The Human Core Of Spirituality

For anyone seriously interested in spirituality, this book presents a highly elaborated challenge to religion, the human sciences, and secular society. The author provides a relatively popular presentation of the work of Bernard Lonergan.

For anyone seriously interested in spirituality, this book presents a highly elaborated challenge to religion, the human sciences, and secular society. The author provides a relatively popular presentation of the work of Bernard Lonergan.

Proposes a new paradigm for interdisciplinary studies by applying the thought of Bernard Lonergan to define spirituality as the missing link between religion and theology.

A constructive critique of neuropsychological research on human consciousness and religious experience that applies the thought of Bernard Lonergan. Brain, Consciousness, and God is a constructive critique of neuroscientific research on human consciousness and religious experience. An adequate epistemology—a theory of knowledge—is needed to address this topic, but today there exists no consensus on what human knowing means, especially regarding nonmaterial realities. Daniel A. Helminiak turns to twentieth-century theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan’s breakthrough analysis of human consciousness and its implications for epistemology and philosophy of science. Lucidly summarizing Lonergan’s key ideas, Helminiak applies them to questions about science, psychology, and religion. Along with Lonergan, eminent theorists in consciousness studies and neuroscience get deserved detailed attention. Helminiak demonstrates the reality of the immaterial mind and, addressing the Cartesian “mind-body problem,” explains how body and mind could make up one being, a person. Human consciousness is presented not only as awareness of objects, but also as self-presence, the self-conscious experience of human subjectivity, a spiritual reality. Lonergan’s analyses allow us to say exactly what “spiritual” means, and it need have nothing to do with God. “This book makes a seminal contribution to the psychology of religion and is on the cutting edge of the growing interest in the spiritual dimensions of human beings. Daniel Helminiak writes knowledgeably about neurobiology, psychotherapy, philosophy, and even psychedelic experience. His chapter on the ‘God’ concept is a tour de force and worth the price of the entire book. Once I started this book, I could barely put it down.” — Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University “This is an amazing book. It is both lucid and brilliant. Deeply informed by Bernard Lonergan’s systematic treatment of human knowing as a composite of experience, understanding, and judgment, Daniel Helminiak masterfully places study of spirituality within the self-transcending dimension of the human mind and in so doing differentiates and interrelates neuroscience, psychology, spirituality, and theology.” — Ralph W. Hood, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga “In this book, magnificently and comprehensively Helminiak struggles toward an integrated perspective on the unfolding of the universe. Focused on humanity, his topic is actually the origins and dynamics of human yearning. As best he can, he meets contemporary theorists on their own ground and repeatedly nudges their thinking toward a more coherent position. The result cuts both ways. It challenges students of Lonergan who underappreciate natural and social processes, and it challenges natural and social scientists who seek a science of mind while subtly sidestepping their inquiring selves. Yet Helminiak presents only a seedling. Its full bloom would be Lonergan’s new, global, omnidisciplinary science, envisaged in Method. It does, indeed, qualify as Patricia Churchland’s sought ‘real humdinger of a solution.’” — Philip McShane, author of Randomness, Statistics and Emergence “Intense, yet lucidly clear, this work by Daniel Helminiak provides a sequel to Michael H. McCarthy’s The Crisis of Philosophy. Helminiak turns a laser on the crisis and not only exposes significant counterpositions, but also offers a solution using the intellectual epistemology of Bernard Lonergan. Worth a read by anyone seeking real explanation rather than mere description, this work invites readers to be weaned from picture-thinking to claim the reality of their intelligence, whatever their field.” — Carla Mae Streeter, Aquinas Institute of Theology

Is there a difference between religion and spirituality? Yes, certainly, yet when you study it closely, you find it similar to the difference between all religions, all spiritual schools of thought, and all ideologies in general. But are religion and spirituality ideologies? Are they only sets of beliefs, or they contain higher knowledge, even in an equal amount? There is a continuous debate in this area, as what religion is true or what spiritual school of thought is better, or if it is better to be part of a religion or a school of thought. Yet what we seek throughout this study is to avoid all debates, only to be able to find all answers from a comprehensive perspective. What is religion? What is spirituality? What is the difference between religion and spirituality? And what exactly is meaningful to consider in both religion and spirituality from a higher perspective? It is important to form a cognitive model capable to sustain both religion and spirituality in a single study and explanation, and this is exactly what this book does. Yet it feels impossible, since there is no other study to have ever succeeded in finding the ultimate explanation, the ultimate higher truth in this world, and to do so from a rigorous, comprehensive perspective. Or if there was, then you could finally see the end of all religious debates, conflicts, discrimination, and holly wars. Yet holly wars have material, social, and national interests many times, and cannot hold higher meaning. But what exactly stops you from understanding religion and spirituality for what they truly are? Are there specific beliefs in this world or in any ideology condemning religion, spirituality, or both? And if you could ever be able to approach and understand religion and spirituality in one cognitive model, how would you structure it, and what ultimate truth would you expect to learn? Is this even possible, for humans, through the human nature, with the human status, and through the human development, to accomplish a cognitive model for religion and spirituality? Are humans even allowed to do so, to think freely, and to use their reasoning in order to understand religion and spirituality? Wasn’t this how the famous first couple got in trouble, by attempting to distinguish between good and evil on their own, in order to gain their own authority, control, management, and therefore freedom? And yet, isn’t freedom the most treasured human achievement? Throughout this book, we model the human condition, meaning, and experience here and in the wider world, explaining everything related to your wider existence, higher self, and higher meaning in life and in the wider world, in order to achieve a true understanding, a spiritual pathway, and a harmonious development and fulfillment in life and in the wider world.

This textbook is a systematic guide to the extensive field of spirituality. Kees Waaijman charts the multiform phenomenon of spirituality: the spirituality of ordinary people, the great spiritual traditions and the force of counter-movements. From the foundation of this survey he answers questions like: What exactly is spirituality? What forms can a scholarly approach take? Finally, the book provides methodic access to the study of spirituality, focusing on the following questions: Which are the different forms of spirituality and how can we describe them? How can spiritual texts be given a reliable reading? Which themes can be distinguished in the field of spirituality and what would be a meaningful way to address them? What do we mean by spiritual guidance and what can we learn from it? This textbook has no equal. It is indispensable to scholars wishing to study the subject, but also to others who want to learn about spirituality.

Proposes a new paradigm for interdisciplinary studies by applying the thought of Bernard Lonergan to define spirituality as the missing link between religion and theology.

This book provides a new introduction to the study of Christian spirituality, exploring it through the human sciences and ranging from philosophy and hermeneutics to psychology, history, sociology and anthropology. Systematic and progressive, it introduces the key approaches and shows how they relate to the understanding, study and practice of spirituality. Covering a vast amount of ground - from traditional themes such as images of God, spiritual direction and pilgrimage to more contemporary issues, such as place and space, cyberspace and postcolonialism - the author takes an ecumenical, inclusive stance, allowing the book to be used in a wide variety of courses and across denominations.