Spirit and Matter
Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.
From Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Matter and spirit are not opposed as two separate things, as two natures, but as two directions of evolution within the world…. What is finally the most revolutionary and fruitful aspect of our present age is the relationship it has brought to light between matter and spirit: spirit being no longer independent of matter, or in opposition to it, but laboriously emerging from under it under the attraction of God by way of synthesis and centration.
From “My Universe” (1924)
Karl Rahner
In the last resort spirituality is a person’s absolute transcendence, beyond any measurable reality in him or outside him, into the absolute mystery that we call God…. Christian spirituality is the active participation in the death of Jesus and, since he is risen, in that death as successful and as assumed into that ineffable, incomprehensible, not controllable, not manoeuvrable ultimate mystery (which everyone calls “God”).
From Theological Investigations Vol 9 (1984)
John Honner
The Spirit is always mysterious, but that is not to say that we cannot live in its ambience. To cease to live in the Spirit is to suffocate ourselves with the material distractions of this world and all its seduction of our senses. This does not mean turning away from the world, but rather entering the mysteriousness of its materiality more deeply. God is indeed very close.
From “Spirituality and Science” (1985)
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