Justification
Chapter 3 in Thesis – On the Universal Meaning and Significance of Spirituality –
Why should we understand whether spirituality should be considered a vital dimension of human life? Before answering this question, a few words should be said on the meaning of the question itself. In this question, there are two important words to bear in mind, “universal” and “vital”. I have chosen the word vital because I am interested in whether and to what extent spirituality may be playing a vital function in human beings as we would say of heart functioning or cognitive functioning. I have chosen the word universal, because I am not just interested in the significance of spirituality in those who identify with or practice spirituality. I am interested in understanding spirituality in the context of universal human nature. In short, I have phrased the question as I have because I am interested in the relationship between spirituality and universal human nature, and by extension to what extent its functioning may be vital to human life universally. So, why is this question important to investigate?
The most central reason is that for the first time in history, we are seeing a major part of the human population who are either spiritual but not religious or neither spiritual nor religious (Funk & Smith, 2012; Pew Research Center, 2020). What this means, is that if spirituality is a vital and universal dimension of human life, then there is a big and growing population of people who are either lacking the cultural support for their vital spiritual needs, which religion traditionally provided – the spiritual but not religious – or people who are lacking both personal and cultural support for their vital spiritual needs – the neither spiritual nor religious -. These people are collectively known as the religiously unaffiliated or the “nones” in the literature and they are on the rise (Funk & Smith, 2012). In Europe these none’s make up a majority of the population (Pew Research Center, 2020) and in the US they are on the trajectory to do so in 2070 (Nadeem, 2022). It is therefore imperative that we understand whether spirituality should be considered a vital dimension of human life, so that we may understand the consequences of these demographic trends. This is especially true in a time where mental (Twenge et al., 2017; Evans et al., 2018) and ecological (Sato & Lindenmayer, 2017; Brüggemeier, 2001) health cries are rampant and threatening the survival of our species as well as other species (Ripple et al., 2017). In such a time we are in dire need of exploring the potential causes of our ailments. Exploring the universal importance of spirituality for human life is indeed such an exploration and it is not just a shot in the dark in the space of all possible causes. From the early cave painters to the modern day religion, spirituality has always and everywhere been a base fact of human culture (M. J. Winkelman, 2010; Stutley, 2002; Brown, 1991), until now. It is only reasonable to hypothesize that removing a fundamental dimension of human culture, such as spirituality, may contribute to the fundamental crises it is facing. Therefore, the rationale behind this thesis is first and foremost that we must understand the effects that spiritual decline may be having on western culture.
However, this thesis is not only written in the spirit of preventing the bad, it is also written to promote the good. Beyond being an answer to the research question, this thesis is more generally speaking, a treatment on the universal meaning and significance of spirituality. As we will see in the discussion of this paper, understanding this universal meaning and significance of spirituality may hold great implications for the future and for the people within it. To understand why, consider this. If spirituality is indeed a universal and vital dimension of human life, and if indeed we have seen a cultural neglect of this dimension in western culture, then there may not only be much to heal by addressing it, there may also be much to develop. What promise might this development hold? In this paper, it will be argued that we are currently witnessing a spiritual renaissance which is bringing about an integration of the collective spiritual knowledge of history, an increasing prioritization of spirituality in western culture and to a time of spiritual growth which may potentially lead to what may be called the spiritual golden ages. This developmental prospect does not mean much without understanding the meaning and significance of spirituality and without arguing for the likelihood of this potential future direction. How can we understand what it means to integrate spiritual knowledge if we do not understand what spirituality means? How can we understand what a spiritual golden age looks like if we do not understand the meaning and spirituality? How can we even entertain such a possible future, if we do not know if spirituality is important and whether it is a universal feature of human nature like our thoughts and feelings? These are but a few of the questions which need answering to understand what a bright spiritual future might look like and whether it would be desirable to bring it about. Before we have answers to these questions we can’t say much. What we can say is that spirituality does appear to have been a centrally prioritized dimension of life throughout history, so as we come to understand its meaning and significance, it is not unlikely that it will become so for ourselves. And if it does become a central priority of western culture, then neither is it unlikely that modernity may bring about unprecedented heights of spiritual development as it has with so many other spheres of development. In other words, it is not unlikely that it will bring us the spiritual equivalent of nuclear power and the worldwide web. For these reasons, the rationale of this thesis indeed extends beyond the prevention of the bad, to the promotion of the good.
Author – Sagi Andersen