Spirituality is explained differently by numerous scholars belonging to different epochs and periods. Some describe it as "the human response to God's gracious call to a relationship with himself “(Zinnbauer et al., 1997); nowadays there is a tendency to affiliate spirituality to individual phenomenon and define as “personal transcendence, supra-conscious sensitivity, and meaningfulness “(Zinnbauer et al., 1997). Mentioned definitions can be true, yet, what matters is the angle one looks at.
This paper aims to tackle different associations and definitions of the term spirituality. Furthermore, it looks at the interconnection between the notions of scientism, postmodernism along with the pluralism in regards to the spirituality. It is essentially interesting to find out how various dimensions combine and/or influence one another, and more importantly, the spirituality that modern individuals possess. Is there any need for it when one has a god on one hand and on the other the science? Can we handle the life without it or it is part of us, humans?
History of Spirituality
The emergence of such phenomenon is primarily linked to the value shift that dates back to the epoch of Renaissance when a Christian worldview was largely replaced by human-centered one and humanistic way of life was positively acknowledged. Since the 14th century, the humankind sees a major transformation in values and surfaces the first signs of individualism and modern human and detachment from irrational beliefs to a certain degree. However, before turning into a modern human, the humankind shall go through various obstacles and challenges on the way to their development and another transformation; (Rosado, 2000, p.7).
20th century and thereafter events of WWII brought dramatic changes in the value system of humans, namely, humanism prevailed over other virtues at the time. The changes were overwhelmingly positive and beneficial for humans' further development. For example, the "humanistic materialism and naturalism in science" were deemed as high protector of Homo sapiens. The advancement of nuclear power and more importantly, the progress in astronomy and cosmology resulted in sending a human to space that made humans rethink the role of the convenient belief in god and to seek the solution in the science. The process of secularization rapidly emerged in the 60s leaving behind the notion of god and some scientists even predicted the “death of God”, however, they were wrong about it as we now may see it. During the next two decades, materialism and greed were prevailing causing the damage of the environment. Soon after, the consequences of the materialism and greed were acknowledged, throughout the next decade humans started to switch to spirituality and so-called eco movements were gradually popping up (Rosado, 2000, p.7).
Interestingly, 21st century brought a holistic spirituality that is largely about social connection and recognition of our reliance on the environment we are part of. This discovery was caused by two major factors: 1st, development of the technology enabled people to be connected with one another and remain updated about the events happening across the globe. The second factor is about the acknowledgment of the fact that scientific materialism that initially was deemed to be a supporter of the humankind, ended up being the cause of connection breakdown between the humans and ecosystem and ‘the eternal other’. Positively, newly emerged worldview otherwise called as” global consciousness” incorporated humans, ecosystem, and every leaving creature, that embraces “holistic—and very biblical—view of life” which has a great influence on humans spiritual 'other' (Rosado, 2000, p.8).
Interestingly, 21 century’s humans and their attitude towards science is still complex; since all the achievements science has brought to the humankind or to be precise, humankind brought the science on the surface of everything but not above all and answered the questions before left unanswered or partially answered by the irrational beliefs (the phenomenon of god or gods); although the latter is rather subjective conclusion, since for believers the Bible either Koran or other largely if not fully covers the mystery of unresolved existential questions. The question is why the science still lags behind in being superior, while it is exceptionally rational and fact-based? How come irrational thinking is closer to the human’s minds than something that can be proved? Is there overlap between these two cases, when one may easily overturn the other? Perhaps, the humankind still needs an incentive for a good conduct so moral, since the reward ‘sold’ by every major religion is indeed appealing, the afterlife. Can we strive and remain good without imagining the paradise? Or perhaps we humans are extremely pragmatic and behave well because we are afraid of punishment or because we imagine the paradise, or both. By looking at the past, it is exceptionally important to realize that if not pluralism the troubles humans faced due to a different religion and in a broad sense cultures would have been far dramatic and even these days, pluralism is the cornerstone of democratic values so frequently praised by the West.
Pluralism has its roots in the ancient Greece, underlining the long history of acceptance of differences in terms of ethnicity, religion, and culture. "The philosophers Democritus and Epicurus posited a plurality of worlds. The historians Herodotus and Xenophon emphasized the cultural differences between Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians" (Norman, p.1). The pluralism has been accepted positively by the ancient civilization and it occurred long before than the Christianity was introduced to the humankind. With the spread of Christianity some contradictions emerged, since, the ‘true’ god is only one (here is meant the god of Christians and Jews, not Mohamed or others) and it does not tolerate the devotion to the others. One should not pray for different gods instead accept and pray to one god that is the Jesus Christ and/or father of Jesus. Indeed, the genesis of Old Testament’s first sentence says: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (The Holy Bible). Thus, we see that there is an abstract god and its two initial creations, one material-earth and another quite the opposite and some may call it spiritual. By introducing the Christianity that does not tolerate human’s devotion to the other gods except of the ‘Christians’ one, creates imbalance with earlier accepted pluralism. While presenting the notion of the heaven that is not backed by the science but even opposed, emerges another contradiction in perceiving the surrealism as realism. Even the idea of god was never backed by the science since it has rational explanations of human’s creation and questions the irrational beliefs as such.
Conclusion
As a last note, it can be said that spirituality is something owned by humans irrelevant to their religion or ethnicity or any other cultural differences.
References
Norman, R., the Idea of Pluralism in the United States.
Hyatt, J. P. (1949). The Westminster Study Edition of the Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments in the Authorized (King James) Version. Journal of Biblical Literature, 68(1), 80. doi:10.2307/3261564
Rosaldo, C., (2000). Memetics, Quantum Mechanics, and the Spiral of Spirituality. Eastern University/Philadelphia
Zinnbauer, B. J., Pargament, K. I., Cole, B., Rye, M. S., Butter, E. M., Belavich, T. G., . . .Kadar, J. L. (1997). Religion and Spirituality: Unfuzzying the Fuzzy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36(4), 549. doi:10.2307/1387689
