One problem was the spiritual vacuum which emerged after the church stopped being a state church.

Societies will not tolerate a state of spiritual vacuum.

"I decided we have a spiritual vacuum in our society that only God can replace," he said.

Shortly before he died, he wrote about a "spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society."

This lack of guidance could have only left the Planter's in a spiritual vacuum.

Some say that although the students have material comforts, they live in a spiritual vacuum.

People had to fill the spiritual vacuum somehow, in order to avoid nihilistic despair.

"Who will lead us out of this spiritual vacuum?"

"We grew up in a spiritual vacuum, cut off from the rest of the world," Sheng laments.

Now, he added, there is a "loss of meaning" and a "spiritual vacuum" for millions of Chinese who are turning to religion.