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What will future historians and cultural anthropologists have to say about Western Civilization at the turn of the new millennium? If history has already ended, as Fukuyama continues to assert, they will of course have precious little to say. However, given the fact that, for better or for worse, we are still living within time…
Although readers may have seen advertisements for books or brief announcements about the Spiritual Transformation Project (STP; 2002-2005) developed by Dr. Sol Katz, this issue of the Global Spiral intends a fuller acquaintance. It includes an overview of the project, book reviews, chapters from two of its resulting publications, and two original papers, based on ideas…
The John Templeton Foundation first funded the Metanexus Institute to develop and conduct a program of scientific research focused on spiritual transformation (STP). In July 2001, at the formal beginnings of the Metanexus Institute, we accepted the challenge of extending the already developed constructive dialogue between religion and science into a newly emergent field, hypothesis-driven,…
Nikos Kazantzakis in Report to Greco describes the process of evolution as the result of a divine creative activity. He personifies this activity as a “Cry.”1 Blowing through heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath—a great Cry—which we call God. Plant life wished to…
Despite the growing discussion about science-spirituality relationships, there remains many problems in integrating spirituality and scientific knowledge. This debate has often been characterized by radicalism and mutual denial. As another consequence of the contemporary emphasis on rationality and empirically based knowledge, building a strong and acceptable base to support the spiritual aspect of life as…
Q: Why do dogs lick their genitals? A: Because they can. As with all jokes, this one is a bait and switch. We were expecting a motive and got a de-constraint instead. The question led us to think about the dog’s ends (no pun intended), and instead we’re shunted to consideration of the dog’s means….
What is this European original foundational spiritual idea that precedes even Christianity? Simply this: a commitment to theoria, the theoretical life which in its Greek etymology means the contemplative or reflective life in all its various aspects: the philosophical, the scientific, the aesthetic; in short the primacy of a holistic life of contemplation. All this…
The physical world is throbbing with activity. Nothing ever remains the same. Change is the one pervasive feature in the universe. This inescapable fact has been recognized from the most ancient times. The Heraclitan phrase that all is flux and nothing is stationary has its echo in the thoughts and reflections of thinkers in other…
A couple of weeks ago Jared Diamond, of Guns, Germs and Steel fame, had an article in the New Yorker describing tribal warfare in the New Guinea Highlands. Diamond takes us through a typical feud that started over accusations by one tribe that another tribe’s pig had messed up their garden. He follows Daniel, a…
In his Philosophical Discourse on Modernity Jurgen Habermas attributes the failure of the Enlightenment to the intrusion of foreign elements which derailed its original program of full human emancipation. He finds nothing wrong with the project itself, aside from the fact that it was prematurely abandoned for a romantic return to some form of pseudo-religion,…