Vertybės dvasingume ir dvasingumo vertybės

Abstract

The article focuses on the concept of spirituality. It is considered that the concept has undergone four historical stages: biologization, logization, psychologization and culturalization. At present (the stage of culturalization), spirituality is identified with people’s creative powers and their abilities to change their immediate environment. However, it is hardly possible to claim that nowadays only the culturological concept of spirituality exists – it is obviously related to the life and mental energy, human feelings and religious experience. In attempt to pinpoint the problem of spirituality, Mureika suggested using the conception of pajauta (c.f. feeling). The word pajauta is used rarely in the Lithuanian language and, moreover, it cannot be translated into other languages. It is close to the word “feeling”, though it implies extrasensory perception, mental intuitivism and it has to do with the quest for the meaning of life. According to Mureika, the only way to comprehend spiritual values is to feel them. Not cherishing values is one of the major problems of contemporary society. In order to address this problem, Lithuanian academicians held several scientific conferences and organized a meeting at the Ministry of Education and Science. It was concluded that the development of spirituality needs a universal conception. This article attempts to develop such a conception by maintaining that spirituality is pajauta (the feeling) of Divinity, and it is both innate and acquired. The Divinity can be understood as Otto presented, i.e. as Numinosum, or it can be seen as a profound respect for life, human being, and, finally, for the God as the beginning of everything. The process of devaluation of spirituality, which is ongoing in contemporary society, is closely connected with pseudo humanistic apotheosis of a human being and with the ideas of postmodernism and neoliberalism. The article claims that in order to develop spirituality, it is necessary to implement considerable changes in education of future teachers.