Where does religious practice fit into a humanistic
understanding of religion? What would be the role of prayer and ritual as a
form of connection to a deity that we have defined as ineffable and
incomprehensible?
Since leaving the world of professional work in the field of
religion, I have found myself free to reevaluate the formalities of communal
and personal prayer and ritual in my religious life. Rote congregational prayer
has lost its significance, and personal prayer seems to have morphed into early
morning writing of which this essay is a product. I have struggled to find a
way into a religious practice that will facilitate a sense of the sacred in my
life.
The eminent psychologist Abraham Maslow writes about peak
experiences. There have been and still are people who have what could be called
“close encounters”—a sense of a direct experience of the divine. These
experiences overcome these people, even overwhelm them, give them a sense of connecting
to a cosmic presence. They experience the wholeness of the cosmos and of
humanity and their sense of belonging to both.
