The Human Core of Spirituality: Mind as Psyche and Spirit

Spirituality has recently become an acceptable topic of popular discussion outside of religious circles -- in psychology, medicine, nursing, social work, education, politics, philosophy. Yet most discussions of spirituality are loose and merely suggestive. Moreover, the frequent implication of God and differing religions complicates and befuddles this already difficult topic. My book sorts out these issues. The basic argument is that spirituality is a human thing, grounded in the very make-up of the human being. To be sure, most spirituality expresses itself through religious belief and pious practice. Still, in essence, spirituality can be treated apart from religion and theology -- and it ought to be, if a coherent and accurate understanding of spirituality is the goal. And this is the goal of my book. This is also what our contemporary world needs. Part I teases apart the theological and the human facets of the matter and, bracketing the theological temporarily, focuses attention on the human. Part II explains what human spirit is and how its unbounded unfolding grounds spirituality. Part III elaborates human psyche and shows how, for better or worse, psychological issues affect the functioning of the human spirit. And Part IV says what characterizes fully healthy humanity -- on-going personal integration that is ever respectful of the self-transcending dynamism of the human spirit. A discussion of sexuality summarizes the book. This discussion provides an extended example of what spiritual integration would actually mean and also indicates what difference it would make to bring God back into the picture. Such an approach calls the religions to open their eyes to what they all share in common and to stop contributing, through interdenominational bickering, to the fragmentation of the human family. Such an approach calls social science to take seriously the universal human realities that it has for too long ignored as "religious." And such an approach calls contemporary communities and nations to attend to the spiritual issues that undergird any human society, whether religious or secular.