Sam Harris has a new book out. He's arguably our most prominent, prolific and articulate American atheist. The book is "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religion." Actually he's a bit late with this, since there have been numerous other books published in recent decades extolling the virtues of spirituality without religion and/or religion without God. But Harris is popular and has a large following, so what he writes will seem novel to those unfamiliar with the turf.

Harris' thesis is not novel, but in fact, quite familiar. Spirituality without religion be it Christianity, Judaism or Buddhism, to name a few is capable of construction. William James in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" more than a century ago catalogued ordinary mysticism, with or without religion. Stephen Batchelor has written brilliantly on "Buddhism without Beliefs" (anyway, Buddhism sidesteps the God issue). Thomas J. J. Altizer is dean of theologians who writes beyond "the death of God." There's lots on the market that dismisses the necessity of either God or religion as foundational for a spiritual life.

What's new is Harris' approach. He says he has given up riding his older hobbyhorse of criticizing organized religion. Now he wants to turn in a positive direction to assist those many people whom, we know, cannot quite find a way to fit into any organization. I applaud this move.

The sense of transcendence may occur in anyone's life. W. H. Auden, a mean thinker as well as an extraordinary poet, wrote of it as "the vision of Dame Kind," in which the universe seems to be integrated and fully alive and you become part of it, merge into it and lose all sense of separateness. Essayist farmer Wendell Berry has put this in an epithet: we are not apart from nature; we are a part of nature.

Feelings of transcendence may occur prior to any experience of, much less commitment to, a religious organization or set of teachings. In fact, in some religions, they have been discouraged because they are free for the taking and exist outside the framework of dogmatic teachings. They are "spiritual" in the sense Jesus meant when he spoke of the wind of God that blows where it wants and no one can control it.

Some churches have invalidated this entryway to the religious life. By insisting on a set of doctrines to be accepted as the threshold to the institution, we turn aside people who otherwise are thirsting and hungering for the depths that our traditions really do hold. So often we forget to tell people that doctrine is an invitation, not a barrier.

On the other hand, I don't find a great deal of comfort in the secular arena either. People who have experiences of transcendence are just as likely to feel embarrassed or timid or even fearful about sharing them at a pub as they are in a church, for fear of ridicule. Most secular settings rule out any discussion of spiritual matters, whether tied to an institution or not.

We need safe havens where people can explore experiences beyond their own small lives that bind them to the universal love or unity. Many people receive these cosmic nudges through science and we should underscore that science and religion do not have to be enemies. But if religious institutions are not going to provide these safe havens, then the culture will move to invent its own. Sam Harris is definitely onto a movement the beginnings of which we may be seeing right before us. The need clearly exists. Will religious institutions find ways to respond to the need that maintain integrity with their own traditions?

Fr. Gabriel Rochelle is pastor of St Anthony of the Desert Orthodox Mission. The church web site is stanthonylc.org.

Read the original here:

Paths of the Spirit: Finding a place for secular spirituality