Definition

1. Verb:
   • To purify from worldly or corrupting influences: To make something or someone more spiritual or less focused on material concerns.
   • To elevate or idealize; to give a spiritual character or meaning to something: To interpret or transform something in a way that emphasizes its spiritual aspect.
   • To read or interpret in a spiritual sense: To understand a text, event, or object beyond its literal meaning, attributing a deeper, religious, or metaphysical significance to it.

Usage and Examples

• Verb:
  • The retreat aimed to spiritualize the participants, helping them detach from material desires.
  • Some poets spiritualize nature, seeing mountains and rivers as manifestations of the divine.
  • Theologians often spiritualize ancient texts, seeking allegorical meanings beneath the literal stories.

Advanced Usage

• "To spiritualize an experience": to reflect on or interpret a mundane experience in a way that reveals a spiritual lesson or connection.
  • She learned to spiritualize her daily routine, turning simple chores into acts of mindfulness.
• "To spiritualize a concept": to infuse an abstract idea (like love, justice, or freedom) with religious or transcendent significance.
  • The philosopher sought to spiritualize the concept of community, framing it as a sacred bond.

Variants and Related Words

• Spiritualization (noun): The act or process of spiritualizing.
  • The spiritualization of the ritual changed its focus from external form to inner meaning.
• Spiritual (adjective): Relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
  • She was on a spiritual journey.
• Spirituality (noun): The quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul.
  • His spirituality was deeply personal.

Synonyms

• Elevate: To raise to a higher level, especially in terms of spiritual or moral quality.
• Idealize: To regard or represent as perfect or better than in reality.
• Transfigure: To transform into something more beautiful or elevated, often with a spiritual connotation.
• Consecrate: To make or declare something sacred.

Antonyms

• Materialize: To represent in or assume a material form; to make physically tangible.
• Secularize: To remove religious or spiritual influence from something.
• Desecrate: To treat a sacred place or thing with violent disrespect.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• "To spiritualize away": (Sometimes used critically) To explain away practical, historical, or material realities by giving them an exclusively spiritual interpretation.
  • One must be careful not to spiritualize away the very real suffering described in the text.

Verb

1. purify from the corrupting influences of the world
   • During his stay at the ashram he was spiritualized
2. elevate or idealize, in allusion to Christ's transfiguration
3. give a spiritual meaning to; read in a spiritual sense