Daniel A. Helminiak

Self-Esteem, Sexual Self-Acceptance, and Spirituality

The relatively recent scientific study of sexuality gives rise to an even newer concern: the relationship of sexuality and spirituality. This article attempts to clarify that link by consideration of another relationship, that between sexual self-acceptance and self-esteem. Sexual self-acceptance refers to comfort with ones body as a sexually responsive organism. Self-esteem refers to ones level of satisfaction with oneself. Spirituality is defined psychologically, apart from theological presuppositions, and is related to the authentic development of ones human potential. The argument is that acceptance of ones sexuality is critical for positive self-esteem, that self-esteem is a prerequisite for postconventional development, and that such development is synonymous with spiritual development. Literature dealing with handicapped people, sex education programs, and homosexuality is cited to legitimate the link between sexual self-acceptance and self-esteem. Intimations follow, but no firm conclusions. T...

Neurology, psychology, and extraordinary religious experiences

Temporal lobe epilepsy and certain personality disorders often result in experiences described as “religious.” TLE research suggests a possible neurological basis for such experiences. Immediately the question arises about the authenticity of these experiences as religious. An experience is authentic if it furthers the authentic growth of the subject, regardless of what triggered it. So pathology may occasion authentic religious experiences, even as history exemplifies. For practical purposes, the further question about God in religious experience is secondary. The exception, miraculous occurrences, should not be granted without sufficient reason. This approach dissolves all conflict between science and faith.

Non-religious lesbians and gays facing AIDS: A fully psychological approach to spirituality

Treatments of spirituality among HIV-positive lesbians and gays overlook the people who do not believe in God. Conceptualizing the human core of spirituality, this paper discerns a spiritual potential within the homosexual experience and illustrates the matter in the case of non-religious gay and lesbian persons with AIDS (PWAs). Under this analysis, many commonplace facets of individual and social life reveal important spiritual implications. These considerations are relevant to both religious and non-religious professionals attempting to address spiritual needs among all populations in a pluralistic society.

Sexuality and Spirituality: A Humanist Account

Typical accounts of spirituality define it by association with religious faith and especially ones relationship with God. Without impugning the validity of theological considerations, this humanist account treats spirituality apart from them. Whereas the standard model of the human being is bipartite (body and mind), this paper distinguishes two dimensions within the human mind—psyche and spirit—and thus proposes a tripartite model (organism, psyche, and spirit). Attention to human spirit grounds an account of spirituality, and attention to organism and psyche introduces sexuality into the picture. Then, the reconciliation of sexuality and spirituality is nothing other than the integration of the human being: organism, psyche, and spirit. Granted that human spirit entails its own criteria for unbounded unfolding, such integration would generally express the ideals of spirituality proposed by the various religions.

Killing for God's sake: The spiritual crisis in religion and society

Unwittingly, religion often fosters or, at least, supports violence. Yet in a pluralistic society where religious tolerance is safeguarded, it is difficult to adjudicate public opinion that claims a religious base. This paper proposes a response-to tease apart religion and spirituality and to explicate spirituality as a human, and not necessarily a theological, thing. The core of such an understanding is the self-aware and self-transcending dimension of the human mind that can rightly be called spirit and to which numerous thinkers have pointed. Especially the thought of Bernard Lonergan contributes to a detailed account of this matter. Inherent in humanity as such, spirituality is essential to any society. Perforce spirituality is a necessary public concern, and it is a legitimate subject matter for the human sciences. On the common ground of spirituality, religious, political, and scientific collaboration could generate a shared ethos that supports social cohesion and proscribes violence from whatever source.

Sexual Ethics in College Textbooks: A Suggestion

This paper responds to a survey of 10 sexuality textbooks that revealed pervasive uncertainty about the nature of sexual ethics and inconsistency about the role of social scientists vis-à-vis ethics. To help bring more consistency to the textbook offerings and to argue the legitimacy of including scientifically based ethical judgments in sexuality textbooks, this paper invokes the long-standing Western tradition of natural law theory, which holds that adherence to, or violations of, the inherent requirements of healthy and wholesome collective human functioning are the essential meaning of right and wrong, good and evil. Proposing an empirically grounded tripartite model of the human (organism, psyche, and spirit), this approach clarifies the nature of human sexuality and specifies the interpersonal as the determinative consideration. The overall suggestion is that, on such a philosophical basis and in cases where research findings approach a consensus, not only can sexologists qua sexologists responsibly say what ought or ought not to be done sexually—that is, they can make ethical judgments—but also, as a matter of professional responsibility, they are ethically bound to do so and to report such judgments in the sexuality textbooks.

Meditation—Psychologically and theologically considered

Considerable recent research on the psychology of meditation provides valuable guidance to religious meditators and pastoral counselors. The present paper summarizes this research under six topic headings, moving from the most common effects of regular meditation to the most subtle and rare: inducement of relaxation, gradual alleviation of anxieties, release of repressed psychic material, spontaneous physical adjustments, dissolution of habitual patterns of perception and cognition, and the attainment of an abiding state of altered consciousness. Contemporary research confirms traditional wisdom and suggests that meditation is recommended under ordinary circumstances only for those who have a stable personality and a supportive social environment. Such psychological material represents an initial, viable understanding of mysticism. Theological considerations do not invalidate psychological conclusions. Rather, the faith-filled appropriation of scientific findings draws them into a broader context that highlights their full significance.

A Critique of the “Theistic Psychology” Movement as Exemplified in Bartz's (2009) “Theistic Existential Psychotherapy”

From the perspectives of existential philosophy, existential psychotherapy, philosophy of science, and theology, we critique Bartzs (2009) “Theistic Existential Psychotherapy” as another example of the argumentation of the “theistic psychology” movement. Twenty-one points highlight troubling inadequacies. Introductory and concluding paragraphs provide the broader context of this movement and focus the chief concern: Amidst current epistemological and philosophy-of-science uncertainty, the concerted effort to validate other-worldly religious beliefs as scientific principles within the empirical field of psychology of religion.

Spiritual Concerns in Eric Fromm

This article summarizes Erich Fromms understanding of human nature and pinpoints his account of the human tendency ever to seek further perfection: biological dichotomy results in contradictions that produce existential needs whose various resolutions determine passions and strivings, which are incessant and inherently unquenchable. Though not wholly unambiguous, his position is basically correct. Empirical evidence and logical argument support it. It presupposes a spiritual component in human nature that strives toward what is objectively correct and truly worthwhile, and so it is not only useful as a secular transformation of many traditionally religious concerns but is also open to easy theistic and, ultimately, Christian interpretation. Here is the basis for an account of spirituality that cuts across cultures and religions. Fromms account of the matter squares well with the more detailed and profound analysis of dynamic human consciousness–-“spirit”–-presented by Bernard J.F. Lonergan (1957, 1972) and used by Daniel Helminiak (1987) to provide a technical nontheistic definition of spiritual development.

Whither the Psychology of Religion: A Spirituality-Focused Discussion of Paloutzian and Park’s (2005)

Presuming Rayburn’s (2006: Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 28, 86–92) review of (Paloutzian and Park, 2005, Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality. New York: The Guilford Press) and sketching an alternative paradigm, this review focuses on the Handbook’s virtual conflation of religion and spirituality; relates this conflation to the hegemony of Protestant theology in North American psychology of religion; highlights the Handbook’s neglect of spirituality per se, which, if not inseparably linked with theism, is, nevertheless, related to the self-transcending, meaning-making dimension of the human mind, could provide an explanatory breakthrough in the field of the psychology of religion and of the social sciences overall; and sees Handbook’s advocacy for a “multilevel interdisciplinary paradigm” as a regrettable acceptance of the failed, long-term strategy of the field of psychology in general.