I. AS SCIENCE ADVANCES, MYTHOLOGY RETREATS.
II. SELF-CRITICAL INWARDNESS IS NOT ENDANGERED BY SCIENCE.
III. A PRESENT FORMULATION OF PASSIONATE INWARDNESS.
I. AS SCIENCE ADVANCES, MYTHOLOGY RETREATS.
When we think of
existential spirituality within a long time-frame,
when we consider how this deep way
of being
might be formulated 1,000 years from
now,
we appreciate the genius of subjective
spirituality
as opposed to discussion of the objects
of faith.
Most of the past
forms of human religion and spirituality
have focused on gods and other objects
of belief
as if gaining deeper 'knowledge' of
such entities
was the main goal of religious progress.
However, precisely
the opposite has occurred:
Whenever the content of spirituality
has been objectified,
inevitably disputes and disagreements
have arisen
when these formulated contents of religion
have confronted new knowledge as discovered
by science.
Religious 'truth'
that has been formulated
as if it were facts about the gods
has always had to give way to new knowledge
about the world and about ourselves.
For example, as natural
science explains the world
in ever greater detail and depth,
ideas about divine creation must retreat.
And if the most important affirmations
of some form of religion or spirituality
involved claims about the objective
world in which we live,
then those affirmations must retreat
as natural science advances.
(If you would like to explore the disappearance of the Creator,
you might like to read another cyber-sermon:
WHICH GODS DO NOT EXIST?
No Gods Created the Universe
.)
Likewise, as psychological
understanding deepens,
some of the former ideas about our
inward dynamics
must be revised.
If a system of religious beliefs was
basically
a description of psychological processes,
then as psychology gives a better description
of ourselves,
the religious explanation fades away
as irrelevant.
II. SELF-CRITICAL INWARDNESS IS NOT ENDANGERED BY SCIENCE.
However, non-objectifying
passionate inwardness
is not in danger of being replaced
by physics or psychology.
Think of the progress
that is likely to be made in the next 1,000 years
in the realms of natural science and
psychological understanding.
Natural science in our modern understanding
began in the 1700s.
Thus the scientific method is only a few
hundred years old.
Unless something brings a halt to scientific
progress,
the next 1,000 years will see scientific
discoveries
that we can only begin to imagine.
Psychological understanding
is somewhat slower to develop than physics,
but advances in the natural sciences
are certain
to have profound impacts of our understanding
of ourselves.
And many of the psychological phenomena
we used to express exclusively in religious
terminology
will be better explained by psychological
description.
To the degree that
we describe our own spiritual experiences
without objectifying it in terms of
supernatural 'causes',
such orientations of being
will not be displaced in the next 1,000
years,
as science explains the natural world
and our psychological dynamics better
than ever before.
At least among intelligent
and well-educated people,
all forms of religious belief that
made objective claims
that can be corrected or replaced by
natural science
and deeper psychological understandings
will fade away
just as all other forms of pre-scientific
understandings
have been quietly replaced
by better models of the world and of
ourselves.
But subjective passionate
inwardness is not similarly vulnerable.
As all forms of science advance,
we may be stimulated into better expressions
for what we know about ourselves in
passionate inwardness,
but if that subjective spirituality
has a firm foundation,
it will not be shaken by scientific
advances on all fronts.
III. A PRESENT FORMULATION OF PASSIONATE INWARDNESS.
We human beings are
caught in a Predicament or Malaise
we have only begun to understand and
express:
existential anxiety, depression, meaninglessness,
absurdity.
However, we also
have inklings of life beyond this Malaise.
When we are able to compose a special
posture-of-being,
we discover that our anxiety, depression, & absurdity are gone.
In the past, this
posture-of-being
was mostly discussed in mythological
terms.
And so, those forms of religion and
spirituality
seemed to be tied to world-views
that became less and less believable
as science provided better models of
our world and of ourselves.
However, some thinkers
suggest ways to let the mythology go
(if ever we expressed our spirituality
in mythological terms)
and still remain within the new condition-of-being.
Surrender,
submission, commitment,
leaping
are all ways we have expressed the
new orientation
that enables us to become free of our
Existential Predicament.
We gather our inwardness
resolutely
and we leap out of our Malaise.
Each person who has taken this leap
will describe it in his or her own
unique way,
but some general patterns can still be described.
First, the person
of passionate inwardness
experiences a long period of exploring
the Predicament.
Second, there will
be a phase of attempting to cast off the Malaise
by a variety of psychological techniques.
Sometimes these psychological methods
will take forms
that many people would call religious.
However, if these efforts are basically self-reliant
striving,
we remain within the process of
attempting to solve our Predicament
by our own internal powers.
Third, we finally
discover how to compose the posture of surrender.
In passionate inwardness:
We give over ourselves.
We make the leap.
We submit ourselves.
We surrender.
After this transformation
takes place in our depths,
we will continue to seek better ways
to express it for others.
And as we gain deeper understandings
of the world and of ourselves,
we will continue to revise such forms
of expression.
We will be able to
continue to 'demythologize'
whatever expressions we used last year,
so that our new ways of expression
our passionate inwardness
remains consistent with whatever new
understandings
we gain of ourselves and of our world.
Collectively, this
process of re-expression can continue indefinitely.
As the centuries roll by,
the living persons who are experiencing
release from our Malaise
will find ever new ways of expressing
and explaining
what has happened to them in the deepest
levels of their beings.
Further Reading
Our
Existential Predicament: Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death
is the central text for this understanding
of existential spirituality.
It explores in depth our Existential
Malaise in 11 different ways:
existential loneliness, depression,
absurdity, meaninglessness,
void, anxiety, splitting, guilt, death,
despair, & insecurity.
And each chapter also explores the
process of existential change
from our Existential Dilemma to Existential
Freedom.
Opening
to Grace: Transcending Our Spiritual Malaise
is a much shorter version of Our
Existential Predicament.
And it uses some religious language
to explore these 8 perspectives:
spiritual loneliness, guilt, depression,
meaninglessness,
void, insecurity, despair, & anxiety.
Go to the Church of St. Soren .
Go to the Existential Spirituality index page.