looks at this range of dates, a considerable tension between any historical description of a rupture and conceptual understandings of modernity comes immediately to the fore.

The conceptual imagery of a ‘modern society’ characterized by a market-based economy, a democratic polity, and autonomous knowledge-producing institutions developing empirical-analytical sciences sits in an uneasy relation to these historical dates.

Were one to insist that the full set of those institutions needs to exist before a society can be called modern, social modernity would be limited to a relatively small part of the globe during only a part of the twentieth century.

This tension between conceptuality and historicity was resolved by introducing an evolutionary logic in societal development.

Based on the assumption of a societally effective voluntarism of human action, realms of social life were considered to have gradually separated from one another according to social functions.

Religion, politics, the economy, and the arts all emerged as separate spheres in a series of historical breaks—known as the scientific, industrial, democratic revolutions, etc.—that follows a logic of differentiation.

Money is one of the most essential in today’s world.

Money allows us to meet our basic needs: buy food, shelter, and pay for health care.

Meeting these needs is essential, and if we don’t have enough money to do so, our individual happiness and the well-being of the community as a whole will be severely affected.

Why are values important in today’s world?

Our values inform our thoughts, words, and actions.

Every individual and every organization is involved in making hundreds of decisions every day.

The decisions we make are a reflection of our values and beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose.

Values are the fundamental beliefs that govern our lives.

They inspire how we act and speak.

They guide our decisions about everything from career to personal growth.

They embody the person we want to be, influencing how we treat others and how we interact with the world.

What is the most important thing in the world?

Health—without health, there is nothing worth it.

Physical and mental health go hand in hand; if we don’t give importance to our physical health, it will have consequences for our mental health and vice versa.

Human life is the means to get rid of the cycle of birth and death, old age and travel.

Devotion and liberation are possible in this life.

Only in the human body can a person reach God by knowing His form.

We have forgotten the purpose for which life was given.

It’s important to prioritize making space for quiet, for real connection, and for reflection—both psychological and spiritual—in order to feel more grounded in ourselves and more open to a deeper, richer experience of life beyond the screen.

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