Who is a Spiritual Rationalist?

As far as I know, I'm the only person who calls himself a “Spiritual Rationalist.” About a year ago, I described the tenets of “Spiritual Rationalism in my blog post, The Philosophy of Heather Manning. In that post, I organized S.R. into 10 separate planks.

However, I didn't believe - and still don't believe - that a “Spiritual Rationalist” must believe in all 10 planks. Rather, my intention was to organize Heather’s personal version of S.R as described in The Mustard Seed. After all, S.R. is a philosophy of individualism and creativity which - by definition - could never have the dogma of an organized religion. And besides, dogma would severely limit its appeal.

Having said all that, I do think that a “Spiritual Rationalist” should have the following 3 qualities…

1) Respect for Reality and a commitment to using Reason to master Reality

2) Acceptance of the spiritual element to Life, and finding pleasure in that element

3) A conviction that it is appropriate, and indeed beneficial, to use Reason to understand Spirituality

That’s it. Just those 3 things. Everything else is commentary.

Who can be a Spiritual Rationalist?

*She can be a member of an organized religion (such as Christianity or Islam) as long as she thinks that Revelation is an aid to Reason instead of a substitute for Reason (i.e, anyone who isn't a fundamentalist).

*She can be a Darwinist.

Who CAN’T be a Spiritual Rationalist?

* She can't believe that Religion and Reason belong to separate spheres that shouldn’t overlap (i.e., someone like Dr. Francis Collins)

* She can't believe that Reality is an illusion (i.e, most Buddhists)

*She can't be an agnostic who is leans more towards atheism than theism (i.e., someone like Arthur C. Clarke)

With that in mind, here’s a list of historical figures who I think would probably qualify as “Spiritual Rationalists…”

Philosophers:

Aristotle

Rene Descartes

Francis Bacon

John Locke

Charles de Montesquieu

Adam Smith

Politicians:

Thomas Jefferson

Ben Franklin

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

Writers:

Thomas Paine

Samuel Johnson

Scientists:

Albert Einstein

Alfred Wallace

Mystics:

Rudolf Steiner

Emanuel Swedenborg

Businessmen:

John Templeton

Other Possibilities:

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Philosopher

Albert Schweitzer, Philosopher

David Bohm, Scientist

Freeman Dyson, Scientist

This is surely an incomplete list, and I will add to it as time goes on. And if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Also, I’d like to begin a series in which I go into detail about each of these person’s philosophical and spiritual beliefs (like I did with Alfred Wallace). So stay tuned!