Secular Spirituality

Can you be spiritual without being religious? Can you be rational and spiritual at the same time? Is there an ethical dimension to spirituality? Are science and spirituality in conflict? Or is "spiritual" not the best word we can find for the "experience?" Explore the challenging question of "spirituality" for Secular Humanistic Jews with clarity, insight and emotional power.

More than half of the people in the Western world lead secular lives. Many see themselves as non-religious. And many of these non-religious people see themselves as spiritual. Can you be spiritual without being religious? Can you be rational and spiritual at the same time? Is there an ethical dimension to spirituality? Do beauty and the arts fit into the spiritual experience? Are science and spirituality in conflict? Can we learn from the mysticism of the past? Do Zionism and Israel have a spiritual dimension? Is spiritual the best word we can find for the experience? Can a secular spirituality enrich my life? The International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism’s Colloquium ’01 explored the relevance of secular spirituality, its roots, progression over time, and expression in the arts, literature, and science. This volume offers the collected proceedings of this colloquium. Included are presentations by noted author Andre Aciman; Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism; Yaakov Malkin, founder of the first Jewish community center in Israel, and other scholars.

M. Bonnie Cousens is the Executive Director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, the congregational arm of Humanistic Judaism, and the Managing Editor of the journal Humanistic Judaism.