Spirituality, spiritual sensibility and human growth

David Carr

doi:10.1007/s11153-017-9638-x

Abstract

While notions of spirituality, spiritual experience and spiritual development seem much neglected in the literature of modern analytical philosophy, such terminology continues to be current in both common usage and religious contexts. This author has previously taken issue with some recent attempts to develop (educational and other professional) conceptions of spirituality and spiritual experience as substantially independent of religious attachment. Notwithstanding this, the present paper considers whether such a ‘religiously-untethered’ notion of spirituality, spiritual experience or sensibility might yet be sustainable in terms of two key criteria: (1) as a capacity for non-instrumental perspectives on, or interpretations of, the world of ordinary experience; and (2) as a corresponding capacity to identify goals and values that transcend or are not reducible to the meeting of immediate natural or material—either individual or social—needs.

Highlights

While notions of spirituality, spiritual experience and spiritual development seem much neglected in the literature of modern analytical philosophy, such terminology continues to be current in both common usage and religious contexts
The present paper considers whether such a ‘religiously-untethered’ notion of spirituality, spiritual experience or sensibility might yet be sustainable in terms of two key criteria: (1) as a capacity for non-instrumental perspectives on, or interpretations of, the world of ordinary experience; and (2) as a corresponding capacity to identify goals and values that transcend or are not reducible to the meeting of immediate natural or material—either individual or social—needs
It is the main aim of this paper to explore the sense or coherence of an all-purpose conception of spirituality or spiritual sensibility that has wider human significance than the religious

Summary

University of Birmingham

Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (Harvard): Carr, D 2017, 'Spirituality, spiritual sensibility and human growth', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-017-9638-x

Keywords Spirituality Á Religion Á Virtue Á Sensibility Á Narrative

Normative and developmental dimensions of spirituality

The narrative form of spiritual normativity

Narrative and truth