Wonder: From Emotion to Spirituality

1. Introduction

1. Introduction Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.—socrates A lmost everyone i talk to these days describes him or herself as spiritual. Yet few have a very clear idea of what ‘‘being spiritual’’ really means. Most of us find it easier to use the word as vaguely as possible. This way we can get credit for being spiritual (which is assumed to be a good thing) without having to commit ourselves to any fixed set of ideas or practices. The problem is that it has become di≈cult to know just what does and doesn’t count for spirituality anymore. Some flexibility in defining what constitutes a spiritual outlook on life is surely appropriate. But this shouldn’t keep us from trying to understand what distinguishes a spiritual approach to life from its secular counterpart. Nor should our desire to respect individual di√erences in spirituality prevent us from developing criteria with which we might judge whether ‘‘being spiritual’’ really is such a good thing. This book explores the experience of wonder and argues that it is one of the defining elements of spirituality. My argument that wonder is a principal source of spirituality is both descriptive and normative . That is, I first draw on the natural and social sciences in order to describe how the emotion of wonder elicits belief in the existence of a more-than-physical reality. This descriptive part of my argument 2 introduction includes an overview of the role that wonder plays in stimulating intellectual, moral, and aesthetic growth over the course of the human life span. My second task is normative, but in a psychological rather than either theological or ethical way. That is, I use fairly standard measures of psychological health to show that a life shaped by wonder is qualitatively ‘‘better’’ than a life that is relatively devoid of this emotion. Specifically, I argue that the intellectual, moral, and aesthetic characteristics linked to wonder transform personal life in ways that are, on balance, consistent with the highest levels of psychological development. I further wish to defend the view that wonder not only is but also should be a principal source of personal spirituality. Wonder excites our ontological imagination in ways that enhance our capacity to seek deeper patterns in the universe. A life shaped by wonder is thus more likely to steer a middle course between a purely secular life and a narrowly religious life. On the one hand, wonder prompts us to diverge from a purely secular outlook on life. It entices us to entertain the possibility that our highest fulfillment might require adapting ourselves to a metaphysical reality. Yet, on the other hand, wonder encourages an open-ended or heuristic approach to life. It thus imbues personal spirituality with a fresh quality, making it unlikely that we will reduce our basic belief in the existence of something ‘‘more’’ to narrow doctrines or creeds. I am not attempting to reduce the whole of religion to the emotion of wonder. A wide variety of emotions play a role in personal religiosity. But if we define the word ‘‘spirituality’’ to mean a person’s motivation to align his or her life with some kind of ‘‘higher’’ order of existence, I am suggesting that we will evidence a vital and psychologically mature form of spirituality in direct proportion to the presence of wonder in our lives. Religion and the Emotions The attempt to identify the emotional sources of religion goes back to antiquity. Our modern, Western views on the topic can be traced back to the writings of the Moravian theologian Friedrich introduction 3 Schleiermacher (1764–1834). Born in a pietistic Christian community , Schleiermacher was among the first generation of Christian theologians to face the full brunt of the Enlightenment’s attack on biblical faith. The Enlightenment was an era of unprecedented faith in reason. The scientific discoveries of Kepler, Brahe, and Newton proved that the mysteries of the universe can be reduced to a precise and lawful order. Educated people were confident that scientific discoveries such as these would continue to lift the veil of human ignorance . Religion, because it was associated with ancient biblical writings that had no scientific support, paled by comparison to the era’s new intellectual outlook. Schleiermacher was acutely aware of the cultural rift developing between science and religion. He...