July / August 2007

Remembering Diana

The Icon of British Spirituality in the 21st Century?

This year has marked ten years since the tragic death of Princess Diana.  It’s been a time to remember her and to think of the mixed fortunes of the Royal Family over the last couple of decades.  Throughout her life Diana was the subject of intense media interest, which reached its climax at the time of her death.  Perhaps the image that will stay in our minds is that of the thousands of bouquets of flowers left by all manner of people, with messages expressing their affection for Diana and their grief at her parting.  Diana was manifested as the ‘People’s Princess,’ somehow an icon for their own feelings and expectations.

Diana has also been called an icon for the spirituality of ordinary British people at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century– the ‘People’s Saint,’ you might say.  The relentless media coverage of her every action  and interest has left us quite a record of Diana’s own developing religious beliefs and spirituality. 

On the one hand, Diana was ambivalent to the point of hostile to traditional Christianity.  She has little time for the religion of ‘church and chapel’ as established Christianity is sometimes called, viewing it as something imposed and oppressive.  She had a basic dislike and distrust for the authority figures within the Anglican Church, happy to mock those who occasionally tried to advise her on spiritual matters.

On the other hand Diana had a keen and wide-ranging interest in the new forms of spirituality that have come to the fore in Britain in the second half of the 20th century.  Diana consulted experts from new age movements and the wider resources of what has become known as the ‘spiritual market place.’  Astrologers, tarot card readers, new age therapists and others all played an important part in Diana’s life.   Diana was a ‘spiritual shopper’ par excellence, serious about finding something that suited her, but happy to try out different things, finding it difficult to commit herself to one thing or the other.

Diana’s spirituality has been characterised as a ‘religion of the heart.’  She was concerned to be true to herself, to her own heart, following her own emotions and finding ways of fulfilling her own potential.  Yet she was also driven by a deep compassion for others and a desire to be with the poor, the sick and the victims in Britain and around the world.  Diana wanted to reach out to others and express the love of her own heart - not as a remote figure, but as one of the people, to be with them and engage them in conversation and solidarity.   

In all this, however, there was little reference to God or to the traditional and central language of Christianity in which love of neighbour is rooted in love of God.  Rather, Diana’s genuine love for others was centred on human beings and the realisation of human well being. 

The extent to which ordinary people knew of Diana’s spirituality is difficult to say.  They certainly experienced her compassion and charitable work.  Yet at the time of her death at least the kind of tributes left and the ways in which people showed their grief resonated with the kind of spirituality Diana herself had shown – not manifesting the traditional language and practices of Christianity, but expressing a more diffuse type of spiritual outlook.  Diana had indeed become the ‘People’s Saint,’ the icon of their spirituality. 

Sociologists of religion have begun to point to what they term a ‘spiritual revolution’ taking place in our society, one in which people turn away from traditional religion of the sort represented by established Christianity, and embrace the various forms of spirituality now on offer, forms that appeal to a desire for self-fulfilment and the enjoyment of life in the here and now.  Diana was the icon and representative of this ‘spiritual revolution.’  And as we endeavour to evangelise, we have to be sensitive to such deep shifts in spirituality that have taken place and continue to develop.  There’s much to challenge here and a lot of the new spirituality on offer is superficial to say the least - unlikely to lead to any significant transformation in the lives of those who engage with it, leaving aside the absence of the central truths of Christian faith.  But, if we are to evangelise, we have to know about it and understand why it appeals to so many people – why it appealed to Diana as we remember her at this time.