We find ourselves living in a time of global existential crisis, in the midst of a mass extinction event mostly caused by our own activities, and with the future of our human civilization made every day more problematic.
Will the worst predicted consequences of climate change do us in? Or, will we go out, really stupidly, in a worldwide atomic war? I am not taking bets. I am just asking the question, and it seems clear to me that the future of human life, as we currently know it - the future of our "human world" - is going to depend on something beyond "technology" and artful politics. Both will be needed, I am quite confident of that, but our future, if we are going to have one, is ultimately going to depend on some kind of spiritual transformation, something that is an example of one of my favorite words, "metanoia."
Met·a·noi·a
/medəˈnoiə/
Change in one's way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion.
The picture that tops this blog posting comes from an online article on "The Conversation" website. The article tells us that there is not only an app to promote prayer, there are lots of such apps. The article is titled, "Prayer apps are flooding the market, but how well do they work?" Can we access metanoia on our laptops?
The article suggests that we can't, and it points out that one major reason that the various "prayer apps" now available are not, in the end, very helpful, is that they suggest that access to spiritual insight and spiritual transformation is an activity that can be accomplished individually.
We do, each one of us, enter the world (and leave the world) as an individual, but we are not only individuals. We are "together" in this existence. It is through our collective spiritual efforts - through "community," as the article puts it - that we can find a path to genuine spiritual change:
Collective identity is baked into many religious traditions, including Islam and Buddhism. Commitment to community also runs deep in the Jewish roots of Christianity.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism give particular emphasis to the communal aspect of prayer. The praying community gathered together is at the heart of their faith and identity.
An embodied community asks people to show up regularly in real time and gather together with those they may not know well or even like. This time-consuming inconvenience and lack of choice are in fact the source of spiritual riches because they involve the needs of others. This kind of sacrifice is not what prayer apps facilitate.
Community! Metanoia! Is there an app for that? Not really! Check out that last paragraph, quoted above, just one more time:
An embodied community asks people to show up regularly in real time and gather together with those they may not know well or even like. This time-consuming inconvenience and lack of choice are in fact the source of spiritual riches because they involve the needs of others.
I think that just about sums it up. And there isn't any app for that!
Image Credits:
(1) and (2) - https://theconversation.com/prayer-apps-are-flooding-the-market-but-how-well-do-they-work-171586
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