Daniel A. Helminiak - Philosophical Views

Philosophical Views

Taking Lonergan seriously, Helminiak used his analysis of consciousness or human spirit to develop a theory of spirituality that centers in humanity and only subsequently and optionally, although naturally, opens onto questions of God and human relationship and possible union with God. This humanistic emphasis is the uniqueness of Helminiak's psychology of spirituality, which claims to depict the spiritual core that runs through all religions and cultures. Helminiak's two-volume technical study, The Human Core of Spirituality and Religion and the Human Sciences, provides the most detailed elaboration of this theory.

It offers a coherent Western alternative to prevalent understandings of spirituality based on Eastern philosophy. Whereas Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologies see God most fundamentally as Creator and, perforce, see all else—including human consciousness or spirit—as created and, therefore, not divine, Eastern thought tends to obscure the distinction between the spiritual and the divine and holds that, "deep down inside" and purified of all earthly attachment, humanity really is divinity. Such is the intent of the Hindu axiom, "Atman is Brahman", and the Vedic lesson, "That thou art."

Western thinking insists that, although God is spiritual, all that is spiritual is not thereby God. Creator and creature, the Uncreated and the created, are defined by relationship to each other. By sheer dint of logic, the created cannot be or become the Uncreated; they cannot be one and the same. Moreover, the Uncreated cannot come in parts or degrees—for example, a supposed "spark of divinity" or a human status of "somewhat" or "still imperfectly" divine. Genesis 1:27 does allow that God created humankind in the divine "image and likeness", that is, in some way God-like: spiritual. Christianity elaborates this theme to explain the possibility of human divinization: through the saving work of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit poured into human hearts, humankind can actually achieve the furthest possible fulfillment of the human spirit and come to share in certain qualities that are proper to God alone, for example, understanding of everything about everything, and universal love; but humankind cannot share in God's eternal, uncreated being.

Thus, both East and West conceive of human union with God but explain it in significantly different ways. These matters are subtle and difficult, and the technically precise distinctions might not always have immediate practical consequences. That is to say, the religions of the East and the West have served and, for the most part, continue to serve their adherents well. However, the unavoidable pluralism of twenty-first-century globalization demands that at some level a spiritual consensus be forged. This is the theme of Helminiak's Spirituality for Our Global Community. This enterprise calls for the precision of a science. Then the above named distinctions become crucial.

Only an epistemology or philosophy of science adequate to spiritual reality could manage the subtleties. Many believe that Lonergan has finally provided the requisite epistemology, and Helminiak uses it both to differentiate the human and the divine within spirituality and to interrelate them. That is, he interrelates psychology, spirituality, and theology and thus presents a logically coherent and comprehensive understanding of spirituality. It requires no appeal to paradox as, for example, Ken Wilber adamantly does in his "perennial philosophy" and "Integral Studies." Helminiak's elaboration of the human core of spirituality becomes the lynchpin of the overall interdisciplinary, scientific project.

Influenced by Eastern thought, constrained by personal religious beliefs, overly deferential to popular piety in the West, and thus hard pressed to conceive of spirituality apart from God or some such metaphysical principle—in psychological circles, for example, it is cryptically called "the Sacred"—Western theologians and secular psychologists alike criticize Helminiak's theory. In contrast and in line with Lonergan's groundbreaking work, Helminiak appeals to the long-standing Christian axiom, "Grace builds on nature", and sees his psychology of spirituality, without prejudice to theology or religion, as an elaboration of the nature on which grace builds. This tack represents another step in the explanatory advance of science from physics to chemistry, to biology, to psychology, and now to spirituality. It represents the possibility of integrating contemporary science and traditional theology to actually explain spiritual sensitivity, practices, and experiences. Helminiak's Meditation without Myth is a popularized and practical introduction to these matters.

In addition to the demands of his scientific mind and his long-standing commitment to "the things of God", a number of life experiences stoked Helminiak's thinking about spirituality from a non-theological perspective: his expertise in both theology and psychology, which allowed him to recognize and resolve the differences and interrelationship between these two fields; his moving in secular social-scientific circles, no longer in professional religious ones; his pained concern for lesbian and gay people and others rejected by religion, who might deaden the sensitivity of their souls in the wake of their own rejection of religion and God; his employment at a state university, which requires non-sectarian scholarship; and post-9/11, the ever more urgent need to structure a harmonious global community, independent yet respectful of diverse religions and cultures. Those concerns run through Helminiak's teaching, lecturing, and writing and have led to a string of publications. In addition to 36 peer-reviewed papers and scores of other technical and popular articles, book reviews, and essays, Helminiak has published the following books: