Born to an ultra-orthodox Jewish mother, I early realized that her answers, while satisfying to her, were not adequate for my life. So I became a convert to Christianity. Like most converts, religious or otherwise, I accepted the most orthodox dogmas. (Have you ever listened to an argument among theoretical physicists? Now there is a clash of orthodox dogmas.)
But, from there to more progressive forms of Christianity, including non-doctrinal ones. And on and on. Now, I'm out of the box. A Heterodox, Non-theistic, Zen follower of the Way of Jesus. I would love to put that on a bumper-sticker, but I don't have a car wide enough. And, of course, as soon as it becomes a bumper-sticker it also becomes a new doctrine.
So I continue my detective work. I have gotten some clues from a large range of sources. The writings of people like Br. David Stendl-Rast, Thich Nhat Hanh, and even Albert Ellis. I know that spirituality is not limited to people who believe in a super-natural god. I've known some very spiritual folk who are not theists--including myself.
As an aside: I think that most people fit into a small number of categories in regard to the word "god".
- There are theists. People who believe in a supernatural god who (or which) is beyond nature and controls nature--or at least created it.
- There are agnostics. People who haven't seen enough evidence to be in the theist camp, but also not enough to discard such a belief.
- Another group are non-theists. These are people, like myself, who don't believe in a supernatural god, but who see other meanings for that word.
- Fourth are the atheists. They, like the non-theists, don't believe in a supernatural god and they choose to eliminate the word god from their vocabulary.
- Another group are the anti-theists. They are not simply atheists, but "fundamental" atheists. They are reactive and militant and oppositional. I think that a Richard Dawkins, or Christopher Hitchens are examples. They react to what the conservative religious theists teach, but can't acknowledge other alternatives.
I know that spirituality is not religion. Not all religion is doctrinal, but most is. I think that spirituality has something to do with asking several questions (and the quest to find satisfactory answers) like, "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", "Where is here?", and "Who are all these other creatures here with me?"
Even if one does not credit a supernatural being in most lives there are certain moments, when one stands in awe, reverence or gratitude.
Here's a quick summary of the clues I have. I'm still working on. I would be delighted if other detectives--less defective than I--have found more and can share in the comments.
The first clue:
On any given
day, the patient population at our local hospital will be between 90 and 100
people. Of those three or four will be under forty years of age. When a patient
is admitted they are asked two questions: What is your religious preference?
Would you like a visit from the chaplain while you are here? The answers to
those two questions are clues. Of the more or less 95, about 55 will answer the
first question with “None.” Six or seven will answer the second question with
“Yes.” Of those who do not answer “None,” twenty will say “Roman Catholic” and
this will include five of the Yes answers. Three or four will say “Judaism,”
and another three or four will have answers of Islam, Hindu, Buddhism or some
other non-Christian religion. Most days there are one or two who state their
religious preference as “Atheist.”
Finally, twelve to fifteen will have answered the first question with
some variety of Protestant denomination or simply “Christian.”
I spend one
or two days a week as a volunteer Chaplain at a local hospital. Chaplain is a word
that originates from Christian history, but today there are Jewish and Buddhist
volunteer chaplains at our facility and we would be open to many other forms of spirituality. A chaplain provides pastoral (spiritual)
and emotional support for “guests” in the hospital without limiting to the
chaplain’s own religious preference.
If a patient has stated a religious preference, one of my
first questions when I enter a patient’s room is “It says on my list that you
are a [Faith community name], is that correct?” (That’s not really a throw-away
line as occasionally the admitting clerks will misunderstand—especially when a
patient is admitted through the Emergency Department and may herself be in too
much pain and distress to be clear.) Even among those who have stated a
preference, the answer most often is “Oh. I was brought up as a XXX, but I
don’t believe that anymore.” If there is no stated faith community, I am there as a spiritual and emotional support--though my initial question will be different.
As a small
child during World War II and afterward as a teenager, I frequently heard that
“There are no atheists in foxholes.” The hospital patients are “in foxholes,”
many of them fearing their futures—or the end, and there are atheists in
foxholes.
I am
certainly not saying that these people don’t have spiritual and emotional
needs. They do, and we do everything we can to support them, regardless of
their religious affiliation. In fact, we speak of ourselves as “spiritual and
emotional support providers,” whenever we feel that a patient will be put off
by the word “chaplain.”
Clue number two:
For more than
fifty years, my heart has resonated to the line in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I
formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.” I don't have to "believe" in the bible to find it a great source of spiritual metaphor. (And some not so great stuff too.) I have a sense of calling to
support social justice in the political arena. Politics is from the Greek word
“politika” and it means the way the people govern themselves. Even though some,
but not all, of our politicians have besmirched the word, politics is a high
calling and even in this age of cynicism about politics, we can look to some
with admiration.
The biblical
passage, Genesis 1.1 and following, is often translated as “In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void.”
But it can also be read that at the beginning the earth (The whole universe
except the heavens) was in chaos (without form and void). God began the work of
bringing order and life to this chaos, eventually creating humanity as a
partner in this process.
Clue number three:
Cosmological
and particle physics are increasingly discovering the basic structure of
material reality. They are, however, also pushing into a level of reality which
is beyond “material.” Make no mistake, I am a novice and a layperson at these,
but I read popularizations that have been “vetted” by those who know the
legitimacy of the books I read and approve them.
My professor
in seminary, who taught what we used to call Old Testament (And now, more properly
call “Hebrew Bible” or “Tanakh.”) was a great scholar, a part of the group of translators which produced the Revised Standard Version of the bible. Dr. Muilenburg was
fond of hyperbolically saying that “God speaks Hebrew.” I have the temerity
today to disagree. I think God speaks mathematics. Every advance in human
knowledge of physical and psychological reality is made with mathematics. Yes,
psychology studies human and animal behavior, but the results would be
meaningless without statistical methodologies based in mathematics.
Of course,
particle physics and cosmological physics are similarly only possible because
of mathematics.
Clue number four:
Increasingly
what traditionally has been designated religious or spiritual has been
discovered to be pre-scientific doctrine and dogma.
This has led
some to become militant (fundamentalist?) anti-theists. (See definition above) They rant and rave
against religion and spirituality. Of course, there is much against which to
rant and rave. Conservative doctrinal and dogmatic religions keep providing
more and more ammunition against themselves.
The ranters
and ravers are mistaken however, if they believe that they have proven their
conceit. When the question is “How does something occur” or “By what process or mechanism can we achieve a particular physical goal” then certainly a questioning enquiry
will reveal better answers than any scriptural compendium or any doctrine. On
the other hand, when the discussions move to questions of purpose, values,
ethics and other “why” subjects, there is a much broader field of inquiry.
Clue number five:
The oft
quoted statement of Albert Camus, the 20th century French
existentialist philosopher, that "There is but one truly serious
philosophical problem and that is suicide" is a good starting point from
which to consider spirituality. If life begins in pain and discomfort, as it
does for every new born child—that’s why the first utterance of a newborn is a
cry—and it ends in pain, as it surely does for most people, and if along the
way, much of most lives is frequently lived in discomfort, pain and illness,
then there is a good argument for the absurdity of life.
Of course
Camus has a response to this absurdity. Each person must create, discover or
choose a reason for existence. The quest for that purpose for existence is a
part of the larger spiritual quest.
In his, “The
Courage to Be”, Paul Tillich speaks of committing to a “ground of being”, which
I believe is the purpose for existence, the reason for not committing suicide
that Albert Camus was stating. It is a spiritual quest. The ground of being may
be a belief in a supernatural being, a god, but it may equally be a struggle
for human growth and social justice. It might also, equally be the pursuit of
personal gain.
In any case,
this pursuit is a spiritual quest. It is at the heart of spirituality.
Clue number six:
Spiritual
seems to be the only term to apply for the feelings of awe that many have when
faced with the majesty of the Rocky Mountains or the wonders of Alaska. It is
also emotion of reverence at the birth of a baby or at the memory of a loved
one. Spirituality seems also marked by the profound sense of gratitude which so
many have when they recognize the many gifts they have received at the hands of
the universe. It has nothing to do with a supernatural being, but is in
disregard of the designation of the giver. The gifts are still the same, from
wherever they come.
Clue number seven:
You tell me.
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