Richard J. Severson

I was raised in an Irish Catholic family on the windswept plains of South Dakota.  For me, it was a good experience that nurtured my sense of the mystery of existence.  For my beloved sisters, on the other hand, it was boring and oppressive. Institutional religions, at their best, safeguard and nurture our spirituality; at their worst, they destroy it.  To be spiritual is part of the human condition, but to be religious is not.  The desire to be the best version of myself is an example of a spiritual longing. 

One of the most common refrains of our time is “I am spiritual, but not religious.”  I agree with that sentiment because it puts things in their proper order: spirituality is the essential thing, religion is only instrumental. 

Karl Rahner was a Catholic theologian who studied under Martin Heidegger near the end of his academic training. One of the things he is famous for is his transcendental methodology, which he called reductio ad mysterium. Basically, it means that all Catholic teachings (dogmas) are meaningless unless they can be reduced to the mystery of God that dwells in our hearts.