The authority of the Church is necessary. It is that familial authority that secures the foundations of civilization. It reinforces the sanctity of sacred institutions such as marriage and family. This is the authority that, in love, could have protected Tolstoy’s beloved Russia.
In truth, the relationship between religion and spirituality is not unlike the relationship shared between body and soul. To posit, then, that one could be spiritual without being religious would be like saying that one could possess a soul and yet have no need for a body.
