Engagement, Immersion, and Enactment

Abstract

Abstract This final chapter takes up the previously discussed notion of modes of awareness that depend on engagement and involvement, and relates it to the role of praxis in shaping a religious outlook. Philosophical argument may sometimes generate religious belief, but the transformative effect of spiritual praxis is often more significant. Examining this process helps us to see how religious belief and spiritual practice are related: the latter works on us not just intellectually, but emotionally and physically, in a multi-layered, holistic way that engages the whole person. It allows us, instead of scrutinizing a worldview from a distance, to immerse ourselves in it so that, through imaginative identification, it becomes a fundamental part of who we are. In spiritual praxis we are able to enact our longing for the good, thereby coming as close as our finite human nature allows to encountering the infinite perfection that eludes complete philosophical understanding.