Wonder: From Emotion to Spirituality

9. Wonder, Emotion, and the Religious Sensibility

9. Wonder, Emotion, and the Religious Sensibility The philosopher neutralizes his wonder in ideal knowledge, while the religious person abides in that wonder.—martin buber T he religion editor of a midwestern newspaper recently pondered over what Christmas really meant to him. He felt restless as the holidays approached. He knew that he was looking for something, but he was not quite sure what: That’s when I realized what I was looking for. Wonder. I don’t mean wonder as in, ‘‘I wonder how in the heck I am going to get everything done in the next five days.’’ I mean the wonder I felt when my bare foot hit the cold carpet as I got out of bed Christmas morning. The wonder of 500 candles glowing as our church sings ‘‘Silent Night.’’ The wonder of angels swarming the sky, informing a few midnight wanderers their world had changed forever. Wonder doesn’t do well in the information age. . . . I’ve got way too much information. What I lack is mystery, which is where wonder comes from. . . . The Christmas story is one of wonder. . . . Whatever one makes of it, it’s a moving, mysterious lesson [that rekindles] the wonder that makes a child’s eyes wide and a grownup gasp.∞ 136 religious sensibility The author of this column, Charles Honey, draws attention to the fact that the myths, doctrines, and rituals of religion—whatever else one makes of them—elicit the experience of wonder. It might even be argued that one of religion’s most important functions is to rekindle the wonder that makes a child’s eyes wide and a grownup gasp. This book has drawn on several academic disciplines to describe the origin and function of wonder in human lives. Evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, and historical biography all support the claim that wonder shapes our lives in ways that are broadly spiritual in nature. The words ‘‘religion’’ and ‘‘spirituality’’ are being used interchangeably here, referring to humanity’s recurring urge to find greater wholeness by connecting with some reality understood to be more than physical. We have seen, for example, that experiences of wonder prompt us to search for the source of unexpected displays of beauty, order, or vitality in ‘‘something more.’’ In the words of theologian John E. Smith, experiences that give occasion for wonder ‘‘call forth the sense that beyond and beneath our life is a holy ground.’’≤ Wonder is thus a stimulus to metaphysical thought. Moreover , it motivates sustained engagement with the world around us. It unleashes our capacities for creative activity and for caring for others in their own right. We should therefore expect a close association between the emotion of wonder and religion. We should also expect that many of us, like Charles Honey, approach religion looking for an infusion of this transforming emotion. A descriptive analysis of the role of wonder in shaping human lives leads inevitably to a series of questions that become increasingly di≈cult to answer on descriptive grounds alone: What is the role of emotion in generating a religious orientation to life? How do different discrete emotions a√ect either the truth or the value of religious beliefs? How does a religious outlook shaped by wonder di√er from a religious outlook rooted in other emotions? What forms of religion seem to hamper the expression of wonder? Would we humans be better o√, as biologist Richard Dawkins suggests, if we restrained the tendency of wonder to align itself with religion and instead redirected it to scientific pursuits? Put di√erently, how can we religious sensibility 137 assess whether wonder guides us to mature and productive relations with the surrounding world? These may be questions that do not have definitive answers. Yet Charles Honey is right. Religion—whatever one makes of it—is something we turn to when we yearn to rekindle the experience of wonder. It would seem, then, that an informed exploration of the connection between emotion, wonder, and humanity’s religious sensibility is warranted even if definitive answers elude us. Religion and Emotion The first chapter of this book o√ered a brief sketch of scholarly discussions of the relationship between religion and emotion. Sigmund Freud, for example, claimed that religion is generated by the emotions of fear, dependency, and guilt. He pointed out that humans find themselves defenseless before the terrors of nature. Disease, natural disasters, and impending death...