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The German word for soul is a lot more comprehensive than its English equivalent. Carl Jung uses it for example to refer to the total sum of processes ongoing on an individual's psyche. 

Which sets as a starting point the idea that the spiritual component is not completely an esoteric element, but rather a much more complex being that also integrates our psychological elements. Simply put: our psychological development has influence over our spiritual counterparts.

Let’s play around with this idea a little: Not only does this increase the degree of responsibility we have for our internal development, but it implies active action that goes beyond partaking in religious acts or spiritual celebrations.

The real spiritual development of the individual becomes an interplay of our morality and our interior psyche. This is of course a more holistic approach that leads immediately to a much more coherent personality. 

It’s deeply saddening to see how some of the most vocal proponents of religiosity, tend to make a very bad case for religion, these incomplete or rather pseudo-practicants give the easy excuse to others looking for meaning in life to not try the work at all, citing the whole creed as hypocritical. 

This is certainly a fault on both sides, as the failures of others should not validate our own; but the fault of the bad practicants becomes double: it takes them and others away from the teachings of their respective religions. 

And yet this isn’t a new problem at all. As narrated by the bible, the pharisees and doctors of the law of its time were equally responsible of taking people away from God:

They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on others people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them (Matthew 23:4)

In the end, the rationale is that our psychological and spiritual development can and should be one and the same. For the morality religion teaches has to be integrated in our actions and how we portray in the world to be truly valid.

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