The terms ‘spiritual aspirations,’ ‘spiritual laws,’ and ‘spiritual realities’ are key concepts in the writings of Sir John Templeton. In this glossary, the initiators of The Enhancing Life Project provide a provisional and more nuanced definition of these concepts. One purpose of the Project is to expand and test these ideas as well as generating new concepts needed for enhancing life.
A counter-world is a reality that manifests a distinction between present conditions and possible states of affairs. They function to instigate processes of transformation of life. Counter-worlds may be found in religion and the religious imagination, but also, for instance, in media narratives, cultural ideologies, social ideals, and visions of technological enhancement. Counter-worlds can be designed as utopias or dystopias. Accordingly, they can function for the enhancement of life, but also be used, implicitly or explicitly, to distort and endanger life.
Aspirations are drives to imagine, understand and bring about a condition of reality not yet manifest. By spiritual is meant the interrelation of three elements: i) a power that is driving a living reality, ii) a structuring and orienting dynamic, and iii) a process of emergence that leads to the stable condition of a complex reality not being reducible to its parts. Spiritual dynamics are directed towards the enhancement of life, yet are also open to distortion in ways that endanger life. Within the dynamic interdependence of the three elements just mentioned, spiritual aspirations accentuate the element of a transformative dynamic or power that is driving a living reality. Spiritual aspirations may be found in, but also exceed, the realm of religion and religious reasoning. Hence, spiritual aspirations may also be found, for example, in legal transformations, economic and media developments, and social dynamics.
Laws are rules and measures of living things for structuring individual and social life. Laws can be implicitly embedded in action, but can also be deliberately used and even altered for orienting a form of life. By spiritual is meant the interrelation of three elements: i) a power that is driving a living reality, ii) a structuring and orienting dynamic, and iii) a process of emergence that leads to the stable condition of a complex reality not being reducible to its parts. Spiritual dynamics are directed towards the enhancement of life, yet are also open to distortion in ways that endanger life. Within the dynamic interdependence of the three elements just mentioned, spiritual laws accentuate the element of structuring and orienting life. Spiritual laws may be found in, but also exceed, the realm of religion and religious reasoning. Hence, spiritual laws may also be found, for example, in psychological formations, communication processes, and biological dynamics. They can be intertwined with, but at the same time reach beyond patterns in natural processes.
Life is a dynamic reality structured by various interactions of organism and environment in terms of basic needs and correlate goods required for a process of life to flourish. Processes of life can be individual and social, human and non-human. By spiritual is meant the interrelation of three elements: i) a power that is driving a living reality, ii) a structuring and orienting dynamic, and iii) a process of emergence that leads to the stable condition of a complex reality not being reducible to its parts. Spiritual dynamics are directed towards the enhancement of life, yet are also open to distortion in ways that endanger life. The term “spiritual life” is meant to capture this dynamic interdependence and integration of the three elements just mentioned and thus points towards a “thick” understanding of life that transcends classical academic boundaries and reductionist approaches. Spiritual life thus is not a special (e.g. religious) kind of life “above” natural life, but life as a complex reality, encompassing cultural, religious, and social dimensions intertwined with, but not reducible to with biological processes.
Something real consists of a distinct and complex condition that resists and interacts with its environments. By spiritual is meant the interrelation of three elements: i) a power that is driving a living reality, ii) a structuring and orienting dynamic, and iii) a process of emergence that leads to the stable condition of a complex reality not being reducible to its parts. Spiritual dynamics are directed towards the enhancement of life, yet are also open to distortion in ways that endanger life. Within the dynamic interdependence of the three elements just mentioned, spiritual realities accentuate the element of an emergent relatively stable condition non reducible to its parts. Spiritual realities may be found in, but also exceed, the realm of religion and religious reasoning. Hence, spiritual realities may also be found, for example, in the arts, technological advances, and political formations.
The following is a sampling of other online resources related to enhancing life. Feel free to write to us with further suggestions!
The Divinity School, The University of Chicago
Theology Faculty, Ruhr-University - Bochum
The Center for Health and the Social Sciences, The University of Chicago
Center for International Studies, The University of Chicago