In his work as chaplain, McLennan said he has found that he has met more and more students and faculty who say they are spiritual, and not religious.

McLennan maintains that spirituality is not enough. To attain a disciplined life with ritual and a sense of community, he says, people need organized religion.

"The potpourri, grocery store, do-it-yourself method isn't going to work," he said.

But McLennan does not feel that spirituality is taking the place of religion--rather both have increased during his 15 years at Tufts.

"People have had it with the thinking that science and technology can succeed in saving the world alone," he said. "They need something human and deeper."

Thomas Professor of Divinity Harvey G. Cox Jr., one of four former chaplains on the five-person panel, pointed out that college students are at a stage when they analyze everything, including their own religion. He called the book "a real page-turner."

Panelist James Caroll, an author and former chaplain at Boston University, said he disagreed that spiritual people need religion to live a humane and fulfilling life. He used the example of his two children, both of whom had decided to stop attending church.